Hi iConflicted.
There is an interesting portion of scripture contained within the book of Ezekiel which might help to answer your question:
Ezekiel chapter 28 verses 12 thru 19
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.
Although the prophet Ezekiel was instructed by God to take up his lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, it becomes rather obvious as we read the lamentation that God is not merely speaking to a physical man, but also making reference to an angelic being or to a cherub which was apparently inspiring this natural king to some extent. In other words, this situation seems to be like the time when Jesus, while speaking to Peter, said, Get thee behind me, Satan. Peter obviously wasn't Satan, but he was being inspired by him at that point in time. One of the descriptions of this cherub that we're given is that he was a covering cherub. What does this mean? To me, it points to the two cherubim who overshadowed the mercy seat upon the ark of the covenant which Moses was instructed by God to make and which I believe was a representation of the true ark of the covenant which exists in heaven:
Revelation chapter 11 verse 19
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
There is a true temple or true tabernacle of God in heaven and there is also a true ark of His testament or a true ark of the covenant there as well:
Hebrews chapter 8 verses 1 thru 5
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Hebrews chapter 9 verses 23 and 24
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Moses was admonished by God to build an earthly tabernacle with different items contained within it which served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things or which were figures of the true tabernacle in heaven which the Lord pitched and not man. In other words, again, there is apparently an ark of the covenant or an ark of His testament in heaven. With such being the case, is it possible that this covering cherub whom the LORD was addressing thru the prophet Ezekiel was originally one of the two cherubim who covered the true ark of the covenant in heaven and that this covering cherub may actually be the one whom we commonly refer to as Satan? I think that it's quite possible and many Christians throughout the ages have strongly considered the same possibility. If this covering cherub truly is Satan, then what can we learn about his downfall from this portion of scripture?
We learn that this covering cherub was full of wisdom and that his wisdom was ultimately corrupted by reason of his brightness. We're admonished to be wise as serpents and to not be ignorant of the devil's devices, so I see a correlation there.
We also learn that this covering cherub was full of beauty and that his heart was ultimately lifted up because of his beauty. Does this not sound like the pride which goes before destruction? To me, it does.
We also learn that this covering cherub had been in Eden, the garden of God. We know that Satan was there, don't we? The physical king of Tyrus couldn't possibly have been there in that the original Eden was wiped out during the time of Noah's flood.
We also read how this covering cherub was filled with violence. Doesn't this sound like the murderer that Jesus described Satan as being in John chapter 8?
The point that I'm getting at is this:
Again, it seems to me that heaven, the angels, the temple in heaven and the items contained within that temple were all created before the LORD laid the foundation of the earth and that the one whom we now refer to as Satan very well may have been one of the original two covering cherubim who covered the true ark of the covenant in heaven until his downfall which was due primarily to pride. When exactly this downfall occurred I cannot suggest except to say that it occurred some time between this covering cherub's creation which the LORD described as being perfect through the prophet Ezekiel until iniquity was found in him and the account of the fall of man as recorded for us in Genesis chapter 3.
As somebody else already mentioned:
I Peter chapter 1 verses 17 thru 21
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
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.
Jesus verily or truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be the spotless Lamb of God. The Godhead, in its foreknowledge, had the plan of redemption in place before the fall of man ever took place in real time.
I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to have the scripture in front of us so that it could be understood what I am actually referring to and suggesting.
), what if Satan had not risen up against God? Where would we be, would we even be, had Satan decided the outcome wasn't worth it? (His banishment from Heaven)
