What has not been made explicit in the Bible are information that has been deemed unnecessary for us by God, and therefore it is not only futile to imagine about such things, but also dangerous. Therefore, let us explore only what the Bible says about Angels and Demons.
(2) Let us begin our study with the angels. Where did the angels come from? Even though the Bible doesn’t answer this question directly, Nehemiah 9:6 states thus, “You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and their entire starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.” Since this verse clearly states that Yahweh God created everything, it is also certain that He created the angels. But, who amongst the angels was the first to be created? We know the first human to be created was Adam and then, Eve was created. But, is it possible to know who amongst the angels was created first? Hundreds and thousands of angels dwell in the heaven (Revelations 5:11). In spite of that the Bible mentions only the name of two angels. They are Michael and Gabriel. Of the two Michael is significant. Some say the angelic name of Jesus is Michael. As a proof they say that the meaning of the name Michael is “one who is like Yahweh” and therefore, since Jesus is the only one like Yahweh God therefore, the angel having the name Michael is Jesus. This explanation is not accurate. This is because, the meaning of Michael that is assumed is wrong. The actual meaning of the Hebrew name Michael as agreed by a majority of scholars is a rhetorical question ‘Who is like God?’ (Strong’s no. 04317). Infact, even the name of Prophet Micah means the same – ‘Who is like Yah?’ (Strong’s no. 04318, See Scripture Study – Blossom 15: April 11, Para 1). Therefore, this argument falls apart. But, the belief that Michael is Jesus is indeed correct. There are other reliable evidences in the Bible for it. Michael is referred to as the archangel in the Bible (Jude 1:9). This is what Paul declares about the archangel, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Here Paul says that Christ will come with the voice of the archangel after which the dead would rise. Let us see what Christ has to say about the same event elsewhere, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his (Christ, the Son of man) voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5: 28, 29). Here, the dead rise after hearing the voice of Christ, isn’t it? From this it can be inferred that the voice of Christ and that of the archangel are both the same. Thus, it is clear that Christ is the archangel Michael. Not only here, but in the 12th chapter of Daniel, resurrection begins with the arrival of Michael (Daniel 12:1-3). Since Christ is the only one through whose redemptive sacrifice humankind has the power of resurrection, Michael as Christ is confirmed. So, if Michael is Christ then Michael is the first creation of God. This is because Paul says this of Jesus, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together“(Colossians 1: 16, 17). Yes, Jesus was created before all things. God created all other things in him and through him. Since Jesus is Michael, we get to know that the first angel to be created is Michael. It was through him God created the other angels. Even though Jesus took the human form, and became the saviour of humans, his angelic name remains Michael. That is why, after the resurrection of Jesus, the book of Revelations uses the name of Michael while foretelling events of the future (Revelations 12:7). In addition, since Jesus continues to be the chief angel, as we saw before, Paul refers to the voice of Jesus as the voice of the archangel Michael (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Hence, we shouldn’t forget that Jesus is not only the saviour of humans but also the chief among angels. However, it is to be understood clearly that Michael or Jesus is not an ordinary angel. He cannot be as Bible says that Jesus was not an ordinary angel before (Heb 1:4,5). Some argue that this forbids one from arguing that Jesus is Michael as Michael is an angel. What is to be understood is that, in Hebrews, Paul is talking about ordinary angels and Michael was superior to ordinary angels and it has to be noted that the Greek term for archangel is not two separate words saying Chief of Angels but a single word ‘archaggelos’ showing clearly that Michael was of a separate rank, different from that of the rest of angels who were just ‘aggelos’, about whom Paul talks in Hebrews (Strong’s No: 743). Even in the Old Testament, Michael gets referred to as ‘Great Prince’ and ‘Chief Prince’ (Daniel 12:1; 10:13). Hence, it is clear that he is of a higher rank and honor than the other angels. In Hebrews, Paul is drawing a distinction between ordinary angels and him. Moreover, Jesus gets mentioned as an angel in Malachi in 3:1 (though translated as messenger in many versions, the underlying Hebrew word is the one that is generally translated as angel). Thus, Paul’s statement that Jesus was not an angel and Malachi’s mentioning of Jesus as an angel can only be reconciled if we understand that there are different ranks among angels. Hence we can infer that Jesus was an angel before his human adventure but as Paul says in Hebrews, he was not an ordinary angel; instead he was the archangel Michael. As we saw earlier, Jesus still retains the name Michael. Though we were able to discover that the first angel to be created was Michael, there are no details of how the other angels were created in the Bible. The Bible says that Adam was created from mud, and God gave his breath to him. That was how man was created. But, we can’t know what matter