The Fallen Angels and Demons
Mystery of Creation, CFP, 29-34, Watchman Nee
We have now seen the origin of Satan. What about the angels under him and the demons? How did their fall affect the earth and help to turn it into waste and void?
From the New Testament we can trace two orders of Satan’s subjects: (1) the angels, (2) the demons. Let us look at the angels first. “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25.41). “And his [the dragon’s] tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven” (Rev. 12.4). The “stars” here refer to the angels (cf. Rev. 1.20). The passage continues later with these words: “And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (v.9). These angels must be those spirits whom God had set in the beginning to assist the archangel to rule the world. They are “the gods” in Psalm 82.1 (cf. John 10.35). Now at the fall of Lucifer, these probably conspired with him—at least they were in sympathy with him. And so they fell into sin with Satan and have now become the principalities, the powers, the world rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies (Eph. 6.12). These angels are not disembodied demons. They have instead an ethereal body, for the Lord reveals to us the fact that in resurrection people will be as angels in heaven.
Satan has another order of subjects. These are the evil spirits or the demons. “When even was come, they brought unto him [Christ] many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick” (Matt. 8.16). Here the Holy Spirit uses these two words “demons” and “spirits” synonymously. Likewise in Luke 10.17,20: “And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in thy name”; and the Lord answered as follows: “Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Here the Lord Jesus considers “demons” and “spirits” to be the same. Again, Matthew 17.18 records how the Lord cast “the demon” out of a boy. Concerning the same incident, Mark refers to the demon as “the unclean spirit,” a “dumb and deaf spirit” (9.25).
These demons or spirits probably were a preadamic race who inhabited the former world. They either assisted Satan in rebellion or else they followed him afterwards. And thus they were destroyed by God by their being disembodied. These beings have consequently become disembodied spirits. Though there is no plain evidence in the Scriptures, we can still find some hints in the Bible. For instance, in Matthew 12 there is the situation of such a spirit after it had left a human body: it “passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not” (12.43). It became helpless and, wandering far outside the human body, it could find no rest. Finally, it was compelled to re-enter the original place—the human body. If these beings are not in fact disembodied spirits, why must they enter a human body? Furthermore, in Luke 8 we read how unwilling the demon called Legion was to leave the human body. When they (those of the Legion) were pressed, they preferred to enter the bodies of the swine. These demons are different from Satan and his fallen angels because the latter have no desire to enter human bodies since they still retain their own ethereal bodies. The demons, on the other hand, are different. Both their character and desire seem to prove that they are indeed disembodied spirits. If that be true, though, when were they disembodied? We know that the spirits of the dead today are either in Paradise or in Hades. Where, then, came these spirits? They must have come from the former world. When they were living, their dwelling place must have been the world which Satan formerly governed.
That there were inhabitants in the former world can be deduced from another passage in the Scriptures. We have already pointed out from Isaiah 45.18 that the world—that is to say, the former world—was not created a waste but was formed to be inhabited. This seems to imply that there were inhabitants in the earth of old.
As we study the Bible further we discover even more information regarding this matter. There is a place of detention for evil spirits today. The spirits called Legion who were among the Gerasene demoniacs knew about this place. This was why they were so terrified as to entreat the Lord “not [to] command them to depart into the abyss” (Luke 8.31).
Regarding the abyss, Pember wrote: “It is called the abyss; and in some passages, such as the ninth chapter of the Apocalypse, this term is evidently applied to a fiery hollow in the centre of the earth: but it is also used for the depths of the sea, a meaning which accords well with its derivation.”* The book of Revelation informs us that one day Satan will be cast into this abyss (20.3). Evidently some of the demons are now imprisoned there, but some of them are still free, waiting for the appropriate time when they too will be shut in there. This abyss is most likely in the sea, not in the center of the earth. And at the time of the final judgment (see Rev. 20.11-15), all the prisoners will be cast into the lake of fire, and in the New Heaven and the New Earth there will be no more sea (Rev. 21.1). Probably there is only one abyss, but it is scattered in two places—at the center of the earth and in the depth of the sea.
*G. H. Pember, op. cit., p. 60.
We have even more allusion in the Scriptures to this detention center of the demons. According to the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament the word “deep” in Genesis 1.2 is the same as the word “abyss” here in the Greek New Testament. We have already mentioned how these demons were probably the preadamic race who inhabited the former world. In reading Genesis 1.2 it looks quite reasonable to us that those who originally inhabited the earth had their bodies destroyed by God because of their sins, and the place in which they dwelt was also judged by God by being turned into waste and a void so that the whole earth was covered with water and became a deep sea. How natural it would be for the spirits of those former inhabitants to be shut into the depth of this sea! Later on, when God restored the earth on the third day, He commanded the land to appear out of the waters, and called the gathering together of the waters the Seas. This dry land, the earth, was ready for men of the new world.
Where then did these demons go? Naturally our answer would be, these demons were left with the sea. When we read Revelation 20.13 (“And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them”) we understand how death and Hades will give up the dead, but we are often puzzled at how the sea will give up the dead in it. The common interpretation is that the sea will yield up the bodies of all who were drowned. Yet if that be so, the earth must also yield up its dead since more bodies will have been buried in the earth than in the sea. The earth, however, will not give up the dead. Consequently, what the sea will yield up cannot be the bodies of the dead people but the spirits already shut within it. Human souls are kept in death and Hades. The Bible never suggests that human souls are kept in the sea. Thus who can be the dead given up by the sea except those who belonged to the former world? The order here is quite revealing: “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.” Those inhabitants of the former world died first, therefore they shall be delivered up first. People of our present world will follow next since all shall be judged in order of time.
We have briefly touched on the origin of Satan, his angels, and these demons. As to how the preadamic race lived on the former earth, this seems to be beyond our knowledge. Yet we can obtain some understanding through a few intimations in the Scriptures. Many Bible scholars, including C. I. Scofield, believe that Jeremiah 4.23-26 refers to the conditions of the waste and void cited in Genesis 1.2. Although what precedes and what follows speak of the desolations of Judah, these verses appear to take on a broader cast in that it seems that God showed His prophet the desolations of the original earth. If our interpretation is correct, then we know from this passage that there were “fruitful fields” and “cities” (v.26) in the former world. The early settlers dwelt in cities and cultivated the fields. The fierce anger of the Lord came upon them and upon the entire earth because of their rebellion with Satan. And thus the earth became waste and void.
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