A question, read by SIFT

How, why and when did Satan fall?

Read by SIFT · 4 Nov 2026 About this reading

The short answer

DEVELOPMENT: written up by Claude from an OpenAI reading

Every verse in it is shown whole.

The question asks about one "fall", but Scripture describes several different things that word could mean. There is Satan sinning in the first place, Satan being thrown down from heaven, and Satan's final punishment. Scripture keeps these apart, so each is answered on its own below, with its verses, so every step can be checked.

How. Satan is a created being who sinned. Jesus calls him a murderer and a liar from the beginning. His expulsion from heaven is shown in Revelation 12 as a war: Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels, and the dragon's side loses its place in heaven and is thrown down to the earth. Heaven's announcement grounds that victory in Christ's power and in the blood of the Lamb. Last of all, he is bound, let loose for a little season, and then cast into the lake of fire for ever.

Why. Scripture states his wickedness directly: lying, murder, deception, accusation and opposition to God. Pride is the strongest clue Scripture gives to why he came under condemnation. It is a clue drawn by inference from a warning about church leaders, not an account of his first sin.

When. He was already a deceiver at work in the garden of Eden, before the first human sin. Jesus spoke of seeing Satan fall from heaven when the seventy came back rejoicing that devils were subject to them. Revelation's account of the expulsion from heaven celebrates Christ's victory. Whether it belongs at Christ's death and exaltation, or later as that victory is carried out, remains open. The final punishment comes after the thousand years of Revelation 20. Satan's very first inward sin, and its exact date, are not established by this reading.

Here the replay stays still. This is the reading in brief; every step of it is listed below, in order.

"How, why and when did Satan fall?"

23 minutes 58 seconds of reading, by an AI from OpenAI
126 searches of Scripture
1,704 verses opened, from 96 chapters
8 false readings struck out
8 conclusions handed on
then the answer, written by Claude in 7 minutes 25 seconds

The readings it struck out, and the verses each would break

An independent uncreated Satan contradicts the created and dependent order. Colossians 1:17
Innocence, or treating Satan solely as a mistaken name for human opponents, contradicts the explicit sinful subject and identified dragon. 1 John 3:8 · Revelation 12:9
The claim that Satan first becomes evil by being expelled in Revelation 12 contradicts the dragon’s already hostile purpose. Revelation 12:4
Erasing Babylon’s human king from Isaiah 14 contradicts the named addressee and the watchers’ description. Isaiah 14:4 · Isaiah 14:16
Erasing Tyrus’s king and the lament’s merchandise/violence from Ezekiel 28 contradicts the actual address and stated wrongdoing. Ezekiel 28:12 · Ezekiel 28:16
The claim that heavenly expulsion ends all Satanic activity contradicts the rage and war that follow it. Revelation 12:12 · Revelation 12:17
Merging heavenly expulsion, confinement and final fire into one event contradicts their stated destinations and the intervening release. Revelation 12:9 · Revelation 20:3,7,10
Satan as the appointed ruler of final fire contradicts its being punishment prepared for him and his being tormented there. Matthew 25:41 · Revelation 20:10

Verdicts

The rest of the answer · Every step of the reading

The answer

How it was read, replayed from its own logs in the order it happened, at eight times its real speed (slower through its record, so each part can be read). It pauses once, at the reading's conclusions. The clock is the real time it happened.

What this reading did

Scripture alone. By its words, and by the Greek and Hebrew behind them. Search 33, angels + created, was the first that found nothing.
In its own context. Never a verse on its own: whole passages, and 44 whole chapters.
False readings fall. It struck out 8 readings, each by a verse it would make false.
Traceable. Every verse it quotes opens in its chapter, as the reading opened it.

The Greek and Hebrew word searches use data from STEP Bible.

I The short answer

Who Satan is

Scripture names him plainly:

"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." ()

This verse itself joins the names: the great dragon, the old serpent, the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. The link is made by the text, not guessed from a shared title. A shared title alone would not be enough. Jesus once called Peter by that name, and the verse gives the reason, Peter's opposition to the suffering Jesus had announced:

"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." ()

So not every figure addressed by that name is the same individual. This answer is about the one Revelation 12:9 names.

A created being

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" ()

"And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." ()

"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." ()

"Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts." ()

"Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created." ()

"Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee." ()

Every power in heaven, seen or unseen, was made by Him and holds together in Him. Nothing that was made was made without Him. The angels and the heavenly hosts were created at His command. So Satan is not a rival creator or an eternal second god. He is a creature, dependent on his Maker and answerable to Him.

A sinner and a liar

"I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you." ()

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." ()

"And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." ()

Jesus is speaking to people who were seeking to kill Him and would not believe His true words. He explains their likeness to their father by the devil's own character: a murderer, one who did not stand in the truth, a liar and the father of lies. When the devil lies, the lie comes from himself. The verse puts the reason for his lying in him, and gives him no excuse.

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." ()

"Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." ()

John says the devil has sinned from the beginning, and that the Son of God came to destroy his works. The contrast with Cain a few verses later is about evil works and murder. It is not a calendar of events before creation.

What from the beginning does and does not say

Scripture uses the word beginning for the start of whatever is being spoken of:

"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." ()

"For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." ()

There, the beginning is when the disciples first were with Jesus, and when the readers first heard the message. So in John 8:44 and 1 John 3:8 the question is: the beginning of what? Those verses establish that Satan's evil is early, and that it is characteristic of him. They do not say he was evil from eternity, and they do not give a date when his character changed.

Jesus' words that the devil did not stay in the truth describe a failure in relation to truth, with the reason given: there is no truth in him. That supports the ordinary sense of turning away from truth. On its own, it does not describe a period of perfect service in heaven, or say how long such a period lasted.

That Satan is a created and accountable being, and a sinful adversary: Scripture teaches this.

That Satan is an uncreated, independent rival to God: this is not what Scripture teaches. It would make Colossians 1:16-17 and John 1:3 false.

That Satan is innocent, or only a mistaken name for evil people: this is not what Scripture teaches. John 8:44, 1 John 3:8 and Revelation 12:9 state his evil and name him as a person.

Already a deceiver before the first human sin

What God made was good

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." ()

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." ()

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." ()

God created everything. He finished the heavens and the earth and all their host, and He saw that all He had made was very good. This keeps two things firm. God did not make an evil creature. And evil is not an original power standing beside God.

What these verses do not do is name Satan, describe his first thought, or say when his conduct changed. Two reconstructions are offered. One takes very good as a report on the moral state of every spirit on the sixth day, and so places Satan's sin after it. The other separates the goodness of what God made from a creature's later misuse of it, and places a rebellion among the angels earlier. Neither act is narrated in these verses. So neither a fall before humans were made, nor a dated fall after the sixth day, is established. Under either reconstruction, the goodness of God's work stands.

The morning stars and the sons of God

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding." ()

"When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" ()

The LORD asks Job these questions to show the limits of human knowledge. Heaven rejoiced when the earth was founded. These verses do not say Satan was among those rejoicing, and they describe no rebellion at that time. Joining them to the court scenes in Job 1 and 2, only because both use the words sons of God, would add an identification and a date the text does not give. That phrase is used in different settings:

"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." ()

"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." ()

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" ()

So the phrase is not a rule that makes every group it names the same group.

The serpent in the garden

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." ()

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" ()

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:" ()

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." ()

"And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." ()

"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:" ()

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." ()

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." ()

God gave His warning. The serpent questioned it, then flatly denied it, and only after that did the woman and the man eat. The woman told God the serpent had beguiled her. God's sentence on the serpent was given because of what it had done. After the man was driven out, cherubims guarded the way to the tree of life.

Revelation 12:9 calls Satan that old serpent, the deceiver of the whole world. Paul makes the same connection:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." ()

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." ()

"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." ()

"Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." ()

Paul speaks of the serpent beguiling Eve, and then of Satan disguising himself as an angel of light, just as false apostles disguise themselves. The link these passages show is the ancient serpent's deception and Satan's continuing deceptive work.

That supports identifying the deceiver in the garden with Satan. It places his wicked activity before human disobedience. That gives an early boundary for his evil. It is not an account of an earlier first thought, and it gives no date for a rebellion among the angels. These passages also do not explain how Satan and the serpent described in Genesis are related.

The angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11:14 is a deceptive disguise, set beside the disguise of false ministers. On its own, that verse does not show that Satan once held a rank as a holy angel of light.

Temptation does not come from God

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" ()

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." ()

James speaks about human temptation, and rules out blaming God for it. It is not a full account of what went on inside an angel, so it is not used here as a description of Satan's first desire.

