www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology What is the tradition on Satan?

Does the Eastern Catholic church have any traditions or teachings on Satan before the fall of Adam and Eve? Was he in Heaven before the fall? I know that the Roman Church has a very established tradition on Lucifer saying that he would not serve after apparently seeing Mary. Just curious.

Thanks,

hopal

hopal,

I'll leave your question to others, but I have to admit that I've never heard the tradition that you reference. Can you point me to anywhere at which I might read more on this?

Many years,

Neil

Here's the version of the Lucifer/other fallen angels' story I was told:

Before God admitted the angels to the beatific vision, He put them to a test.A once-only test. The test consisted in discovering their response to His plan for the economy of salvation for humans. He allowed them to know that one day He would send His Son to become incarnate and the angels were given the free choice to fall down in worship before the Incarnate Word, or not. At this proposal some of the angels, if not many, said, "No way are we, who are so spectacular and wonderful, ever going to worship the God-Man, Jesus. We will not serve Him. We will never bow down before any human being, even if He is the Son of God."

And in that very second, because of the superior intellect of the angels and because of their rebellion against God's proposal for man's redemption & salvation, down they fell into hell and they're STILL falling, ever further and further away from God.

The faithful angels, on the other hand, said "We will gladly worship the incarnate Son of God" and they were then admitted to the beatific vision.

A priest once said in a homily: "The angels - both the evil ones as well as the holy ones - have no direct experience of God's mercy. All they experienced is His justice. The faithful ones are astonished at God's mercy to us and they rejoice in it." The fallen ones are jealous of us because we experience God's mercy and because we are given many opportunities to choose what is right and to repent. There's a good chance we might end up in heaven, a place they can never attain.

Therefore they hate us with a blazing fury and do all in their power to "help" us as well: they help us to act as they did and say, "I will not serve." God sends us guardian angels to protect and warn us so that we not end up where the fallen angels want us to be.

Thus goes the story. Maybe it's true; maybe not. It rings of truth for me...all of this stuff is extremely mysterious. I'd advise against excessive prying into these matters.

The Book of Enoch, which is read by some of the monophysites of the Oriental Churches; has a record of the angelic orders and the fallen ones. It's an interesting read indeed!