Satan Can Always Fall From Everywhere

In Luke Jesus sends out the Seventy, two by two, with a commission similar to that which he gives to the Twelve in Luke and the other two Synoptics.  As the Seventy recount their successful mission, Jesus exclaims, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18, KJV).  That Jesus' statement should be such a challenge to theologians shows the knots into which theology has been tied.

In Luke, as in the other two Synoptics, Jesus is described early on as being tempted by Satan.  Satan tries to appeal to Jesus' concern for his own bodily needs, for his own safety, and for his all-too-human desire to control the world.  The Seventy, as the narrative would have it, have triumphed over the same matters: "eating and drinking such things as they give" instead of worrying about provisions; taking neither staff nor sword; and, rather than trying to assert control over their surroundings, proclaiming instead, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."

All that is necessary to dispel the theologians' confusion about the application of "Satan falling" to the story of the Seventy is to dispense with concerns about time and place--as though the kingdom of God would ever be bounded by such measures.