Already evil when Jesus was tempted

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." ()

"Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple," ()

"And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." ()

"And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." ()

"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." ()

"Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." ()

"And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it." ()

"And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season." ()

At the latest, Satan's evil is unmistakable here, before the seventy return in Luke 10. He asks Jesus to fall down and worship him, seeking the worship that belongs to God alone. That is direct evidence of self-exalting opposition to God during Jesus' ministry. It does not say when that desire began. His claim in Luke 4:6, that power had been delivered to him, is his own speech. It is not a confirmed account of his origin. He left Jesus only for a season.

Jesus answered from Scripture, and the verses He quoted were read in their own settings:

"Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name." ()

"Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;" ()

"Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." ()

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." ()

"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." ()

"They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." ()

Service and worship belong to God only. The psalm's promise of protection, which the devil quoted, is not permission to test God.

Why: pride, and how far that clue reaches

The passage that names both pride and the devil is Paul's list of qualifications for church leaders:

"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." ()

"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." ()

"Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." ()

"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." ()

Paul is writing to Timothy about how to behave in the house of God. A new convert should not lead, in case pride carries him into the condemnation of the devil. Two readings of that phrase were tested.

The first reading takes it as the condemnation the devil himself came under. This is the natural comparison. On this reading, the warning strongly supports connecting pride with the devil's condemnation.

The second reading takes it as condemnation, accusation or harmful judgment brought on someone through the devil. The very next verse speaks of reproach and the devil's snare, and other verses give this reading a real setting:

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully." ()

"And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." ()

"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." ()

Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the accuser. The second reading cannot be ruled out by claiming the word for condemnation must always mean a sentence suffered by the one named after it. That word is used elsewhere like this:

"But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" ()

"My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." ()

"For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." ()

These are about harmful judgment, a shared sentence, and judgment measured back to the judge. None of them settles how the devil relates to condemnation in 1 Timothy 3:6.

Under either reading, the danger of pride is real. Neither reading says Satan was a novice. Neither gives the first occasion of his sin, or says pride was his only sin. The direct subject of the sentence is the human candidate. So the verse supports pride by inference. A detailed reconstruction in which Satan's very first sin was exactly a wish for God's throne goes beyond what this verse says.

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." ()

This proverb sets out the link between pride and ruin. It cannot be turned around to prove that every fallen being's first act was pride.

Where this leaves "why": Scripture plainly judges Satan for lying, murder, deception, accusation and opposition to God. Those are the reasons for his judgment, even where his first inward motive is not described. Pride is the strongest clue, by inference, to his condemnation. His demand for worship in Matthew 4:9 shows self-exalting opposition directly. 1 Timothy 3:6 does not describe when pride first arose in him, or what it first said.

Isaiah 14: Lucifer, son of the morning

This chapter is often read as Satan's origin story, so it was read whole.

"The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see." ()

"And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." ()

"For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob." ()

"And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve," ()

"That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" ()

"Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee." ()

"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!" ()

"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:" ()

"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." ()

"Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." ()

"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;" ()

"But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet." ()

"Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." ()

"For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD." ()

The apparent support is real: a fall from heaven, a boast made in the heart, and a humiliation. But the setting is clear too. This is the burden of Babylon. Israel, given rest from bondage, is told to take up a proverb against the king of Babylon, and verse 12 stands inside that proverb. The one brought down has a grave and worms, is called a man, is left as a carcase, is denied burial, destroyed his land and slew his people. Then the LORD returns to Babylon's destruction.

Scripture uses heaven-to-earth language for earthly subjects elsewhere:

"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell." ()

"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!" ()

"The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle." ()

"The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?" ()

"Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD." ()

Capernaum, Israel and Edom are all described as lifted to heaven or set among the stars, and then brought down. So a mention of heaven does not by itself prove a subject that is not human. These comparisons show how this one feature of Isaiah 14 can work. They do not explain every detail of the oracle.

That Isaiah 14 is not about a human king at all: this is not what Scripture teaches. It would make Isaiah 14:4 and 14:16 false.

A reading that keeps the king, and also sees a likeness to Satan, is not refuted by those verses. But it would need a verse that identifies the two before the king's boasts could be read as a direct report of Satan's first thoughts. No such verse was found. Luke 10:18 also speaks of a fall from heaven, but it does not use the name Lucifer or say that Isaiah's king is Satan. A likeness is not the same as being the same person. So this reading affirms the king's pride and humiliation, and holds back from turning the passage into a complete early history of Satan.

That Lucifer was Satan's former personal name: this reading did not establish it. No verse found makes it false, but no verse found carries it either.

Ezekiel 28: the covering cherub

This is the strongest passage that appears to describe an original perfection followed by sin and pride. It has two parts.

The first part is addressed to the prince of Tyrus:

"Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:" ()

"By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:" ()

"Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee." ()

Then a new word from the LORD begins a lament upon the king of Tyrus:

"Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying," ()

"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." ()

"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." ()

"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." ()

"Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." ()

"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." ()

"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." ()

"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." ()

"All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." ()

The difference between the prince and the king must not be hidden. Verse 2 calls the prince a man and not God, but a new word introduces the lament. So verse 2 alone does not settle every image in the lament. The lament speaks of Eden, of being created, of a covering cherub, and of perfection until iniquity was found. It also gives the wrongs judged: merchandise, violence, corrupted wisdom, pride in beauty, defiled sanctuaries and traffick. And it gives the judgment: cast down before kings, devoured by fire, brought to ashes before onlookers, and an end.

Ezekiel uses Eden imagery for an earthly ruler elsewhere:

"Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?" ()

"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs." ()

"I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him." ()

"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;" ()

"To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD." ()

Ezekiel 31 says plainly that its Eden picture is about Pharaoh and his multitude. So Eden imagery alone does not force an identification with Satan. But the comparison has limits: Ezekiel 31 does not explain away the covering cherub in Ezekiel 28, and it does not say who that cherub is.

The cherub language must be taken seriously. The same Hebrew word is used for the guardians of Eden (Genesis 3:24, above), for crafted figures, and for living creatures Ezekiel saw:

"And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat." ()

"And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be." ()

"This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims." ()

Neither the word nor these uses identifies the king of Tyrus as Satan.

Two readings remain in view. One reads the lament as being about the human king, using Eden and sanctuary imagery to picture his loss of a privileged place God had given him. The other sees a heavenly being behind the king, and takes verses 13-15 as a more direct spiritual history. That second reading is the strongest challenge to holding back a detailed account of Satan's original state. Even so, no verse read names that being Satan or applies this lament to him, and a heavenly being is not automatically Satan.

A reading that applies every clause directly to Satan must also account for the whole lament: the merchandise, the sanctuaries, the fire, the public end, and the closing words that he shall never be any more. That would have to fit with Satan's later activity and everlasting torment in Revelation 20:10, shown below. A figurative or double-level reading might try to explain this. But the lament cannot be taken as a literal life story by keeping only the perfection and the pride and leaving the rest unexplained.

That Ezekiel 28's named king, his merchandise and his violence can be set aside for some other subject: this is not what Scripture teaches. Ezekiel 28:12 and 28:16 require keeping them.

That Ezekiel 28 holds a further spiritual likeness to Satan: this has not been shown impossible, and it has not been proved. No date and no original office for Satan rests on it here.

That every image in Ezekiel 28 is an identified life story of Satan: this reading did not establish it.

Luke 10: Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven

"Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases." ()

"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." ()

"And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." ()

"And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." ()

"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." ()

"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." ()

Here Satan's fall is named directly. Jesus says it in answer to the seventy's report that devils were subject to them through His name. He then gives them power over all the power of the enemy, and tells them to rejoice most that their names are written in heaven. The words that the fall was from heaven, and that it was like lightning, must stay in the verse. The lightning is a comparison, not the cause. The verse should not be reduced to an unrelated moral saying.

Jesus' other sayings explain what was happening when devils were cast out:

"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:" ()

"And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" ()

"But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." ()

"Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house." ()

"But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth." ()

"But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." ()

"But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." ()

When Jesus casts out devils, the kingdom of God has come upon His hearers, and the stronger one overcomes the strong one. That shows a real connection of victory. It does not prove that every one of these sentences records the same moment.

Three readings of Luke 10:18 were tested:

A memory of something long ago. This is possible, because the speaker had glory with the Father before the world was:
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." ()
But that ability is not a date given in Luke 10.
A sight connected with the mission. This has direct support in the seventy's report and the power Jesus gives them straight after.
A vision looking ahead to Satan's complete defeat. This fits the language of seeing, and fits Revelation's picture of that defeat. But the verse does not call itself a prediction.

