PART 5 INVISIBLE FORCES

5

Why Did the Anointed Cherub Fall?

Was there ever someone in your life that you looked up to, whether for their achievements or notoriety and suddenly they did something nefarious that was so out of the ordinary that it was hard to comprehend? In my younger years, I had many fictitious TV characters that I looked up to, e.g., Superman, Batman, the Lone Ranger, etc. Likewise, there were many actors or actresses that I emulated, e.g., Sophia Loren, John Wayne, the Three Stooges, Errol Flynn, etc.

As I grew older, I became involved in sports of all kinds. I had a new group of real-life heroes, e.g., Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Bobby Oar, Bill Russell, Tom Brady, etc. However, there was one athlete who came onto the world scene whose sport I never engaged in but found it fascinating as to what he had and was accomplishing. His name is Lance Armstrong.

He was winning prestigious bicycle races around the world while representing his nation, the USA. His clean-cut image and dedication stood out to me. He was an inspiration. And then, all of a sudden, a scandal broke. How could this be? Say it isn’t so. Here’s an article about his rise to the top and subsequent fall from grace.

 

THE RISE AND FALL OF LANCE ARMSTRONG

After beating metastatic testicular cancer that had already spread to other parts of his body in 1996, all eyes were on Lance Armstrong when he returned to cycling the following year. But it was in [1999] when he won his first Tour de France -- the most prestigious and difficult race in cycling -- that his status was really [elevated,] and he became one of the most revered athletes at the time.

Armstrong became a household name. He became a cause, a movement.

Armstrong was thrust into the international spotlight and helped increase the popularity of cycling globally. He won the Tour de France seven times in a row before retiring at the age of 33. Armstrong came back years later -- though not at the same level of dominance -- and raced in a handful of big races before retiring again.

Despite all his success and glory, Armstrong’s career was not without controversy. From the beginning of his dominance in the cycling world, he was constantly accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs -- accusations he vehemently denied. Eventually, however, the truth caught up to him. In 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories following a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and in 2013, he admitted publicly that he doped during each of his Tour de France wins.

 

The Rise ...

Before his 1999 Tour de France win, Armstrong had been cycling around the globe for years -- he was a triathlete as a teenager, after all.

Even before his cancer diagnosis, Armstrong was winning races. In 1993, he won the Thrift Drug Classic in Pittsburgh, the K-Mart West Virginia [Classic,] and the CoreStates USPRO national championship in Philadelphia -- a trio of wins known collectively as the Thrift Drug Triple Crown of Cycling.

In 1999, his first [Tour] de France victory was propelled in part by four stage wins. He beat Alex Zülle, the second-place finisher, by 7 minutes and 37 seconds. However, Jan Ullrich -- with whom he would later have an established rivalry -- did not participate because of injury, so Armstrong was still not quite at the top of the cycling world. Marco Pantani, an Italian cyclist, was also not able to participate in 1999.

Ullrich and Pantani were back for the 2000 Tour de France -- and thus began the Armstrong-Ullrich rivalry. Armstrong beat Ullrich by 6 minutes and 2 seconds in the 2000 Tour de France, despite winning just one stage. Armstrong also went on to win bronze in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

In 2001, Armstrong again [beat out Ullrich for the victory] by 6 minutes and 44 seconds. In 2002, Ullrich did not participate due to suspension, and Armstrong took top honors over Joseba Beloki of Spain by 7 minutes.

[Again,] in 2003, it was the same story: Armstrong beat Ullrich by just a few minutes. In 2004, Armstrong won his record-setting sixth Tour de France, finishing 6 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of German cyclist Andreas Klöden -- Ullrich finished fourth.

Armstrong again won in [2005 and] then announced he would be retiring to spend time with his family and [dedicate] his efforts to his cancer foundation.

 

... and The Fall

In 2008, Armstrong came out of retirement. He continued to brush off doping [allegations,] and he told ESPN he was prepared to have to work harder to continue to compete at an elite level -- as he’s now 37.

ESPN profiled Armstrong for his first race back in January 2009, the Tour Down Under in Australia. Of the 127 riders who completed the race, Armstrong finished a lackluster 27th.

Despite struggling in various races -- and still dodging allegations that he never competed in a Tour de France while clean -- Armstrong decided to participate in the 2009 race. Armstrong finished third that July, but as ESPN’s Bonnie Ford noted, it was still impressive: He was 38 and had been away from professional cycling for three years.

Ahead of the 2010 Tour de France, Armstrong said it would be his last race. Around this time, his former U.S. teammate Floyd Landis sent emails to cycling officials detailing his use of performance-enhancing drugs while racing for the U.S. Postal Service team. Landis also accused Armstrong and other teammates of doing the same.

