Retro Articles From July 2005
Have
the Fallen Angels become Demons?
This subject matter isn’t for the casual bible reader nor
for the faint of heart. The subject the author is engaging into would be
considered mccabe and spooky. Some may regard it as a study in demonology and
Angels. Though I will touch on both, that’s not my intent at all. What I will
attempt to do is distinguish the differences between fallen angels and demons.
So back to the original question, have the fallen angels
become demons? No one knows for sure. Let’s travel back in time.
The Angels That Kept Not Their First Estate
In Genesis 6 we read where Angels
are cohabiting with women and having children.[i]
The scriptures read like this, “Now it came to pass when men began to multiply
on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the Sons of God
(i.e. Angels) saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful and they took
wives for themselves all of whom they chose” (Genesis 6:1,2). Important for the
reader to understand. The phrase “Sons of God” is a reference to Angels. This
same phrase occurs in Job 1 & 2 and Chapter 38.
These series of events displeased
the Lord. Why? Because spirits were not to cohabitate with flesh. This was
during a time called the Antediluvian Period—the time before the flood. The angels
that committed these acts of sin were fallen angels, not the holy elect angels
of the Lord. By committing this act of sin the angels left their first estate—
meaning they abandoned the use for which they were created which was to glorify
and serve their creator, the Lord. As a result, they were the cast into
Tartarus, a Greek term meaning the lowest Hell. This Hell was a place of
darkness, and bondage to which these angels were consigned for their sin (2
Peter 2:4; Jude 6). Some believe these fallen angels became demons and
inhabited men, and thus cohabited with the daughters of men and produced
offspring. While this view has merit, It’s not supported by scripture. There is
no reference in scripture to fallen angels ever transforming into demons. There
is also no reference in scripture that angels can inhabit, or possess a human
body—demons have that ability when allowed to do so. Remember this about
angels, they can and do often look just like men, and prior to the flood, they
had the ability to procreate. After the flood there is no account of an angel
procreating for Jesus said regarding men in the resurrection, “ They neither
marry nor are they given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven (Matthew 22:30).
The Fallen Angels In The Heavenlies
Not all of the fallen angels are consigned to Hell. There
are myriads that are loose and creating havoc in the spirit realm. Here are
their ranks as described in Ephesians 6:12:
Principalities, Powers, Rulers of the darkness of this world. Spiritual wickedness in high
or heavenly places.
This classification of angels
make up the unholy army of Satan. They’re dispatched to do his bidding. The
Bible tells us that we actually wrestle against these wicked forces, that’s why
we’re commanded to put on the whole armor of God that we can stand against the
wiles, trick or schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:11,12). We have to combat
these angels, our enemies in the Spirit. Here’s an example.
In the book of Daniel the prophet
receives a vision of an angel responding to his petition while he had been
fasting for three weeks. The text reads, “From the first day you set your heart
to understand, and to humble yourself before God your words were heard, and I
have come because of your words, but the Prince of Persia withstood me twenty-one
days; and behold Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me for I had
been left alone there with the kings of Persia (Daniel 10: 12,13).
The reference to the Prince of
Persia isn’t a human prince, but a Principality, a supreme ruler in the unseen
heavenly realm—an unholy angel, perhaps a demon. What the angel was conveying
to Daniel was that he was coming to give revelation as a result of Daniel’s
prayer to the Lord, but he was in conflict with this Prince of Persia who was
preventing Daniel’s answer to prayer so he had to have Michael, another angel
come help him to get him through the defense of the enemy in the heavenly
places. This is what we call Spiritual Warfare or fighting the good fight of
faith. We through our prayers wrestle with unholy angels and elect angels are
also battling these evil spirits in a dimension we can’t see with the naked
eye.
In this account we see the Prince
of Persia had a seat in the region of the world that is Persia (now Iran) which
was the ruling nation of the world at that time, and the devil had put one of
his emissaries to brood over it and to influence it in a wicked fashion. So we
see how some of these evil spirits operate. Some have ruler ship over entire
nations. Interesting to note that the angel that delivered the answers to
Daniel stated he had to return to fight with the prince of Persia, and after
him the Prince of Grecia would come (The Prince of Grecia would be the ruler
over Greece) (Daniel 10:20).
