ANGELS OF LIGHT, POWERS OF DARKNESS (EXCERPTS)
Try mentioning angels, demons or the Devil. You will be quickly appraised for signs of pathological violence and then quietly shunned. The Roman Catholic Church has reaffirmed its traditional teaching on the existence of angels, including personal guardian angels and demons. The reemergence of teaching on angels in Christian churches runs parallel to the rise of New Age angels in the neo-pagan revival of the secular culture. Pentecostals have long taught the importance of the discernment of spirits and exorcism.
Classical tradition on the fundamental truth about angels: they exist; they are spiritual; they are creatures; and some fell of their own evil will; and wage war against humanity. Angels are merely God's helpers.
Even Satan serves God's glory against his will. Because with the bridle of his power, God holds him bound and restrained. He carries out only those things which have been
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divinely permitted to him. He obeys his Creator because he is compelled to yield him service wherever God impels him.
Demonic gargoyles decorated churches and cathedrals. Popular Protestantism flirted with fears of witches, epitomized in the tragic Salem witch trials. Angels and men are sufficient to stand, yet free to fall. Classical tradition is seeing Satan's fall as an unprovoked act of pride.
Evangelicals believe in the existence and activity of angels on the word of the Bible alone. Angels are often mistaken for men. Michael and Gabriel seem to have distinct but equivalent functions in the Book of Daniel as warrior and revealer of mysteries, respectively. Devils are condemned forever.
Satan is the ancient serpent, the perpetual accuser and the murderer of the saints. He is revealed in an unholy trinity made up of the mythical accuser (dragon), the Antichrist (beast) and the spirit of false religion. Satan is the hostile opponent. A fall presumes Satan's prior residence in heaven with the angels.
There are angels and demons. Angels have bodies; demons seek to enter other bodies. Satan is Prince of Demons. God bound the fallen angels in Tartarus that cohabited with human women. The demonic spirits of their gigantic offspring may be the demons of today. The ancient world was well acquainted with unclean demonic spirits. (There are spirits of incubus and sucubus which have sex with women and men.)
When did evil begin and where did it come from? Satan is a liar and murderer from the beginning. Worship of gods is the worship of demons. There is an organized kingdom of Satan which afflicts the human race at every level of personal and social life. Demons are not heavenly beings; they are associated with death and the underworld. The churches have their own angelic representatives. Some of these angels may have fallen from heaven in primordial times and then been reduced to demons. (There is a godly and ungodly angel assigned to a church.)
Pentecostals and charismatics say that believers as well as non-Christians may be demonized and require exorcism. This is a seesaw battle between the sons of light and the sons of darkness. There is the great universal spiritual war between Good and Evil. God has assigned a personal guardian angel to each believer. (I ask God to assign twelve legions of angels to protect me.)
We are dealing with gods and angels, Satan and demons, and principalities and powers. Angels exist as well as Satan, demons and powers. Principalities and powers may be called angels on the way to ruination.
The refusal to deal with the good and evil spirits has weakened the church and its witness. Just when the enemy is making a great counterattack, we start forgetting we are on the battlefield at all. It is amazing how quickly the Church has fallen away from the faith, become accursed, bewitched and under a spell. This is very predictable as part of the
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cosmic battle for their souls. Christians are in bondage to beings that are no gods...weak and beggarly elemental spirits. Angels are guardians and guides of God's people in both Old and New Testaments. Satan, the God Of This Age, disguises himself as an angel of light. The world is filled with devils threatening to undo us.
Angels
Demons
Devil
Michael and Gabriel Antichrist
Satan (Prince of Demons) Tartarus
Gods
Principalities and Powers Elemental Spirits
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