HEAVEN'S DESCENDERS

(Part 3)

#138.01

Heaven -- the height of man's fondest dreams and toiling aspirations. From his very beginning he has struggled greatly with hopes of making his way to that high and lofty place. Since his goal has always been upward, very few have entertained the idea of descending, and it is not hard to see why this is so. Due to the hell endured in the world, most would not harbor the thought of ever leaving this hard-earned bliss, yet the pattern shows that some will.

The majority of believers know that Jesus descended from heaven and in the descent He carried with Him a special commission. There was another also, as they have been told, who descended. Lucifer was his supposed name. In their minds, he became the devil, and the angels who joined his ranks became demons. Therefore, since most Christians cannot see themselves being sent on a special mission, they can't imagine having to leave heaven's celestial gardens and fall like Lucifer.

This picture is so riveted to their minds that anyone other than Jesus who leaves heaven will be forever lost and doomed to eternal damnation. Such a mind-set of the devil descending in defeat from heaven, we must say, is the result of traditional doctrines which were fabricated from Isaiah 14:11-16, Ezekiel 28:12-19, Luke 10:18, and Revelation 12:7-9.

WAR IN HEAVEN

The popular idea about the origin of Satan has been quite a story to say the least, even though Jesus said "he was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). It is said that he was the most majestic of all angelic beings. In all the universe there was not another like him in beauty. He also, as it is taught, had the honored position of being the great choir director of heaven's host. Everything went well in heaven until one fateful day back in eternity past, and all "hell" broke loose.

We have had this very graphic image painted for us which shows a terribly concerned and troubled God calling His archangel before Him and saying, "Michael, we've got a problem on our hands. Lucifer, My old confidant, has let his beauty go to his head. Your friend believes he should be the god of the universe, and He has plans of taking My throne. While in this tragic delusion of grandeur, he has persuaded about one-third of all My other angels to swear allegiance to him and to go to war against Me. Therefore, before he is able to deceive the rest of My trusted servants, and this whole mess gets totally out of hand, I want you to put a stop to this insurrection. Take the remaining two-thirds and cast him and his rebels out of heaven. Send them to planet Earth. This will be their prison until I decide what to do with the rebellious lot." At the end of this war in heaven, as it is commonly taught, Lucifer is defeated.

Artists have depicted this arch-enemy of God descending headlong out of heaven with an angry scowl of bitter defeat emblazoned upon his beaten countenance. The stark reality soon overtakes him. Unless he finds a way of escape, he is doomed to eternal exile on the desolate rock called Earth. He, therefore, waits, perhaps for thousands of years, for the opportunity to strike back; which finally comes when Adam is created. And to top it off -- the man of God's creation is placed right inside the confines of the devil's prison. "Ah, think of that! How convenient," muses the tail swishing gargoyle, and the plot thickens.

This once beautiful and highly esteemed angel of God, with his appearance drastically changed, and now called Satan, quickly goes to work on his dastardly plan, as the story is told. His chance finally comes when Eve drops her guard and eats the tempting fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge. The serpent's revenge is finally initiated. The trap is sprung. It is a cold slap to God's face, a terrible blow to His plans, and this second insurrection is worse than the first. This one brings death to God's pride and joy. Adam, the beauty of holiness that was created in His own image, is hoodwinked. He is cunningly subdued, and he loses not only his home but also his life.

The defeat has ever since frustrated everything God has put His hand to do. It has been an iffy situation at best. From day one, it has been questionable who is really winning the war, and if the wily devil was able to circumvent God's plans twice, what will keep him from doing it again, and who knows, the third time might be his lucky charm.

If these suppositions were true, we would have to consider such an idea. Satan just might win. The fact is, the way it has been calculated, the devil will have won roughly ninety-nine percent of humanity when it is all over. Such a tally as this would unquestionably make him the winner.

Such a scenario would be like a city sending all its young men off to war. One thousand of their finest goes forth to put their great enemy under foot. After many days it is announced that their army has won the war and is coming home. Everyone lines the streets. Victory Banners are hung, flags are waving, bands are playing, everyone is shouting hurrahs. And out of the army of a thousand comes less than a dozen. They are tattered, half-starved, badly beaten, bruised, crippled, and horribly exhausted. The soldiers plod and drag themselves down the long street to the welcoming arms of the anxious crowd.

