Page 6 - Our God of Love, Mercy, and Justice

Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation. . . . Not
content with his position, though honored above the heavenly host, he ventured to
covet homage due alone to the Creator. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in
the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavor to secure their
service and loyalty to himself. . . .

Before the assembled inhabitants of heaven the King declared that none but Christ,
the Only Begotten of God, could fully enter into His purposes, and to Him it was
committed to execute the mighty counsels of His will. . . .
The angels joyfully acknowledged the supremacy of Christ, and prostrating
themselves before Him, poured out their love and adoration. Lucifer bowed with
them, but in his heart there was a strange, fierce conflict. Truth, justice, and loyalty

were struggling against envy and jealousy. PP 34-37.
Leaving his place in the immediate presence of God, Lucifer went forth to diffuse
the spirit of discontent among the angels. . . . He claimed that in aspiring to greater
power and honor he was not aiming at self-exaltation, but was seeking to secure
liberty for all the inhabitants of heaven, that by this means they might attain to a
higher state of existence.
God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer. . . . Again and again he was

offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission. Such efforts as only
infinite love and wisdom could devise were made to convince him of his error. The
spirit of discontent had never before been known in heaven. Lucifer himself did not at
first see whither he was drifting; he did not understand the real nature of his feelings.
But as his dissatisfaction was proved to be without cause, Lucifer was convinced
that he was in the wrong, that the divine claims were just, and that he ought to

acknowledge them as such before all heaven. Had he done this, he might have saved
himself and many angels. . . . But pride forbade him to submit. He persistently
defended his own course, maintained that he had no need of repentance, and
fully committed himself, in the great controversy, against his Maker.
GC 495, 496.
Thus it was that Lucifer, "the light bearer," the sharer of God's glory, the attendant
of His throne, by transgression became Satan, "the adversary" of God and holy

beings and the destroyer of those whom Heaven had committed to his guidance and
guardianship. PP 40.
In His dealing with sin, God could employ only righteousness and truth. Satan
could use what God could not -- flattery and deceit. He had sought to falsify the
word of God and had misrepresented His plan of government before the angels,

claiming that God was not just in laying laws and rules upon the inhabitants of
heaven; that in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, He was
seeking merely the exaltation of Himself. Therefore it must be demonstrated before
the inhabitants of heaven, as well as of all the worlds, that God's government was just,

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