Fallen Angels/Demons
I have included “demons” along with “fallen angels” in
the title because I believe that the demons we read about in the New Testament
era were fallen angels. I will seek to prove this as the article progresses. But
first note two scriptures that definitely deal with fallen angels.
“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment”
2.Pet.2:4. “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left
their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for
the judgment of the great day” Jude 6.
First, what are angels? The word “angel” in the OT, from the Hebrew
– Malakh, ca. 108 times. In the NT, Greek – angellos, ca.186 times.
Its basic meaning is messenger, one sent, one that delivers a message, sometimes
human, Hag.1:13; Mal.2:7; Mk.1:2, sometimes heavenly Heb.13:2; Matt.28:3; Acts
1:10-11. In either case, human or heavenly, they were created to carry out the
will of God Ps.103:20-21.
In the heavenly sense angels are a special creation of God who created all things
Gen. 1:1. He designed all things to work in harmony with His divine plan. Ps.19:1-3,
and this includes angels who were created to do His will Neh.9:6; Ps.148:2-5;
Ps.103:20-21; Col.1:16. They were created before man Job 38:4, 7. Note Heb.1:7
(Ps.104:4) called “spirits” (KJV) “winds” in the Septuagint
version.
These angels are neither human or God, but spirit beings higher than man Heb.1:5
(Ps.
8:4-5); 2:9-10; 2:16-17. Jesus was God in man, not God in an angel. They are ageless
and sexless. They were created as moral beings, “sent forth to do service
for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation” Heb.1:14. As created
moral beings, they were endowed with free will, thus subject to sin. I know this
is so since we are told the fallen angels “sinned.” The very definition
of sin is lawlessness and unrighteousness 1.Jn.3:4; 5:17. And we learn from 2.Pet.2:4;
Jude 6 that some angels did sin.
These fallen angels “sinned” by rebelling against God. They chose
not to “keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation,”
so God “cast them down to hell” (tartarus) and “has reserved
(them) in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”
These angels were not satisfied with their position or rank (proper domain) God
had assigned them, so they left (rebelled against or abandoned their habitation).
As a result God cast them down or bound them under chains of darkness. These were
not literal chains, but figurative. The phrase is a metaphor, meaning they were
restricted or restrained by God. They could do nothing unless He permitted them
to do it. They were confined to “Tartarus,” a descriptive term for
the section in hades, answering to the place of torment in Lk.16:19-31. All people
go to hades (the abode of the spirits after death). The spirits of the good dead
will be in Abraham’s bosom/Paradise Lk.23:43; Acts 2:25; 2.Cor.12:4, and
the evil dead will be in torment/tartarus.
Now let’s make another observation about these fallen angels. It is my belief
that some of these fallen angels were the demons who afflicted people in the first
century. Think with me.
What are demons and where did they originate? The word, “demons,”
translated as “devils” in the KJV is an inaccurate translation. The
correct translation is “demons.” The Greek word for demon is daimon
or daimnion (79 times in the NT) and means evil Lk.8:2, or unclean Mk.5:12-13
spirits, and there are multitudes of them Mk.9:5 (legion). The Greek word for
devil is diabolos aka as Satan, the slanderer, false accuser, and there is only
one Devil.
Several passages in the NT point to the fact that these demons are the Devil’s
angels Matt.12:24; 25:41. The Devil or Satan is called the “prince of the
power of the air” Eph.2:2. “ruler of this world” Jn.12:31; 14:30;
16:11, “ruler of the demons” Matt.9:34; 12:24; Mk.3:22; Lk.11:15.
In connection with the above thoughts, we know that demons, under the control
of the Davil, their commander in chief, worked in the material world during the
NT era. Demon possession was a phenomenon for the time of Jesus and His apostles
1.Tim.4:1; 1.Jn.4:1. There is no record in the OT of demons possessing anyone,
even though they were associated with pagan and false religions Lev.17:7; Deut.32:17;
2.Chron.11:15; Ps.106:37. When we come into the NT, we find them possessing people
causing them to act in strange and dangerous ways. What was done was beyond the
power of an ordinary man, not possessed by a demon. But they were cast out by
Jesus and His apostles Mk.5:8-9; 9:27; Lk.4:33-35; 8:28-29; Acts 16:16-17; 19:15.
(This article will be concluded in the next issue).
by: Tommy Thornhill
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