Abdiel, the angel in Milton’s Paradise Lost, who with great zeal "ador’d The deity, and divine commands obey’d," listens to Lucifer’s inflammatory speeches against the Most High. The honors that God had bestowed on Christ, particularly in making him head of the heavenly host, is regarded by Lucifer as an affront and a cause for rebellion. The honor, he believes, should go to him. So while all the other angels rejoice and spend the day in dancing and praise, Lucifer retreats to plot his strategy. He will no longer obey God and will recruit all the angels of heaven to his side. Lucifer presents his case to the heavenly hosts, appealing to their pride. "Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers," he addresses them, but adds his note of doubt and discontent: "If these magnific Titles yet remain" (V.770–75). Another has usurped these titles and taken them away, he charges, leaving them only to pay "Knee-tribute." He asks,

Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust
To know ye right

(V.786–88)

His speech seems to be going over well. No one argues until Abdiel speaks. "Ingrate," he says. What words to come from one who has been set high above his peers!

Canst thou with impious obloquy condemn
The just Decree of God, pronounc’t and sworn,
That to his only Son by right endu’d
With Regal Sceptre, every Soul in Heav’n
Shall bend the knee, and in that honor due
Confess him rightful King?

(V.813–17)

Can a created being lay down the law to God? Does the honor given to the Son reduce the honor given to them? Does it not rather enhance it? That is the essence of Abdiel’s argument.

As by his Word the mighty Father made
All things, ev’n thee, and all the Spirits of Heav’n
By him created in thir bright degrees,
Crown’d them with Glory, and to thir Glory nam’d
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
Essential Powers, nor by his Reign obscur’d,
But more illustrious made,

(V.836–42)

Cease then this impious rage,
And tempt not these; but hast’n to appease
Th’ incensed Father, and th’ incensed Son,
While Pardon may be found in time besought.

(V.845–49)

But Lucifer, now called Satan, the Apostate, responds with an argument that hits at the basis of his rebellion against God. Did God actually create him? Is he the source of life and being? Or can Satan take credit for that? He asks the angels how they know that God created them? Do they remember the day?

Strange point and new!
Doctrine which we would know whence learnt: who saw
When this creation was? Remember’st thou
Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being?
We know no time when we were not as now;
Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais’d
By our own quick’ning power,

(V.855–62)

Who is the Source of Life? Who, thus, deserves obedience? That is the issue of the War in Heaven developed in Milton’s account. The dialog between Satan and Abdiel comes from Milton’s imagination. Abdiel himself is created by Milton as a representative of all those who stand up for God against those who would usurp his power, particularly those who stand alone. Calling sin by its right name, Abdiel, standing alone, says to Satan in the presence of all his followers,

O alienate from God, O Spirit accurst,
Forsak’n of all good; I see thy fall
Determin’d, and thy hapless crew involv’d
In this perfidious fraud,

(V.876–80)

In a tribute to all those who stand for the right though the heavens fall, Milton describes Abdiel’s departure from the rebelling forces, not from fear but from loyalty, he alone standing for God:

So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found,
Among the faithless, faithful only hee;
Among the innumerable false, unmov’d,
Unshak’n, unseduc’d, unterrifi’d
His loyalty he kept, his Love, his Zeal;

(V.896–900)

Only fragmentary clues in the Bible tell us about this War in Heaven, the war that expelled Satan from the heavenly assembly and established him as the Adversary, the Accuser, the source of evil. Occurring before the creation of the world, it seems to exist outside of human history, but rather than preface, it is more the first chapter of the human story. The issues are established and become clearer with each appearance of Satan on the human stage. As the wily serpent in the Garden of Eden, Satan asks who deserves our allegiance. As the Accuser in the book of Job, Satan asks why we serve God. In his famous question, "Does Job serve God for nothing," he brings to a focus the key issue of why humans obey God. The issues in the Great Controversy on earth are the same as the War in Heaven. Each encounter of Satan with the Abdiels on earth defines the issues a little more clearly: Who is the Source of Life? Who deserves our obedience?

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