Pulled out of context and paraded around as a proof-text for Satan’s original fall, Luke 10.18 is a prime example of this backwards theology.
The King James rendering may be partly to blame for this.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. (Luke 10.18 KJV)
How many times have preachers quoted this verse when teaching on the origin of sin and Satan’s initial rebellion? Formulating an epic scene in which Jesus, before His incarnation, stood as a witness to Satan’s initial casting out of God’s heaven, they will invariably turn to this little verse in Luke’s gospel every time. A careless mishandling of the Word gives way as the surrounding context fades from sight and mind, and the verse, unclothed, is conveniently lifted off the page at will.
Little if any attention is drawn to the preceding events which brought occasion to Jesus’s statement. A few verses earlier we read that Jesus appointed seventy of his disciples to go on ahead to the cities where He himself was planning to go.
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. (Luke 10.1 NRSV)
Their commission from the Lord was to exercise authority over the devil’s work of sickness in every city they entered.
. . heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. (Luke 10.9 ASV)
Upon returning, (days if not weeks later) the seventy disciples were full of excitement and joy that they were able to exercise authority over the devil by the authority of His name. Jesus, seeing their excitement, reciprocated in their joy and in response said,
I was beholding Satan, when, like lightning, out of heaven, he fell! (Luke 10.18 Rotherham)
While the King James uses the words, I beheld Satan, thereby inferring the past tense, many have unduly taught that Jesus was recalling something that happened in the distant past. Yet other translations, such as Rotherham, display a more accurate parsing of the original text.
In Greek [Etheoroun] meaning to see or observe appears in the imperfect tense. This verb tense indicates continuous action. From the context, we see that Christ was not speaking of Satan’s initial rebellion or a pre-adamic expulsion from God’s heaven, but of the seventy disciples’ mission and their victory over satanic oppression. Jesus was ecstatic over the fact that Satan’s power was being crushed again and again by His earthly emissaries in His name.
Keeping things in perspective and context we see that there is no basis in which this verse can be used in support of the backwards theology of Satan having lost access to God’s heaven or ceasing in his accusations against the brethren.
(Click here to read the previous article on this topic called, “Rev. 12.7 – Correcting A Backwards Theology”)