This archangel who felt himself capable of heavenly authority finds an easier task here below. Speaking to the Master, hear his presumption and audacity, "all these things (the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them) will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." What was the condition named? The restoration of what he had lost: that the Son of God pay him homage and obeisance. Baffled in this crowning stroke, he slunk away only to study the vantage more discreetly, reinforce, and reassert.
Let us keep in mind that intelligence and personality are not affected by the status of character; magnetic power and influence over others are not lost when the life is wholly given over to evil. Piety and holiness may be displaced by treachery and hate, but the force of personality remains. If any change takes place, the individual becomes more subtle and more insidious in schemes to further selfish interests. If a righteous man, endowed with unusual powers, fall into a life of sin, he carries over into his wickedness all his former gifts and faculties--nothing is lost.
This proposition enables us to further appreciate the marvellous capabilities of the fallen Lucifer. Besides the Trinity, there are none superior in the universe. God allows His enemies, both men and devils, to continue a proprietary control of their talents, whether they be one or ten. There will be no devestments until the last shifting of the scene. When we remember all the attributes, previous advantages, and present opportunities of the greatest of all apostates, the conundrum of human actions, individually and nationally, begins slowly to unravel. The fight is not alone with men in sin, but with the "prince of the powers of the air."
When Lucifer rebelled and met the just rebuke of God's wrath, all his glory, power, and brilliancy became demonized. Then, through all the millenniums there has been not one hour of relaxation; no armistice for the invisible warfare. Just as saints grow in faith, vision, and divine illumination, devils sink lower and lower; but at the same time develop in skill and efficiency by a continual application of their debased energies.
It is therefore reasonable to believe that our "common Enemy" is far more formidable than the day he was cast into the earth. Our ability to encounter him successfully becomes a more hopeless struggle with the passing days. If, in the days of Paul, it were expedient to have on the "whole armour of God" to meet him, nothing short of "all the fullness of God" is the paramount need to-day.