Is It true that Satan is a fallen angel?
Is It true that Satan is a fallen angel and if so what happened to make him bad?
God created everything, including angels. The Bible says when God created everything, “God saw all that he made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Satan is an angel – that is, a powerful, supernatural being, created by God. He’s numbered with the other angels in the book of Job – see Job 1:6, and 2:1.
That means when God made Satan, he created him good.
But part of being good was that angels can make real decisions. Angels are not robots. Robots are machines; we can program them to do what we want. They don’t have any choice; they have to do what they’re programmed to do.
Satan’s not like that. He’s a personal being. And this means he can make real choices, real decisions. He doesn’t have to do what God wants him to do. He can choose to obey God, or disobey God.
It was good for Satan to be like this. This ability to choose was part of that “goodness” that God saw in Genesis 1:31.
But the scary thing is: Satan chose to disobey God. That is, he used something good, something given to him by God – his ability to choose – but he used it against God!
In choosing to disobey God, Satan became evil. That’s what we mean when we say he “fell”. The idea of him literally falling comes from the book of Revelation. Here’s the passage:
Revelation 12:7-9 : “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
Don’t get hung up on the details. It basically means Satan opposed God, and lost, and got kicked out of heaven. Did you notice, though, that God doesn’t bother fighting Satan? Michael is another angel; it looks like he’s the general of God’s army. God and Satan are not equals; God is more powerful than Satan.
So, there you go. Satan is an angel, but a fallen one. He was created good, but part of his goodness was the capacity to choose. He chose to disobey God, and in doing this, he became evil. That is, he “fell”.
Answers are kindly provided by our friends at Christianity.net.au
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