End times knowledge shall be increased...Daniel 12:4.
"Lucifer" means "Light Reflector"
"Lucid" means "suffused with light, comprehensible".
"Luciferous" means "bringing light ... insightful".
1 John 1:5 says "God it the light...."
Lucifer, God's light reflector, lost his light when he was cast out of God's presence and brought his darkness to Earth with him. Thus Gen.1:2, "without form, void, darkness"
Before God created people, he created angels. The most beautiful of the angels was Lucifer, one of the three Archangels. All angels had a free will. Lucifer was created with an outer covering of precious stones to reflect the glorious light of God, as God's Light Reflector. That is what his name means. Within his free will, he became the originator of sin when he betrayed God and led a third of the lesser angels in rebellion against their Creator. His sin was the negative use of his free will by lusting after the high place and power of God. His downfall, resulting from his negative self will, is recorded in Isaiah 14:12-15 where he boasted 5 times, "I will" be God.
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning (light)! 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."
Until Lucifer's self-will took him, the angels knew no evil and had no sin. Lucifer was the first created creature to "know", comprehend, and then yield to and experience sin. He was cast out of heaven, "cut down to the ground" and brought his self induced Chaos, darkness, and knowledge of good and evil with him. Thus the condition of Earth revealed in Genesis 1:2 ... "Without form, void and darkness".
Ezekiel expanded upon Lucifer's beauty, glory and incubation of original sin ... "Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum (You had it all) full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering (precious stones must have light, but have none of their own. God was the light which reflected from Lucifer) 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 wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."
Then God recreated Earth and a garden of every kind of fruit tree and vegetable. One of those trees was the tree of life, in the center, and next to it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Its presence there was to give Adam and Eve a free will choice of obedience or disobedience. Choose obedience and life or disobedience, sin and death.
Then God created man, in his own image and likeness, without sin, but with "God's likeness" of free will to choose. So, man could obey and serve God or not. They were placed there among the abundance of good fruit trees and the Tree of Life to eat of, enjoy, and live. He also placed the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil near by as a single free will option of choice between obedience and disobedience. At that point, man had one commandment, and no knowledge of evil, and was innocent of sin. But, in time, Lucifer, approached Eve and pointed out the beauty and desirability of that one forbidden tree standing next to the tree of life.
"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it...." Gen.2:15-17.
God's purpose was obviously to give Adam and Eve the free will choice of obedience. Thus, Lucifer, who had experienced both good and evil, was conveniently there to entice Eve, misquote God, and lure her self-will and human hunger to take the one thing God had forbidden. Until that moment, Adam and Eve knew only good and had no sin... but did have the will to choose.
"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 woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doeth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen.3:1-5.
Lucifer, that old serpent, Satan, was telling Eve that eating that forbidden fruit would open her understanding and make her and Adam gods with expanded knowledge of all things both good and evil. So they both disobeyed God, took the forbidden fruit, and became intelligent, comprehensive fools and sinners. Therefore God drove them out into a world of increasing knowledge but decreasing piety.
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever, Therefore the LORD sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground...." Gen.3:22.
Now, in these last days, Godliness diminishes on earth and god like knowledge increases, as He said it would in Daniel 12.
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4.
We can learn a lot about how God deals with people, political leaders and those who claim to be His Prophets, by observing how He dealt with them historically, in the Old Testament. Almost everything you can name has changed, over time, but we humans haven't changed for the better. What mankind is doing in Washington and the world today is not dissimilar from what has happened many times in past history. To compare today's people, political leaders and preachers with those of the prophet Micah's day, look at what God said in Micah 3:1-5. "And I said, hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? In other words, (Aren't you political leaders supposed to rule with good judgment, seek out true facts, use logic, be honest in your decisions and verdicts of law?) "You who hate good, and love evil...." God points out their evil and inconsistency and goes on to tell them .... By your unjust actions you "flay their skin from off the backs of the people, break their bones, chop them in pieces for the cooking pots and devour them." God went on to tell these hypocrites that the time would come when sufferings would fall upon them and that they would cry out in prayer, but that He wouldn't hear them. Then He takes the prophets to task, as well, and says they too are at fault and have "made the people to err." He says these prophets cry out for peace but God isn't putting those words in their mouths. Therefore, God says to the prophets, "Ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark upon you, then ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets.... Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded ... for there is no answer of God."
Are we there yet? RB
