The Fall of Lucifer
In those remarkable passages in Ezekiel 28:12-19 there is revealed to us under the title of The King of Tyre, a being of tremendous beauty and wisdom, who had been in Eden, the Garden of God. Not the Eden of Adam’s day, but possibly the Eden of the Earth as it was first created. This being is spoken of as the “Anointed Cherub,” who was on “the holy mount of God and walked among the fiery stones” and was blameless in all his ways from the day he was created until wickedness was found in him. His heart became proud because of his beauty, and his wisdom was thus corrupted.
As no King of Tyre answering this description has, as yet, existed, this passage is probably a description of Satan before his fall. The intimation in this scripture then is, that Satan, with a host of angelic beings, was placed in charge of the original or primeval earth, and that he through pride (1 Timothy 3:6; Isaiah 14:12-14) sought to be equal with God. He desired worship and convinced 1/3 of the heavenly angels to follow and worship him through a deception. What was the deception? He convinced them that he was not “a son of God” but “the Son of God.”
Therefore, to punish Satan the earth was thrown into a chaotic state, and Satan and his angels, amounting to a third of the angelic hosts (Rev. 12:4) were excluded from Heaven, and took up their abode in the heavenlies, the Second Heaven, located between the atmosphere of our earth and the Heaven where God dwells, and thus became the “Principalities and Powers,” and “Rulers of the Darkness of this Age,” and the “Spiritual Wickedness” in “High Places,” (the Second Heaven), of whom we are warned in Ephesians 6:12. This seems very plausible, because Satan is said to be the “Prince of the Powers of the Air” (Ephesians 2:2), and the “god of this world” (Age), and it looks as if his plan for the fall of man was a scheme to regain control of the earth.
The human beings on the original or pre-Adamite earth, were doubtless deceived by Satan and destroyed. A study of the paleolithic religions of prehistoric peoples show both animal and human sacrifices to Satan. In fact, demons, as differentiated from fallen angels, are believed by many to be the disembodied spirits of the inhabitants of the pre-Adamite Earth, and their efforts to re-embody themselves in human beings, as in the days of Christ, is looked upon as evidence that they once possessed bodies similar to human bodies.
Naturally the question arises, “if the inhabitants of the Pre-Adamite earth were human beings like ourselves, and were destroyed when the Pre-Adamite earth was thrown into a chaotic form, where are their fossil remains; why have we not discovered them in the soil or rocks of the earth?” The answer is we have. Paleoanthropologists for years have studied skeletal remains of both Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man believed by carbon dating to have existed between 28,000 and 130,000 years ago. So, science and the Bible are in harmony.
The manner in which the pre-Adamite earth was made “formless and empty,” and this refers only to the exterior surface, the in habitableness of the earth is clearly revealed by Peter, when he says: “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.” 2 Peter 3:5-6. It is clear that Peter does not refer here to Noah’s flood, for the world of Noah’s day did not perish, and Peter goes on in verse 7 to add that “By the same word the present heavens and earth (that is, having been in existence since the restoration of the earth in Genesis 1:3-31), are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15).
The manner then in which the pre-Adamite Earth was made “formless and empty” was by water. The water which lies upon the surface of the earth is about 1/4950 part of the earth’s mass. If the land surface was even the water would cover it to a depth of 11 miles. Violent convulsions must have wrecked the pre-Adamite Earth and covered its surface with the waters of its oceans. Not a living creature remained alive upon it. For all intents and purposes, it was a dead planet. The absence of the warm rays of the sun caused the earth to pass through the “winter” of its life, and the waters were congealed into ice that preserved in cold storage the remains of immense dinosaurs so that we might know the kind of animal life that inhabited the pre-Adamite Earth. This was probably the ice age and the glacial period of geologic times.
The prophet Jeremiah records a vision of the time. “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were NO people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.” Jeremiah 4:23-26.
If this was, as it appears, an account of the destruction of the pre-Adamite Earth, then the Pre-Adamite Earth was inhabited, and its inhabitants dwelt in cities, and God’s purpose in destroying the pre-Adamite Earth was to obliterate all historic monuments and evidences of the sinfulness of its occupants.
How long a period elapsed between the creation of the earth and its becoming “formless and empty” we do not know; neither do we know how long it continued in that condition, but when the time came in the purpose of God to restore the earth to its habitable state, and make it fit for the abode of man, the Bible states in Genesis He did it in six days.
With reference to Genesis 1:3, Dr. C.I. Scofield states: “Neither in Genesis verse 3 nor in verses 14-18 is an original creative act implied. A different word is used. The sense is made to appear; made visible. The sun and moon were created “in the beginning.” The “light” of course came from the sun, but the vapour diffused the light. Later the sun appeared in an unclouded sky.”
With reference to Genesis 1:11, Dr. C.I. Scofield states: “It is by no means necessary to suppose that the life-germ of seeds perished in the catastrophic judgment which overthrew the primitive order. With the restoration of dry land and light the earth would “bring forth” as described. It was animal life which perished, the traces of which remain as fossils. Relegate fossils to the primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony remains.”
So, to review, the opening verses of Genesis can be divided into four main headings: creation (1:1), ruin (1:2a), restoration (1:2b-25), time (1:2b-2:3). God created the heavens and the earth. This creation was brought into a state of ruin through Satan seeking to become like God (Isaiah 14:12-14). God then restored the ruined creation for man. The restoration occurred over a period of six days with God resting on the seventh day. Man was created on the sixth day and, as in the case of the earth, the creation was brought into a state of ruin through sin.
Starting in verse 1:3 and continuing through verse 2:3 we see a new beginning for planet earth in seven days of restoration.