People are bewildered, however, and confused, as they gather around their "conquering" heros. The mighty warriors are questioned by this one and that one, and then every soul gathered that day resounds with one voice -- "Where are the others? What happened to the rest? We received word that you had won the war. Where are the nine hundred and ninety-nine who went with you? We were told that the war had been won!" After a long pause, and with a hush falling over the city, the reply finally comes. One of the war-worn soldiers replies, hoping at least to convince himself: "We did win! Yes, that's right, we won! Praise God, indeed, we really won! Look at us, we are standing here alive. It was touch and go most of the time; but we finally escaped by the skin of our teeth. We were saved in the nick of time. Out of nowhere came a trumpeting sound of victory, and a mighty wind carried us out of the clutches of the enemy. We were then able to make the rest of the way home. We alone escaped to tell the story. The others were either killed or led captive where, we suppose, they will forever be slaves to the barbaric hoards of hell. But we are here! Yes, indeed, we are here, and we won! Praise God! We won! We won the war!"

Ha! What a ridiculous fairy tale! Yet the above merely paints the same picture that has been painted many hundreds of years. The accepted version of the devil, God, and humanity is very near the story above. Ninety-nine percent of humanity is lost to God's evil enemy who was cast out of heaven, with only one percent barely escaping by being whisked off to heaven just before all is lost. Those lucky enough to be saved then proudly proclaim -- "We won! Praise God, we won!" Brethren, that is not a win. Such would be the most humiliating defeat of all time. Even so, the above is generally what has been taught about the war in heaven and the final outcome of the last great battle. However, if we take note, I believe we will find this is not quite the way it was or shall be. One thing we will know for sure, Lucifer and the devil are not synonymous terms.

LUCIFER -- SON OF THE MORNING

Lucifer is a name that is known all over the world. With it being so common, especially with Christians, it may be surprising to find that the word LUCIFER is used only ONCE in the entirety of the Bible. Other than the King James Version of the Bible, I have only found two others, the Living Bible, and the Goodspeed Bible which use the word "Lucifer." The King James reads, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O LUCIFER, son of the morning!" (Isa 14:12). This misused word comes from the Hebrew word ⁽¹⁾heylel which simply means SHINING ONE (Young's Concordance), MORNING STAR (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance), BRIGHT STAR or SPLENDID STAR (Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon). Lucifer is the Latin word which was translated from heylel. Heylel is not a proper noun but is a descriptive word that tells us something about the one spoken of. The Hebrew word does not indicate this is a personal name, not in the remotest sense. It was the Latin speaking churches in the 2^nd century in North Africa which first rendered the word as a personal name in their Latin version of the Bible. Since then, every Latin revision kept that one error intact. It was from the Latin that Martin Luther translated his German Bible, and from there the popularized name of Lucifer made its way into the minds and pens of the King James translators.

The Amplified Bible has this informative note concerning Isaiah 14:12 and the word Lucifer: "Some students feel that the application of the name Lucifer to Satan is erroneous, even though it is commonly taught to that effect. Lucifer, the Light Bringer, is the Latin equivalent of the Greek word phosphoros, which is used as a title of Christ in II Peter 1:19 (...until the Day Star arise in your hearts.) and corresponds to the name `Bright Morning Star' in Revelation 22:16, which Jesus called Himself. The application of the name Lucifer has only existed since the third century A.D., and is based on the supposition that Luke 10:18 (I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven) is an explanation of Isaiah 14:12, which authorities feel is not true."

If the one spoken of in Isaiah 14:12 is not Satan, as the authorities agree, then who is it? In the context of this verse we can see the king of Babylon is the primary subject matter; however, the description given here can also help us to see there is another man involved in this mystery. If we look at it in the spiritual sense, lucifer can be seen as Adam! "How hast thou fallen from the heavens, o shining one, son of the dawn." (Isa.14:12, Young's Literal Trans. Of The Bible). You see, before Jesus graced this planet, there was only one who could have been a SHINING ONE -- ADAM. Nowhere in the scriptures do we read that Satan was anything but a murderer and a liar from the very beginning; but Adam was most assuredly identified with light. We are told in Genesis 1:27 that he was created in the image of God and after His likeness, and let us bear in minded, one of those things God is like is Light, God is Light (1 John 1:5), and God is the Father of lights (James. 1:17).

