Are demons and fallen angels the same thing?
(Spooky Howl)
Maaaybe.
Or maybe not.
Angels, demons, exorcisms
welcome to the Halloween edition of the BBQ.
So, Christian theologians usually use
fallen angels, demons, unclean spirits, evil spirits interchangeably
to refer to the same class of evil spirit.
But does the Bible always do that? Not necessarily.
The Bible does tend to speak of demons as those evil spirits
that try to inhabit people, or unclean spirits
but they're not called fallen angels.
Is it possible that fallen angel is a different class of supernatural being?
Jewish theologians do take this approach
and the Bible talks about fallen angels
and demons usually in different conversations
at different points.
Now in the book of Revelation, chapter 12
it talks about the war that broke out in Heaven
back before human history began.
It says that this war broke out in Heaven
and Micheal and his angels fought against the dragon
and the dragon and his angels fought back.
There's a group of angels on the side of the dragon.
but he was not strong enough
and they lost their place in Heaven.
Fallen. Angels.
The great dragon was hurled down
that ancient serpent called the Devil or Satan
who leads the whole world astray.
Satan clearly has angels
hurled out of Heaven. They are fallen.
Now if we go back to the first book of the Bible
in Genesis chapter six
we have a fascinating story that's hard to explain no matter what theory you come up with
Jewish theologians tie this in with their demonology
their understanding of what demons are.
Genesis chapter six verse one.
"When human beings began to increase in number
on the Earth and daughters were born to them
the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans
were beautiful and they married any of them that they chose.
Well, sons of God
could just mean godly men
and the daughters of humans could just mean women
and it could be poetic ways of referring to men and women.
But sons of God is also a phrase that on occasion
is used to refer to angels
as those that God has birthed into existence.
Sons of God. Is it possible?
Sons of God saw that daughters of humans, or daughters of men
were beautiful and they took the ones that they wanted
"Then the lord said," now his reaction is huge to this.
The lord said, YAHWEH says
"My spirit will not content with humans forever
for they are mortal, their days will be 120 years"
so he says they can't live forever, they need to die out
and then it jumps right next in verse four
into talking about the Nephilim.
The Nephilim, who are they?
It says "the Nephilim were on the Earth
in those days and also afterward
when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans
and had children by them.
The sons of God
having children with the daughters of humans
creates the Nephilim.
This kind of new race
it says "they were the heroes of old, men of renown."
In other words the Nephilim were some kind of
super-human race
produced by
the mating of the sons of God and the daughters of men
and if sons of God refers to angels
we're talking about a kind of
of horrific, supernatural
rape of
angels leaving their place and their abode
and coming down and somehow creating
progeny with human women
it's interesting what happens next
this is where the lord says this wickedness has gotten out of hand
I regret the whole creation project
I've got to destroy everything
and the flood is what happens next
Hm
The Nephilim
then would have been destroyed in the flood
and who are the Nephilim?
they are, according to this strand of theology
the combination of fallen angel and human.
If they were destroyed then their spirits would be
half human, half fallen angel.
According to Jewish theology, these spirits
of the now dead Nephilim are demons
and that's why demons always want to get into a human body
they have experienced life in a flesh and blood body
there's no record of a fallen angel trying to get inside, inhabit
and possess a human being
but a demon always wants to
and doesn't want to live outside a body
the spirits of the Nephilim
who are the children of the mating of fallen angels and humans
could explain what demons really are.
Are you tracking with this? It's wild!
Who knows. But kinda fun.
If this were true it would explain a couple of mysterious
passages in the new testament
let me refer to a couple of them
2 Peter and Jude.
In 2 Peter
chapter two verses four to six
and there's a cryptic passage, that many people just don't know what it's referring to
it says, "for God did not spare angels
when they sinned
but sent them into Tartarus."
Some translations say Hell here
I think it would be a bad translation
Gehenna is the proper word for Hell
Tartarus is a Greek word for prison
and it's used only here in the whole new testament as a special place
for the special class of angels
that sinned in some kind of special way
"when they sinned God sent them to Tartarus
putting them in chains of darkness
to be held for judgment"
and then it goes on actually to talk about the flood
Well, if we turn to Jude.
Verse four.
No, verse six. We read
"The angels who did not keep their positions of authority
but abandoned their proper dwelling
these he has kept in darkness
bound with everlasting chains for judgement on that great day."
Two cryptic passages in the new testament
talk about some class of dark angel
that is not roaming the world freely
but actually has been, they over-stepped
their bounds. God actually puts limits on the degree of evil
that Satan and his angels
can do and they sinned in such a way that God said
that must never happen again
and has taken that class of angel and has put them
in a special
dark spiritual prison
to hold them for final judgement
these may be the fallen angels that are the
the ancestors of the Nephilim
who are the spirits that become demons.
Or I could be wrong.
and if this isn't the explaination
well, you come up with a better one
of course it raises the issue
does all of this have any bearing on how we live our lives
following Jesus today?
but that's another question.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét