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FALLEN ANGELS AND DEMONS
here is a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the fallen angels and the demons. Many people believe thesedesignations are simply different names for the same beings. However, this assumption is inaccurate. In this article, wewill examine the origin and activities of both these evil entities, and look at what the Scriptures and other reliable sources sayabout them.The Scriptures don't explicitly tell us when the angelic realm was created. However, the available information implies that theangels were formed after God created the heavens but before he fashioned the earth. Passages from Job and Nehemiah seem to bolster this view:
JOB 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Whoset its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? 6 On what were its bases sunk? Orwho laid its cornerstone, 7 When
the morning stars sang together
and
all the sons of God shoutedfor joy
? (
 NASU 
)NEHEMIAH 9:6 You alone are the LORD;
You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all theirhost
, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The
hostof heaven worships You
. (
 NKJV 
)
The expressions "morning stars" and "sons of God" used in Job 38:7 refer to the angels, as does the phrase "host of heaven"used in Nehemiah 9:6. These passages indicate that the angelic domain was created after the heavens, but before the earth wasgiven final form.Very soon after the creation, Satan (a powerful and high-ranking cherub) sinned by tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden (Eze.28:12-15). For more information about the fallen angel Satan, refer to my article "Satan, the Adversary of Mankind."Satan's fall from grace is the first instance documented in the Bible of angels disobeying God, but it is not the only one. Thereis another incident recorded in Genesis 6 which occurred soon after Satan's rebellion:
GENESIS 6:1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2
thesons of God
saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. . . .4 The
Nephilim
were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when
the sons of God
went tothe daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (
 NIV 
)
Just as it did in Job 38:7, the term "sons of God" in Genesis 6:2, 4 refers to the angels. For detailed proof that these "sons of God" were angels and
not
men, see my article "Genesis 6 - Who Were the Sons of God?"The ancient books of 
1 Enoch
and
 Jubilees
also record the angelic rebellion of the "sons of God" in detail. As Hershel Shanksreveals in his book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, these books were held in high esteem at the time the New Testament was written:
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the apocryphal book of Enoch (more precisely, I Enoch) wasknown only in an Ethiopic translation. Now as many as twenty fragmentary copies of the Aramaic originalhave been found at Qumran, which suggests that Enoch and perhaps other books now consideredapocryphal were regarded as authoritative Scripture at least by some groups. Allusions to Enoch occur atleast fourteen times in the New Testament; the New Testament Letter of Jude quotes from Enoch as having
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the authority of inspired Scripture (Jude 14-15). In some copies of the Ethiopic Bible Enoch is included inthe canon.Jubilees, the so-called Rewritten Bible, was apparently considered authoritative at Qumran: At least fifteencopies of this book have been identified, an immediate indication of the importance the Qumran sectariansattached to it. To this day, it is considered canonical by the Abyssinian Church in Ethiopia. (pp. 160-161,
The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls
)
From
1 Enoch
, we learn more about the sin of the Watchers (Dan. 4:17), angels charged with watching over mankind:
ENOCH 6:1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2them beautiful and comely daughters. And
the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lustedafter them
, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3and beget us children.' (
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)
 Jubilees
also elaborates on the sin of these angels:
JUBILEES 5:1 And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth anddaughters were born unto them, that
the angels of God saw them
on a certain year of this jubilee, thatthey were beautiful to look upon;
and they took themselves wives of all whom they
2
chose, andthey bare unto them sons and they were giants
. . . . (
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)
After the angels sinned by marrying human women, they bore them gigantic hybrid children. The Bible calls these offspring
nephilim
, the "mighty men of old, warriors of renown" (Gen. 6:4). When they appear again later in the Scriptures, they arecalled by a variety of names, including Rephaim, Zumim, Emim and Horites (Gen. 14:5), Anakim (Deu. 2:11), Zamzummim(Deu. 2:20), and Avim (Deu. 2:23).