was used in the creation of angels. The next question is – what is the occupation of angels? The answer to this question is in the very name ‘angel’. The Hebrew word for angel is ‘malak’ (Strong’s no. 04397) which means messenger. Similarly, the word for angel in Greek is ‘aggelos’ that also means messenger (Strong’s no. 32). The Bible also refers to some angels as cherubim. From the contexts of their occurrence, we find that God uses the cherubim to do His will (See Genesis 3:23,24). Particularly, they are used as guards. Some other angels are called as Seraphim. These angels serve God and also appear to praise him continuously (Isaiah 6:1-7). Thus, the responsibilities of the angels are to be messengers of God and to help fulfil the will of God. Our God Yahweh is not omnipresent as some false pagan Gods are supposed to be. He is not everywhere. He lives in one place. Hence, God works His will through his angels. Since, to fulfil His will and to carry His message is the chief responsibility of His first creation Jesus (a) Michael, he is the archangel. The primary difference between the angels and us humans is that we humans can’t approach the presence of God. . From there the angels bring the messages of God to us (See Luke 1:19). Not just that, they fulfil all that He orders them to do. In fact, each angel is responsible for a man/woman of God to whom he is assigned to – “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). Indeed, they protect and care for each of us. This reveals the concern God has for each one of us. Angels however are not to be worshipped or prayed to. We worship and praise Jesus not because of his archangel Michael status but because he saved the world through his redemptive sacrifice. This distinction has to be understood.
(3) The Bible informs us that God has organized His angels in a structured manner to effectively carry out all His works. Michael is the archangel and beneath him, Gabriel and the other angels are organized into echelons. Each member of the echelon is entrusted with authority based on his level in the hierarchy as we observe in the following verse of the Bible. Here, an angel tells Prophet Daniel thus, “Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Daniel 10:13). From this verse, we understand that there are other chief angels in addition to Michael. But, we also understand from some other verses of the scripture that Michael is chief of all i.e. the archangel (Daniel 10:21; 12:1; Revelations 12:7).We understand that God has organized the other chief angels based on their power and authority. There is one statement of Jesus which testifies to this – “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”(Matthew 26:53). Here, Jesus reveals that the angels are arranged as legions. In the times of Jesus, a ‘legion’ was a system used to organize armies (Strong’s no. 3003). The Roman army was organized into legions. A legion comprised of approximately 6000 soldiers. Each legion was led by a commander. It becomes clear from the statement of Jesus that the angels are also structured in a similar manner. This is interesting because what we understand from few verses in the Bible is that angels need to participate in spiritual battles. For example, note what an angel informs Daniel –“Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia” (Daniel 10:20). Also, please read these verses – Jude 1:9, Revelations 12:7. Though we are aroused to great curiosity about how these spiritual battles are fought, since the Bible doesn’t reveal any information about it, we have no way of knowing about it. But, since it is the responsibility of the angels to do the will of God, they must engage in warfare for that very reason. Since those who stand against God are Satan and his angels – the demons, the warfare must be against them. Also, we notice from the Bible that the angels are prepared to battle to protect the men of God (2 Kings 6: 16, 17). We will of course be able to know how these heavenly battles are fought, only after our heavenly resurrection. Next, some may wonder how the angels look, and what their body parts are like. Usually, artists draw angels to look like humans with two wings. But, what is true is that it is very difficult to get any idea about the appearance of angels from the Bible! Angels possess spiritual bodies. We can’t conceive how a spiritual body looks like. There is some information given about the bodies of angels in the book of Ezekiel. Angels have been amazingly described as having human form with four faces, four wings, with feet like those of a calf and hands like humans under their wings (Ezekiel 1:5-10). The four faces of an angel are portrayed as being the face of a human being, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). A similar description is in the book of Revelations (Revelations 4: 6-8). Inspite of these, it is difficult to visualize even in our imagination how they might look like. Moreover, these descriptions could have symbolic meanings than literal. Therefore, we can’t assume the appearance of angels to be in the manner described. In addition, we learn from the Bible that it is possible for angels to take the shape of man (Genesis 18:2; Hebrew 13:2). Hence, God has granted them, who are in spiritual bodies, the gift of taking other forms. So, what is true is that it is not possible to know with any clarity, the original form of the angels in the spiritual state for we can’t determine whether descriptions of angels in places like Ezekiel is their original form or a taken form. Similarly, what do angels who are in their spiritual form eat or wear, continue to remain unravelled mysteries.
