Angels and demons are subjects that we don’t talk about very often. However, there are some very important things to realize about angels and demons. We will be discussing some of those this week.
Angels are created, spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without physical bodies (Grudem).
Unlike God, angels have not always existed. God created angels. Angels are “spirits” so they exist without physical bodies. In scripture, there are instances in which they make themselves visible to humans.
We are able to see that angels are creatures that possess moral judgment in that some angels sinned and fell from their high standing in heaven (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). We see that they have high intelligence in their interactions with humans (Matt. 28:5; Acts 12:6-11).
There are only two angels spoken of by name in Scripture: Michael (Jude 9) and Gabriel (Daniel 8:16, 9:21).
It is important for us to understand that angels are not omnipresent. They cannot be in multiple places at once. Unlike God, who is omnipresent, they are finite creatures and therefore limited to being in one place at one time, as is everything else that God has created (Grudem).
While one of the roles of angels is to protect us, there is no solid support of the idea of ‘guardian angels’ in Scripture. The idea that each person is assigned a guardian angel does not appear in Scripture.
Angels have been given a great amount of power. Angels are “greater in might and power” than rebellious human beings (2 Peter 2:11) (Grudem). Angels are greater than humans while we are in our current state. Once we are glorified and receive our resurrection bodies, however, we will be greater than angels.
By looking at angels, we are able to see the greatness of God’s love and plan for us. With angels we are the only other creation to be made moral and highly intelligent. One way the angels demonstrate the greatness of God’s love for us is that, though many angels sinned, none were saved. Among, humans we find that we have all sinned, but instead of condemning us forever, God sent His Son to pay the price for that sin and to save us. How great God’s love for us!!
Angels also provide good examples for us in their constant worship of God. We need to seek to worship God the way that the angels do.
In thinking about angels we need to be careful never to worship them or exalt them higher than they are. We should never pray to angels or seek them. We also need to be careful not to receive false doctrine from those who appear to be angels (Gal. 1:8).
Now let us shift our focus to demons. Demons are evil angels who sinned against God and who now continually work evil in the world (Grudem). In Genesis we see that Satan tempted Eve. Therefore, sometime between the events of Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 3:1, there must have been a rebellion in the angelic world with many angels turning against God and becoming evil (Grudem).
It is important for us to realize that Satan is the originator of sin. Satan sinned before any human beings did so. This is evident in that he was already in the form of the serpent in Genesis 3 (1 John 3:8). The name “Satan” is a Hebrew word that means “adversary.” Satan is God’s and our adversary. The devil’s characteristic has been to originate sin and tempt others to sin (Grudem).
The purpose and goal of Satan and demons is to oppose and seek to destroy every work of God. We see Satan and his demons using lies (John 8:44), deception (Rev. 12:9), murder (Ps. 106:37; John 8:44), and every other kind of destructive activity to attempt to cause people to turn away from God and destroy themselves (Grudem).
Thankfully, demons are limited in power. We see in the story of Job that Satan was only able to do what God granted him permission to do. We see that demons are kept in eternal chains (Jude 6) and can be successfully resisted by Christians through the authority that Christ gives them (James 4:7). Demons’ power has decreased since their fall from heaven. Also, demons have no knowledge of the future and they cannot read our minds or thoughts. God alone knows the future (Isa. 46:9-10).
As believers we must be careful not to attribute acts and events to the work of Satan and demons that were not done by them. In essence, we need to be sure that we do not give them credit for things that they cannot do.
Another thing that we must realize is that not all sin is due to demonic activity. We must understand that sinful behavior can simply come from the desires of our flesh and that we need to be fighting against our flesh to grow in Christ.
Finally, we must be thankful that God has given us authority to rebuke demons and command them to leave. We see this in Luke 9:1 and Luke 10:17. We must stand firm in our faith and speak authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ.