Thank you Brother Richard for your timely thoughts on principle #2 I wish to share a few more thoughts on this topic.
This tree, the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, was the only place Lucifer could go. And it was while there, in this tree, that Lucifer was reminded so vividly of what he had lost in heaven. From his perch on a limb he could see happy angelic faces, faces he had once know. He saw the smiles of Adam and Eve, and their love for each other, God and His angels. But most infuriating of all he heard their music. Perhaps it was his favorite hymn or anthem, a beautiful chorus that had once inspired him to greater adoration of God, that now drove him to deeper hatred.
The songs had not changed. It was Lucifer who had changed. In his search to become higher, he sank to the depths of sin and despair. There was no hope for him now. He had closed the door to God’s mercy; Lucifer had become Satan. And so enraged at the beautiful music that he once loved, Satan vowed to halt the happiness on this earth. His discordant words and actions had already altered the music of heaven, Now he wanted to stop it for good.
A love for music leads the unwary to unite with world lovers in pleasure gatherings where God has forbidden his children to go. Thus that which is a great blessing when rightly used, becomes one of the most successful agencies by which Satan allures the mind from duty and from the contemplation of eternal things. PP p. 63
The fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow. The world that God had made was blighted with the curse of sin and inhabited by beings doomed to misery and death. There appeared no escape for those who had transgressed the law. Angels ceased their songs of praise. Throughout the heavenly courts there was mourning for the ruin that sin had wrought. PP p. 594
Satan did stop the music of heaven. By engineering the fall of Adam and Eve, he brought such sadness to the celestial courts that no one, not one single angel felt like even humming a tune. If there were birds in heaven, they must have stopped singing too. Except for a few hushed whispers, the sounds of angel feet walking, or doors opening and closing, heaven was very silent indeed.
That’s when a very beautiful thing happened, an act so heroic that angels gasped in amazement. For then, in that dim, dark hour, Jesus offered to save the world.
It took the angels a while to grasp the idea. They loved Jesus with all their hearts, and were loathe to give Him up. They knew He would go at great risk, and offered to die themselves. But Jesus explained to them that only He could save man. The cost of sin was so great, and God’s law was so very holy that only Jesus Himself could die in the sinner’s place.
When all the hubbub had died down in heaven, some of the angels started to feel like singing again. And they had a new song to sing, for they loved God more than ever before. Though they’d always known He was loving and kind and good, they hadn’t known He would stoop this low to save His fallen creation.
A new and noble angel had been chosen in Lucifer’s place. Blessed with abundant musical talent, he assembled the heavenly harpists, singers and trumpeters for their first performance after the fall of man. Perhaps he, or another angel, had written a special number just for this happy occasion. As sinless angels, they could never know the depths of joy that humans would feel when pulled from the pit of sin. But they could share in that joy. They could sing of that joy. And so now, in tribute to the wonderful and now saving power of God, harps and trumpets and silvery voices flooded all heaven once more.
This infuriated Satan. He had wanted to stop heaven’s music for good; all he got was an intermission. No doubt he stormed back to his workshop to draw up his next set of plans.
