From our biblical study of the angels we learn that choice determines destiny. The Bible shows us that the devil and his followers were once good angels. But when God gave them an opportunity to choose either to give Him their full allegiance or to exalt themselves, they chose to forsake Him.
Many Bible scholars, though recognizing that Isaiah 14 is directed to the king of Babylon, are convinced that the language goes beyond this earthly monarch to Satan and his fall. He is the Lucifer who, though created sinless, rebelled against God and tried to usurp God’s place in the universe.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isa. 14:12-15).
Another passage that speaks of the bad choice made by the angel who is now known as Satan is Ezekiel 28:12-17. In this message directed to the king of Tyre, the prophet used language that transcends the earthly monarch and points to Satan, the source of all human sin. “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. . . . Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty” (vv.15,17). Pride must have been the reason for the fall of this high-ranking angel.
The symbolism of Revelation 12:4 portrays Satan as a great dragon who drags a third of the stars down from heaven with his tail. This may indicate that a third of the angels joined him in his rebellion and that the devil is now the leader of a vast host of evil spirit beings.
Lucifer and those who followed him made one bad choice—one that determined their destiny. As far as we know, they were never given an opportunity to repent. Very likely, they have never wanted to repent. They are now the evil angels, the company of invisible spirit beings for whom hell was created (Mt. 25:41).
The fact that one bad choice made these angels evil, hell-bound creatures is sobering indeed. But we are treated less severely. We can often rectify a bad choice or a series of bad choices. We can repent of our sin. And we must remember that people who have lived in rebellion against God all their lives are sometimes converted to Christ just before they die. Think of the criminal crucified with Jesus Christ! (Lk. 23:39-43).
Yes, it is true that God graciously forgives and receives people who turn to Him in repentance and faith after having made bad choices. But no one should let this fact lead to presumption. If someone knows the truth but coldly rejects it with the idea that he can always change his mind later, he may be sealing his doom. The bad choice he makes to reject the truth at one point in time may not be reversible. God will not change. And His grace will not change. But that person may never have the desire to change in the future.
God seems to have established the principle that the closer someone is to God and His truth, the more disastrous will be the consequences of the bad choice. Angels were created sinless. They lived in heaven, in the immediate presence of God. Lucifer, who apparently was a leader among the angels, chose to exalt himself and rebel against God. A large number of angels joined him in his rebellion. God’s judgment was swift and severe as He cast them out of heaven. This event is recorded in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19. Because these heavenly beings lived so close to God, God gave them only one choice.
God graciously gives humans more than one opportunity He sees us as having inherited a sinful nature. Unlike the angels who before they sinned lived in heaven, we dwell on an imperfect planet. Unlike the angels who before their fall saw God’s glory firsthand, we see “in a mirror, dimly” (1 Cor. 13:12) in nature and in conscience (Ps. 8,19; Rom. 1:18-20; 2:14-15) and (because of our human failings) even in His Word. God is patient with us. He “remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14).
The Lord has shown us, however, that we must not presume on His patience. The Bible speaks of a “hardening” and a “blinding” that occurs when people deliberately reject Him and boldly refuse to obey Him. We see this in the well-known story of Pharaoh and the ten plagues (Ex. 5–12). This Egyptian king was haughty, arrogant, and belligerent when Moses told him that God wanted him to let the Israelites leave their tasks and hold a festival of praise to Jehovah (Ex. 5). His response was to make the slavery of the Israelites even more intolerable than it had been.
In the biblical account of this struggle between Pharaoh and Moses, God said that He would “harden” Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 4:21; 7:3). Eventually He did “harden” the heart of the king (9:12). We also encounter the simple declaration that Pharaoh’s heart “became hard” or “was hardened,” ascribing the phenomenon to neither God nor Pharaoh. In addition, we’re also told explicitly that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15; 9:34). This king, in the face of a demand that came with authenticating signs, said no to God. When he did this, he hardened his heart, set in motion a natural process by which his heart became increasingly hard, and caused God to send upon him a judicial hardening.
The more direct the encounter with God, the greater the responsibility to obey, and the greater the likelihood that a hardening process will keep a person from repenting.
The Lord Jesus also expressed this principle. He warned the religious leaders repeatedly that their stubborn refusal to believe on Him in spite of the miracles they saw Him perform, and the truth they heard from His lips, would lead to their eternal doom. They went so far as to say that He cast demons out of people by the power of Satan. Our Lord, who indicated that He did so by the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:27-28), warned them that they were in danger of committing “blasphemy against the Spirit” (v.31), a sin that cannot be forgiven.
A short time later, a few days before His crucifixion, Jesus addressed the same group of religious leaders. He said, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . . While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (Jn. 12:35-36). The apostle John told us that after saying this, Jesus departed and hid Himself from these leaders. In doing this, He acted out a warning similar to that expressed by Isaiah (6:9-10; 29:12) and freely quoted by John, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Jn. 12:40).
When people deliberately and repeatedly reject God, they are in danger of hardening their hearts. Paul spoke of the “god of this age” blinding the minds of those “who do not believe” to keep them from receiving Christ as their Savior (2 Cor. 4:4). Those who keep rejecting the truth will also find themselves becoming increasingly drawn toward deceit. They will gradually become more and more insensitive to God’s Word.
From the angels we learn that the closer one is to God when he rejects Him, the greater the danger of a swift hardening process. Choice determines destiny. One choice determined the destiny of the angels. One choice can also determine ours.
