CHAPTER 3: THE ANGELS WHO SINNED
We will now look at the spirit beings who were once a harmonious part of the original angelic realm, but later chose a different path.
Prior to creating the earth, God created the angelic realm. And within that realm, God created a great variety of spirit beings with differing degrees of power and authority. Initially, all of them were in harmony with God; they all sang together and shouted for joy when God created the earth (Job 38:7).
We see in Jude 1:6 that God gave them a “domain” and an “abode” (or, as the King James Version says, an “estate” and a “habitation”). It seems at least some of them were given the earth as their domain.
Ezekiel 28:13 shows Lucifer with God in the Garden of Eden.
Other than these brief references, details of the angels’ activities on earth are not recorded. What is recorded is the tragic choice some of them made. What went wrong in the once peaceful, harmonious world of the holy angels?
It began with Lucifer
The change started with one angel, Lucifer, who was a cherub (see the previous chapter).
It helps to consider the background of the passage containing the above references. Ezekiel chapters 26-28 are an indictment by God against the nation of Tyre and a warning of its downfall. Within this prophecy, God turns the spotlight onto the ultimate power behind corrupt Tyre—Satan.
In Ezekiel 28:2, the human leader is called “the prince of Tyre.” Then in verse 12, God addresses a different being, whom He calls “the king of Tyre,” a being whose attributes belong to no mere human. God first describes Lucifer’s original state:
“Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes [literally “settings and sockets” for the gemstones] was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones’” (Ezekiel 28:12-14).
Originally, Lucifer was perfect and wise. God adorned him with precious gems and called him “the anointed cherub who covers.” As a cherub, Lucifer had responsibilities close to God’s throne and very high in His government. “Anointed” indicates consecration for special responsibility, and “covers” seems to refer to a role particularly close to God. While he had these responsibilities in heaven, the Bible also places him on earth at various times.
How could such a stunning spirit being—with the prospect of an eternal, happy future with God—later become the epitome of evil? The answer lies in the fact that God created angels with free moral agency, which He also later gave human beings. God didn’t intend angels or humans to be like programmed robots. Rather, God endowed each individual with the ability to reason and the freedom to make choices.
Just think: Lucifer and all the other angels had literally everything going for them—a perfect environment, perfect health, perfect government and immortality. And there was no external temptation to resist God’s way.
But at some point, it occurred to Lucifer that there was an alternative to God’s way. It all began with a thought.
As God said to Lucifer, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:15).
The original impetus that convinced Lucifer to depart from God’s laws and way of life is not revealed. But as he questioned God’s wisdom and will, he began to pridefully believe he knew and could do better. His nature eventually changed to embrace the way of pride, self-centeredness, greed, destruction and violence. He apparently felt he deserved more than God had given him and determined that the end justified the means required to obtain it.
Notice the next two verses in Ezekiel 28: “By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground” (verses 16-17).
More information about Lucifer’s departure from God is found in Isaiah 14, which also describes how God cast him down:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground” (verse 12).
Before that, apparently Lucifer had been on the earth: “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High’” (verses 13-14).
Lucifer determined to ascend (from his abode and rule on earth) up to God’s throne in heaven to overthrow and replace God! Not only did he desire God’s authority, he also desired to be worshipped as God—a desire he continues to have (Matthew 4:9).
There is no contradiction between wording showing Lucifer in heaven and also on the earth. As a spirit being, he could have traveled between heaven and earth. And in his role as a cherub, he no doubt had an official place in heaven, along with his responsibilities on earth.
His plan to depose God failed miserably, of course, and God cast him back down to the earth. Christ told His disciples that He was there when it happened. “And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven’” (Luke 10:18).
Christ called him Satan. This is a descriptive name, meaning adversary or enemy. His nature had changed. He went from being a “light-bearer” in perfect harmony with God to being an adversary of God. God changed his name to reflect this change in his inner nature.
Many angels joined Satan—becoming demons
But Satan was not alone in his plan to replace God. Tragically, he was able to persuade many other angels to agree with his alternative way of life and to join him in opposing God.
We have no way of knowing how long this took. But we do know that Satan became an effective deceiver. Did he conduct a whisper campaign, convincing first one angel, then another, that God was not the noble sovereign they thought He was? Did he speak openly against God, twisting facts to suit his purpose? Either way, the disillusionment spread through the angelic ranks. Eventually, Lucifer appears to have persuaded one-third of all the angels to join with him.
Christ reveals this in Revelation 12, where He portrays Satan as a dragon (verse 3) and then says, “His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth” (verse 4). In other words, when Satan was cast back down to the earth, he was not alone; a third of the angels (symbolized here as “stars”) were cast down with him.
