Lenox Federated Church - Firm Foundations, Creation to Christ

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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 3 - God Created the Spirit Beings, Lucifer Rebelled

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Was there ever a time when God was not living? No.

2. What does God need in order to exist? God doesn’t need anything.

3. Does God have a body? No.

4. How many Gods are there? There is only one God.

5. Who are the three living beings who are the one God? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

6. Is there some remote place you could go on this earth or in this galaxy or this universe or anywhere that God would not be? No.

7. What do we mean when we say that God is sovereign? He alone is ruler, supreme in power, chief, and efficacious [effective] in highest degree; He is the Most High.

Have you ever wondered:

- Where did the angels come from?

- What about Satan?

- What about demons?

In this lesson we are going to briefly study the creation of all of the spirit beings. To gain an understanding of the spirit beings requires knowledge of many Scriptures throughout the Bible.

- For our study we will simply present a summary of the basic truths (doctrine) about the spirits.

- We will not go through a lot of Scripture references because to do so would require considerable study and background understanding of each text.

- Many questions may come to your mind as we study.

- This lesson may not answer all your questions, but future lessons may help clear up some issues.

God’s Word tells us what we need to know about the spirit beings. Let’s look at some basic truths as they are taught in the Bible.





In the beginning, God created all of the spirit beings.

- The Bible refers to these spirit beings with many different terms:

Spirits

Angels

Cherubim

Seraphim

The host of the Lord or host of Heaven

Powers

Principalities

Rulers in high places

Stars or morning stars.

- The context of each passage must be used to clarify its meaning. All of the spirits were created at this time.

- Before the beginning, none of them were alive.

- It was God who gave them life.

- They wouldn’t have life if God had not given it to them.

-         Nehemiah 9:6 says, “You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them. and You preserve them all, the host of heaven worships You.”

God is greater than the spirits.

- He lived before them eternally.

- He is the one who made them.

- He gave them life.

God did not give the spirits material bodies when He created them.

- Because they are spirits and do not have flesh and blood, they can move about wherever they want to.

- The spirits are not everywhere at the same time like God is. The spirits can only be in one place at one time.

- Even though the spirits do not have material bodies like we do, they sometimes show themselves to people as human beings and may also appear in other forms

The spirits were all created by God to love and serve Him.

- In the beginning, all of the spirits were God’s angels.

- The word “angels” means “messengers” or “servants.”

- Because God created them, they belonged to Him.

- They were created to do whatever God wanted them to do.

- Imagine:

If you build a house, to whom does that house belong? If you take your own materials and assemble something, then you are the rightful owner of what you have made. Just as you are the owner of what you have made, in the same way everything that God created rightfully belongs to Him. God was the one who made all of the spirits. He gave them life. He made them to serve and obey Him. Therefore, all of the spirits rightfully belong to God.

God created all the spirits perfect; not one of them was evil or unkind.

- God cannot create anything evil because God is holy.

- Everything He thinks, says, and does is perfect.

God created the spirits with great wisdom and strength.

God created all the spirits perfect; not one of them was evil or unkind.

- God cannot create anything evil because God is holy.

- Everything He thinks, says, and does is perfect.

God created the spirits with great wisdom and strength.

Angels are very intelligent, but they are not all-knowing like God is.

- Angels are stronger than we are, and the Bible records that God has given them the ability to do amazing things, but they are not all-powerful like God. God is wiser and stronger than all of the spirits.

- This is an important truth for us to remember.

- No matter what you may have heard or seen presented in movies or books or anywhere else, the Bible tells us that God is greater than all.

God created so many spirit beings that it is impossible for us to count them.

Revelation 5:11 says, “...the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands....”

How could God create so many good, strong, wise spirits?

- He is almighty.

- He can do anything and everything He wants to do.

All of the spirits lived in Heaven with God in the beginning.

- Where is Heaven?

We don’t know where it is. It certainly isn’t here on earth! But it is a real place, mentioned many times in the Bible.

- Heaven is God’s dwelling place.

Though He is everywhere, all the time, Heaven is His home. Psalm 11:4 says that “the LORD’S throne is in heaven.” The Bible tells us that Heaven is a wonderful place, far better than any place we have ever known or could ever imagine.

God didn’t create all of the angels exactly the same; some were more beautiful, intelligent, and wise than others. The greatest angel was called Lucifer. The name Lucifer means “morning star.” God gave Lucifer a very important position in Heaven.

- He was given a place of great authority and power over the other angels.

- Ezekiel 28:14 calls him “the anointed cherub.” He, like all of God’s creation, was created perfect.

- Ezekiel 28:15 says, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” Because Lucifer was created by God and given the highest position over all of the other angels, he should have loved, obeyed, and served God.

But after a time, Lucifer became very proud of his beauty, intelligence, and position.

Ezekiel 28:17 says, “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor....”

Another passage of Scripture gives us insight into Lucifer’s attitude.

Lucifer wanted to be like “the most High.”

- He decided that he wanted to take over God’s position as the ruler of all things.

- Lucifer was the first one to do evil. (Evil is anything that is different from what God wants or agrees with.)

You may ask, “If Lucifer was created perfect, how could he rebel?”

- The Bible does not give a clear answer for this, but it does show many examples of the fact that God allows choices to be made regarding obedience and disobedience.

- Look at the passage we just read in Isaiah 14:13,14.