We have been taught, and had in the past taught it ourselves, that the one who had descended from the heavens was Satan, as mentioned earlier, and without question we assumed it was confirmed by Isaiah 14:12. However, we did not see that it could not have been Satan who descended from heaven; for Revelation 12:7-11 makes is clear that he was still there, at least he was when John wrote the book in the latter part of the first century.

When Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven," (Luke 10:18) it would seem to give credit to the traditional thought. However, if we note what had just happened, we will see something else. The falling had actually taken place at the time the seventy were sent by Jesus. It was when they had cast out demons and healed the sick. Satan at that point in time, in the lives of those particular people, lost his seat of power in their lives. It was at that time Jesus saw him falling from heaven rather than thousands of years in the past.

The only other verse we can recall which mentions anything about Satan in reference to light is 2nd Corinthians 11:14. It says Satan is able to transform himself into an angel of light, but according to the Greek, the word is not transform; but rather, it is masquerade (Strong's). This is as close as he has ever been to being light -- as a masquerading actor.

SON OF THE MORNING gives additional evidence of who Lucifer truly is. In the Hebrew the word for son (ben) carries the thought of one who is BORN and is THE BUILDER OF A FAMILY NAME. Satan, in his greatest moment, was never born and had certainly not been given an honorable name from which to build. However, God did bring Adam forth for such a purpose, and for four thousand years he did build the name (nature) that was given to him, even though he had corrupted it. Jesus, then picked up the building tools of the Spirit and finished the work in the glorious realm the first Adam could never do. Yes, indeed, Adam was the SHINING SON OF THE MORNING who brought forth the first ray of light to the world. The Lord of Glory then came to finish the work and declared, "I AM THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR." (Rev. 22:16).

SATAN'S ORIGIN and character of DARKNESS was spoken of by Jesus and should be enough to settle the querying minds of all; namely, that he was never a shining angel of light. He made it clear that Satan was A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING and concluded His statement by saying, "...And in the truth HE HAS NOT STOOD." (John 8:44; Diaglott, Westcott & Hort, and Marshall's Interlinear Grk/Eng N.T.). If he has NEVER STOOD IN THE LIGHT OF THE TRUTH, and also, if he "...has been SINning FROM THE BEGINNING," as John recorded (1 John 3:8, Diaglott), there is no honest way we can say Satan was ever a glorious, shining, angel of light with the name of Lucifer.

FALLEN ANGELS is a common term used by almost everyone, and a verse in Jude seems to relate to this. "And the angels which KEPT not their first estate, but LEFT their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude 6). The Concordant Literal translates these two verbs (kept & left) as KEEP and LEAVE, for they are in the aorist active form. They are not in the indicative past tense. This simply means that those who have and are PRESENTLY not remaining in the light of God's truth are held in the darkness they chose. Once they have willfully chosen darkness of their own way over the light of truth, those unbreakable chains of lies will hold them captive. These angels, that is, messengers (Greek), I believe to be none other than men who fall into and submit to the same temptations Sodom and Gomorrah had lusted after. Verse seven speaks of this, and think about it as you read it -- angels are not tempted with fleshy lusts, but men are. Therefore, we believe Jude is referring to men who are the messengers rather than spirit beings, and because of their inordinate desires they are held in darkness (strong delusion to believe a lie, 2 Thes. 2:11-12) until their day of judgment. Perhaps we can more clearly see why some ministries never leave the error of their teachings -- they are held there by their own deceptive chains of darkness until they are judged by fire.

"HOW THOU ART CUT DOWN TO THE GROUND" (Isa. 14:12b) also speaks of Adam descending rather than Satan. Genesis 3:19 reminds us, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground, because therefrom wast thou taken, -- FOR DUST THOU ART (WAST, margin) and dust shalt thou return." (Rotherham). This dust, the ground, the lower carnal realm from where man was raised and placed in the heavens of Eden, is the very place he is cut down and descends back to. This dust is that which satisfies the appetite of the serpent, for we read that on his belly (region of appetite) he would go and dust would be his meat all the days of his life (Gen. 3:14). Man who is cut down from the light and glory of God becomes the bread basket for Satan. Man is the fallen one, not Satan. The serpent was created from its beginning a subtle beast of the field (earth), while Adam, until he sinned, was a creature of the garden (the heavens). However, after 6,000 or so years the serpent has grown the wings of a dragon and made his way to the lofty heights of the air of men's minds. And it is not until the manchild of Revelation 12 is caught up to God and His throne do we see Satan being cast out of heaven.

