Questions and Answers

Why Did The Angels Fall And Do They Still Have Free Will?
By Adam Bartlett

We know that Lucifer or better known as satan was once an angel and referred to in two different scriptures regarding his fall from heaven as well as his position.

Isaiah 14
12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.


Ezekiel 28
12: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13: Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14: Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15: Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16: By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17: Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18: Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.


Lucifer started out as an angel and not just any angel but the chief angel and was adorned with unparalleled beauty. Since all angels were created and they have been given a choice by God they do have a free will to serve or not. Lucifer was a prime example of one using that choice in the wrong way. There are several scriptures that support the belief that satan lured a third of the angels in heaven to follow him in his rebellion.

Revelation 12
3: And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4: And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:
7: And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
9: And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.


There is a scripture that also supports that the "stars" spoken of here are angels.

Revelation 1
20: The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches:

Since these angels had the choice to follow satan and satan had the choice to leave heaven to start with it shows that they have a free will to make their choice of whom they will serve. There are no scriptures that indicate that they ever lost that free will so we have to believe according to the scriptures we have that it has not changed. It says that he drew a third of the stars or angels out of heaven with him and then it says that "his" angels were cast out. He did not have angels to start with, but they chose to follow him and therefore became subject to him.

It is a powerful image when you think about it, that satan had enough influence to pull one third of the angels out of heaven and make them believe they actually had a chance to overthrow God. That is why we need the power of the Holy Spirit so bad, because the enemy is very good at what he does and without the power of the Spirit we will never defeat him. Jesus gave us that power and for this very reason.

The angels have the same choice we have with the exception that they can never be born again. They must choose whom they will serve and that is the way God designed it. He does not want robots; He wants those that serve Him because they WANT to. It is not truly love if one does not have a choice in it. We have the freedom and will always have it. That is the wonderful thing about grace and the power of love. Joshua said it best when he said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Scripture supports that angels have a choice and will continue to have that free will to follow God.

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