Angels and demons in Christianity

¶ … Angels and Demons:

Angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve Him through acting as extremely powerful beings in being God's messengers. In most cases where angels appeared in the Bible, they declared that their coming was as messengers of the Lord. Even though the exact nature of angels is uncertain because they are not fully described in the Bible, the Scriptures state certain angelic characteristics. In contrast, demons are fallen angels whose origin is traced to the fall of Satan after rebelling against God. When Satan fell, he took a significant number of angels with him to demonstrate his rebellion against God. Together with Satan, the angels who rebelled against God were cast out of heaven and became demons. While the Bible provides limited information about angels, it is important to study these powerful creatures because they are God's ministering spirits. On the contrary, the study of demons is a very important topic in understanding exorcism in Christianity.

Angels:

Angels are spiritual beings created by God whose appearance is seen in both the Old and New Testament in the Bible. Theologically, angels are primarily defined as very powerful spiritual beings created by God to act as His messengers since nearly every time they appeared in Scripture, they stated that their coming was as God's messengers ("Angels vs. Demons," n.d.). According to the New Testament, angels are God's ministering spirits sent to look after human beings and always behold the face of God. However, theologians have been cautious in their study of these spiritual beings because of limited description about them in the Bible. Even though the Bible abundantly mentions angels, the nature of the revelation of these creatures is without the usual explicit description usually found with other subjects in the Bible.

The Biblical foundation of angels is that they are God's ministering spirits or messengers since each reference of angels is tied to another topic. In essence, angels are not treated by themselves since every mention in the Bible is geared towards informing us more about God, his works, and how he does these works. Given the limited information and description of these spiritual beings, Christians should be careful in the conclusions they generate about angels. Some angelic features mentioned in the Bible include appearance as flames of fire and appearance like men with wings four wings and several faces. There are two categories of angels in the Bible i.e. seraphim and cherubim. While seraphim are angels with six wings, cherubim are those who concealed the very holiness of God Himself.

The lack of detailed information about angels does not mean that these spiritual beings should be ignored or omitted in Christianity. This is primarily because their mention in inclusive in Scripture and the existence of many references in the Bible and by the Lord Jesus ("Angels, God's Ministering Spirits," n.d.). As spiritual beings created for God's service, angels have several practical functions including guarding or protecting, providing, proclaiming God's truth, and punishing or carrying out God's judgment. Therefore, an individual should not worship angels, engage in angel gimmickry, and become critical of angels' reports.

Demons:

Demons are fallen angels who were cast out of heaven after the very highest angel, Satan, rebelled against God. Together with Satan, these angels were cast out of heaven because they rebelled against God ("Angelology: Doctrine of Angels, Demons, and Satan," n.d.). From a theological perspective, the study of demons or Christian demonology helps in understanding the nature of demons, their identity, their activities, their power, and their eventual destiny. Since they are in rebellion against God, angels seek to deceive people living in the world by distorting truth about God and creation in general. Generally, demons like tormenting people, possessing them, and directing them away from God and the truth of His word.

Similar to angels who have higher powers and archangels, demons have principalities and powers with specific objectives over a particular region. In the invisible world, there is an ongoing spiritual warfare between God's loyal messengers or ministering spirits and demonic hosts. This spiritual warfare is demonstrated in Biblical accounts of people who were controlled or possessed by demons or evil spirits. As previously mentioned, demons possess or control people in order to lead them away from God and His truth. Notably, there is no Biblical account of Christians or believers who were possessed or controlled by a demon. This implies that demons cannot control or possess anyone who has God's Spirit or the Holy Spirit living within him/her. Together with Satan, the fallen angels or demons continue to work to cause many problems in today's world.

While demons cannot possess or control people with God's Spirit, they try to snare them into sin, afflict them with several physical conditions, draw nations into war, and try to delay answers to godly prayer ("Angels and Demons," n.d.). Therefore, Christians should cast out demons or rebuke demonic activity through speaking God's word, the name of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Notably, they should not go around looking for demons, not be afraid of them, and confront them when necessary.