John 12; “²⁷Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour… ³¹Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out… ³³This he said, signifying what death he should die.”

Isaiah 14 “¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! ¹³For thou hast said in thine heart, 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. ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

This Isaiah text is said to be referring to Satan’s original fall (sometime in pre-history). When he rebelled against God in heaven as choir master because he was very handsome or beautiful; I don’t know what they say there again!. Somehow one wonders where they got this story from. But looking at the passage critically, that idea can’t fit in. Why? you may ask. Because the passage itself tells us that “the fall” happens to someone who “once laid low the nations”. It is rather about the one who laid low the Nations… meaning it cannot be referring to the time when there were no nations before he was cast down.

When he was cast down, there were already nations in existence. Did you notice that? Nations were not in heaven, am I right?

The Casting Down Or Fall OF Satan

In Luke 10:17-18, we are told;

“¹⁷And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. ¹⁸And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”

Here was the report of the disciples of Jesus when they returned from the field and declared that the devils were subject unto them, and in response Jesus said He saw SATAN FALL LIKE LIHTNING FROM HEAVEN.

What is that supposed to mean? So how many times did Satan fall? If he fell before time and here Jesus is saying He just saw him falling again. Is this a second fall? Did Satan find his way back to heaven before Jesus came?

Well the truth is, this fall and the only one too, have nothing to do with the fall of the ‘church’ Lucifer as we commonly referred to him as Satan, but rather this is specifically talking about the success of the mission of his disciples after they were sent to the mission field. So it has nothing to do with the actual “pre-historic fall and the punishment of Satan”

Therefore, we can’t go to that text and say, “See, before human history Satan fell like lightning from heaven?”

Luke 10:18 is nowhere connected with actual pre-historical account. Never!

So you see, this was talking about the cross of Jesus, when He said He saw Satan fall like lightning, He was only referring to what will finally happen when He gets to the cross and destroy the power of Satan so then the disciples, and ‘you’ and ‘I’ will be able to be casting out devils from the hearts of men, (Matthew 12:28, Ephesians 2:1-2). This is what the disciples have tasted when he sent them out, before He went to the cross.

The Latin word Lucifer means “light bringer” or “bearer”

The Latin word “Lucifer” (verse 12) is used only in this passage of Isaiah 14, and the word actually means, the “morning star” or “bringer of dawn”, “light bringer”

The New Testament uses the word ‘Morning star’ four more times where it clearly has no reference to a fallen angel. In several early Christian hymns in Latin, the word was applied to John the Baptist just as it is used as a title for Christ himself.

The Mount of Transfiguration Experience

2 Peter 1 “¹⁷For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. ¹⁸And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. ¹⁹We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the DAY DAWN, and the DAY STAR arise in your hearts:”

The prophecies concerning Jesus, which was so confirmed on the holy mount, have always been as a light shining in a dark place, from the time of their delivery to the time in which the bright day of Gospel light and salvation dawned forth, and the Son of righteousness has arisen in our souls, with healing in his rays-wings (Malachi 4:1-2).

“As unto a light that shineth in a dark place”.

That is, the prophecies resemble a candle, lamp, or torch, in a dark room, or in an obscure road at night. They make objects distinct which were before unseen; they enable us to behold many things which would be otherwise invisible.

“Until the day shall dawn”

The light that shineth in darkness, the gospel, was to be our guide, until we now shall see objects by the clear light of the sun, (day dawn). We are talking of receiving the clearer light which shall result from the “dawning or breaking of the day”.

The reference here is to the “morning light” as compared with a lamp; and the meaning is, that we should take heed to the light furnished by the prophecies until the truth shall be rendered more distinctly by the events as they shall actually be disclosed. This is until the brighter light which shall be shed on the glory by the appearing of the Lord.

“DAY STAR Arise in your hearts” that is, the sharing of its beams on your hearts, till you see the indications of that approaching day which is all light and no darkness, no more ignorant of seeing the truth of God’s word, nor seeing the Bible like a parable. Now you are beginning to see Christ in every page and every dot of the word.

