Is it reasonable to believe that a great Archangel, of superhuman intelligence, expected to overthrow the Creator?
If human thinkers like Aristotle, and Augustine, and Aquinas recognized as the ground of all being, wouldn’t the angels have had to recognized Him as such?
What could they possibly have hoped to gain by rebelling?
And if they can repent, why haven’t they already?
What could they hope to gain by their continued emnity to God, Christ, and His church?
That is because Lucifer is a Roman myth that was brought into Roman Christianity. There was a war in heaven but it was a great Serpent that waged war against Heaven, not a rebellion by a powerful Arch-Angel.
I’ll have to give this some thought, Michael. I’m not certain within myself that Satan is a personal being rather than a personification of evil. If he is a personal being, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he has all knowledge, or even sufficient knowledge to make a judgment as to whether he could have defeated God, or even whether he could yet defeat God. Of course WE believe this; it doesn’t necessarily follow that the adversary is as convinced of God’s inevitable victory as we are, though. I believe, though, that he is described as the anointed cherub that covers rather than an arch-angel.
I don’t pretend to understand all this. Ezekiel is still pretty much opaque to me. But that’s the bit about the cherub in case you wanted to see it. Whatever this passage is referring to, it doesn’t seem to me to be referring to your average mortal human king.
As to what a cherub is, that’s kind of mysterious. In one definition, it’s a storm. One of the brothers in our assembly found symbols (purported to be of cherubim) in ancient middle eastern culture that looked like a disk or a ball with two wings. Very odd. I haven’t been able to find that on-line, so I’m thinking maybe he had them from one of his books. I keep forgetting to ask him. Another thing that’s probably coincidental, but still fascinating is that the cherub symbols he showed us reminded me of our modern-day symbols for a hurricane. (He was studying the Mercy Seat, incidentally – which is why he was looking up cherubim.)
Absolutely it wasn’t referring to your average mortal human king, the lament was directed to and for the King of Tyre, the most powerful King of the era. His kingdom on the Red Rocks of Tyre (known as the stones of fire) was the control point of commerce and the rise and fall of economies and nations trembled for his favor and kings bowed to him. This was not an average king, he was historically called referred to as the King of Kings, God’s chosen vessel to administer the world.
Great questions. Angels are supposed to be more intelligent than humans, so how could they be stupid enough to think they could overthrow God?
Well, maybe half of the story is elementary imagery. Secondly, maybe angels are/were in a process of growth, like humans. There is a huge error here in Christian theology. Adam and Eve, as well as the angels, could not have been created perfect, or else they never could have went wrong. They never would have had any bad desires, thoughts, etc. Instead, maybe they were created in a state of growth, imperfect, on the way to perfection.
If this was the case, their minds may be darkened regarding many things, even things we know. Who’s to say they can understand the same things we can? Who’s to say “angels” or evil spirits even know that God exists? Maybe he’s blinded them for their own good.