(4) The next question regarding angels is – are they males or females, or are they creatures who can’t be sexually distinguished? Many believe them to be sexually neutral. That view is based on what Jesus says herein- “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:34-36). This was in reply to a question about who would be the husband on resurrection of a woman who had married seven times. Since Jesus says that there would be no marriage after resurrection, many assume that there would be no sexual distinction in next world amidst resurrected mankind. Since, Jesus seems to say that that is how the angels are now, it is believed that angels also have no sexual distinction. But both these views are wrong. Jesus says only marriage won’t be there and he is not talking about male-female distinction. God evolved the concept of marriage to keep the fallen man disciplined. Please think! Did Adam and Eve, when in the Garden of Eden sign a marriage contract? No! Pure love alone was the proof of their relationship. After resurrection, humankind is to return to the former Eden-like state. In Eden there were two genders – male and female, and the Bible states that God created humans as male and female by design (Genesis 1:27). The male-female distinction is not a consequence of sin. Only sin and the effects of sin would be destroyed. So, the distinction of male-female is sure to exist after resurrection. There are many evidences in the Old Testament to support this. One example is from Isaiah 65:23. When we read Isaiah 65:17, we understand that since God is talking about new heavens and a new earth, he is infact referring to the period of God’s kingdom. And Isaiah 65:23 declares, “They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them (KJV)”. Here ‘bring forth for trouble’ can also be translated as ‘bring forth with trouble’ which we believe is the apt rendering here. This verse is beautiful as well as deep. Today, Men labour in vain, and women bear children (bring forth) with trouble due to the curse of God on account of Adamic sin. We know this. This verse highlights that in God’s kingdom those curses would cease to be. What is to be observed is that childbirth will continue, but will cease to cause pain. Childbirth is not the result of sin. Childbirth with pain/trouble is the curse – that curse is to end completely. Therefore, in the kingdom of God, what we can expect is childbirth without pain, and also as offspring is mentioned in the verse; children are definitely going to be born in the Kingdom of God. The presence of child birth and children in the Kingdom of God, establishes that the gender distinction of male and female is to continue. Who can challenge this as the proof is direct & clear! Only the institution of marriage is to be discontinued. The social institution of marriage was established as a moral and social protection for mankind, living in a sin-soaked world. But in the kingdom of God, since a man and a woman would be united by pure love, there would be no need for a formal contract. As deceit won’t exist, separation would be unheard of. And the angels are thus. Yes, there is the distinction of male-female even amongst angels. How is this possible to know? The Bible refers the angels who sinned during Noah’s period as the sons of God (Genesis 6:2). The fact that those angels were male is further confirmed by the fact that they wed the daughters of men. This proves wrong the opinion that the angelic creatures can’t be distinguished as male-female. It is only because those angels were male they chose female-humans, isn’t it? So, it confirms their gender as male. If there are angels whose gender is male, then it is logical that there must be angels who are female. That too we can infer from Noah’s time. That is so because the Bible says that when the sons of God mated with the daughters of men, giants were born (Genesis 6:4). Doesn’t this mean that the male-angels had the ability to procreate? Indeed. Some say that they took the form of man to mate with the daughters of men. This isn’t true because the children born to them were giants. If they had used human form, then their children would have been mere humans. But since they mated with the daughters of men in their angelic forms, the children born to them were half angelic and half human. From this, it possible to deduct that the bodies of the male-angels had the ability to procreate, and therefore, it would be meaningless to be endowed with such ability if there were no female angels. But we know very well that none of God’s creations can be without meaning and hence through that even though there is no direct reference to female angels in the Bible, we thus can inferentially ascertain the existence of female angels with reasonable confidence. Truly, the angels must live just like human societies in heavens. How interesting!