In verses 7-9, these fallen angels are referred to as Satan’s angels: “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Satan here is also called “the Devil.” And the angels with him have become known as “demons” and are referred to as such many times in the New Testament.
Do Satan and the demons dwell in a fiery “hell”?
If Satan and the other angels who sinned were cast down to the earth, why do so many people believe their domain is some fiery underworld, called “hell”? This is another fallacy, which is based on nonbiblical lore and a misunderstanding of several scriptures. According to the Bible, Satan and demons were cast out of heaven, down to earth.
Many scriptures show this reality. For example, Job 1:6-7 says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’” (See also Job 2:1-2.)
We see here that, though cast out of heaven, Satan has sometimes been permitted access to God’s throne. In this case, he reported to God that his activities had been on the earth (not in some underworld, or otherworld inferno).
Some have perpetuated the fallacy of Satan and demons now inhabiting a fiery place by using 2 Peter 2:4: “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
In the New Testament, several different Greek words have been translated into the single English word hell (thus adding to confusion).
The Greek word in 2 Peter 2:4 is tartaroo and appears in only this verse. It refers to a condition of restraint (see our article “What Is Hell?”). That place, for now, is the earth. The expression chains of darkness refers to the boundaries or constraints God has placed upon them, until their future time of final judgment and sentencing.
Though Satan and his demons have the freedom to influence and deceive, God restrains them from creating havoc that would circumvent His ultimate plan. For instance, if they could, Satan and the demons would revel in destroying all human life by a single global disaster. However, God clearly places limits on their activities and the extent to which they can physically harm human beings.
What does Satan look like?
The popular image of Satan is another common fallacy. In fact, the portrayal of his appearance has changed over the centuries. He’s been described as having blue, green, black or red skin; having the form of a goat, snake, dragon, bat or human; having horns; being either winged or wingless, with a pointed or barbed tail; having human hands, webbed hands or talons, human feet or hooves, a beard or no beard; having a staff or a pitchfork—and many other variants.
But the Bible informs us that Satan was created as a cherub, which was described in detail in Chapter 2. His description as a serpent or dragon in Scripture isn’t necessarily what he looks like, but is symbolic of his character.
So where did the popular portrayals of Satan (and demons) come from? As with many other religious subjects, people have borrowed ideas from mythology, paganism and even bits and pieces of the Bible and then combined them into an image that fits the thinking of the day.
Some of the imagery has been borrowed from biblical references. For example, in the Garden of Eden, Satan appeared as a physical creature—a serpent—to speak to Adam and Eve. But notice it was after Satan’s success in eliciting the humans’ defiance of God that God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14). Because of this account, the serpent has been used as a metaphor for Satan.
Another metaphor for Satan is a dragon. This term is used in the New Testament in a symbolic sense. The first reference is Revelation 12:3: “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.” This same image is referred to seven more times in chapter 12 alone. The comparison of Satan to a dragon shows him to be a vicious monster intent on destruction.
In Revelation 13:2, an end-time empire is similarly called a “beast,” with characteristics of different animals. The verse points to Satan, who is again referred to in similar symbolic language: “The dragon gave him [the beast] his power, his throne, and great authority.”
The portrayal of Satan with a tail may have been borrowed from Revelation 12:4, which says, “His [the dragon’s] tail drew a third of the stars of heaven.”
There are various explanations for the origin of the current portrayal of Satan with a pitchfork. The idea has no biblical basis. But one of the more dominant theories traces the origin to the Middle Ages, when denizens of the underworld were pictured with a pitchfork.
Why does God allow Satan and demons to be on earth alongside humans?
The answer is part of the great plan God has for humans to one day become spirit-born members of His divine family. In order for that plan to succeed, humans need to overcome.
Christ provided a perfect example of this, as He told His disciples shortly before His death: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And as He said in Revelation 3:21, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
As humans, we must learn to overcome a number of things. Among them is Satan and this world, which he currently rules.
During His human lifetime, Christ overcame Satan. Perhaps the most famous example is in Luke 4:1-13, when Christ was fasting for 40 days, and Satan repeatedly tried to tempt Christ to compromise and sin.
Notice something remarkable in verses 5-6: “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.’” Satan was right—at this time, the kingdoms of this world are under his authority.
Christ overcame Satan and will replace him as king of the earth at His return. Likewise, we must overcome Satan—by obeying God and rejecting the temptations of Satan’s world—in order to join Christ in His future Kingdom. The process of overcoming produces the vital component of righteous character.
