Are demons fallen angels?

Your second question assumes two falls of angels, of which scripture does not speak, though it be very possible. Satan is spoken of as fallen; he "abode not in the truth" - but of his angels we have no account, though we must suppose they are fallen, but not the same as those reserved in chains of darkness. These last are simply kept in chains for the judgment of the great day; nor are they ever called demons that I know of: those are active in evil. So we have "the devil and his angels:" but no further account of them.

We read of these, the devil’s angels, (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7). They seem to be of two classes. First, according to 2 Peter 2:4, there are angels who sinned and were delivered into chains of darkness, Jude also alluding to them in the same way. They appear to be strictly confined, until “the judgment of the great day,” and unable to roam about. But there is another very numerous class of fallen angels who have liberty of movement and act under the direction of Satan in his attempts to subvert the work of God.

Of course God never created any being or intelligence sinful. Sinfulness was acquired by self-will. As Satan fell and became the destroyer, Apollyon, so his angels fell and became demons. All through the four Gospels we get constant allusions to demons. These are clearly those fallen angels who are not under everlasting chains.

From other Scriptures we gather that he carried with him in his revolt an immense number of followers of the angelic hosts. These appear to be: (1) Principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). (2) Perhaps the fallen angels “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6, and 2 Peter 2:4). (3) Fallen angels, called in the Old Testament “familiar spirits,” and in the New Testament “demons.”

Intercourse with such in the Old Testament is sternly forbidden; whilst the activities of demons are outlined in the Gospels as seeking to gain possession of the bodies of men for the destruction of their souls; as bitterly opposed to the Lord Jesus, but yet subject to His commands, whilst the latter-day revival of their activities is prophesied in 1 Timothy 4:1-3, which is clearly seen today in the intensive propaganda of spiritism. Spiritism is purely Satanic and anti-Christian.

Ans.—Jude teaches that a certain part of the fallen angels are reserved in chains. We know from the Gospels that another part were allowed to range the earth; and Ephesians speaks of “wicked spirits in heavenly places.” Without doubt, at least two classes of fallen spirits are suggested here, those who are in bondage and those who are free. Cannot divine wisdom be seen in this, as though God would show that neither repression nor liberty have changed their moral character?

It appears there were at least two falls of angels; one was he whom we call Satan — when man was made, Satan tempted man through Eve. Those ordinary evil angels, of which we read in the Bible from Genesis down to Revelation, are not under everlasting chains at all. They are roving about the world continually, and so far from being in chains of darkness, in “tortures” as it is called here, they are allowed access to heaven.

The demons say, "What have we to do with thee, Son of God? Art thou come to torment us before the time?" "The demons also believe and tremble." They own Him Son of God, for to Him every knee must bow, and every tongue confess. Yet is there no Redeemer of angels. Their case has not been taken up for redemption. The tempter is always worse in God's sight than the tempted. So God interferes in His grace to rescue man, but "of angels He takes not hold" (Heb. 2:16), i.e., fallen angels. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage." He became the Deliverer by becoming man, and then all that He is as a divine Person enters into all that He did, and gives it divine efficacy. The demons believe there is one God — they believe what is revealed in God's word. Satan may quote and pervert it to his purpose. Demons know their doom. The very first gospel announcement declares it, where it is said of the Seed of the woman, "It shall bruise thy head" (Gen. 3:15). Hence you find Satan's animosity in the O.T. against anyone who is even a type of the Lord Jesus. Satan gets man to believe that God does not mean what He says, and that there is no such thing as "eternal judgment." If man did not discern who the Lord was, the demons could say, "We know thee who thou art."

The Lord did not annul the devil at the temptation, but He spoiled his goods, and thereafter cast the demons out. He annulled him at the cross. Satan is in the heavenlies now, but he will be cast into the earth, and then, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!" Then later he will be cast into the abyss. When loosed out of his prison, the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth shall be gathered by him to encompass in battle the camp of the saints, and the beloved city Jerusalem; but fire comes down and destroys the nations, and Satan is cast into the lake of fire, to be tormented for ever and ever. Not all angels have fallen. There are the holy and elect angels. No creature can stand unless kept. All the human race have fallen in Adam their federal head (Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:22).

72 But other angels fell apart from the devil. Of some scripture says, they are "reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day"; whereas Satan roves all about the world now, and others with him, so that they are not in chains under darkness. Jude says, those that "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; even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." They, doing evil, are set forth for an example, their condition now being an abiding testimony to their judgment. "In like manner" refers to giving themselves over as the cities did. "The sons of God," in Genesis 6:2, were angels, just as in Job, "the sons of God" presented themselves before God.

