I don’t believe in evolution for I believe in 6 literal days of creation. For the evolutionist, death is a sort of creative force. Those who believe in evolution must believe that death has always existed. Those who accept the Bible believe that death is a punishment for sin; death must have come into existence after Adam fell.
1. To believe Satan fell before creation means sin existed before the fall of man.
The Scriptures says in Romans: 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
2. When God created the heaven and the earth, everything was very good!
The heaven (air or atmosphere) around the earth, of which Satan became the "prince of the power of the air," was called good. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31).
God said His creation was "very good!"
Elsewhere, the phrase "very good" is used by men - men who have been affected by the fall of Adam. But in Genesis 1:31, the statement is made by God - the One who is perfect in all that He does. The very least one can note about God saying this of His creation is that He has given it His approval. The world, which God made for man to inhabit, was “very good.” It had been prepared to receive him as its crown, and the setting was constructed so as to be ideal for the test to which Adam and Eve were called. The world was not created with the Fall in prospect, still less with the curse already let loose.
"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2). If Satan had already been cast down to rule the air, this verse could not have been stated. Everything God had made was good. It is a guess on my part that at the creation of man, who began to receive fellowship with God, made Lucifer jealous. This may have been the event that enticed Lucifer to rebel against God.
The diet of man and the animals in the Garden of Eden is that they were both vegetarians. An integral part of the evolutionary scenario is that both men and generally many animals have always been carnivorous. Yet God said very clearly that both man and animals were only to eat plants, in Genesis 1:29. This is part of being "very good," and is God's best for His creation. We are not told when animals became carnivorous, yet we do know that man was not to eat meat until after the Flood (Genesis 9:3).
This raises an interesting problem. To believe that God intended man and animals to be carnivorous, even though God's words are very clear (Genesis 1:29) to the contrary, must, in all reality, mean God is a liar for God did not mean what He said. If men and animals were vegetarian, then the possibility of death in the original creation becomes remote.
3. Lucifer was in the Garden of Eden.
God called him beautiful when he was there. "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain ofGod; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." (Ezekiel 28:13-14 ).
Notice in the surrounding verses that he was the special covering cherub. Compare this to jewelled descriptions of God's presence and surroundings in other scriptures.
A later verse says: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." (Ezekiel 28:15). (The King of Tyrus could not have been in Eden. This is a dualistic prophecy against a king by comparing him to Lucifer or Satan is being called the King of Tyrus. Tyrus: a rock)
4. When the earth was founded, ALL of the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy!
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4-7). Lucifer was present to rejoice at creation!
5. Satan as a part of creation desired to exalt himself above God’s creation.
In a passage that probably has a dual meaning and purpose, God tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is like Lucifer in his desires and designs and will suffer as he in the latter's fall. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For 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" (Isaiah 14:12-13).
While some use these verses to try and show there was pre-adamic race that Lucifer weakened, it instead shows Lucifer's (Satan's) desire to exalt his throne above the stars of God. If these stars are the lights in the sky, they were created on the 4th day. If the stars are God's people (Israel), that is a moot point since Nebuchadnezzar had already elevated himself by conquering that nation and taking many as slaves. If the stars are angels, then Lucifer wanted to be as God above an angel status or role; and Nebuchadnezzar could never attain that since men were created lower than the angels. Lucifer was apparently above all the angels already, so why would he try to get above the other angels (stars of God) that he already controlled? This word "star" means: literal - a star (as round or as shining); figurative-a prince. (Satan is called a prince in John 12:31, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.") Of course, Nebuchadnezzar did not fall from heaven.
6. Satan was not a murderer BEFORE the beginning, but FROM the beginning.
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). What beginning? Satan's beginning? Did he work with God for eons as a sinful angel? No! He was a murderer FROM the beginning of OUR existence. "In the beginning..." His change of heart and action took place at OUR beginning. Scripture uses the term "beginning" as the start of the earth.
Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. There was no death in the world until sin. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). A pre-adamic race or a formerly "cast down to earth" devil would eliminate the use of this verse. This earth was created perfect with no sin on the earth or in the heaven (immediate atmosphere). There was no death! Yet Satan is called the prince of the power of the air and thereby affects us to the point of being the "god of this world."
7. If God planned for sin to be in this world before man would fall, then He would have needed to plan for a Saviour BEFORE the foundation (beginning) of the world.
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8). God planned a Saviour FROM - NOT BEFORE, the foundation. At the beginning, it is possible that Satan's jealousy, and tempting of Eve, caused him to fall from his position and God then immediately planned a Saviour. The prior verse is often misquoted with a "before" instead of the "from." This Saviour was already planned to fellowship with us. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ephesians 1:4). Then sin caused man to have blame.
8. If Lucifer fell earlier (in a prior humanity; "gap theory"), why did God not put him away forever as He does in the Book of Revelation?
Is God so mean that He would create man knowing the devil was out and about and that millions would go to hell? Did God plan so much horror? If Satan fell AFTER creation, then sinners can know God planned only good for them and Satan is the problem, not God!
To understand that Satan fell after creation answers many doctrinal questions and misconceptions about God. We were ALL predestined to serve God, but Satan ruined it for many since Eden. We were ALL elected to be God's children and serve His Son, but the fall of man diverted God's plan for a while. However, He made plans for those who would give their sinful heart to Him. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephesians 1:5). God did not create mankind predestined to sin.
The Scriptures say, "In the beginning..." and it means just that. Everything was created in the beginning in 7 days. We know no more than what has been revealed to us.
Dr. Bob Zemeski
Leixlip, Co. Kildare, Ireland
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