I know you get a lot of questions, but I’m hung up on this one.<\/p>\n
In your answer about Satan’s fall from grace, you conclude that Satan was in heaven: “Satan could at one time appear before God (Job 1:6;\u00a02:1;\u00a0I Kings 22:19-22); thus, he was in heaven.” Couldn’t he have appeared before God without being in heaven?\u00a0I John 1:5\u00a0and\u00a0Revelation 21:23-27\u00a0say God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. It also describes heaven as having no darkness. How could evil (darkness) have been before the throne of God? By definition, darkness is the absence of light.<\/p>\n\t
“Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. The LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ The LORD said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so’ Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”<\/em>” (I Kings 22:19-23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Notice that in Micaiah’s description states that God was sitting on His throne with all the host of heaven before Him. Therefore, we are talking about an event that took place in heaven. One of the spirits present was said to be a lying spirit. Therefore, there was a time when evil was tolerated in heaven.<\/p>\n
We also know that this changed. After Jesus came to earth and returned to heaven (Revelation 12:5), we read: “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and\u00a0there was no longer a place found for them in heaven<\/strong>. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night<\/em>” (Revelation 12:7-10).<\/p>\n
Revelation 21 is a description of heaven after Satan and his followers are cast into hell.<\/p>\n
God is righteous (I John 1:5). Just because we sin, it doesn’t make God less righteous. Just because angels sinned, it doesn’t make God less righteous. Just because we all, the good and the bad, must appear before God to be judged, our presence before God doesn’t alter who He is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I know you get a lot of questions, but I’m hung up on this one. In your answer about Satan’s fall from grace, you conclude that Satan was in heaven: “Satan could at one time appear before God (Job 1:6;\u00a02:1;\u00a0I Kings 22:19-22); thus, he was in heaven.” Couldn’t he have appeared before God without…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[235],"class_list":["post-2386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-satan"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-satan-is-tempting-one-person-is-everyone-else-safe-at-that-moment\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":0},"title":"If Satan is tempting one person, is everyone else safe at that moment?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is Satan omnipresent? If yes, how do we understand Job 1:6-7? If not, can we say when Satan is tempting somebody, everyone else is safe? Answer: \"And the LORD said to Satan, \"From where do you come?\" So Satan answered the LORD and said, \"From going to and fro\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7929,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-people-call-satan-a-fallen-angel\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":1},"title":"Why do people call Satan a fallen angel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where in the Bible does the idea come that Satan is a fallen angel? It cannot be Isaiah 14:12 or Ezekiel 28:13-15; these refer to the kings of Babylon and Tyre. Doesn't the dragon in Revelation refer to the future? Also what is meant by \"spirits in prison?\" Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37822,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-know-that-what-i-am-believing-is-the-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":2},"title":"How can I know that what I am believing is the truth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Just last night I heard someone say that Lucifer was a human king and not Satan. I had thought that they were one and the same and now I am quite confused and discouraged because so many people view the Bible differently. How can I know that what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-satan-hear-our-internal-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":3},"title":"Can Satan hear our internal prayers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who can hear our silent prayers -- those prayers that are thought in our minds but not verbalized? Isn't God the only one who can read our minds and hearts? Satan cannot hear our thoughts, can he? Answer: In dedicating the temple, Solomon prayed, \"whatever prayer, whatever supplication is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-satan-created\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":4},"title":"Was Satan Created?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Years ago I was asked to teach a class on I Timothy 6 for a congregation that I was visiting. We read of Jesus Christ, \u201cthe King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3897,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-the-devil-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":2386,"position":5},"title":"When did the Devil fall?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please comment on the fall of the devil. Was it before the creation of the world (Earth) or after the creation of the world? Where was he thrown? Answer: The Bible contains only a little bit of material concerning the origins of Satan. See the lesson \"Satan\" in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}