1 Enoch
and
 Jubilees
both speak of these crossbred beings:
ENOCH 7:1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them . . . And they 3 becamepregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who
consumed
4 all theacquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them,
the giants turned against
5
themand devoured mankind
. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and 6 fish, and to
devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood
. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawlessones. (
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)JUBILEES 5:2 . . . And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattleand beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth - all of them corrupted their ways and theirorders, and
they began to devour each other
, and lawlessness increased on the earth and everyimagination of the thoughts of all men 3 (was) thus evil continually. . . . (
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)
Both these ancient books, recorded long before the New Testament, speak of two primary identifying signs of the pre-Floodage: (1) the illicit marriage of the angels with humans, and (2) the voracious eating and drinking by their hybrid offspring, the
nephilim
. It's
very
interesting that these two signs mirror those spoken of by Yeshua when he described the situation whichwould exist on the earth before his second coming:
MATTHEW 24:37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as
inthe days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage
, untilthe day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, soalso will the coming of the Son of Man be. (
 NKJV 
)
God was very angry at the rebellion of the Watchers, and decreed that these wayward angels would be locked up underneaththe earth in a prison for spirits until the day of judgment.
 Jubilees
and
1 Enoch
both speak of this punishment:
JUBILEES 5:6 And
against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth,
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and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind themin the depths of the earth
, and 7 behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate.(
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)ENOCH 10:11 . . . And the Lord said unto Michael: 'Go,
bind Semjaza and his associates
who have unitedthemselves with women so as to have defiled themselves 12 with them in all their uncleanness. And whentheir sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones,
bind themfast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation
, till the judgement that is 13 for ever and ever is consummated. In those days theyshall be led off to the abyss of fire: and 14 to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined forever. . . .' (
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament 
, R.H. Charles)
1 Enoch
and
 Jubilees
agree with the Scriptures which show that a portion of the fallen angels are currently restrained in aspiritual prison called "the Abyss" (Luke 8:31):
JUDE 6 And
the angels
who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has
kept ineternal chains in deepest darkness
for the judgment of the great Day. (
 NRSV 
)II PETER 2:4 For indeed God did not spare
the angels who sinned, but cast them down in chains of darkness into the low regions
and delivered them to be kept for the judgment of torment. (
 Magiera NT  Peshitta translation
)I PETER 3:19 . . . He went and preached to
the spirits in prison
, 20 who formerly were disobedient, whenonce the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few,that is, eight souls, were saved through water. (
 NKJV 
)
While there are clearly some fallen angels who can move around freely, the Bible teaches that the Watchers who lusted after human women are currently locked up in "chains of darkness."Mankind was originally given dominion and rulership over the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). However, the fall of man set the stage for Satan and the angels to assume control. Several biblical passages allude to the fact that both good and evil angels currently havedifferent levels of authority over the peoples of the earth:
DEUTERONOMY 32:8 When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he setthe bounds of the nations according to the number of the
angels of God
. 9 And his people Jacob becamethe portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance. (
 Brenton's LXX 
)
The passage shown above is from the 3rd-century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the
 Septuagint 
.When God divided mankind into 70 nations at the tower of Babel, He apportioned rulership of the world among the angels,reserving only Abraham (father of the future nation of Israel) for Himself. God gave the angels varying levels of authority over the resulting nations of mankind.In the official Jewish version of the Old Testament, the
 Masoretic Text 
, Deuteronomy 32:8 reads "sons of Israel" (Heb.
beneyYisrael 
) instead of "angels of God." However, an Aramaic copy of the book of Deuteronomy found among the Dead SeaScrolls has "sons of God" (Heb.
beney 'elohim
) instead of "sons of Israel" in verse 8. The Septuagint translators understoodthat the "sons of God" spoken of in Deuteronomy 32:8 and elsewhere were the angels, and rendered it that way several times(Deu 32:8; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). The ancient text found at Qumran verifies the
 Septuagint 
rendering of this verse, indicatingthat the official Jewish version was altered at a later date for some reason.Psalm 82 speaks of the angelic council which was given rulership over the 70 nations of the earth:
PSALM 82:1 {A Psalm of Asaph.} God has taken his place in the
divine council
; in the midst of 
the gods
heholds judgment: 2 "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue theweak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." 5 They have neither knowledge norunderstanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I say, "
You aregods, sons of the Most High
, all of you; 7 nevertheless, you shall die like men, and fall like any prince."8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for to thee belong all the nations! (
 RSV 
)
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