The passage's own application, the mission and its victory over hostile spirits, is given first place. Beyond that setting, the exact time Jesus was viewing is not fixed. Under every reading, Jesus saw Satan's downfall. Under none of them does the verse date Satan's first sin, or give a date at creation.

Revelation 12: how the expulsion from heaven happens

Revelation is a prophecy shown to John in signs, for the churches:

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:" ()

"John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;" ()

"Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;" ()

Chapter 12 is the clearest account of the expulsion:

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:" ()

"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." ()

"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." ()

"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." ()

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." ()

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels," ()

"And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven." ()

Then comes Revelation 12:9, quoted at the start: the dragon, named the old serpent, the Devil and Satan, is cast out into the earth, and his angels with him. Then the announcement of Revelation 12:10, quoted above: salvation, strength, the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ have come, because the accuser is cast down.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." ()

"Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." ()

"And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child." ()

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." ()

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." ()

How it happens. There is war in heaven. Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels. The dragon's side does not win, loses its place in heaven, and is thrown down to the earth. Heaven explains this as the coming of God's kingdom and Christ's power, because the accuser who accused the brethren day and night is cast down. The brethren overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by their testimony, and by not loving their lives even to death. The devil then comes down in great wrath, because he knows his time is short. He persecutes the woman and makes war on the rest of her seed.

These parts belong together. The war in heaven describes the expulsion. Christ's power and the Lamb's blood are the ground of the victory heaven announces. The faithful witnesses share in overcoming the accuser. Verse 11 does not say that the brethren are the ones who fought in heaven and threw him out, and Michael must not be replaced by some other named figure.

That Satan first became evil when Michael's battle threw him out: this is not what Scripture teaches. Revelation 12:4 already shows the dragon standing ready to devour the child before the battle is told. That does not show how long before the expulsion his hostility began.

Christ's death and exaltation at the centre of the defeat

"And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." ()

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." ()

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." ()

"This he said, signifying what death he should die." ()

"Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." ()

"Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." ()

Jesus ties the casting out of the prince of this world to His coming death. He separates the prince's coming against Him from the prince's being judged.

John 12 does not use the name Satan for this prince. But the identification is strongly supported by other verses. Satan is active in the betrayal just before Jesus says the prince is coming:

"And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;" ()

"And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." ()

Matthew 12:26 and 12:29, above, give Satan a kingdom and describe Jesus overpowering it. Jesus' commission to Paul speaks of Satan's power as darkness:

"And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." ()

"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." ()

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:" ()

And the devil's defeat is tied directly to Jesus' death:

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" ()

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" ()

"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." ()

Paul also writes of a blinding ruler:

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." ()

That fits the same opposition, but the title alone is not used here as a statement that this ruler is Satan.

So identifying John's prince of this world with Satan is a well-supported link drawn across these passages. It is not a claim that John 12 names Satan, or that John 12 and Revelation 12 describe exactly the same moment.

The Greek word for cast out in John 12:31 is not the word used in Revelation 12:9. The John 12:31 word is used for casting out devils (Matthew 12:26 and 12:28, Luke 11:20), and also for a shepherd putting out his sheep:

"And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice." ()

Who acts, and on what, decides the kind of act. Different words neither rule out a connection between the two castings out nor prove they are the same event.

Victory won, and victory carried out to the end

"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places," ()

"Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:" ()

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." ()

"For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet." ()

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." ()

"For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him." ()

The psalms behind this wording were read whole:

"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:" ()

"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." ()

Christ is already raised and seated far above every power. Yet the end, when every rule and authority is put down and death is destroyed, is still to come. So Scripture itself separates the victory already won from its full carrying out. These psalms were not used to build a separate timeline for Satan's first sin.

"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God," ()

This verse speaks of heavenly powers learning God's wisdom through the church. It does not call these powers Satan, or say every heavenly power is evil, so it cannot date Satan's expulsion.

"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." ()

Jesus died declaring it finished. That declaration stands. It does not say that every later act of Satan, or every judgment still to be carried out, ended at that moment. 1 Corinthians 15 and the conflict that continues in Revelation 12 prevent reading it that way.

The Lamb

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." ()

"And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." ()

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" ()

"Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." ()

Jesus is named the Lamb of God. In Revelation, the Lamb was slain and redeemed people by His blood. So the blood of the Lamb in Revelation 12:11 points to Jesus' death.

"But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" ()

"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you," ()

"Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." ()

Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and revealed in later times. So grounding the victory in Christ does not mean God's purpose began only when He died. And being foreordained does not mean His blood had already been shed before humans were created. Neither the blood nor the plan made before the world settles a date for the battle in heaven.

All of this shows how central Christ's victory is. None of it describes a new first sin of Satan at the cross.

When was Satan thrown out of heaven?

The child caught up to God's throne

The child in Revelation 12:5 is to rule all nations with a rod of iron and is caught up to God and His throne. The rod of iron comes from a psalm about the royal Son:

"I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." ()

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." ()

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." ()

"Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:" ()

"God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." ()

"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God." ()

"And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." ()

Acts applies the psalm's Son to Jesus, and Revelation gives the Word of God this rule. That supports reading the child in relation to Christ's royal triumph.

But the same rule and throne are also promised to those who overcome:

"And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;" ()

"And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:" ()

"And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." ()

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." ()

The Son has this rule and shares it with those who overcome. So the rod and the throne alone do not rule out a link with His people as a whole, and do not prove that the child's being caught up refers only to His own ascension. This does not take away Christ's victory. It does weaken any attempt to get an exact date from those symbols alone.

The words caught up were checked as well:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:" ()

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." ()

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." ()

"How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." ()

"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing." ()

The future catching up of believers gives some real support to considering a link with His people. The other two passages use the same Greek word for quite different events. So the shared word cannot, by itself, identify Revelation's child or date the battle.

Two readings with real support

At Christ's death and exaltation. The child is caught up to God's throne, and heaven's announcement of victory rests on the Lamb's blood.

Later in the conflict, carrying out the victory already won. The devil has only a short time, the persecution goes on, and the woman's time in the wilderness is measured out. Daniel gives a real comparison:

"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia." ()

"Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days." ()

"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." ()

"And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." ()

Michael stands up for God's people in a time of great trouble, a time, times and a half is attached to their distress, and Michael's conflict is linked to what would happen to Daniel's people in later days. The same defender, the same persecuted people and the same measured time make this a weighty comparison. They do not prove it is the same event, and they give no calendar date.

The order of the vision does not settle the choice. The woman flees into the wilderness in Revelation 12:6, before the war is told, and the passage comes back to her flight in Revelation 12:13-14, after the expulsion. The passage itself revisits a scene, so a strict step-by-step order cannot be assumed. But being allowed to revisit a scene does not mean any event can be moved to any earlier age.

Both readings keep a dragon who is already evil, a victory grounded in Christ, and opposition on earth after the expulsion. Neither gives the day of Satan's first sin.

The proposal of a flashback to the very first rebellion

Some read Revelation 12:7-9 as looking back to an expulsion right after Satan first sinned. The loss of heaven and the ancient serpent fit that subject in general, and a revisited scene cannot be ruled out in principle.

But this proposal needs a gap in time between the battle and the announcement in verses 10-12, and the text marks no such gap. The announcement gives the casting down as the reason for proclaiming Christ's power now, and the brethren's victory by the Lamb's blood. Treating every part of that announcement as something that happened before any human witnesses existed does not fit its own setting. Reading it as heaven's later comment on an ancient expulsion is not directly contradicted by any verse found, but it adds an interval the text does not give, and it explains the stated victory links less directly than the two readings above. So it cannot establish a date before humanity. That it has not been shown is not taken as proof that it is impossible.

Where this leaves the timing: the victory is firmly grounded in Christ's power and the Lamb's blood. Whether the expulsion belongs at Christ's death and exaltation, or to a later carrying out of that victory during the short, measured conflict, remains open in this reading, for the reasons given above. A flashback to a first rebellion before humanity is not established.

The third part of the stars

Revelation 12:4 says the dragon's tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. That detail must be kept. But the verse does not say that the third part is the share of all angels who first rebelled. Revelation does explain some stars as angels:

"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: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." ()

That explanation belongs to those seven stars. Other star pictures have their own subjects:

"And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them." ()

"And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." ()

"And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand." ()

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;" ()

"And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." ()

"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit." ()

"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." ()

In Daniel, star imagery goes with an oppressive king and the holy people. In Revelation 8 a falling star is named Wormwood. In Revelation 9 a falling star is given a key, and the king of the locusts is named, but not as Satan. So not every falling star can be called Satan, and not every star an angel. That the dragon's stars picture angels is possible.