(5) Next, let us explore the subject of demons, and therefore first take up Satan, the leader of the demons. The first mention of the name ‘Satan’ is found in the book of Job (Job 1:6-7). As we discussed earlier, all creation is by God and so it is right to assume that Satan too is a creation of God. What is the role of Satan at present? The answer to this question lies in the very meaning of his name. The Hebrew name of Satan means ‘adversary’ (Strong’s no. 07854). In Greek, the name means ‘adversary’ and ‘accuser’ (Strong’s no. 4567). Indeed, Satan is the one who is against God, and he makes it his business to constantly accuse the children of God, and tempt them into sin. “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him… For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down” (Revelations 12:9,10). Yes, this is the same Satan who deceived Eve (Genesis 3:1; Revelations 20:2). So, who is he? In the beginning, he couldn’t have been evil since he was a creation of God. Satan must have been created good through Christ, and later he must have transformed himself into someone evil. But, can we discover how, when, and why Satan became evil? The truth is that we can’t know this with certainty. Many wrongly attribute Isaiah 14:3-20 as referring to Satan. In fact, many incorrectly assume the Hebrew root word ‘Luficer’ of the ‘morning star’ of Isaiah 14:12’s “morning star, son of the dawn” to be Satan’s name (Strong’s no. 1966). But, Isaiah 14:3-24 very clearly refers to the king of Babylon as we read in Isaiah 14:4. Infact, it is a prophecy that has been fulfilled. Around 600 B.C., Babylon grew to be the mightiest kingdom on the earth. True to the prophecy in Isaiah, Babylon conquered many kingdoms including the southern kingdom of Judah. Therefore, Babylon is said to have risen like the morning star, flourishing as a mighty kingdom. Due to this, the proud Babylonian rulers considered themselves as mighty as Gods. This is what God points out in Isaiah 14:13,14. Their pride is what God says would finally annihilate Babylon and the kingdom that had created fear among world kingdoms, and had killed many would be destroyed completely (Isaiah 14:22,23). God says that when that happens it would make people wonder at the humiliating fate of once mighty Babylon that had once made tribes and kingdoms suffer, destroyed many cities, and refused to allow prisoners of war from returning home (Isaiah 14:16,17). In fact, one of the kingdoms destroyed by Babylon was the southern kingdom of Judah, one of the many cities destroyed by Babylon was Jerusalem, and one among the captives that Babylon denied the freedom to return home was the Jews. In 587 B.C. Babylon had conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and made Judeans its captives. In spite of all its conquests, as the prophecy says, in 539 B.C., Babylon was completely destroyed by Cyrus, a Persian king. Therefore, neither this prophecy nor the name Lucifer refers to Satan. Again, Ezekiel 28:11-17 is the next scriptural text wrongly attributed to Satan. Actually, Ezekiel 28:12 very clearly states that the verses Ezekiel 28:11-17 refer to the king of Tyre. In addition, the references in them that many attribute to Satan –“you were in Eden”, and “you were anointed as the guardian cherub” would in fact suit king of Tyre perfectly. The king of Tyre ruled the people of Lebanon. If one reads the Bible carefully, they will find that it was a biblical practice to compare the beauty of Lebanon to that of the Garden of Eden (Ezekiel 31:3, 9, 16-18). That is why, King of Tyre who ruled Lebanon that was compared to Eden is said to have been in Eden (Ezekiel 28:13). Also, just as the cherubim act as guardians to literal Eden, the king of Tyre gets mentioned as the guardian of Lebanon, the symbolic Eden (Ezekiel 28:14).The king of Tyre was righteous, dear to God, with a permission to approach the mount of God (kingdom/presence). In the Old Testament, God made use of even the gentile kings to fulfil his purposes. