Angels - Good & Evil

They want to keep us from knowing Jesus as our God and Savior (Matt. 13:19; Acts 26:18). If they fail there, they will work to teach Christians lies (2 Cor. 11:14; Gal. 1:8). If they fail there, another target is to make us ineffective for Jesus’ Kingdom or eventually to destroy us if God will permit them. Their goal is to create doctrinal confusion, cause division within churches, motivate Christians to sin, or produce Christians with hearts that are cold towards others.

Demons also work to motivate us to sin (Luke 22:3) in a variety of ways. Sexual sin (1 Cor. 7:5), lying (John 8:44), pride , greed, and food are just several examples of sin that the demons want us to indulge in (Matt. 4:1-11).

- Demons in Prison. These angels, including Satan, will be judged by God at the end of time (Rev. 20:10). While these evil angels follow Satan, there appears to be another group of even more wicked angels who are in a supernatural prison - an abyss - awaiting future judgment. It appears they sinned back at the time of Noah. From Jude 6-7 we learn they cohabited with women in some way. They violated God’s boundaries (Jude 6).

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment . . . (NASB) 2 Peter 2:4

Their special prison sounds bottomless (Rev. 9:2). One demon during Jesus’ ministry on earth referred to this prison in a conversation with Jesus.

And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. And they were entreating Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain; and the demons entreated Him to permit them to enter the swine. And He gave them permission. (NASB) Luke 8:30-32

None of these demons on Satan’s staff can be rescued from their sin of rebellion. Why? God does not give us the answer.

For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. (NASB) Hebrews 2:16

- Demons Are Ministers. Satan and his followers are ministers of God even though they are evil. God uses them to discipline Christians and to keep Christians from sinning (Job 1-2; 2 Corinthians 12:7).

Some churches today practice church discipline. That is a God honoring practice. In Paul’s day church discipline was routine. 1 Corinthians 5 deals with a brother who had sex with his step mother. The man did not repent, so Paul did the following,