- Note, Lucifer said, “I will ascend,” “I will exalt,” “I will sit,” “I will ascend,” “I will be like the most High.”

- Lucifer’s rebellion was an act of the will, a conscious choice.

- An illustration from a human perspective may help:

Suppose that someone was very kind and helpful to you and told you that he loved you. This might be a very pleasant situation. But what if you learned that this person was under someone’s strict control and had been forced to act this way and to say that he loved you. His words and actions would not be meaningful or pleasant; in fact, they would be offensive. God does not “program” His created beings like robots. He allows them to make meaningful choices—to obey or to disobey.

Many of God’s angels followed Lucifer, their leader. They, too, rebelled against God. We will not discuss this in depth, but a good reference to show that other angels participated in Lucifer’s rebellion is Matthew 25:41, which mentions “the devil and his angels.”

Isaiah 14:13,14 says of Lucifer, “..you have said in your heart, I will ascend...I will exalt...I will be like the most High.” God created all of the spirits, and He knew what they were thinking and planning.

- He knew that Lucifer had become proud and wanted to take the place of his Maker.

- God knew Lucifer’s thoughts and the thoughts of each of the rebellious spirits. Nothing can be kept secret from God.

- Nothing can surprise God.

- He knows everything before it ever happens.

- He knows what we are going to think before the thought even comes into our minds.

- He is everywhere.

- He sees everything.

- He knows everything.

- Hebrews 4:13 says, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him....”

- Consider:

Do you think God would let Lucifer take His position? What do you think God’s reaction was to Lucifer’s selfish ambition? If someone suddenly tried to take over our government, strong defense measures would be taken immediately. Our government is important and powerful, but think how supremely important and powerful God is! Who is wiser than God? Who is stronger than God? He has always lived. He lives by His own power. He doesn’t need anything to live. He lived before the beginning. He gave life to all of the spirits.

God would not allow Lucifer to take His position.

- No one can take God’s place, because

- He is the only true God.

God, in great anger, removed Lucifer from his important position of leadership over the angels. God also removed the other angels who followed Lucifer from their place of service in Heaven.

God is perfect and right in everything He thinks and does.

- Anyone who doesn’t think and act like God is totally unacceptable to Him and cannot be His friend.

- God would not allow Lucifer and his spirit followers to continue in their former positions in Heaven.

As we mentioned in the beginning of this lesson, some of these details must be understood in the light of many passages of Scripture which we aren’t going to take the time to study in these lessons. But in numerous instances, the Bible records the activity of Satan and his demons here on earth. They are no longer recorded as God’s servants; they are always in opposition to Him.

Job 1:6,7 and 2:1,2 show us that Satan still had access to God in Heaven but no longer resided there. Matthew 25:41 refers to the eventual punishment of “the devil and his angels.”

God prepared a terrible place of everlasting punishment called the Lake of Fire.

- He is going to send Lucifer, and the other spirits which followed him, to the Lake of Fire to be punished forever.

- God will not tolerate disobedience to Him; God always punishes those who fight against Him.

- Matthew 25:41 speaks of “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

- Revelation 20:10 tells us that at the end of the world, the Devil will be “...cast into the lake of fire...and will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

Lucifer and his followers hate God and every good thing that God loves. Right from the time when God removed them from His service until today, Lucifer and these other spirits have been fighting against God and everything He does. Lucifer is now called Satan, which means “enemy, adversary, opponent, or accuser.” His spirit followers are called demons. Satan is God’s great enemy.

- Satan fights against God day and night to try to stop the things God does.

- Satan’s demons help Satan in opposing God.



Satan and his demons are now active all over the earth. The passages we mentioned earlier in Job 1 and 2 record conversations between God and Satan in which Satan says he has been “going to and fro on the earth, and...walking back and forth on it.” And, as also mentioned before, many passages record demon activity on the earth.

We will talk about this more in coming lessons.

God is the supreme God and the Creator of everything, seen and unseen. God is greater than all. Everything He does is perfect and holy. He is greater than all created beings:

- God is greater than the angels.

- God is greater than Satan and the demons.

- How important that is for us to know and remember! God alone can tell us what happened in the beginning. In our next lesson we will examine what the Bible says about the beginnings of the physical world:

- The heavens

- The earth.

It’s extremely important for us to consider what He says about creation. Remember, God was the only one there before the beginning.

QUESTIONS:

1. Who is the only one who lived before the beginning?

2. Where did all the spirits come from?

3. Did God create the spirits with bodies of flesh and bones?

4. Did God create all of the spirits good, or did He create some good and some bad?

5. Why did God create the spirits? .

6. How many spirits are there?

7. Where did they all live in the beginning when God first created them?

8. Who was the most intelligent and beautiful angel created?

9. What position did God give Lucifer?

10. What did Lucifer do?

11. Who else followed Lucifer in His rebellion against God?

12. Did God know what Lucifer and his followers were planning?

13. What did God do?

14. Is there anything that God doesn’t see, hear, and know?

15. What place did God prepare as a punishment for Lucifer and his angels?

16. What is Lucifer’s name now and what does it mean?

17. Whom is Satan against?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 11: Genesis, Chapters 21 and 22

Day 12: Genesis, Chapters 23 and 24

Day 13: Genesis, Chapters 25 and 26

Day 14: Genesis, Chapters 27 and 28

Day 15: Genesis, Chapters 29 and 30