How It All Began! Series

Spiritual Warfare

How it Started

October 3, 2021

Have you ever played the game, KING OF THE HILL? Someone’s on top of the hill and you do your best to push them off and then you’re the top dawg. You’re the king of the hill. It’s great when you’re battling to get the king off the hill, because you have a lot of allies. But once you’re the king, you lose those allies. Suddenly, they’ve all turned on you.

Well, we’re starting week 2 of our look at spiritual warfare. Last week was kind of an introduction and today we’re looking at how it all started. Where did evil come from, how did satan get his start? Was he really an angel? Is he a myth? And hopefully more will get answered this morning.

I’m going to give you my thoughts. Now, I’d like to say my thoughts are always 100% correct. But there is a lot out there that we just don’t know when it comes to satan and the start. There are some scriptures I’ll mention where I disagree with theologians about their meaning.

In the end, I’m not sure it matters. Because we need to know that satan and evil are real; yet, God has given us the resources to combat evil and be victorious. That’s really the most important point I may make. Today may be more of a Bible Study with lots of scripture flowing all over the place than a typical sermon.

When I think about the beginning of evil, I think about a king of the hill battle. We have God and all of His angels together. Then satan decides he’s not happy with his position and we begin a king of the hill war. satan and his followers, fighting for the top position on the hill or what we might call heaven. We saw that in a passage from last week. If you recall, we looked at Revelation 12, and in that passage we read this . . .

7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,

8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

So, we can see that there was a war in heaven. Not on earth, in heaven. It was a revolt by satan and his gang battling against the archangel Michael and God’s angels. Obviously, we know the story . . . satan lost and was kicked out of heaven.

That’s what scripture tells us in a number of different places. But, we wonder why, how, and when. The where has already been answered. This was a cosmic battle in heaven. It’s a battle we can’t see, and frankly, I don’t believe we can even start to fathom what that looks like.

Let me give you one quick statement, which should be a given, but I’ll say it anyways . . . the Bible is our authority. All I’m trying to do is read the scripture, understand it and help us grow in who Christ is calling us to be. We start and we end with scripture. It’s what they say in Latin sola scriptura . . . which means scripture alone - - scripture is our only authority for faith and practice.

We really don’t know when the angels were created. Were they created before the world was created or after? Yet, I think the book of Job gives us some answers. As God responds to Job and his friends, God said - - -

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,

7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? - Job 38:4-7

Most scholarship believes this passage symbolizes the fact that all angels were created before God laid the foundation of the world. We see that in verse 7 when God tells Job, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy when the foundation was laid.

When satan appeared in Job 1, he appeared before God with the sons of God as well. It’s believed the sons of God are heavenly beings, often referred to as angels. So, with that in mind, I believe the angels, which includes satan were created before the foundation of the world. Remember, angels are created by God. The good angels are what the evil angels once were. They were all together and there was no fighting in heaven when the world was created. They all got along!