Theme · theological
Angels and Demons
Angels appear throughout Scripture as God's messengers and warriors: they guard Eden, announce births, deliver Lot, commission Gideon, and protect Daniel. The 'angel of the LORD' is a mysterious figure who sometimes seems to be God himself. Satan appears as the accuser in Job and the tempter in Eden and the wilderness. The Gospels reveal a world teeming with demons whom Jesus commands with absolute authority. Paul identifies 'principalities and powers' as part of a spiritual hierarchy. Hebrews calls angels 'ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation,' while Revelation shows angelic armies executing God's final purposes.
Related doctrines
Passages expressing this theme
- 1Kgs 22:19 — And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
- 1Kgs 22:22 — And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, an
- 1Pet 1:12 — Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent d
- 2Cor 11:14 — And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
- 2Kgs 1:10 — And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him
- 2Pet 2:4 — For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
- Acts 12:7 — And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.
- Acts 12:23 — And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
- Acts 27:23 — For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
- Col 1:16 — For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by hi
- Col 2:18 — Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
- Dan 3:28 — Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, a
- Dan 6:22 — My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.
- Dan 9:21 — Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
- Dan 10:13 — But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
- Dan 12:1 — And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that s
- Deut 33:2 — And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
- Exod 3:2 — And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
- Exod 23:20 — Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
- Ezek 28:14 — Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
- Gal 3:19 — Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
- Gen 3:1 — Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
- Gen 16:7 — And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
- Gen 19:1 — And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
- Gen 24:7 — The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall se
The Church Fathers on Angels and Demons
And no man was able, neither in heaven: The angels. nor on earth: Humans. nor under the earth: The demons in whom the natural things remain intact. to open the book: No one can understand the divine mysteries, unless God, who first revealed them to the human Christ and Christ to John, reveals them.
The Devil, left in uncertainty by this second reply, passes to a third temptation. Christ had broken the nets of appetite, had passed over those of ambition, he now spreads for Him those of covetousness; He taketh him up into a very high mountain, such as in going round about the earth he had noticed rising above…
True, to man it was not revealed; and art thou enlightening Angels and Archangels and Principalities and Powers? I am, saith he. For it was "hid in God," even "in God who created all things." And dost thou venture to utter this? I do, saith he. But whence hath this been made manifest to the Angels? By the Church.…
There is another even more obscure passage about which I ask you to pull me up out of deep water and set me in the shallows. In the epistle to the Colossians, I simply cannot see the connection where he says: "Let no man seduce you into taking pleasure in the humility and religion of angels, walking in the things…
By "angels" here, Paul means demons who once were angels.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION. Let the stars be darkened with the shadow thereof. In Holy Scripture by the title of stars we have set forth sometimes the righteousness of the Saints which shineth in the darkness of this life, and sometimes the false pretence of hypocrites, who display all the good that they do, that…