It’s easy to say we will always obey God—especially when everything is going our way and there are no trials or temptations to compromise our loyalty to God. We have the opportunity to prove our faithfulness to God when our allegiance to Him is tested.
An example of this is when God tested Abraham, in regard to his beloved son, Isaac. “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham” (Genesis 22:1). As we read in the account that follows, Abraham complied with everything God instructed. God’s response is in verse 12: “Now I know that you fear God.”
God learns about us when He observes our daily choices in a world that tempts us to compromise His law. In order to develop godly character, we must also actively reject every alternative way we are confronted with. One-third of the angels chose to accept Lucifer’s alternative way and are now trying to persuade us to do likewise.
A common misconception is that God is in a desperate (and seemingly failing) struggle to defeat Satan. The truth is that the kingdoms (or civilizations) of this world are Satan’s to do with and give as he wishes. He is this world’s current ruler—a role God (temporarily) allows.
The first humans, Adam and Eve, had the opportunity to reject Satan’s deceptive words and prove their loyalty to God. But instead, they heeded Satan, and therefore God drove them out of the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3).
Ever since that fateful day, the human race in general has been cut off from God and the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). Though God never relinquishes His authority, He has allowed Satan to temporarily be the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
“Know your enemy”: How do Satan and the demons operate?
For now, Satan has a “kingdom” (Matthew 12:26; Luke 11:18). Revelation 2:13 shows he has a throne on earth. He oversees a governmental structure, directing the fallen angels under him.
We need to be aware of Satan’s activities and methods. As the apostle Paul warned, “Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Essentially, Satan and the demons’ efforts here on earth involve their mutiny against God and their goal of thwarting His plan to bring humans into His divine family.
A popular portrayal of Satan is that of a mischievous imp. But, in reality, Satan is a powerful enemy of God and the ultimate source of violence, despair, hatred, sorrow, agony and every ugly and miserable thing that proceeds from his mind. He opposes God and everything God values. He is the world’s archenemy, actively waging warfare against God and His plan.
Consider some major strategies Satan employs in his warfare:
1. Satan uses plausible-sounding deception
Satan is the ultimate master of deception. He certainly employed it to persuade other angels that God (who is 100 percent perfect) is wrong, and he is right.
Notice what Christ said about Satan: “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Satan now employs this extremely effective device against humans. In fact, it has been so successful that he has deceived “the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).
Satan has convinced millions today that God does not exist. They are confident that their intelligent minds have reached this conclusion correctly, despite the fact that evidence for the Creator is abundantly evident in the creation (Romans 1:20-22).
However, Satan isn’t limited to deceiving people to reject God’s existence. He deceives others to believe false ideas about God.
Think back to Satan’s first encounter with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). He employed “craftiness” (2 Corinthians 11:3). The account shows that Satan cleverly made God’s instructions look flawed, while appearing to have the reasonable and good information himself. He didn’t try to convince Eve that God didn’t exist, but instead subtly convinced her that God was lying and holding back knowledge from her.
He has continued to deceive people with false ideas about God through the angels under him (demons) and through humans he uses to propagate deception.
We see this in Old Testament times, when Satan and his demons played a major part in turning the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel to worship other gods. In the books of Kings, Chronicles and many of the prophets, we see Israel and Judah worshipping foreign gods, such as Baal, mentioned dozens of times in the Bible. At times they even offered their children to the god Molech. By such idolatry, God said, they actually were sacrificing to demons (Deuteronomy 32:17).
And we see this in New Testament times. Paul warned: “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
As of this writing, about 85 percent of the world’s population identifies with some religion, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. God says that this “whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). That affects both the atheists and the religious, including many who profess the most popular religion: Christianity.
Today’s Christianity is a divided religion, composed of hundreds of varying denominations with contradicting doctrines and practices. This confusion is the result of the deceptive work of Satan, not God (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Satan has presented a Jesus Christ who is very different from the Christ revealed in the Bible. Effectively, he has promoted a false Christ. Most of Christianity has been centered on this false concept of Christ and false ideas of what He taught about God’s law.
Not many decades after Christ founded His Church, “another Jesus” was already being promoted. “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
This different Jesus, spirit and gospel gained traction and became the popular Christianity much of the world knows today.
Notice the first sign of the end that Christ gave in Matthew 24:4-5: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
How does Satan implement this tactic of plausible-sounding deception so effectively?
He broadcasts to humans
As the apostle Paul told members of God’s Church, “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
The metaphor of broadcasting is one we can relate to in our modern age. Satan projects his attitudes of selfishness, greed, pride, hatred, violence, rage, etc. The apostle Paul also stated that the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the people of the world (2 Corinthians 4:4).