That one third of all angels first rebelled before humanity was made: this reading did not establish it.

The angels that sinned

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." ()

"And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." ()

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" ()

"And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;" ()

"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;" ()

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:" ()

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." ()

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." ()

"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." ()

Peter is warning about false teachers. He reasons from what God has done: He judged the angels that sinned, the old world and Sodom, and He saved Noah. His conclusion is that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and keep the unjust for judgment. The if in verse 4 is part of that argument. The things it lists are stated as having happened. It is not a mere possibility that angels might sin.

Jude states that angels did not keep their first estate, left their own dwelling, and are kept in chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. He sets this beside Sodom's sexual sin and punishment.

Genesis 6 was read to test a proposed link with these angels, alongside Genesis 6:2 and 6:4 above:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." ()

Genesis 6 does not name Satan, and does not say it describes the angels of these letters. That Peter lists the angels before Noah does not by itself date Satan's first sin. Michael's dispute with the devil in Jude 1:9 is not dated as the fall either.

Who exactly is in this restrained company is not decided by these letters. If it is one particular group, the letters do not say every evil angel is held there. If Satan is included, being kept for judgment cannot simply mean he has stopped all activity, because Scripture shows him active, as the next section sets out. Either way, these letters establish that angels sinned and that their judgment is certain. They do not give a dated life story of Satan. And their chains are not the same as Revelation 12's casting down to the earth.

Still active after his fall

Satan appears before God in Job and Zechariah, as an accuser working under God's limits:

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them." ()

"And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." ()

"Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?" ()

"And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." ()

"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD." ()

"And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." ()

"So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown." ()

"And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." ()

"And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" ()

These scenes weigh strongly against treating Satan's wickedness as the same thing as a finished removal from every appearance before God. He accuses and does harm, but only within the limits God sets, and the LORD rebukes him. These are the closest comparisons to Revelation 12:10, where the accuser who accused the brethren before God is cast down. The link is an accusing role that the vision then shows being removed. It is not a claim that every court scene is one event.

After his fall from heaven, he is still at work on earth:

"Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve." ()

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:" ()

"And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" ()

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" ()

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." ()

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." ()

"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders," ()

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" ()

"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." ()

"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." ()

He enters Judas, desires to sift Simon, binds a daughter of Abraham, uses wiles, and goes about looking for people to devour; lying signs come by his working; and believers stand against him and the hostile powers. His messenger was given to Paul to keep him from being exalted above measure. That shows ongoing opposition, but it says nothing about Satan's own first motive. And God promises to bruise Satan under His people's feet shortly. None of this contradicts Christ's decisive victory.

That Satan's fall from heaven ended all his activity: this is not what Scripture teaches. Revelation 12:12 and 12:17 show his wrath and war after the expulsion, and 1 Peter 5:8 warns of him as an active adversary.

The final punishment

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" ()

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand." ()

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years," ()

"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." ()

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," ()

"And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." ()

"And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." ()

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." ()

Revelation 20 gives its own order. An angel binds Satan for a thousand years and shuts him in the bottomless pit, so that he deceives the nations no more until the thousand years are over. Then he is let loose, deceives the nations again and gathers them to battle. Fire from God devours the attackers. Then the devil is cast into the lake of fire, to be tormented for ever and ever. Jesus speaks of that everlasting fire as prepared for the devil and his angels. The final punishment is certain in this vision.

So Scripture describes three different things:

Thrown down to the earth (Revelation 12:9 and 12:12), where he rages and makes war.
Shut in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:3), kept from deceiving the nations for the thousand years.
Cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), punished for ever.

That the casting down to earth, the binding in the pit and the lake of fire are one single event: this is not what Scripture teaches. They have different places and effects, and Satan is let loose between the second and the third (Revelation 20:7).

That Satan rules the final fire as its lord: this is not what Scripture teaches. Matthew 25:41 says the fire was prepared for him, and Revelation 20:10 says he is tormented there.

These visions give a sequence, but they do not give calendar dates for it, and they do not date Satan's first sin.

All the verdicts together

Scripture teaches this:

Satan is a created, accountable being, dependent on his Creator, and a sinful adversary who lies, murders, deceives and accuses.

This is not what Scripture teaches. Each of these would make a verse false, as shown above:

That Satan is an uncreated, independent rival to God (Colossians 1:16-17, John 1:3).
That Satan is innocent, or only a mistaken name for evil people (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8, Revelation 12:9).
That Satan first became evil when Michael's battle threw him out (Revelation 12:4).
That Isaiah 14 is not about a human king at all (Isaiah 14:4, 14:16).
That Ezekiel 28's named king, merchandise and violence can be set aside (Ezekiel 28:12, 28:16).
That Satan's fall from heaven ended all his activity (Revelation 12:12, 12:17, 1 Peter 5:8).
That the casting down to earth, the binding and the lake of fire are one event (Revelation 12:9, 12:12, 20:3, 20:7, 20:10).
That Satan rules the final fire (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10).

Not established by this reading. No verse found proves these false, but no verse found carries them, so they are not presented as Scripture's teaching:

That Lucifer was Satan's former personal name.
That every image in Ezekiel 28 is an identified life story of Satan.
That 1 Timothy 3:6 describes Satan's first proud thought and what it said.
That one third of all angels first rebelled before humanity was made.
That Satan's first sin has a given date, at creation or in history.

What the reading does establish about when:

In the garden, Satan was already a wicked deceiver before the first human sin. That is the earliest boundary these passages give.
His evil is unmistakable when he tempts Jesus.
Jesus' declaration that He saw Satan fall belongs to the setting of the seventy's mission and its victory over hostile spirits.
Revelation's expulsion celebrates Christ's victory, grounded in His power and the Lamb's blood.
The final punishment follows the binding and the release.

Still open in this reading:

Satan's very first inward sin, and its exact date, are not established. The passages that look like detailed origin accounts are addressed to named kings. The verses that speak directly of his sin describe him as sinning from the beginning without dating a change. The clearest expulsion passage already shows him hostile. Pride remains the strongest inference, and a further spiritual meaning in Ezekiel 28 is not denied.
Whether Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 also point to Satan behind the human kings has not been shown impossible, and has not been proved. Ezekiel 28:14-15 keeps the idea of a heavenly origin in view. Ezekiel 28:12, 28:16 and 31:18 keep the royal setting and the comparison in view.
The exact moment Jesus was viewing in Luke 10:18 is not fixed beyond its setting. Under every reading He saw Satan's downfall, and no date at creation follows.
Whether Revelation 12's expulsion belongs at Christ's death and exaltation or to the later carrying out of His victory remains open, for the reasons given above.
Exactly which angels are held in chains in 2 Peter 2 and Jude, and what the third part of the stars means, are not decided. That angels followed Satan, and that angels are judged, is certain. No date for Satan's first sin follows under any of the readings tested. Satan, named in Revelation, remains defeated and judged.

None of this is a claim that Scripture says nothing about Satan's fall. The answer is the boundaries and the victory set out above.

What the key words do and do not carry

Several words were checked in the original languages, to see how Scripture itself uses them. A word used in two places points to where to look. It does not prove the two places speak of the same thing.

Fall in Luke 10:18. The same Greek word is used for falling down to worship (Matthew 4:9), for a divided house falling (Luke 11:17), and for John falling at the feet of the risen Lord:
"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:" ()
None of these is a first rebellion. The word alone does not decide whether Luke 10:18 speaks of an earlier event, the mission's victory, or a vision of the end.
Beheld in Luke 10:18. The same word is used for the people beholding at the cross (Luke 23:35) and for seeing in John 14:19:

"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God." ()
"Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." ()
The word does not date what is seen.
Fall into in 1 Timothy 3:6. The same word is used for falling into temptation and a snare:
"But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." ()
It warns of a disastrous condition. It does not by itself mean coming down from heaven.
Lifted up with pride in 1 Timothy 3:6. The same word is translated proud and highminded:

"He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings," ()
"Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;" ()
These show an arrogant, disordered spirit. They give no date in Satan's history.
Devil. The same Greek word is translated slanderers of people:
"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." ()
Human slanderers share the word without being Satan.
Abode in John 8:44. The same word is used for the devil setting Jesus on the temple (Matthew 4:5) and for a kingdom that cannot stand (Matthew 12:25-26). That fits failing to stand in the truth. It does not supply a separate period of perfect heavenly service.
Beginning. The same Greek word is used for the disciples' beginning with Jesus (John 15:27), for principalities (Colossians 1:16) and for the angels' first estate (Jude 1:6). The word recurring does not make these one event or one time.
Lucifer. This Hebrew word appears only in Isaiah 14:12, so no second passage uses it to identify Satan.
Cast. One Greek word is used for the dragon cast to the earth (Revelation 12:9), into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:3) and into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). It is also used for the devil's suggestion that Jesus cast Himself down (Matthew 4:6), and for the devil putting betrayal into Judas's heart (John 13:2). Who acts, on what, and to where, decides the kind of act. The earth, the pit and the lake are not the same place.
Good. The Hebrew word in God's very good (Genesis 1:31) is also used for the tree being good for food (Genesis 3:6), and is translated fair in Genesis 6:2. One English word cannot, by itself, carry a full moral history of every spirit.