But the N.T. is no less clear that the devil and his angels, till judgment is executed, are incessant in their efforts to corrupt and destroy, to accuse the saints and to deceive the whole habitable earth. He works through the world and the flesh; but his own special field is through falsehood, and his direct enmity is against the grace, truth, and glory of his destined Conqueror. Hence the demons whom he commands trembled before the Lord Jesus in terror of His casting them into the abyss, or bottomless pit, where Satan is to be bound when Christ comes in His kingdom. Till then Satan acts as a devouring lion or a beguiler in a serpent-like craftiness, fashioning himself into an angel of light or kindling the fires of persecution, where he fails with his lies. Fallen angels there are already consigned to everlasting bonds under gloom for judgment of the great day. These so audaciously broke through God's order before the deluge that He has imprisoned them ever since; and they ought not to be confounded with those that are still allowed for a season to tempt mankind, and have access to the heavenly places as well as the earth till judgment befalls them. For their leader is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience; as our wrestling if Christians is declared to be against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenlies (or heavenly places). And this conflict will never cease while the church is on earth. But Rev. 12 tells us that they are to be cast out of the heaven, at a day still future, with new and marked consequences for a short time on earth, before the binding in the abyss for a thousand years, followed soon after by casting them into the lake of fire.

It appears there were at least two falls of angels; one was he whom we call Satan — when man was made, Satan tempted man through Eve. Those ordinary evil angels, of which we read in the Bible from Genesis down to Revelation, are not under everlasting chains at all. They are roving about the world continually, and so far from being in chains of darkness, in "tortures" as it is called here, they are allowed access to heaven. You will see that in a very marvellous way in the history of Job. A great many believers do not believe in the book of Job. You will see there "the sons of God" referred to. What is meant by "the sons of God" there? Why, the angels of God. The angels of God appeared before God. We learn from this that they have access, and include not only the good angels but also the Satanic angels. Satan was a fallen angel, but still he was an angel, and when "the sons of God" came, Satan was there too. So that it is evident, from the Book of Revelation more particularly, that Satan will not lose that access to the presence of God until we are actually in heaven. It has not come to pass yet. People have an extraordinary idea in their heads that whatever access Satan had before that time, he lost it — either when our Lord was born, or when our Lord died — but there is nothing of this in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where, on the contrary it is expressly stated that our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in the heavenlies. We are not like the Israelites fighting against Canaanites. Our Canaanite is a spiritual enemy in heavenly places, that is, Satan and his host of demons or angels.

But, as we have seen, these are not at all the sins that are referred to here. There is a marked difference. There is a character of iniquity that these angels fell into on earth, and so a distinct difference in their doom. These angels fell into a very peculiar iniquity, which is in a general way spoken of in Peter, but in a special way in Jude. They were put under chains of darkness and not allowed to stir out of their prison. They are not the angels that tempt us now. They did their bad work just a little time before the flood. That fact gives the matter a very solemn character. If people want to know how it was done, that I do not know; but you are called upon to believe, just as much as I am. What Genesis 6 does say is that there were "sons of God" upon earth at that time who acted in a way contrary to everything in relation to God, and which was so offensive to Him that He would not allow the earth to go on any longer, and this is what brought on the flood. No doubt too there was also a general iniquity in mankind that brought the flood upon them. Man was very corrupt and man was vile, but besides that there was this awful violation of the marks that divide the creatures of God in some mysterious manner. Hence God completely destroyed the whole framework of creation, and put an end to them and their offspring, so that every one of them perished. That is what took place then. Of course, you will tell me that they could not perish absolutely. No, I admit that these angels could not perish any more than men such as you; but this is what God did with those angels that behaved in that tremendously wicked manner. They became prisoners, they were put under confinement, not like Satan and his host that tempt us to this day, but these particular angels were not allowed to tempt men any more. They had done too much, and God would not allow these things to go on any longer, therefore there was this mighty interference at the time of the flood, and not only the things that generally inflict men. These are the words, "Angels that kept not their first estate." Their falling was a departure from their first estate. In this very case Satan had not done so, nor had the angels that fell with Satan. But it was quite another kind of iniquity that caused the flood. These angels left their own habitation and preferred to take their place among mankind to act as if they were men on earth, and accordingly, God has now reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Nobody can say that this is true of Satan and his host, but if people should think this, I do not see how they can read these verses and give such a meaning to them. Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, but their years do not run out until the judgment of the great day comes. Then they will be judged everlastingly.

There is another class of fallen angels, in Scripture called demons, who evidently are allowed a range of activity in this world. We have ample proof of this in the four Gospels. That these unclean spirits have the power to enter and possess the bodies of men and animals is evident. We read:

"And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit: and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:23-24). "And all the devils besought Him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand) and were choked in the sea" (Mark 5:12-13). "Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils" (Luke 8:2).