Friends,I have been searching the cyberspace to find a definite, conclusive answer to this question. Honestly, I could not find a coherent answer.
- Some say that Satan fell from heaven before Adam and Eve sinned and that's why he could deceive them.
- Some say that Satan fell some hundred years after creation.
- Some others say that Satan and his angels fell from heaven before the Biblical flood.
- Some say that this eviction happened after the flood.
Let us follow the shuttling of Satan between heaven and earth, since the flood.
- Satan was back again in heaven seeking permission to torment Job (Job 1, 2 )
- From the testing of Job, till the testing of Jesus (Mat 4:1-11 ) Satan or devil was apparently on earth.
- Again, Satan mounted up to heaven, so that he could fall from there like a lightning (Luk 10:18 )
- Obviously Satan was on earth so that he could enter into Judas Iscariot. (Luk 22:3)
- Again at some point Satan gets back to heaven to seek permission to sift Peter as wheat (Luk 22:31-32)
- Almost at the time of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, Satan, aka, “the prince of this world” was cast out" and judged. (Joh 12:31; 16:11)
- No matter whether Satan is cast out or judged, he is still around:
- filling the heart of Ananias to lie against the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3),
- Helping to save the spirit of the sinners delivered to him (1Cor 5:5)
- Tempting those who are practicing abstinence. (1Cor 7:5)
- Buffeting on Paul so that he doesn't exalt beyond measure. (2Co 12:7)
- Hindering Paul on his missionary journeys (1Th 2:18)
- And teaching blasphemers not to blaspheme (1Ti 1:20)
- There were quite a few “services” Satan was rendering...
- Somewhere in between all these things Satan placed his throne in Pergamos and started dwelling there. (Rev 2:12-13)
- Again, Satan managed to ascend to heaven and we see Satan and his angels being cast out into the earth after a failed war with Michael and his angels. (Rev 12:9)
- And finally, much to our relief, Satan is bound for a 1000 years and at the end of it thrown into the lake of fire! (Rev 20:2, 7)
- {Did I miss any?}
Satan has been shuttling between heaven and earth more frequently than someone on a water diet visiting the bathroom.
Was Jesus wrong while he stated: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man? (Joh 3:13, ESV, sorry, I haven't cherry picked a version suiting my view, what KJV translates as "no man" indeed means "none".)
More questions to follow...
In Christ,
Tomsan Kattackal
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