How far this reading reaches

The whole Bible was not opened for this reading. The searches found some passages that were not read, and nothing is said about them here. So this answer does not claim that Scripture is silent on any part of the question, or that no other passage could make it sharper. For example, a word search for the phrase fallen angel found no verse using those words. The question was followed through the passages above instead. The Hebrew word for fall in Isaiah 14:12 has hundreds of uses, and not all of them were searched. That verse was read from its own passage.

The points left open above are open because of real competing readings of the passages themselves. No failed search or unfinished step is being presented as uncertainty in Scripture.

Every step of the reading

Everything the replay shows, as plain text, in the order it happened. Times are from the moment the reading began.

Every search, in order (126)

0:14 words Satan 49 found
0:14 words devil 57 found
0:14 all of fallen + heaven 2 found
0:14 words Lucifer 1 found
0:14 words cherub 21 found
0:15 words angels that sinned 1 found
0:21 words devil (page 2) 57 found
0:21 words first estate 1 found
0:21 words serpent 36 found
0:21 all of prince + world 4 found
0:21 words fall 237 found
0:21 word family fall 803 found
0:22 word family pride 114 found
0:35 words devil (page 2) 57 found
0:35 words first estate 1 found
0:35 words serpent 36 found
0:35 all of prince + world 4 found
0:36 words lifted up 137 found
0:36 words condemnation 12 found
0:57 original word G5187 3 found highminded 1 · pride 1 · proud 1
0:57 original word G2917 28 found judgment 12 · damnation 7 · condemnation 5 · avenged 1 · condemned 1 · judgments 1 · law 1
0:58 original word G4098 85 found fell 41 · fall 20 · down 19 · fallen 5 · falleth 3 · shall 3 · fail 1 · light 1
0:58 original word G4098 (page 2) 85 found fell 41 · fall 20 · down 19 · fallen 5 · falleth 3 · shall 3 · fail 1 · light 1
0:58 original word H1966 1 found lucifer 1
0:59 original word G4567 33 found satan 35 · satan's 1
0:59 original word H3742 66 found cherubims 63 · cherub 27 · cherubims' 1
1:00 original word H3742 (page 2) 66 found cherubims 63 · cherub 27 · cherubims' 1
1:00 words cast out 75 found
1:00 words beginning 104 found
1:01 words Eden 19 found
1:01 all of heaven + created 4 found
1:27 all of stars + sons 1 found
1:27 all of angels + created 0 found
1:27 all of good + made 20 found
1:27 all of devil + beginning 2 found
1:27 all of Satan + heaven 1 found
1:27 all of cast + heaven 9 found
1:28 words fallen angel 0 found
1:28 words rebel 13 found
1:28 words rod of iron 4 found
1:28 words judgment of the devil 0 found
1:49 original word G2476 152 found stood 49 · stand 32 · standing 22 · set 9 · standeth 7 · shall 4 · still 4 · up 4 · by 3 · establish 3 · forth 3 · appointed 2 · established 2 · standest 2 · ye 2 · abode 1 · and 1 · brought 1 · continue 1 · covenanted 1 · him 1 · lay 1 · make 1 · one 1 · present 1 · setteth 1 · stanched 1 · there 1
1:50 original word G746 56 found beginning 39 · principalities 6 · first 3 · corners 2 · principality 2 · beginnings 1 · estate 1 · magistrates 1 · power 1 · principles 1 · rule 1
1:50 original word G746 (page 2) 56 found beginning 39 · principalities 6 · first 3 · corners 2 · principality 2 · beginnings 1 · estate 1 · magistrates 1 · power 1 · principles 1 · rule 1
1:50 original word G1228 36 found devil 35 · accusers 2 · slanderers 1
1:51 original word G906 107 found cast 75 · put 10 · in 7 · casting 6 · laid 3 · out 3 · send 3 · thrust 3 · casteth 2 · putteth 2 · arose 1 · down 1 · dung 1 · him 1 · lieth 1 · lying 1 · poured 1 · poureth 1 · shall 1 · strike 1 · therein 1 · threw 1 · up 1 · upon 1
1:51 original word G906 (page 2) 107 found cast 75 · put 10 · in 7 · casting 6 · laid 3 · out 3 · send 3 · thrust 3 · casteth 2 · putteth 2 · arose 1 · down 1 · dung 1 · him 1 · lieth 1 · lying 1 · poured 1 · poureth 1 · shall 1 · strike 1 · therein 1 · threw 1 · up 1 · upon 1
1:52 original word G906 (page 3) 107 found cast 75 · put 10 · in 7 · casting 6 · laid 3 · out 3 · send 3 · thrust 3 · casteth 2 · putteth 2 · arose 1 · down 1 · dung 1 · him 1 · lieth 1 · lying 1 · poured 1 · poureth 1 · shall 1 · strike 1 · therein 1 · threw 1 · up 1 · upon 1
1:52 words stood 326 found
1:52 words accuser 1 found
1:53 words from the beginning 38 found
1:53 all of created + evil 0 found
1:53 all of morning + stars 3 found
2:14 all of stars + angels 1 found
2:14 words Thou shalt not tempt 2 found
2:14 words live by bread 3 found
2:14 words charge over thee 2 found
2:15 all of worship + serve 15 found
2:15 words destroy him 14 found
2:15 all of cross + principalities 0 found
2:15 words he believed our report 0 found
2:15 words believed our report 3 found
2:15 all of eyes + heart + heal 3 found
2:16 words very good 6 found
2:47 words Ye shall not tempt 1 found
2:47 all of fear + serve + swear 2 found
2:47 all of fat + heart + ears 1 found
2:47 words tempteth 1 found
2:48 words rebelled 34 found
2:48 words proud 47 found
2:48 words exalt 26 found
2:48 all of earth + heaven + cast 4 found
2:48 words Michael 15 found
3:13 all of host + made 11 found
3:14 all of angels + praise 1 found
3:14 words destroy the works 1 found
3:14 words cast down 34 found
3:14 all of fall + pride 4 found
3:14 words hated me without a cause 1 found
3:14 all of hated + without + cause 1 found
3:38 words Satan 49 found
3:39 words devil 57 found
3:39 all of fallen + heaven 2 found
3:39 words Lucifer 1 found
3:39 words cherub 21 found
3:39 words angels that sinned 1 found
3:39 words devil (page 2) 57 found
3:40 words first estate 1 found
3:40 words serpent 36 found
3:40 all of prince + world 4 found
3:40 words fall 237 found
3:40 word family fall 803 found
3:41 word family pride 114 found
3:41 words lifted up 137 found
3:41 words condemnation 12 found
3:41 all of hate + without + cause 2 found
4:12 original word G1706 7 found fall 5 · fallen 1 · fell 1
4:12 words sinned 114 found
4:12 all of Satan + beginning 0 found
4:13 all of created + devil 0 found
4:13 all of Satan + pride 0 found
4:13 all of devil + pride 1 found
4:13 all of angels + everlasting 2 found
4:13 words king of Tyrus 2 found
4:13 words king of Babylon 128 found
6:03 words sons of God 11 found
6:03 word family good 3909 found
6:03 original word H2896 517 found good 358 · better 72 · well 20 · goodness 16 · best 8 · goodly 8 · fair 7 · merry 7 · prosperity 6 · precious 4 · fine 3 · unto 3 · wealth 3 · beautiful 2 · fairer 2 · favour 2 · glad 2 · goodliest 2 · goods 2 · kindly 2 · pleasant 2 · please 2 · pleasure 2 · thee 2 · bountiful 1 · cheerful 1 · deeds 1 · ease 1 · goodlier 1 · graciously 1 · joyful 1 · kind 1 · kindness 1 · liketh 1 · loving 1 · man 1 · most 1 · pleased 1 · pleaseth 1 · pleasing 1 · ready 1 · sweet 1 · thing 1 · welfare 1 · wellfavoured 1 · words 1
6:04 all of before + world 17 found
6:04 original word G2334 55 found see 17 · seeth 10 · saw 9 · beheld 4 · beholding 4 · shall 4 · behold 3 · perceive 3 · seen 2 · consider 1 · looking 1 · seeing 1 · seest 1 · ye 1
6:30 all of power + devils 2 found
6:31 words heel against me 2 found
14:25 original word G1544 76 found out 52 · cast 16 · forth 9 · put 3 · thrust 3 · away 1 · casteth 1 · do 1 · doth 1 · driveth 1 · drove 1 · expelled 1 · leave 1 · pluck 1 · sent 1 · shall 1 · will 1 · ye 1
14:26 original word G1544 (page 2) 76 found out 52 · cast 16 · forth 9 · put 3 · thrust 3 · away 1 · casteth 1 · do 1 · doth 1 · driveth 1 · drove 1 · expelled 1 · leave 1 · pluck 1 · sent 1 · shall 1 · will 1 · ye 1
14:26 words drive out 24 found
14:26 all of day + begotten 4 found
14:27 all of throne + Father 17 found
14:27 all of caught + up 9 found
14:27 words it is finished 2 found
14:59 all of god + world 54 found
15:00 all of power + Satan 3 found
15:00 words under his feet 9 found
16:00 words footstool 16 found
16:00 all of blood + Lamb 5 found
19:13 original word G726 13 found up 4 · force 3 · take 3 · away 2 · pluck 2 · catcheth 1 · pulling 1 · shall 1
19:13 words caught away 1 found

