QUESTION:

I know that Satan’s sin originated in heaven as he conspired against God to be the most powerful. My question is this – if Lucifer – this beautiful majestic angel was able to turn evil in heaven (because of free will) is it possible that it could happen again? If no, then why not? The only scripture I’ve found while trying to study this out is in Nahum. Chapter 1 vs 9 “Whatever you plot against the LORD, he will completely destroy! Distress will not arise a second time.” Is this scripture referring to this idea? If yes, am I wrong in assuming that we will no longer have free will in heaven? As always thank you for your time,

Answer:

First of all, you are making a very common error, which is to think that Lucifer is a biblical name for Satan. This comes from a false interpretation of Isaiah 14:12, which is a prophecy/judgment on Babylon, which is called the Morning Star or Lucifer in the Greek translation. The traditional interpretation of this passage is that it is about Satan falling like a Morning Star, but this is almost certainly not a correct interpretation if you look at the context. This is a fairly minor point, but it might affect your thinking about the question since your description of Satan as a beautiful majestic angel might be coming from this incorrect understanding of Isaiah 14:12.

Nevertheless, I do believe that your general description of Satan as a very powerful angel who rebelled against God and “fell,” becoming evil and losing his place in heaven seems to be a correct description of Satan. The Bible does not directly say that this is what happened to Satan, but it is the best guess I have ever seen for who Satan is.

Could this happen again? I am not sure I understand your question. Satan has already made his choice so he cannot “fall” again, so I do not understand exactly what you are asking. Perhaps you are asking if another of the very powerful angels could, like Satan, rebel against God at some point in the future? For example, might Michael or Gabriel rebel and become like Satan? This calls for speculation and I like to avoid speculation, but if we are right in thinking that Satan had free will, and therefore other angels also have free will, I suppose we would have to allow at least for the possibility of another great angel rebelling. Likely? Definitely not. Either way, this would not affect us as Christians in any case, so this speculation is not particularly useful. I do not think your verse from Nahum changes the equation all that much, as this is a statement about Nineveh/Assyria. It is true that Assyria never rebelled against God again, as he destroyed this nation and it has never been revived. I do not see this a applying to a single individual angel and suggest you do not apply it that way either.

Whether we have free will in heaven is a REALLY interesting question, but Nahum 1:9 is definitely not a verse to decide this question. I have wondered, pondered and looked for passages to settle the question of whether we have free will in heaven, and I still have not found a suitable proof passage for this, but neither Isaiah 14:12 nor Nahum 1:9 will help decide this question if you look at the context.

John Oakes