Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
5. Again, we are taught as follows by the prophet Isaiah regarding
another opposing power. The prophet says, “How is Lucifer, who used to
arise in the morning, fallen from heaven! He who assailed all nations is
broken and beaten to the ground. Thou indeed saidst in thy heart, I
shall ascend into heaven; above the stars of heaven shall I place my
throne; I shall sit upon a lofty mountain, above the lofty mountains
which are towards the north; I shall ascend above the clouds; I shall be
like the Most High. Now shalt thou be brought down to the lower world,
and to the foundations of the earth. They who see thee shall be amazed
at thee, and shall say, This is the man who harassed the whole earth,
who moved kings, who made the whole world a desert, who destroyed
cities, and did not unloose those who were in chains. All the kings of
the nations have slept in honour, every one in his own house; but thou
shalt be cast forth on the mountains, accursed with the many dead who
have been pierced through with swords, and have descended to the lower
world. As a garment clotted with blood, and stained, will not be clean;
neither shalt thou be clean, because thou hast destroyed my land and
slain my people: thou shalt not remain for ever, most wicked seed.
Prepare thy sons for death on account of the sins of thy father, lest
they rise again and inherit the earth, and fill the earth with wars. And
I shall rise against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall cause
their name to perish, and their remains, and their seed.”[116] Most
evidently by these words is he shown to have fallen from heaven, who
formerly was Lucifer, and who used to arise in the morning. For if, as
some think, he was a nature of darkness, how is Lucifer said to have
existed before? Or how could he arise in the morning, who had in himself
nothing of the light? Nay, even the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying
of the devil, “Behold, I see Satan fallen from heaven like
lightning.”[117] For at one time he was light. Moreover our Lord, who is
the truth, compared the power of His own glorious advent to lightning,
in the words, “For as the lightning shineth from the height of heaven
even to its height again, so will the coming of the Son of man be.”[118]
And notwithstanding He compares him to lightning, and says that he fell
from heaven, that He might show by this that he had been at one time in
heaven, and had had a place among the saints, and had enjoyed a share in
that light in which all the saints participate, by which they are made
angels of light, and by which the apostles are termed by the Lord the
light of the world. In this manner, then, did that being once exist as
light before he went astray, and fell to this place, and had his glory
turned into dust, which is peculiarly the mark of the wicked, as the
prophet also says; whence, too, he was called the prince of this world,
_i.e._ of an earthly habitation: for he exercised power over those who
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