Satan’s Origin and the famous pass over

For thousands of years, students of scripture have wondered about Satan’s origin. There does not seem to be any controversy left about Satan’s origin. Much less addressed, however, is when this happened.

This post will give a quick summary of some of Satan’s most infamous encounters. Next, we will summarize the position of most Christians over the centuries. Finally, we will summarize a quick view of “when” in time this happened.

First, there is no doubt Satan exists. He spoke directly with God. (Job 1:6-8)  He tempted Christ. (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). There are even various interactions featuring Satan and/or demons influenced by Satan, with many people and even animals, on earth. (Genesis 3:1-20, Numbers 22:22, 1 Chronicles 21:1, 1 Samuel 2:12, 1 Kings 22:19-25, and Zechariah 3:1-7)

Scholars have concluded that the only logical explanation is that Satan is an angel who led a rebellion against God and was cast out of heaven with the angels who followed him (now known as demons). It should be noted that there is not an explicit acknowledgement in the Bible of Satan being a fallen angel from heaven.

The preponderance of evidence in the Bible indicates this is the case. There are several places in the Old Testament which ostensibly are talking about evil earthly kings, but for which there seem to be something else going on – a comparison to beings which were cast from heaven (Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14). There is also ample, and probably more convincing, New Testament evidence to support this position. (Luke 10:18, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6)

There are a few minority positions that disagree with these references. All these positions fail to adequately explain Satan’s origin. God could not have created Satan evil. Everything God creates is good. (Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4) Extra biblical sources including early Christian writers confirm that this was the firmly held belief also. There is no reason to believe that two centuries of Christian consensus are wrong.

To reiterate, Satan was an angel who led a rebellion against God and was cast out of heaven with the angels who followed him. The question most writers leave unanswered is “when did this happen?” We have not been able to determine any writer who explicitly answers this question. Most do the “Passover” on this question – choosing to “pass over” the issue by not addressing the timing of the event. Those few who do express views on the timing vary wildly from the belief that this event happened before any recorded event in the Bible to the belief that these passages describe events what have not occurred yet.

Since there is not an explicit acknowledgement in the Bible of Satan being a fallen angel from heaven, there can be no explicit acknowledgement of the timing either. The evidence to us suggests that the view that these events occurred before any recorded scripture. This timing would certainly leave Satan free to inhabit or otherwise motivate the talking snake in Genesis 3 and would also explain God’s dialogue with Satan in Job 1.