"...I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne above the stars of God: I WILL sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north." (Isa 14:13). This is another description of man, and the first recording of him exercising his will outside of God is found in the third chapter of Genesis: "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, (Heb. omits "as") knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (and all the while thinking -- I WILL ascend, I WILL exalt myself, and I WILL be God)." (Parentheses supplied) (Gen. 3:4-6).

In some areas of the body today we hear the same ill-fated trumpet blowing and declaring -- "I will name it, I will claim it, I will bless it, I will confess it, I will have it; for I will ascend, I will be God -- I am God!" Ah, but that is the sound of Adam who descended, and by the might of his own mind he is now attempting to ascend. He may have the scriptures to back him up, and what he says may be true; but his spirit is not truth. It is Adam and not Christ. He is not in union with the One who is above all heavens. He is of the earth, earthy. He proudly declares not only I WILL -- but -- I AM!

You see, brethren, it was man who desired to be God, not Satan, and it continues to this day. Although Adam had the authority of God, he was in His image (phantom, Heb.) and likeness (model, Heb.), yet he was not God.

Man desires so intently to be God, he will formulate all sorts of ideas to convince himself that he is God. The primary machine for this is realization. This realization, or sometimes presumption, comes partly from understanding that the Spirit of Christ is within, and if a person is one with Christ who is one with God, then, by reason, he must be God. One scripture even says to think it not robbery to be equal with God (Phil 2:6). Yet, only a small amount of unbiased research will reveal an equalizing factor. In effect, this is what it says of Jesus: Although He was already in the form of God -- He did not think a usurping thought to be equal with God. He did not grasp after it. He did not name it. He did not claim it. He did not try to prove or convince anyone who He was -- not even Himself. He knew what form He was and who He was, and in all His knowing, He never declared that He was God Himself.

Let us note the natural and learn a valuable lesson, as pertaining to whether we are our God or not. I was discussing this point with a friend and he related the following thought, which says if very well.

In the natural, a son and daughter are 100% of their parents. Being from their root and branch, they are everything their father and mother are. The son and daughter carry every gene and chromosome of their parents. In many cases, they will look like them, act like them, talk like them, and even think like them, and it is the same with each and every child of God. Their essence is their Father's essence. They are the very substance of God their Father and Heavenly Jerusalem their Mother.

Let us assume that the son and daughter come to the revelation that they have within themselves both their mother and father. With this they begin to reason: "Since we have everything in us that is in our parents, then let us start recognizing our mother and father in ourselves. With this understanding, we will no longer need to honor Mom and Dad out there -- we will honor them in a much closer way, in ourselves. Therefore," the sister says to her brother, "when I see you, I see our father, and when you see me, you see our mother. When we are alone, we can look into ourselves and see both, and from within we can honor them by honoring ourselves. Since our substance is everything Mom and Dad are, we should no longer have the need to look to them for anything; for we are in fact our own father and our own mother. Our DNA will prove it!"

Well, even if such would work in the natural, it would only last until the kids try to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, and it is the same with us as being the sons of God. We are everything that God our Father is. We are of His substance. If we were anything else, we would be bastards. When I see you, I see our Father, and when you see me, you see our Father. Likewise, around the world, we see our Father in so many things and in so many people; but if we should turn to our brothers and sisters and worship our Father in one another -- we would turn our focus from Him to ourselves, and the true Bread from heaven would not be given. It would be our own carnal husks of self-aggrandizement with which we would be filled. A table spread with such pride might make us carnally fat; but we would starve in the Spirit and be of little use in the Kingdom of God.

Some today make claims of being the I AM, and very often it is out of a self-propelled spirit of grandeur. With such a spirit, they miss the mark by a wide margin and become clouds without rain. Others, I am sure, are merely being blown about by the wind of those empty clouds. The latter, no doubt, misunderstand spiritual truths. Whichever is the case, pride or ignorance, please let us be sure to know this: Although we may be One with our Father -- we are not our Father; despite the fact we find Him in each of us -- we are still not Him; and even though we may be in His very image -- it does not make us Him. We can be everything He is, do everything He does, manifest godliness at all times, and we can exercise all His authority as it is given to us -- but we will never be Him! We will forever have God as our Father, and we will always be His sons and daughters -- but we will not be HIM!