Many Bible scholars, though recognizing that Isaiah 14 is directed to the king of Babylon, are convinced that the language goes beyond this earthly monarch to Satan and his fall. He is the Lucifer who, though created sinless, rebelled against God and tried to usurp God’s place in the universe.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isa. 14:12-15).
Another passage that speaks of the bad choice made by the angel who is now known as Satan is Ezekiel 28:12-17. In this message directed to the king of Tyre, the prophet used language that transcends the earthly monarch and points to Satan, the source of all human sin. “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. . . . Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty” (vv.15,17). Pride must have been the reason for the fall of this high-ranking angel.
The symbolism of Revelation 12:4 portrays Satan as a great dragon who drags a third of the stars down from heaven with his tail. This may indicate that a third of the angels joined him in his rebellion and that the devil is now the leader of a vast host of evil spirit beings.
Lucifer and those who followed him made one bad choice—one that determined their destiny. As far as we know, they were never given an opportunity to repent. Very likely, they have never wanted to repent. They are now the evil angels, the company of invisible spirit beings for whom hell was created (Mt. 25:41).
The fact that one bad choice made these angels evil, hell-bound creatures is sobering indeed. But we are treated less severely. We can often rectify a bad choice or a series of bad choices. We can repent of our sin. And we must remember that people who have lived in rebellion against God all their lives are sometimes converted to Christ just before they die. Think of the criminal crucified with Jesus Christ! (Lk. 23:39-43).
Yes, it is true that God graciously forgives and receives people who turn to Him in repentance and faith after having made bad choices. But no one should let this fact lead to presumption. If someone knows the truth but coldly rejects it with the idea that he can always change his mind later, he may be sealing his doom. The bad choice he makes to reject the truth at one point in time may not be reversible. God will not change. And His grace will not change. But that person may never have the desire to change in the future.
God seems to have established the principle that the closer someone is to God and His truth, the more disastrous will be the consequences of the bad choice. Angels were created sinless. They lived in heaven, in the immediate presence of God. Lucifer, who apparently was a leader among the angels, chose to exalt himself and rebel against God. A large number of angels joined him in his rebellion. God’s judgment was swift and severe as He cast them out of heaven. This event is recorded in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19. Because these heavenly beings lived so close to God, God gave them only one choice.
God graciously gives humans more than one opportunity He sees us as having inherited a sinful nature. Unlike the angels who before they sinned lived in heaven, we dwell on an imperfect planet. Unlike the angels who before their fall saw God’s glory firsthand, we see “in a mirror, dimly” (1 Cor. 13:12) in nature and in conscience (Ps. 8,19; Rom. 1:18-20; 2:14-15) and (because of our human failings) even in His Word. God is patient with us. He “remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14).
The Lord has shown us, however, that we must not presume on His patience. The Bible speaks of a “hardening” and a “blinding” that occurs when people deliberately reject Him and boldly refuse to obey Him. We see this in the well-known story of Pharaoh and the ten plagues (Ex. 5–12). This Egyptian king was haughty, arrogant, and belligerent when Moses told him that God wanted him to let the Israelites leave their tasks and hold a festival of praise to Jehovah (Ex. 5). His response was to make the slavery of the Israelites even more intolerable than it had been.
In the biblical account of this struggle between Pharaoh and Moses, God said that He would “harden” Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 4:21; 7:3). Eventually He did “harden” the heart of the king (9:12). We also encounter the simple declaration that Pharaoh’s heart “became hard” or “was hardened,” ascribing the phenomenon to neither God nor Pharaoh. In addition, we’re also told explicitly that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15; 9:34). This king, in the face of a demand that came with authenticating signs, said no to God. When he did this, he hardened his heart, set in motion a natural process by which his heart became increasingly hard, and caused God to send upon him a judicial hardening.
The more direct the encounter with God, the greater the responsibility to obey, and the greater the likelihood that a hardening process will keep a person from repenting.
The Lord Jesus also expressed this principle. He warned the religious leaders repeatedly that their stubborn refusal to believe on Him in spite of the miracles they saw Him perform, and the truth they heard from His lips, would lead to their eternal doom. They went so far as to say that He cast demons out of people by the power of Satan. Our Lord, who indicated that He did so by the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:27-28), warned them that they were in danger of committing “blasphemy against the Spirit” (v.31), a sin that cannot be forgiven.
A short time later, a few days before His crucifixion, Jesus addressed the same group of religious leaders. He said, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . . While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (Jn. 12:35-36). The apostle John told us that after saying this, Jesus departed and hid Himself from these leaders. In doing this, He acted out a warning similar to that expressed by Isaiah (6:9-10; 29:12) and freely quoted by John, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Jn. 12:40).
When people deliberately and repeatedly reject God, they are in danger of hardening their hearts. Paul spoke of the “god of this age” blinding the minds of those “who do not believe” to keep them from receiving Christ as their Savior (2 Cor. 4:4). Those who keep rejecting the truth will also find themselves becoming increasingly drawn toward deceit. They will gradually become more and more insensitive to God’s Word.
From the angels we learn that the closer one is to God when he rejects Him, the greater the danger of a swift hardening process. Choice determines destiny. One choice determined the destiny of the angels. One choice can also determine ours.
Adapted from: http://www.rbc.org/ds/q1003/index.shtml
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