When Lucifer Became Satan

When did Lucifer fall into sin? At what point did he change from being humble, loving, and always longing to be in the presence of God, to being proud, hateful, and wanting absolutely nothing to do with God?

When did he say in his heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." - Isaiah 14:13-14

At what point in history did this terrible event occur? Some say that he fell millions of years before the world was made, but we know from my previous blog "When Were the Angels Created?" that the angels were created on Day 1 of creation week, possibly moments before God formed the world.

Some say that God created the angels and the world on Day 1 with a million year gap taking place between Day 1 and Day 2 of the creation week in which Satan's fall occurred somewhere within that time. Is this idea possible? Well, let us look to Scripture for the answers.

"God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good...Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all of their hosts."  

Genesis 1:31-2:1

At the end of the creation week, when God looks over all He had made, He says that it is very good. He was not just looking at the plants or the rocks or even the galaxies. He was looking at everything. He was being all-inclusive. So what did He look at when He said "very good?" He looked at all of the hosts (Lucifer, the angels, humans, etc.). Genesis tells us that all of the hosts were very good at the end of the creation week. Therefore it is impossible for Lucifer to have fallen before that time because God would never refer to Satan now as good.

There is also no indication whatsoever in Scripture that there could be a gap between Day 1 and 2. Some will say that the word "formless" in 1:2 could also mean "a place of chaos." They will take you to Isaiah 45:18 which says the LORD made the earth and did not create it a waste place. They will use that to support the argument that God created the world and then Satan fell and corrupted the earth for a really long time and then God came back to creation and began on Day 2.

However, they are misunderstanding the Hebrew word and the texts. Just because it can mean "a place of chaos" does not mean that it does mean "a place of chaos." The word there at its simplest definition means "formless" and that is exactly what the text supports. Remember that on Day 1 there is not yet dry land giving the surface of the earth "form." Dry land does not appear until day three, therefore, it makes sense that the earth is formless because it is a big ball of water at this point.

Finally, God had planted a garden called "Eden" and placed man there on Day 6 of the creation week. Ezekiel 28:11-17 God refers to Lucifer as having...

"had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you..."

God says that Lucifer before he fell into sin walked in the garden of Eden. Well, we know that the garden was created before Adam (2:8) but it couldn't have been too long before the creation of man. In fact, the earliest that God could have planted the garden was on Day 3 which indicates that at least by Day 3 Lucifer was still "very good." However, we know from the end of chapter one and beginning of chapter two that he was still very good at the end of day 6. Thus, Lucifer fell into sin and became Satan sometime after the creation week and before the fall of man.