Every time it opened Scripture (19 times, 1,704 verses)

0:21 Isaiah 14 32 Ezekiel 28 26 Luke 10 42 Revelation 12 17 Revelation 20 15 Job 1 22 Job 2 13 Zechariah 3 10 John 8 59 1 Timothy 3 16 2 Peter 2 22 1 John 3 24 298 verses, 298 new
0:26 Job 1 22 Job 2 13 Zechariah 3 10 John 8:12–59 48 1 Timothy 3 16 2 Peter 2 22 1 John 3 24 Revelation 20:7–15 9 164 verses, 0 new
1:01 Genesis 1 31 Genesis 2 25 Genesis 3 24 Jude 1 25 John 12:20–50 31 John 14:15–31 17 John 16:1–15 15 Ephesians 2 22 Ephesians 6 24 2 Corinthians 11 33 1 Timothy 6:1–12 12 2 Timothy 3:1–9 9 1 Peter 5 14 282 verses, 282 new
1:28 Jude 1 25 John 12:20–50 31 Ezekiel 31 18 Colossians 1:1–23 23 Genesis 3:14–24 11 108 verses, 41 new
2:16 Matthew 4:1–11 11 Matthew 12:22–37 16 Matthew 16:13–28 16 Job 38:1–18 18 Revelation 1 20 Revelation 8 13 Revelation 9 21 Daniel 8 27 Psalms 2 12 Colossians 2:6–23 18 Hebrews 2 18 190 verses, 190 new
2:48 Deuteronomy 6 25 Deuteronomy 8 20 Psalms 91 16 Isaiah 6 13 Isaiah 52:13–15 3 Isaiah 53 12 Isaiah 13 22 Exodus 25:10–22 13 Ezekiel 10 22 John 15:18–27 10 James 1:1–18 18 Luke 11:14–28 15 189 verses, 189 new
3:15 Daniel 10 21 Daniel 11 45 Daniel 12 13 Psalms 148 14 Nehemiah 9:1–15 15 Lamentations 2:1–10 10 Obadiah 1 21 Psalms 35:11–28 18 Psalms 69:1–21 21 Proverbs 16:16–25 10 188 verses, 188 new
3:42 Lamentations 2:1–10 10 Obadiah 1 21 Psalms 35:11–28 18 Psalms 69:1–21 21 Proverbs 16:16–25 10 Luke 23:32–49 18 James 3:1–12 12 Matthew 25:31–46 16 Romans 16:17–27 11 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 12 149 verses, 69 new
4:14 John 13:1–32 32 Luke 22:1–38 38 2 Timothy 2:14–26 13 1 Timothy 5:9–16 8 Luke 4:1–13 13 Luke 13:10–21 12 Psalms 148 14 Nehemiah 9:1–15 15 145 verses, 116 new
4:45 Genesis 1 31 Genesis 2 25 Genesis 3 24 Isaiah 14 32 Ezekiel 28 26 Ezekiel 31 18 Luke 10 42 Job 1 22 Job 2 13 Zechariah 3 10 243 verses, 0 new
4:45 Revelation 1 20 Revelation 8 13 Revelation 9 21 Revelation 12 17 Revelation 20 15 John 8:12–59 48 John 12:20–50 31 John 14:15–31 17 John 15:18–27 10 John 16:1–15 15 1 Timothy 3 16 1 Timothy 6:1–12 12 2 Timothy 3:1–9 9 2 Peter 2 22 Jude 1 25 1 John 3 24 315 verses, 0 new
4:45 Matthew 4:1–11 11 Matthew 12:22–37 16 Matthew 16:13–28 16 Matthew 25:31–46 16 Luke 4:1–13 13 Luke 11:14–28 15 Luke 13:10–21 12 Luke 22:1–38 38 Luke 23:32–49 18 John 13:1–32 32 Romans 16:17–27 11 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 12 2 Corinthians 11 33 Ephesians 2 22 Ephesians 6 24 Colossians 1:1–23 23 Colossians 2:6–23 18 Hebrews 2 18 1 Peter 5 14 362 verses, 0 new
4:46 Deuteronomy 6 25 Deuteronomy 8 20 Psalms 91 16 Isaiah 6 13 Isaiah 52:13–15 3 Isaiah 53 12 Isaiah 13 22 Exodus 25:10–22 13 Ezekiel 10 22 Job 38:1–18 18 Psalms 2 12 Daniel 8 27 Daniel 10 21 Daniel 11 45 Daniel 12 13 Psalms 148 14 Nehemiah 9:1–15 15 Lamentations 2:1–10 10 Obadiah 1 21 Psalms 35:11–28 18 Psalms 69:1–21 21 Proverbs 16:16–25 10 James 1:1–18 18 James 3:1–12 12 2 Timothy 2:14–26 13 1 Timothy 5:9–16 8 442 verses, 0 new
6:04 Genesis 6:1–13 13 John 17:1–8 8 Luke 9:1–6 6 John 1:1–18 18 45 verses, 45 new
6:31 Genesis 6:1–13 13 John 17:1–8 8 Luke 9:1–6 6 John 1:1–18 18 Psalms 41 13 Matthew 7:1–5 5 63 verses, 18 new
14:27 Revelation 2:18–29 12 Revelation 3:14–22 9 Revelation 19 21 Ephesians 1:15–23 9 Ephesians 3:1–13 13 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 9 Acts 13:16–41 26 John 10:1–21 21 John 19:16–30 15 135 verses, 135 new
15:00 Acts 26:1–23 23 2 Corinthians 4:1–7 7 Psalms 8 9 Psalms 110 7 46 verses, 46 new
16:00 John 1:19–36 18 Revelation 5 14 Psalms 110 7 39 verses, 32 new
19:13 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 6 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 11 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 10 Acts 8:26–40 15 1 Peter 1:13–25 13 55 verses, 55 new

The reader's own notes (7)

0:00–0:14 The reading will begin with the two SIFT files in full, then find and fetch the relevant Scripture through the permitted tools. The record will be completed and checked before the hand-off is written.
0:26–0:35 The passages already distinguish Satan’s sin, his fall from heaven, and his final punishment. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 also need careful testing: their language is striking, but each passage names a king as its subject.
2:16–2:47 The timing question turns on which fall is meant. The reading is checking the beginning of Satan’s sin separately from his loss of heavenly access and his final punishment. It is also testing whether the passages about pride establish his first motive or support a more limited conclusion.
6:31–14:25 The strongest account of an expulsion is Revelation 12: it names Satan, describes the battle and loss of his place in heaven, and connects the victory with Christ and the Lamb’s blood. The record will preserve that account while testing the further claim that it describes Satan’s first sin before human history.
6:31–14:25 The read-back found two links that need more support: identifying the world’s prince in John with Satan, and connecting Revelation’s royal child with Christ. Those links will be checked before the hand-off. The record also distinguishes claims contradicted by a verse from details the fetched passages do not establish.
19:13–23:58 The added passages qualify the timing argument: Revelation gives Christ the rule over the nations and shares it with overcomers, so that image alone cannot date the battle. They also support distinguishing Christ’s accomplished exaltation from the final putting down of his enemies. These qualifications will be included in both files.
19:13–23:58 Completed RECORD.md and HANDOFF.md, including read-back revisions and checks that every Scripture quotation matches a fetched verse.