You will not offend me by saying, "My Father and I are one. I AM in the Father, and the Father is in me." or "I AM who I am in my Father"; but I will be very concerned if I hear, "I AM GOD" or I AM My Father," and especially if you teach others the same.

It has always been Adam's desire to ascend and be God apart from God. Satan's desire has been to do what he was created to do -- to be a liar and to murder, and he has very effectively exercised both. For the woman believed the lie that she would not die, and after she and her husband ate, they both died that day. They were murdered by the subtle hand of Satan who was a liar and murderer from his beginning. The day they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they lost their connection with life. As a corpse is disconnected from the world of life and cannot respond to anything in that world, so it was with Adam and Eve. They were disconnected from the world they once knew. They were cast out of the Garden of God. In their attempt to ascend, they fell. They could no longer respond to anything in that world to which they were dead. They were dead to it, and the cherubim of their minds made sure there would be no ascending back except on the ladder of Jesus Christ.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF "LUCIFER," as mentioned in Isaiah 14, are consistently identifying a man rather than the devil who is a spirit. One of the verses that makes this clear is this one: "They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the MAN that made the earth to tremble?" (Verse 16).

We can traverse the world over, search to the highest heaven, and scan the bottom of the seven seas; but dear friends, we will never find one spirit between heaven and hell that fits the description of the lucifer spoken of in Isaiah other than man. He alone fits that description. Not only can we look at man and see this, but from one end of the written word of God to the other, we read in bold print of Adam's fall from his shining glory and into the depths of darkness and death. We see his descent into despair, the groaning pangs of grief, tears, and sorrow. They are like threads woven into a grave shroud, wrapping about his tired soul and worn body, and try as he may, it is impossible for him to escape that self-inflicted wound of death.

In the Bible we see the perpetual struggle of man trying to rebuild from the ruin of corruption with hopes of ascending back to where he was. Even though he was blinded by the sin-laden soul, he still seeks that which he. Man gropes in darkness, grasping at every straw -- sex, drugs, money, music, entertainment, power, and all manner of games and activities that satisfy only for a season -- hoping it will be that one thing which will relieve his pain. He tries religion as well, subjecting himself to its creeds only to find that they are not the lifting feathers of heaven's wings, but binding fetters of earth's toil. In impatient frustration he sometimes confesses the finished work of his godhood before it becomes apparent. In his presumption, he will even declare himself to be God. Such deception will not elevate him out of death. It merely buries him deeper into it. Rather than being able to respond to the life of God, he responds to the carnal precepts of his own creative mind. While mistaking them for divine revelations, he falls into trespasses and sins and dies. In this death, he is just as unresponsive to the world of Christ's Spirit as a dead corpse is unresponsive to the natural world.

Man builds his kingdoms upon sandy foundations of the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, only to find they all fail to fill his pit of darkness and despair. Every attempt to secure his self-made happiness eventually crumbles and falls into a heap of futile rubble. In humanity's quest of life, deep calls unto deep, but true life is nowhere to be found; that is, not until God says "LET THERE BE LIGHT." When they begin to see for the first time the reality of their Creator, He places His SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS within the womb of their hearts, and they finally begin to shine as the Son. They shine, not as the first Adam, the light bearer, but they shine as the SECOND ADAM -- AS LIFE GIVERS. They come forth as flaming fire (Psa 104:4), with words of fire proceeding from their purified lips (Jer 5:14), and their eyes in like fashion, as fire (Rev 1:14), radiate life, equity and judgment to the world (1 Cor 6:2-3), igniting and refining everyone to whom they speak or look upon. They shall walk upon the earth as the flaming Sons of the living God, manifesting the great splendor of His shining glory in a way the first Adam could never do! This, dear living ones, is what it is to be one of the members of THE SON OF THE MORNING!

Therefore, let us not be so concerned about ascending into heaven as we are about descending from heaven. Let us know that Satan was never Lucifer, that there was not a war between him and Michael in the predawn ages past. The truth has never been in the devil, and it was Adam, not Satan, who said I WILL and was cut down to the ground from where he was taken. Let us always bear in mind that the first Adam descended and ministered death to all, while those of the Last Adam descend and minister life to all!

To be continued...

Elwin R. Roach

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1. For an excellent article in relation to this subject, write to Mark Toohey, PO Box 4364, Alamogordo NM 88310-4364 and ask for WORSHIP OF THE HORNED GOD OF HELL.