DEMONS AND FALLEN ANGELS
Most scholars and theologians seem to believe that fallen angels and demons are different names for the same beings. I do not believe that this is the case. I think there are far more evil beings out there than such would suggest and there are too many differences in the things that are said about them for the descriptions to be synonymous. The easy answer when asked, “What are demons?” is to say fallen angels. The easy answer to say when asked, “What are fallen angels?” is to say demons. But based on my reading of the Bible, this just does not make sense.
But regardless of whether or not scholars are right or I am right, this is, in reality, a totally irrelevant issue. The exact nature or origin of evil spirits seems to be something that ignites human curiosity like few other subjects can. But therein lies the danger. It is precisely these types of issues that distract us from what we are supposed to be focused on. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why does the Bible tell us things if God does not want us to investigate them? That is a fair question but it doesn’t take long really to figure out the answer. The Bible wants us to focus on what it tells us, not on what it does not tell us. Evil beings doing the bidding of Satan is a perfect example.
The Bible teaches that there is an evil being called Satan who is trying to destroy us. He is trying to ruin our relationship with Christ. That is what the Bible tells us. It tells us what his motive is and tells us what his methods are. It warns us that he is very crafty and he is a deceiver. And it tells us how to defeat him: we focus on Jesus and we stay close to him.
What it does not tell us are the very things that people seem to be the most interested in. Where did he come from? Why is he here? Who are these fallen angels and demons who do his bidding? The Bible does not explain exactly where Satan came from, and therefore that is not something that should occupy our attention. The Bible does not tell us exactly what fallen angels or demons are, although it does tell us some things about them. But if you will look closely at the verses that do talk about them in context, there is always a spiritual point to be made about our relationship with Jesus.
Take 2 Peter 2:4 for example. He tells us that “God did not spare the angels that sinned” but cast them down to hell to be reserved for judgment. But that is not the point of the passage. The point is to serve as a warning to us to remain faithful to Christ. But rather than focusing on Christ and reminding ourselves of the importance of doing what it says—remaining close to Christ—we want to take a detour and find out just who these fallen angels are, how they came to be in hell, what all of that means and so on. And what we don’t realize is that the very devil that God warns us against is using these “Bible doctrines“ to distract us from THE Bible doctrine: Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and our relationship with him.
So I believe that demons and fallen angels are two different beings. I don’t see why a fallen angel—and not all of them are in hell—would want to inhabit bodies when they can travel to and fro. But if a demon is the disembodied spirit of some wicked person from the past, then it would make sense why they would want to be in a body where they “feel more at home.“
But stop right there. I cannot prove emphatically where fallen angels or demons came from, exactly what they are doing right now, or even that there is a difference between the two. And it does not matter. What matters is that we focus on Christ. God tells us about our enemies so that we can be on guard against them. And that is the only reason he tells us about them. Every “theory” about the devil is based on conjecture to some extent. What we know is that he and his forces are real. They are active.
The devil is a real being. He is not the personification of evil. Jesus met a real being in the wilderness and was really tempted by him. He is always referred to as a real being. There is nothing in the Bible to remotely suggest that he is anything other than a very brilliant, spiritually alive, evil spirit. What we need to know is how to defeat him. And you don’t defeat him by focusing on him.
You defeat him by doing exactly what God tells us to do in Ephesians chapter 6: by “putting on the whole armor of God,” which is a metaphor for the three things he mentions: faith in Christ, reading the word of God and praying vigilantly. That’s where our focus needs to be. And remember those are just channels. Those things are a means to an end. They are ways to do what you’re supposed to do, ways to do what will keep the devil from defeating you. They are ways to focus on Jesus Christ, and nothing else.
Dewayne Dunaway