He empowers people to perform miracles
As we have already seen, God created angels with powers and abilities superior to people. It would seem higher-ranking angels were endowed with greater powers than lower-ranking angels. The cherubs were evidently created with great powers. Even after Lucifer sinned, he still had the powers God had originally given him.
Humans are deeply impressed by supernatural phenomena. Many thronged after Christ because of His miracles. However, Satan uses this proclivity to convince people that his miracle-working human agents are credible.
One example of this was during the time of Moses. God commanded Aaron to cast his rod down before Pharaoh, after which God caused it to miraculously transform into a serpent. But after seeing that miracle, “Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents” (Exodus 7:11-12).
The Egyptians were able to replicate the miracle through their connection to the demonic realm. However, interestingly, the serpent created through God’s power was able to easily consume the other serpents (verse 12).
Another example from New Testament times was Simon, whom the apostle Peter confronted. “But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people . . . to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man is the great power of God.’ And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time” (Acts 8:9-11).
Simon’s message was deceitful heresy. God was not the source of the signs he performed. See more in our online article “Simon the Sorcerer.”
Another example was a fortune teller the apostle Paul encountered in Acts 16:16-19: “A certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.”
Paul commanded the demon to leave the girl. “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas.” The demon had been obviously successful in foretelling future events.
A future example is the coming “false prophet” foretold in the book of Revelation. This miracle-working human will be given astonishing abilities by Satan. His miracles will convince many humans that he speaks for God, and that people should worship the beast. (For more information, see our online article “The Man of Sin and the Mark of the Beast.”)
Revelation 13:11 likens this future miracle-working leader to a beast with the appearance of a lamb (that is, appearing to represent Christ, the true Lamb), but with a message of the dragon (Satan). “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do” (verses 13-14).
This same individual is also called “the lawless one” in 2 Thessalonians 2:9: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.”
Between now and the time this false prophet will display such powers, there will be an increase in Satan’s deceptive efforts. “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
Revelation 16:14 also prophesies demonic activity that will occur in the future: “For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”
The key takeaway is that Satan and his demons can cause their human servants to perform impressive miracles. But it’s imperative that we never allow the impressive nature of any feat to cause us to follow or listen to human beings who aren’t faithful to God and His way.
The ultimate test of any religious leader or teacher is found in Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
When it comes to choosing whom we listen to and follow, truth must always trump miracles.
2. Satan targets God’s saints
As we saw earlier, God’s plan is for humans to be temporarily lower than the angels for the purpose of learning obedience to God before entering the immortal spirit realm as part of His family. Therefore, all who follow Christ’s lead represent a threat to Satan and his demons.
God’s Word informs us, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Persecution entails targeting or pursuing someone with intent to harass or inflict cruelty.
We see an example of Satan’s intent to target God’s servants in Luke 22:31. Shortly before Christ was arrested, He alerted Simon Peter to Satan’s request. “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you.’” Although Jesus seemed to single out Peter, the Greek word for “you” is plural—Satan asked for all the apostles.
Recall how, with God’s permission, Satan was allowed to intensely attack Job. The account shows how Satan had first singled Job out, to accuse him before God and gain permission to attack him.
Although not every difficulty we encounter is directly caused by Satan, God does allow him to assault God’s people with various hardships. For example, in a letter from Christ to His Church, He told them, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison . . . Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
We see in Revelation 12:10 that this is what Satan is constantly doing. The context is shortly before Christ’s return to earth, but it reveals what Satan has been routinely doing. “Now . . . the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”
Satan also combines deception and persecution, attempting to eliminate as many of God’s saints as possible. As Christ warned His disciples, “The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service” (John 16:2).
Satan entices God’s saints to willfully sin and lose their salvation. One example is that of a husband and wife in the early New Testament Church. Wanting to impress others, both lied about doing a generous deed. God inspired the apostle Peter to discern their deception.
“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?’” (Acts 5:3). In this case, Satan succeeded in bringing about the outcome he wished, because these members did not resist his promptings of pride and lying.
3. Satan and demons can appear in deceptive forms
God’s holy angels never appear in order to frighten, terrorize, harass or harm people or to amuse themselves. Whenever they appear, it is only to diligently fulfill their mission from God.
Demons, however, have entirely different motives. When they appear to humans, it is to deceive, confuse, entice to sin, frighten, terrorize, etc.
