Saturday, April 16, 2011

Homegrown evil...

It is very surprising to find that so many preachers, teachers and scholars accept the knee-jerk position that demons are fallen angels.  It would seem that a biblical perspective is difficult to induce into human minds. Perhaps this is true because humans are constantly searching for ways of blaming and justifying their sinful condition and choices. There is certainly a limited number (no such nonsense as Calvin’s concept of an infinite number) of fallen angels – 1/3 of the original whole host that God created (Rev. 12:4). 
Fallen angels are in one of two conditions: either chained and imprisoned (Jude1:6) and won’t wander the earth until they are released (Rev. 9:1-11), or, are occupying territory in the eternal homeland of God and will be cast down (Rev. 12:9) from the eternal realm.  There are strict injunctions in the Bible regarding how to address angels, wicked or good (Jude 1:9, Daniel 10, II Peter -11, Psalm 8:5 and Heb. 2:7-9) and neither Jesus nor Paul use these conventions in addressing demons (Acts -19, read the Gospel of Mark!). 
Demons originate from human sin.  Notice the converging force of apostolic perspectives from Paul and James in both Romans 7:7-9 and James 1:13-15. These two apostolic witnesses point out the progression of unchecked sin into becoming a breeding ground of active death: demons.

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