Greetings,
We are going to begin a journey this week in order to answer the following question: Is there a difference between fallen angels and demons? Why does this matter? If we remain unable to differentiate between fallen angels and demons it will hinder our ability to effectively conduct spiritual warfare. My job is to equip you for success. Only once we begin to make this distinction can room be made for God to explain to us the truth about what the kingdom of darkness is really up to. Therefore, over the next few weeks I will discuss the difference between fallen angels and demons and then move into deeper elements regarding the kingdom of darkness.
We will begin by setting up the typical misunderstanding of Satan and demonology. The theology most Christians believe goes something like this. Satan (also called Lucifer) is in heaven as the anointed cherub (Ezekiel 28:14). The multitude of his merchandise (Ezekiel 28:16) and the incredible beauty and wisdom he possesses (Ezekiel 28:17) among other things leads to the iniquity that God finds in him (Ezekiel 28:15). As a result there is a war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9) and God kicks Satan and his army of angels out (Revelation 12:4). This army comprises one-third of heavens hosts. As a result of getting kicked out of heaven, Satan slams into earth. This is why Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Satan is then present for the Garden of Eden incident and all of the hosts of heaven that fall with him become demons. Is that simple enough?
The problem with this theology is that it’s too simple. Not only is it too simple, it’s actually very sloppy when we begin to apply careful exegesis.
In order to begin discussing the issue of fallen angels we will begin with Lucifer, the first and most powerful angel to rebel against God. The two famous passages dealing with the history of Lucifer are found in Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-17. Interestingly enough, neither of these passages mentions other angels joining him in his rebellion. While Lucifer did birth iniquity (Ezekiel 28:15) and as a result was cast out of the mountain of God as a profane thing (Ezekiel 28:16) it seems that at least initially he was relatively alone in these things. Note that there was only one serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Not a serpent with a huge army of cronies.
After the incident at the Garden of Eden, the Bible does not mention any more activity specifically attributed to Satan for a long time. However, the next event involving heavenly hosts occurs in Genesis six. The story goes as follows:
“When people had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born, some of the heavenly beings saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then the Lord said, I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years. In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.” (Genesis 6:1-4 GNT)
So according to Genesis 6, giants began to exist because heavenly beings (or angels) began to produce offspring with human women. This was obviously a separate rebellion from the fall of Lucifer and it was a rebellion based on different reasons. Lucifer rebelled because of the multitude of his merchandise, his beauty, and his corrupted wisdom (Ezekiel 28:16-17). The angels in Genesis 6 rebelled because they lusted after human women. The Bible is clear that the angels that sinned were cast down to hell when God chose not to spare the old (pre-flood) world. These angels that rebelled were locked up in chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Since they were locked in hell while Satan wasn’t, it actually suggests that Satan had little if anything to do with this rebellion.
“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; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:4-5)
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6)
According to the book of Jude these angels did not keep their first estate (Greek arche), which was their origin or original heavenly appointment. They left their own habitations (Greek oiketerion) which were spiritual bodies and assumed physical bodies in order to accommodate the act of physical union with human women. We know that the term oiketerion is referring to their spiritual bodies because the same term is used to describe the spiritual bodies we will one day receive.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house [oiketerion] which is from heaven” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2)
The idea that angels can put on physical bodies like humans put on clothes is illustrated when God and two angels visit Abraham. That these angels are wearing physical bodies is obvious because they eat food and get their feet washed.
“And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men [the LORD and two angels] stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree… And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.” (Genesis 18:1-4, 8)
Thus it is established that physical union between an angel and a human woman is not really much of a feat at all. The rebelling angels assumed physical bodies and began to have children with the human women. These children were hybrids being half human and half angelic, and as a result of their hybrid nature they were also giants when compared with normal men. This is why the Bible says, “In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings” (Genesis 6:4 GNT).
To be continued…