For “in the Beginning was the word” (John1:1). “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John.1:1).

John the Baptist

John.5 “³³Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. ³⁴But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. ³⁵He was a “burning and a shining light”: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.”

“He was a burning and a shining light” meaning the ministry of John the Baptist was “the burning and shining lamp” (or torch) – that is, “the great light of his day” while he was around” ‘A burning’. A lamp lit up that burns with a steady glow.

A teacher is often called “a light”, because he guides or illuminates the minds of others.

Romans 2:19;

“Thou art confident that thou art a guide of the blind, a light of them that sit in darkness”

“Shining Lamp”. Not dim, not indistinct.

The expression means that John was an eminent teacher; that his doctrines were clear, distinct, and consistent.

The Church in Thyatira

Revelation 2 “²⁶And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: ²⁷And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. ²⁸And I will give him the “morning star”.

“And I will give him the morning star”

Here is meant the power of the nations like the king of Babylon.

In prophetic language, sun, moon, and stars are emblems, of empires, kingdoms, and states.

So here the promise to the overcomer is that he shall have the brightest and most glorious empire, next to that of Christ himself.

And as the “morning star” is that which immediately comes before the rising of the sun, it therefore stands as an empire which should usher in the universal sway of the kingdom of Christ.

“Give him the morning-star” – meaning to shine in glory with Christ the true Morning-star. He whom this star enlightens has always morning and no evening (John Wesley).

And he that, after having conquered his enemies, keeps the works of Christ to the end shall have the morning star – an unspeakable brightness and peaceable dominion in him.

Christ Himself; the Bright Morning Star.

Revelation 22:16 “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and “the bright and morning star”

This is not just a morning star but “The bright morning star” meaning His shining glory doesn’t get deemed by any other light.

Like we said earlier, the “Morning star”, comes up very early in the morning but the sun soon outshines this glory by noonday.

“I am the star out of Jacob,”(Numbers 24:17)

Like the bright morning star, who put an end to the night of ignorance, sin, and sorrow, and usher in an eternal day of light, purity, and joy.

So when Jesus talked about He being THE BRIGHT and MORNING STAR, This is what He meant to say to us;

I am the one that ushered in the day of grace in the beginning of this dispensation and which shall usher in the everlasting day of glory at its close. I am the splendour and glory to my kingdom; as the morning star ushers in the sun, so shall I usher in the unclouded and eternal glories of the everlasting kingdom. This is what is meant being a bright Morning star.

Let me quote the words of Adam Clark for you here with regards to Isaiah 14.

Verse 12; “O Lucifer, son of the morning” I doubt much whether our translation be correct. ‘llyh heilel’, which we translate “Lucifer”, comes from “lly yalal”, yell, howl, or shriek, and should be translated, “Howl, son of the morning;” and so the Syriac has understood it….”

Did you follow him? I mean did you understand what Clark said there?

Two bishops in history bore the name, ‘Saint Lucifer of Cagliari’ and ‘Lucifer of Siena’.

So, the name itself is not demonic, it is simply because of what we have been taught and what is associated with the name that made us think the name Lucifer means the devil. But that is not true.

Otherwise if I may ask, if “morning star”, which is the same thing as “Lucifer”, means the devil, does it then mean that Jesus is a brighter devil? Is that what we are implying?

Peter said we should hold on to the prophecies until the “morning star arise in our hearts”. Is that to say, we shall have to possess Lucifer, the devil in our hearts through the prophecies?

Friends, let us settle down and study this Book called the Bible and not just read through it with pre-convinced opinions of our laid down religious beliefs.

Origen Adamantus was an early Christian theologian who was born in about AD 184. He was the oldest of seven children in a Christian home, spent the first half of his career in Alexandra near Egypt, he died 254 AD. He was one of the famous church Fathers. He was the first to spiritualize Isaiah 14, to mean Satan theologically speaking. Otherwise it wasn’t so from the beginning.

To be continued…