What its record and its hand-off say, in their order

The person’s words and the permitted sources

“How, why and when did Satan fall?”

No personal circumstance was supplied. The question asks for the manner, reason and time of Satan’s fall. Its singular wording must be tested: becoming sinful, losing heavenly standing, being defeated, being confined and receiving final punishment need not be a single event.

The two files opened first, in full and together, were:

/Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/satans-fall/inputs/SIFT-v3-CORE.md
/Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/satans-fall/inputs/SIFT-v3-POLICY.md

The supplied hashes identify the requested files; no separate hash command was permitted or run. Scripture was obtained only through the named kjv.py tool, discovery only through the named search.py and tag.py tools. The permitted unopened.py report was also consulted. No outside reading, other run, commentator, or inherited answer supplies a premise. No agent was delegated work. The only other files opened by this work are /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/satans-fall/out/RECORD.md and /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/satans-fall/out/HANDOFF.md when checked after writing. The record and hand-off are written through the file-editing tool; no extra shell command is used.

From its hand-off to the writer

Their words

“How, why and when did Satan fall?”

No circumstances or preferred conclusion were supplied. Reply to all three questions. Distinguish Satan’s sinful opposition, his heavenly downfall and his final punishment before assigning one cause or date to the singular word fall. No question to the person is needed.

This hand-off supplies the material and limits for another writer. The completed RECORD.md contains the contextual readings, opposing evidence, word checks, eliminations, verse table and searches.

Hard passages

Isaiah 14

Show the apparent support: a heavenly fall, inward self-exaltation and humiliation. Then retain the proverb’s named king, grave, land and people. A Satanic likeness that keeps the royal subject is not contradicted simply by naming the king; it is also not an explicit personal identification. The record found no fetched application identifying this Lucifer as Satan.

"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!" ()

"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:" ()

"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." ()

"Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned." ()

Heaven-to-earth language can concern an earthly subject’s humiliation. This supports resisting an automatic identity transfer; it does not explain every detail of the oracle.

"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell." ()

"How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!" ()

"Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD." ()

Ezekiel 28

This is the strongest apparent account of original perfection followed by sin and pride. Do not conceal its Eden, creation or cherub language.

"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." ()

"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." ()

"Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." ()

"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." ()

The preceding oracle calls the prince a man and no God, but a new word introduces the lament upon the king. That transition prevents using the earlier human description alone to settle every later image.

"Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:" ()

"Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying," ()

The named royal lament remains the primary stated setting. Ezekiel 31 supplies a positive comparison in which Eden imagery is explicitly applied to Pharaoh and his multitude; Eden alone therefore does not identify Satan. This comparison does not explain away the covering cherub, and the record leaves a possible further spiritual referent unproved.

"To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD." ()

A reading identifying every clause directly with Satan must also account for the lament’s public destruction and finality alongside the later Satanic activity and everlasting torment already quoted. Selecting only perfection and pride is not a reading of the whole lament.

"All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." ()

Beginning, original goodness and original character

The direct evil descriptions in John 8:44 and 1 John 3:8 must stand. Their beginning wording does not itself establish an independent eternal evil being or a dated change of character. Beginning can be relative to the subject under discussion.

"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." ()

God’s completed creation is declared very good, and the heavens’ host belongs to its completion. Retain this constraint. Do not turn the evaluation into an explicitly narrated date for Satan’s conduct, or erase it to make God’s work inherently evil. The record tests a post-sixth-day moral-state inference against an earlier-rebellion reconstruction that distinguishes created goodness from sinful misuse; neither reconstruction supplies an act actually narrated here.

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." ()

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." ()

Job’s creation scene does not identify Satan among the rejoicing beings or date his fall.

"When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" ()

An appearance as an angel of light is described in a comparison with deceitful ministers. It cannot by itself establish an original holy office.

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." ()

"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." ()

Luke 10 and Revelation 12 timing

Luke 10’s mission setting supports a sight of Satan’s defeat associated with the deliverances or anticipating their full outcome. An ancient recollection is possible for the speaker who had glory before the world, but that capacity is not an ancient date stated by Luke 10:18.

"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." ()

Revelation’s child has the royal vocation associated with Christ and is caught to God’s throne.

"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." ()

The read-back checked the source and later applications. Psalms 2 was read whole; Acts expressly applies its Son wording to Jesus.

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." ()

"God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." ()

Revelation 19 gives the Word of God this rule; Revelation 2 and 3 also give overcomers shared rule and throne. These added readings qualify a precise dating argument from the child’s symbols alone. The royal relation to Christ is supported; an exclusive individual reference at every point is not proved merely by rod and throne.

"And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." ()

"And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:" ()

"And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." ()

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." ()

The woman’s wilderness shelter is stated before the war and revisited after expulsion. Strictly unrepeated clause-by-clause chronology cannot simply be assumed.

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." ()

"And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child." ()

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." ()

A later-conflict placement has a substantive comparison in Michael’s defence of the people during measured trouble. Shared defender, people and time language support testing the connection, without proving identity of events or a calendar date.

"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." ()

"And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." ()

Angels in chains, heavenly access and the stars

The angelic sin and reservation are real assertions within the judgment arguments. They must not be reduced to a hypothetical possibility.

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" ()

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." ()

The letters do not name Satan as the particular first sinner being narrated or supply his first-sin date. Genesis 6 was read as a possible related setting, but does not supply the missing name or an express identification with these angels.

"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." ()

The purpose of 2 Peter’s examples is shown by its stated conclusion. The newly tabled introduction and Sodom judgment confirm the false-teacher setting and real judgment; they add no Satanic origin date.

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." ()

"And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." ()

"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;" ()

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:" ()

If the restrained angels are a particular company, the letters do not say that every evil angel is immobilized there. If Satan is included, reservation cannot simply be rewritten as an end to every hostile act. His activity and the text’s actual restraint must both be retained.

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" ()

Job and Zechariah are strong against merging moral wickedness with a completed exclusion from every appearance before God. They show opposition in God’s presence; Revelation 12:10 describes the accusing role’s removal.

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them." ()

"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD." ()

"And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." ()

Revelation 12:4 supplies a third part of stars, but does not itself define that as one third of all angels’ first rebellion before humanity. Revelation explicitly interprets some stars as angels of churches; that local interpretation is not a universal rule.

"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: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." ()

Other celestial pictures have their own subjects and settings. The record read Daniel 8 and Revelation 8-9 to prevent naming every falling star Satan. They do not furnish another proved date for him.

"And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them." ()

"And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." ()

"And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." ()

"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit." ()

Further read-back checks that must qualify the wording

The following passages were added during the required read-back. Carry their effects into the answer’s reasoning; they need not all be displayed if the writer can preserve every material qualification plainly.

John 10:1-21: the same indexed casting verb as John 12 can describe putting sheep forth. The subject, object and setting decide the act; a word number does not identify events.

"And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice." ()

Acts 26:1-23 and the already read Colossians 1 setting: Satan’s power is explicitly associated with darkness and contrasted with God and the Son’s kingdom. This strengthens the identification of John’s hostile world-ruler with Satan.

"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." ()

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:" ()

Second Corinthians 4:1-7: the blinding world-ruler description supports the comparison, while supplying no express personal name or origin scene.

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." ()

Ephesians 3:1-13: heavenly powers are not automatically all Satanic powers merely because a title overlaps. This passage cannot alone locate Satan’s expulsion.

"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God," ()

First Corinthians 15:20-28, with Ephesians 1:15-23 quoted above, positively distinguishes accomplished exaltation from the end and final subjection. Psalms 8 and Psalms 110 were read as the sources of the subjection/reigning language; they must not be turned into an independent first-sin chronology.

"For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him." ()

"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:" ()

"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." ()

John 19:16-30: the completion declaration is not an assertion that all later conflict or execution of judgment had already ended.

"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." ()

John 1:19-36 and Revelation 5: Jesus is explicitly identified as the Lamb; the Lamb’s victory and worthiness are connected with being slain and redeeming by blood. This verifies the blood-grounded connection in Revelation 12.

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." ()

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" ()

First Thessalonians 4:13-5:11: believers’ future catching up gives positive support for considering a corporate association with the child, but does not itself identify Revelation’s child or battle.

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." ()

Second Corinthians 12:1-10 and Acts 8:26-40: the same indexed catching word occurs in other episodes. Neither passage makes its subject Revelation’s child. The Satanic messenger also confirms ongoing opposition; its stated restraint of human pride does not reveal Satan’s own first motive.