One historical example is when King Saul went to consult a spirit medium (or witch). The account is found in 1 Samuel 28. Having departed from God, Saul turned to the dark spirit world for advice. He asked the medium to summon the deceased prophet Samuel. During the séance, a being who claimed to be the prophet Samuel appeared to the medium. (Deceased humans are actually fully dead and have no consciousness or ability to communicate. See Ecclesiastes 9:10, for example.)
The being who appeared was a demon, obliging the medium’s appeal to the dark spirit world and impersonating Samuel in a form that would resemble Samuel. The demon portrayed this deceptive image to the medium, who in turn described to Saul what she was seeing. And the demon accurately foretold what he knew would happen to King Saul for rejecting God.
It is evident that Christ’s apostles were familiar with the concept of ghostly apparitions. Notice their reaction when Jesus approached in the night darkness, walking on the water: “And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear” (Matthew 14:26).
The Greek word translated as “ghost” is phantasma, which connotes the idea of a phantom or other ghostly spirit form.
Reports of and interest in ghosts have continued through the centuries.
They appear in centuries-old plays and in modern-day TV shows, and eyewitness reports persist from people who claim to have seen, photographed and communicated with ghosts.
Additionally, through the centuries there have been persistent accounts of people both firmly believing in and witnessing humanlike creatures of various shapes and sizes, and possessing sentient intelligence. Some are described as harmless or even charming, but more often the accounts describe beings that are mischievous, hostile, cruel, vengeful or dangerous.
Among the most prevalent beliefs—spanning many centuries—are those of fairies, elves, leprechauns, gnomes, goblins, trolls, pixies, sylphs, elementals and others. Many of these are considered types under the broader category of fairy.
People who have interacted with the spirit realm adamantly affirm that there are real entities such as these. It is not our purpose to identify which accounts were genuine and which were exaggerations or fictitious legends. What we do know is that the demonic world is real, that demons are deceitful and lawless by nature, and that they can somehow project various appearances.
This quote from Britannica.com’s article “Fairy” provides a little more background:
“While the term fairy goes back only to the Middle Ages in Europe, analogues to these beings in varying forms appear in both written and oral literature, from the Sanskrit gandharva (semidivine celestial musicians) to the nymphs of Greek mythology and Homer, the jinni of Arabic mythology, and similar folk characters of the Samoans, of the Arctic peoples, and of other indigenous Americans. The common modern depiction of fairies in children’s stories represents a bowdlerization of what was once a serious and even sinister folkloric tradition. The fairies of the past were feared as dangerous and powerful beings who were sometimes friendly to humans but could also be cruel or mischievous.”
Sidebar: What About UFOs (or UAPs)?
What about the reports of unexplained phenomena?
Interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs), also called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), has increased dramatically in recent years, with more attention given to the subject by today’s media.
Some of the explanations extant for UFOs include natural meteorological phenomena, advanced technology developed by some nation on earth, optical illusions, dirt on a lens and fabricated hoaxes. However, the most intriguing claim is that they are extraterrestrial spacecraft.
It is because of this very popular and persistent claim that one might ask a couple of questions:
1. Could there be advanced civilizations on other planets?
2. Could spirit beings have anything to do with UFOs?
The Bible teaches that all life was created by God, both physical and spirit beings. Since Bible believers recognize that life did not evolve on earth or anywhere else in God’s creation, it is understandable that they might wonder if demonic spirits could possibly have any involvement in some unexplainable aerial phenomena.
We know that the angels—including the angels that sinned—are greater in power and might than humans and are capable of appearing to humans. We also know that Satan and demons have hurtful and destructive motives, can manipulate physical objects, and can inhabit physical beings. It is the awareness of these facts that engenders speculation about whether there is any connection between some UFO observations and the spirit world.
Knowing that Satan and demons are capable of demonstrating astonishing and supernatural manifestations to humans, we would conclude that it is certainly possible that they might display aerial phenomena of various sorts.
But are they doing so? We must honestly answer that we simply do not know. We do know that in the end time there will be a great increase in signs and wonders performed by Satan and demons. And we know that we need to be on guard against being deceived by any impressive signs and stay focused on God’s Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
In a somewhat similar vein, many today also wonder about other much-debated phenomena, such as crop circles and animal mutilations. These involve mysterious events for which explanations range from human hoaxes to supernatural causes. We don’t need to find the answer for all news items like these.
Could demons be involved in any of these events? While demons are certainly capable of acting upon physical objects, animals and materials in these—and a myriad of other—ways, it is fruitless to speculate about which specific events they are involved in.
It is interesting to consider that in the future—when Jesus Christ returns to earth—many humans will fight against a spirit being coming to the earth from outer space (Revelation 19:19). But they will actually be fighting against Jesus Christ.