“I want to clear my conscience,” Landis told ESPN at the time. “I don’t want to be part of the problem anymore.”

Still denying allegations and claiming there was no proof, Armstrong competed in the 2010 Tour de France months after the Landis emails, coming in 23rd place.

Armstrong couldn’t avoid the allegations even in retirement. More of his former teammates started to break their silence in 2011, in a preview of the evidence they will ultimately give against him in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s case.

In October 2012, a USADA report against Armstrong left no doubt he doped throughout most of his career. He didn’t contest the case, was stripped of all accomplishments from August 1998 [onward,] and ultimately received a lifetime ban from cycling.

Finally, Armstrong confessed publicly in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013. The interview was emotionless, and it was unclear if Armstrong regretted what he did. He admitted to doping for every Tour de France he competed in and won.

In April 2018, the long legal road ended for both Armstrong and Landis when they reached a settlement in Landis’ federal whistleblower case, which was pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice.⁸

I don’t know what stood out to you after reading this story, but what resonated with me was his insistence that he did nothing wrong for over ten years while knowing deep down inside that he did. Not only did he cheat, but he remained defiant of the accusations, thus giving his supporters the belief that this was simply a witch hunt.

It would be sufficed to say that his deception not only fooled many people but enticed other professional bicycle riders to engage in his deceptive ways and become complicit. How many lives have been severely impacted and destroyed? We’ll never know.

Well, there’s someone else whom we’ve been studying who started on the right course at the beginning of his life, and then a major shift occurred. He was known far and wide by his fellow heavenly creatures as the anointed cherub. Someone they revered and looked up to. We’re told that he was perfect from the day he was created. Let’s find out what these words mean.

 

Suggested Reading: Ezekiel 28:15-17; Isaiah 14:13-14; Revelation 12:3-4; Revelation 9:1

15a Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,…  

So, here’s a living creature, a cherub, created by God perfect. The words from the day that thou wast created could be rewritten as in the day of his creation. The word perfect means to beprosperous and have no defects. And we learned previously that he was given a special commission to be a protector, a guardian of God’s sacred places, and even God Himself. And then he threw it all away. What was it that sparked this downward trend?

17 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.

It all began in his heart. His heart (mind) was lifted up (became proud) because of his beauty (as to outward appearance; the costly jewels that formed the ornaments of his attire⁹). Furthermore, his wisdom (his administration; his duties) was corrupted (integrity destroyed; ruined; corrupted morally) by his brightness (splendor - the lofty and exalted position¹⁰).

It sounds like this cherub became self-infatuated (possessed by a foolish passion for oneself¹¹). In other words, his perception of his divinely appointed duties and, by inference, his divinely appointed position had changed. It was as if, at this time, in a figurative sense, he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He no longer continued in divine perception but entered into self-perception. Everything now was about him. The whole shebang became distorted and yet perceived in his own heart to be right.

This fallen mindset caused him to look at all things differently. He probably thought that the supreme God had kept this type of awareness from him because he believed this new way of looking at things to be the right way to look at them. It was now his mission to infiltrate the other heavenly creatures, trying to convince them that the Supreme Being had kept this kind of consciousness away from them, hoping to convince them to join him in a coup to dispose of the one true God from His throne.

Isaiah 14:13 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:

The Devil is now intent on sitting upon the mount of the congregation (sitting where God sits, on the throne).

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Furthermore, he reasons that he will be like the most High in position, albeit not in divine perception. It seems almost unfathomable to think that a created being could contemplate replacing God with himself.

Revelation 12:3-4 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: …

Revelation 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Scriptures indicate that the fallen cherub is described as a great red dragon who drew about a third of the heavenly creatures described as stars after him. The word drew means to persuade to apostatize. These stars symbolize angels whom God cast to the earth. What we have now is a full-fledged war involving fallen and God-fearing angels. Indications are that the casting down of the fallen angels to the earth occurred sometime in the past before the birth of the Messiah.

 

When did this insurrection take place?

Ezekiel 28:15b …till iniquity was found in thee.

Eventually, the time came for this coup to take place. The word that gives us a glimpse of this action is iniquity. This means an act or deed that is against what is right.¹² Evidently, a battle took place in heaven. How long it lasted isn’t clear. What would it mean if the red dragon convinced all the heavenly angels to follow him? How would God have responded? Would He have decided not to make Adam and place him in the Garden of Eden?

We know this wasn’t the case. The red dragon and the fallen angels are now outcasts. Their original divine-ordained plans and purposes have changed dramatically. What these have become, we’ll find out in a later chapter.

What we’ll attempt to do next is find out more about those heavenly creatures that decided to join the great red dragon in this coup, i.e., fallen angels. Do co-conspirators and members of the Devil’s army have rank? Let’s find out.