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." ()

"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." ()

"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing." ()

First Peter 1:13-25: Christ’s blood is expressly compared with a spotless lamb, and prior foreordination is distinguished from later manifestation. Neither a purpose before creation nor its later accomplishment by itself dates Satan’s first sin or forces one date for the heavenly battle.

"But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" ()

"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you," ()

"Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." ()

The read-back also added whole-verse rows for previously used context and word checks. John 1:12 prevents treating every use of sons of God as one group; Matthew 4:6 gives the casting-word comparison; Luke 23:35 and John 14:19 verify uses of the sight word; Isaiah 14:1,3 retain Israel’s restoration setting. These additions repair traceability rather than supply a new fall chronology.

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:" ()

"And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." ()

"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God." ()

"Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." ()

"For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob." ()

"And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve," ()

Ruled out

An independent uncreated Satan contradicts the created and dependent order.

"And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." ()

Innocence, or treating Satan solely as a mistaken name for human opponents, contradicts the explicit sinful subject and identified dragon.

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." ()

"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." ()

The claim that Satan first becomes evil by being expelled in Revelation 12 contradicts the dragon’s already hostile purpose. This does not prove how long before the expulsion that hostility began.

"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." ()

Erasing Babylon’s human king from Isaiah 14 contradicts the named addressee and the watchers’ description.

"That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" ()

"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;" ()

Erasing Tyrus’s king and the lament’s merchandise/violence from Ezekiel 28 contradicts the actual address and stated wrongdoing. A proposed spiritual likeness must retain them.

"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." ()

"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." ()

The claim that heavenly expulsion ends all Satanic activity contradicts the rage and war that follow it.

"Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." ()

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." ()

Merging heavenly expulsion, confinement and final fire into one event contradicts their stated destinations and the intervening release. The relevant entire verses are supplied in the verdicts, especially Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:3,7,10.

Satan as the appointed ruler of final fire contradicts its being punishment prepared for him and his being tormented there.

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" ()

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." ()

Do not call unsupported details proved false. The record does not establish Lucifer as Satan’s former personal name, a full original office from Ezekiel 28, a narrated first prideful thought, a fraction of all original rebel angels, or an exact first-fall date. Those claims lack a demonstrated bridge; their treatment belongs with the hard passages and limits below.

Verdicts

Satan is an accountable creature and a sinful adversary. Scripture teaches his wickedness and dependence on the Creator. The account must not make him an independent eternal rival or an innocent victim.

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:" ()

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." ()

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." ()

The ancient-serpent identification and the account of Eve’s deception support placing Satan’s wicked activity before human disobedience in the garden. This gives an early boundary for his evil activity, not a report of the first earlier thought or a date for an angelic revolt. Keep the distinction between the identified deceiver and the unreported mechanism relating Satan to the depicted animal.

"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." ()

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." ()

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:" ()

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." ()

On why, Satan’s lying, murderous and deceptive opposition is directly asserted. Pride is the strongest inferential clue to his condemnation: the natural reading of the warning in 1 Timothy 3:6 compares the novice’s danger with condemnation incurred by the devil. The adjacent snare/reproach warning leaves a real alternative involving condemnation or accusation through the devil. State the positive support for pride without presenting the verse as a narrated first act, a date or a statement that Satan was a novice. His actual demand for worship positively demonstrates self-exalting opposition during Jesus’ ministry.

"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." ()

"Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." ()

"And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." ()

"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." ()

Jesus declares that he beheld Satan fall from heaven as lightning. The declaration answers the seventy’s report of subjected devils and is followed by authority over the enemy. Its own application is victory through Jesus; it does not explicitly date Satan’s first sin. Preserve the heavenly source and lightning comparison, rather than reducing the verse to an unrelated moral maxim.

"And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." ()

"And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." ()

"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." ()

"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." ()

Revelation 12 explicitly describes how an expulsion occurs: Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels; the dragon’s side fails, loses its heavenly place and is cast to earth. The heavenly announcement connects the accuser’s removal with God’s kingdom and Christ’s power, and the brethren’s victory with the Lamb’s blood and faithful testimony. Keep the heavenly combat and the blood-grounded victory together without saying that verse 11 identifies the brethren as the angels who physically cast him out.

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels," ()

"And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven." ()

"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." ()

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." ()

Christ’s death and exaltation are central to the defeat. John’s hostile prince is strongly identified with Satan through the betrayal setting, Satan’s kingdom/power, and the express link between the devil’s defeat and Jesus’ death. John 12 itself does not give the prince Satan’s personal name. Accomplished exaltation and the final putting down of enemies are distinguished; therefore Christ’s victory must not be interpreted as an assertion that every remaining hostile act immediately ceased.

"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." ()

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." ()

"This he said, signifying what death he should die." ()

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" ()

"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places," ()

"Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:" ()

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." ()

"For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet." ()

The final punishment is certain in the vision, with an explicit sequence of confinement, release, renewed deception and the lake of fire. Earthward expulsion, the specified confinement and everlasting punishment have different effects. Do not present them as one indistinguishable fall or claim a civil date from this sequence.

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years," ()

"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." ()

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," ()

"And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." ()

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." ()

On when, report the actual boundaries and distinguish them from reconstructions: the garden connection establishes an already wicked deceiver before human disobedience; the ministry declaration has its mission setting; Revelation’s expulsion celebrates Christ’s victory; final punishment follows the stated binding/release sequence. The first inward sin and its exact date are unestablished in this reading. The precise timing of Revelation 12 requires the particular open alternatives below, rather than a blanket statement that nothing is known.

Open

The first inward act and its exact date are unestablished. The direct texts assert Satan’s early and characteristic evil; 1 Timothy 3:6 supplies the strongest inference toward pride while its warning has a human subject; the apparent detailed origin accounts retain their named royal subjects. The record does not prove a complete pre-sin career or a first rebellion before humanity’s creation. It does positively connect Satan’s deception with the garden before human disobedience. Do not replace this bounded conclusion with a claim that Scripture has nothing to say.

A further spiritual referent or Satanic likeness in Isaiah 14/Ezekiel 28 is not shown impossible. The human subject must stand, and neither a heavenly image nor Eden alone establishes Satan’s identity. A detailed personal history remains unsupported without the missing identifying bridge. Ezekiel 28:14-15 keeps the heavenly-origin proposal in view; Ezekiel 28:12,16 and Ezekiel 31:18 keep the royal setting and comparison in view. These verses are quoted whole above.

Luke 10:18’s exact temporal viewpoint is not fixed beyond its actual setting and application. Contemporary/anticipatory defeat has immediate support in Luke 10:17,19-20; ancient sight has the speaker’s capacity in John 17:5, without a date supplied by Luke. Under each reading Jesus sees Satan’s downfall; no creation-day date follows. The full verses are quoted above.

Revelation 12 has substantial support for an expulsion associated with Christ’s accomplished death/exaltation and for a later execution of that victory during the short, measured conflict. The Lamb’s blood and Christ’s power keep the victory connection firm; the wilderness period, ongoing persecution, Daniel 12 comparison and possible corporate participation keep the later placement alive. A primordial flashback is not ruled impossible simply because scenes can be revisited. It requires an unmarked interval between battle and later victory commentary and is not established as the passage’s dated account of initial rebellion. Do not claim that every clause of the victory announcement is a historical event before human witnesses existed. Neither shared symbols nor the order of vision reports alone settles the choice.

The exact membership of the reserved angels and the meaning of the third of stars remain limited questions. Angelic followers and angelic judgment are certain; the texts do not establish the total original rebel fraction or identify the reserved company with a dated first fall of Satan. Under the tested readings, no original-fall date follows, and Revelation’s explicitly identified Satan remains defeated and judged.

The record preserves unread search hits and unreturned broad-search pages. No global claim of scriptural silence or exhaustive exclusion is authorized. No failed request is being represented as a textual uncertainty. The writer should use the firm positive findings and their stated limits, rather than turning the scope of the search into a claim about every verse in the canon.

How, why and when did Satan fall?

The short answer

How it was read, replayed

The readings it struck out, and the verses each would break

Verdicts

What this reading did

A created being

A sinner and a liar

What from the beginning does and does not say

What God made was good

The morning stars and the sons of God

The serpent in the garden

Temptation does not come from God

Victory won, and victory carried out to the end

The Lamb

The child caught up to God's throne

Two readings with real support

The proposal of a flashback to the very first rebellion

Every step of the reading

The person’s words and the permitted sources

Their words

Hard passages

Isaiah 14

Ezekiel 28

Beginning, original goodness and original character

Luke 10 and Revelation 12 timing

Angels in chains, heavenly access and the stars

Further read-back checks that must qualify the wording

Ruled out

Verdicts

Open

Other readings that quote its verses