There is a well known story about the Battle In Heaven: Lucifer, God's favorite angel, became prideful and decided to rebel against God. He formed a large group of angels under his command who then attacked the angels who remained loyal to God, these loyal angels were led by St. Michael the Archangel. After much fighting the loyal angels are victorious and Lucifier (Satan) and his disloyal angels (Demons) are cast into Hell. However, nowhere in the Bible is this story, or anything like it, told. So, from where does this famous story come from?

JoshCaleb12

In Luke 10:18, Jesus speaks of seeing Satan fall like lightning from heaven... This may have been one of the Biblical inspirations for this story... Other Biblical sources would include Isaiah 14:12-14 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." ... and Ezekiel 28:12-18 (which I won't put here, since it is so long)... The following website says that even though these passages are directed at specific kings of the earth, they're also understood to be descriptive of Satan's (aka Lucifer) situation. http://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-fall.html By the way, I can't point to a source right now, but I think Satan and the disloyal angels were cast to the Earth, not to Hell... I could be wrong about that, though... Nov 04 05, 12:25 AM

my_baby_love

Thank you Josh, your answer encouraged me to do some more research. Your site was very helpful. In Revelation 12, a war in heaven is described between "the dragon" and "Michael", the dragon and "his angels" are overpowered and then "hurled down to earth". Josh you seem correct, Satan and his group were cast to earth, but it is confusing because generally Satan is thought to be currently residing in Hell. Nov 04 05, 9:18 AM

JoshCaleb12

I think the difference between popular thinking and what the Bible actually says about where Satan is, is part of the devil's strategy to disguise himself... C. S. Lewis says there are two extremes a Christian can go to regarding the devil... the first is to become overly concerned about him and his influence, and the other is to make him into a myth and not believe in him at all... The Bible makes it pretty clear that he is active in the world today... "prowling around like a lion seeking whom he may devour" and others that talk about his attempts to reclaim what he has lost... Paul's letters are filled with references to the activity of the devil. Glad you found those verses in Revelations! Nov 04 05, 9:28 AM

Flem-ish

In Job 4:18 there is the rather elliptic line: "In his angels he found wickedness" Nov 04 05, 5:05 PM

lanfranco

The story of the fallen angels is far older than the New Testament. Take a look at the apocryphal Book of Enoch, about which, strangely enough, I've been reading recently. (For a possible reference to the Nephilim, or "fallen ones," see Genesis 6): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim Nov 04 05, 9:42 PM

Arpeggionist

Yes, but the "Nephillim" referred to were known more as giants, freaks of humanity which do not survive yet (Deuteronomy states that Og, king of the Bashan, was the last of these giants, and he was killed by the Israelites on their way into Canaan). Nov 05 05, 10:14 AM

lanfranco

I wasn't suggesting that the Nephilim were fallen angels, but rather that in some theologies, based on Genesis 6, this race of giants was the result of coupling between angels and human women and that the angels' lust either led to their fall or occurred after it. This is largely the Enoch interpretation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim Nov 05 05, 5:06 PM