Part 3, the devil and his angels:
In the days of our Lord, we are told, unclean spirits could be exorcised. When expelled from a possessed person, their place was said to be,
Luke 8:31, “And they (devils) besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep (ABYSS.)”
According to popular understanding, their dwelling place was thought to be the dark subterranean regions of the earth, although like the demons of the O.T., they also inhabited the earth and the air. These were not, as the Greeks thought, the evil spirits of dead men, but those having an angelic nature. They formed a society governed by Satan, also known as the Devil, Beelzebub, Belial, etc.
Today, he is firmly seated in man’s understanding and imagination as a fallen angel. But even in Christ’s day on earth, there was no hint, no mention of the devil having seduced his followers (fallen angels) from their allegiance to God, or of they having fallen at this same time.
Further insight is found in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, where we read about a great war in heaven between Michael and his angels, and the Devil and his angels.
Revelation 12:9, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
The early church assumed the personality of the Devil to be an unquestionable fact. The though the idea concerning this view was enhanced, yet in many respects wholly changed through the dogmatic mind set of the time. This resulted because of certain statements in the Bible regarding Satan and evil, having been heaped together and satanic agency having been elaborated upon logically, but not theologically.
Holding firmly to the belief of a Satanic kingdom of darkness opposed to Christ’s kingdom of light, the majority of the early Christians ascribed all evil, physical as well as moral, to the Devil and his demons. Crop failures, sterility, pestilence, disease among the cattle, mental maladies, persecutions of the Christians, individual vices, heresies, astrology, philosophy, and especially the whole body of heathenism, with its mythology and religious worship.
Heathen gods were now believed to be conquered by the work of Jesus Christ, but not left without power. The Jews claimed it was demons who deceived; uttered oracles; were present at sacrifices; and inhaled the sacrificial incense, whereby the idea gained ground that the demon-nature was ever growing more sensual and materialized. This concept of hell began to be painted in blazing earthly colors; an eternal fire; devils and scorched souls darting about in endless torment. Then sprang the loathsome belief common with the early church fathers the superstations of the carnal intercourse of devils with women, meaning “Witchcraft.
Concerning the fall of the “devil and his angels,” opinions were many. Some assumed that it occurred through envy; others, through pride; and others, through concupiscence and excess; some placed their fall before and others after Eve’s seduction. The idea of the importance of the death of Jesus had been dogmatically elaborated.
Phil LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com