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Lucifer
| Bro S Jeacock (United Kingdom)
I
t is commonly believed that Lucifer is
another name for “the devil”. In a publica-
tion of the “Bible and Watch Tower Society”
(“Let God be True,” page 47) we read: “The
Devil was not always the Devil. There was time
when he enjoyed a high position in God’s
family. He was a spirit son of God whose name
was Lucifer. Contrary to the opinion of some,
he was not an ugly creature with horns and
tail, but he was beautiful. The Bible describes
him in Ezekiel 28:12-13, “Thou sealest up the
sun, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,
thou hast been in Eden the garden of God,
every precious stone was thy covering”. In
keeping with his being a son of God, he was
given a position of great trust and responsi-
bility; that of overlord of humankind. The
designated term for this office was, as stated
in the Bible at Ezekiel 28:14: “the anointed
cherub that covereth.”
Is this a correct understanding of the Scrip-
tures? It will not be difficult to show it is
otherwise.
The reference to Lucifer is in Isaiah 14:12.
The name appears in no other part of the
Bible, and the prophecy of Isaiah dates to
some 3,500 years after the creation. This
means that if the reference in Isaiah is to the
time of creation, then thirty-three centuries
passed by before the revelation of what really
happened was made!
Not a “Fallen Angel”
However, not only is the reference in Isaiah to
the times of the prophet and subsequently, but
also, if we read the early chapters of Genesis,
there is not the slightest inference or sugges-
tion of the existence of “fallen angels”. The
account in Genesis is entirely self-contained.
It records the usage of a serpent with the
power of speech as the medium of test and
trial of the man and woman who had been
made.
A simple command was given them; this was
sufficient as a basis of trial. They failed the
command and reaped the consequences. In
the words of the apostle, “By one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin …”
(Romans 5:12).
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