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"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 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 to you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written
in heaven."
Please bear in mind that all of this was done and said in connection
with the disciples of Christ and their work. Therefore this could
not refer to the devil being cast out of the eternal heaven where
God dwells because he did not just at this time show up in the
earth. He showed up in the Garden of Eden in the form of the
serpent. He came along in Job's time and was operating all along
from Adam and Eve's time on down.
These disciples of the Lord had been out on a mission for Him and
they had been able through His Name to cast devils out of people's
hearts who were possessed with them. It is in this connection that
Jesus made this statement. Satan had taken a very exalted place and
had dared to intrude into the hearts of men which had been made for
God only. Through the power of Christ and His gospel he was defeated
and dethroned and cast out of his exalted place in human hearts and
cast down from the high esteem in which he had been held by those
whom he had deceived and possessed.
Heaven is a term which may be and often is used to denote an exalted
position or high place as well as to denote the habitation of God
and the eternal dwelling place of the saints. Take, for instance,
the statement of Jesus in Luke 10:15, "And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted to heaven," etc. We know that that city of Capernaum
never actually got up to heaven, but Jesus referred to their pride
and being lifted up in heart and mind and pronounced judgment upon
them for it.
The Bible refers to the third heaven. This was an experience related
by the apostle Paul in the 12th chapter of 2 Corinthians, verses
1-4. In verse 2 he refers to one being caught up to the third
heaven. Then in verse 4 he says, "How that he was caught up to
paradise." This identifies the third heaven with paradise, and that
is not yet the place of God's abode, because in Luke 23:43 Jesus
said to the penitent thief who was crucified with Him, "Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise." Jesus, then, went into paradise on the
day of His death. But after His resurrection the third day
following, He said to Mary in John 20:17, "Touch me not; for I am
not yet ascended to my Father." He had been to paradise, but He had
not been to His Father at that time.
Now the Bible speaks explicitly of three heavens and from the
foregoing conclusion it seems there must be yet at least a fourth
heaven which is the abode of God.
1. There is the aerial heaven that surrounds this earth in which are
the clouds as well as the sun, moon, and stars, etc. This is what is
referred to in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth."
2. Then there is the ecclesiastical or spiritual heaven referred to
in Eph. 2 :6. "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" There are several
other references in the Scriptures to these spiritual or church
heavens.
3. The third heaven or paradise is referred to in 2 Cor. 12:1-4. To
understand this properly furnishes us the key to the proper
interpretation to many Scriptures which would be very confusing in
connection with other Scriptures if we do not understand this point
and think that every time the term "heaven" is used in the Bible it
refers only to the abode of God. |