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Cyrus, king of Persia are some examples. The king of Tyre was one such king. The precious stones mentioned in Ezekiel 28:13 were infact all those that the kingdom of Tyre traded in as is explained in Ezekiel 27:1-24. Such a godly king, later became proud and displeased God, which prompts God to declare that he would overthrow him. That is the crux of Ezekiel 28:11-17. So, in Isaiah 14:3-20 and in Ezekiel 28:11-17, it is a reference to the king of Babylon, and the king of Tyre respectively. Therefore, it is incorrect to call a Satan a cherub. In fact, the cherubs were assigned to guard the Garden of Eden only after the fall of man fuelled by Satan. So only the king of Tyre is symbolically represented as the guardian cherub of Eden to refer to his role as the guardian of Lebanon that is compared to Eden in the Bible. Moreover, it also has to be noted that all the references to Cherubs in the Bible are only positive. Therefore, it is not possible to know for certain when and why Satan became evil. The only things which we know about Satan as facts are the following – He is male as male pronouns and male titles like ‘father of lies’ are used for him. He deceived Eve (Revelations 20:2), and stands against God and His people (1 Thessalonians 2:18). He is powerful, and capable of performing miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9); He tempts the children of God, and strives to deceive them and swallow the Godly in sin and thus to destruction (2 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Peter 5:8). He served God in a position of authority and responsibility, but due to his sins he fell (Luke 10:18). He is to be bound during the 1000 years of Christ’s kingdom, and is to be released for a short time after which, he is to be finally destroyed (Revelations 20:1-10). Even though we don’t know if the deception of Eve was his first sin, we understand from Genesis 3:15, that the punishment of the serpent or Satan is to come about through the seed of the woman, which is a reference to Christ (Romans 16:20). And therefore, the chance of his sinning before that seems not very probable. If he had sinned before shouldn’t he have been punished separately for that? Since there is nothing in the Bible to suggest such a thing, he, who must have been good, sinned when he first deceived Eve. But, why did Satan sin? Jealousy? Pride? The Bible doesn’t clarify this. He, who is the father of all that is wrong, must have had all evil intentions, including jealousy and pride in his evil heart. We learn from the Bible that Satan has angels to help him (Revelations 12:7). They are the ones we call as demons. They too, must be creations of God, but later, must have gone wrong. There is no way to know why they went wrong. Probably, Satan enticed them, and they could have been his partners in crime. Some argue that they are the angels who fell away during Noah’s time. That is incorrect since the Bible says that God has bound those fallen angels for judgement (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6). So, they are different from these demons that are free and get orders from Satan, and are the workforce of his kingdom. Along with Satan, they are to be annihilated for sure. Like angels, there could be both male and female demons. Demons have the ability to possess human bodies (Matthew 12:22; 15:22) – not the dead bodies, but living humans – definitely many must have heard about demon possessed people. Infact, they can even enter the bodies of animals (Matthew 8:30-32). They seem to hunt for human or animal bodies to possess (Matthew 8:31). It could be that God has barred them their spiritual bodies or, it could be a strong command from Satan as a scheme to lead humans astray. We can’t know the reason clearly, but one thing we can do is to pray for the liberty of the demon-possessed (Acts 16:18). Moreover, the demons know who God is and who Jesus is (James 2:19). Some or maybe even all know that they would have to face the day of reckoning in time (Matthew 8:29). Even Satan knows he would be judged. (Revelations 12:12). We see in the Bible that the demons were afraid of Christ. Therefore, they are also afraid of Christians. Hence, we don’t need to fear Satan or his demons. We only need to be aware of their schemes to trap us. Just as we can’t know about the body or food of the angels, we can’t know about Satan, or the demons’ bodies, or their food. The last question that some ask is whether Satan and the demons had an opportunity to repent? The truth is that the answer is not given in the Bible. Maybe the opportunity was there but they did not repent, or perhaps since being heavenly creatures they sinned despite knowing so well about God, the opportunity to repent was never given to them. Still, we can get a clear answer only after our resurrection.
(6) We spent some time perusing the world of angels and demons. Even though we couldn’t understand every aspect of their world, we were still able to have a peek. In this subject, it is fine to have differences of opinion amongst us, since beliefs about angels and demons are not basic & essential doctrines. We ask everyone to examine deeply and come to their own conclusions. May glory be to God and Christ! Amen.