God's holiness was never compromised
The starting point is God’s character. He is wholly good, and no darkness belongs to him (1 John 1:5). God did not create evil as part of his own nature, nor did Satan’s rebellion make evil a rival force equal to God.
Angels are creatures, not little gods. Paul says that visible and invisible powers alike were created through Christ and for Christ (Colossians 1:16). They received life and purpose from their Creator. Their sin showed that a created being could turn away from the good God had made, not that sin came from God.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Some angels really did rebel
Peter speaks directly of angels who sinned and who are being held for judgement (2 Peter 2:4). Jude says that angels failed to keep the position assigned to them and left their proper dwelling (Jude 1:6). These passages do not supply a scene-by-scene account, but they leave little doubt that angelic rebellion happened.
Revelation pictures Satan, called the dragon, opposing God alongside his angels and being defeated (Revelation 12:7-9). Christians differ over how precisely this vision relates to Satan’s original fall, because Revelation uses vivid symbolic imagery. Still, its main message is plain: Satan is a rebel under God’s judgement, not God’s equal.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
What does the Bible mean by heaven?
The word heaven can be used in more than one way in Scripture. It may mean God’s throne and dwelling, but it can also refer to the wider unseen realm or even the skies. That helps explain why the Bible can show Satan appearing among the heavenly beings before God in Job, while also describing him as the adversary who accuses God’s people (Job 1:6-7).
So we should be careful not to picture Satan as peacefully belonging in God’s completed, sinless kingdom. His access in the story of Job is not acceptance or approval. He stands accountable before God, and his actions remain bounded by God’s authority (Job 1:10-12).
The final heaven will have no sin
The future Christians await is not simply the old order continuing forever. It is God’s completed new creation, after his final judgement. John sees the New Jerusalem as a place where nothing corrupt, false, or defiling can enter (Revelation 21:27).
That is why the Bible can speak confidently of a future without death, grief, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4). Evil’s earlier rebellion does not mean God’s purpose has failed. It means the Bible’s story includes a real conflict, one God will finally and completely overcome.
There are details we are not given. Why did these angels first turn from God? How long did events unfold? Scripture doesn’t answer every question. But it does give firm ground for trust: God is not the author of sin, Satan’s rebellion is limited and judged, and God’s final home for his people will be free from evil.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.