Satan Entered Into Judas Iscariot
What I will be attempt to explain
here is how the devil entered into Judas. One thing that must be clarified
here, Satan did not possess Judas called Iscariot for Satan isn’t a demon—he’s
an angel, a fallen angel. Notice in scripture that demons possessed a human to
the point where the human is no longer in control of his/her faculties. The
demon(s) literally perform their evil deeds through the person even to the
point of speaking through the person or often causing them to convulse
violently. That wasn’t the case with Judas. He was in control of his thoughts
and actions when he chose to betray Jesus. Satan entered in or influenced Judas
to complete his infamous act of betrayal because it was already in the heart of
Judas to betray the Lord. The devil didn’t force Judas to commit the sin. Judas
had the choice not to betray the Lord. As the scriptures declare, “But every
person is tempted when he’s drawn away by his own lust and enticed” (James 1:14). Judas was the treasurer for the
group and was stealing out of the bag (John 12:6). Judas was simply a prophet
for hire. When he realized he couldn’t paid for following the Lord, he sold him
out for thirty pieces of silver (around $240 in Israeli currency today[1]
- Matt 26:15).
Selling someone for thirty pieces
of silver was the price for a slave. That is how Judas thought about Jesus.
Judas is given one of the most
contemptible names in all of scripture. He’s called the Son of Perdition (John
17:12). That title was given to only one other person…The Antichrist (II Thess
2:4)—the man the devil will embody during the last days. So one can see the
heinous act of betrayal Judas committed. Judas was literally a tool of the
devil to commit this act of sin for the devil was his father (John 8:44). Jesus
said it best, “ It would have been better if
that man (Judas) had never been born” (Matt 26:24; Mark 14:21; Luke
22:22). Think about for a second, Judas betrayed the almighty God for less than
$250! The thrill didn’t last long for
Judas. Once the novelty wore off and he realized the enormity of sin, he became
remorseful and threw the money away. The devil succeeded in destroying Judas
which is his “MO” (John 10). Judas committed suicide because the devil
successfully used him and subsequently led him to kill himself (Matthew 27:5).
Where Do Demons Come From?
How long demons have been around
it’s hard to tell. Many believe the fallen angels became demons in the
rebellion before the dawn of time so the terms fallen angels and
demons are used interchangeably.
While it’s possible this may have occurred, my reply is no.
The Hebrew term for demon is *śēd
. The Greek terms is dáimōn & diabolos. The terms simply means evil
spirits.
Demons are also called devils in
scripture (depends upon the translation). They’re evil spirits that belong to the kingdom of Satan. These
creatures are worshiped as deity by all false religions. In the Old Testament
we hear the term familiar spirits to refer to demons—meaning witches or wizards
would consult with the familiar spirit at the request of someone desiring to
consult with the dead. The sophisticated term for communicating with the dead
is necromancy. The mediator between the requestor and the dead is called a
Medium. Today we call them physics who conduct seances or use tarot cards to
divine the future Most physics are nothing more than hucksters and charlatans
who crave on the foolish and gullible to hustle them out of their money. They
have no real power. The medium isn’t talking to a dead loved one, but a demon
impersonating them. The consulting of Mediums is forbidden in scripture and was
punishable by death. (Leviticus 19:31; I Samuel 28).
Unfortunately, television and
motion pictures make these real horrors romantic and entertaining and that's
just exactly what the enemy wants us to believe—to believe in the make believe
of these creatures and not the real activity of demons. If you can reduce
demons to that of a mere “boogeyman” , then you can successfully dupe the
masses into being subconsciously desensitized to the real threat of these disembodied
spirits looking for a home (that is your body). Much of the diseases,
starvation, and possession of human beings can be attributed to these wicked
parasites.
By the time Jesus was on the
earth, demons had infiltrated the earth and had possessed perhaps millions of
people. Keep in mind the glory of the Lord was in Israel during the era before
Christ and therefore not once did you hear of anyone being “demon possessed”.
Their power wasn’t in full force because of the glory of God’s presence. Demons
can’t endure the light of the Lord. Once the Old Testament ended with the
Prophet Malachi, the Lord was silent—meaning he didn’t speak through any
prophet for four hundred years until the John the Baptist in the New Testament,
the time of Jesus Christ. During that parenthesis in history-i.e. the four
hundred years, demons probably proliferated the earth like locusts. Jesus of
course had the power to cast them out. The demons were terrified of Jesus and
knew who he was (Mark 5).
In summary, the best way to combat
demons is not give place to the devil, and the way to do that is to be saved by
repenting of your sins, and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. Only then will you
have power over them. Worshiping or consulting with them is an invitation to
destruction of your soul.
[i] There is another view that the Sons of God in this
passage does not make reference to angels but to the Sons of Seth. Some believe
God was displeased that Seth’s descendants the godly line cohabiting with the
daughters of men who were of the ungodly line of Cain. I do not lean to this
view. From the text of Genesis 6, it seems to better support that the Sons of
God are angels having inordinate sexual relationships with women. No one knows
for sure.
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