Angelic Conflict III: Demons, Satanic Challenge, Satanic Thinking

We have seen that Satan fell through his own arrogance. He wanted to be like God, so if we were to characterise Satan’s sin it is, first of all, arrogance. This is exemplified by the five “I will” statements in Isaiah 14 where his will is emphasised against God’s will. This brings up the second element of Satanic thinking and that is antagonism toward God: I will versus Thy will. These, then, become the two elements that are going to characterise Satanic thinking and demonic thinking. That in turn will come over to be the characteristic of all cosmic thinking or all worldly thinking.

1. The identity of the demons: they are angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion (Revelation 12:4).
2. Today there are two categories of demons:

a) the operational demons, the demons that are still involved in carrying out the mission of Satan on the planet. They communicate false doctrine to man, they influence man through various false doctrines, according to 1 Timothy 4:1. Many people get involved in false teaching. The Word of God is our ultimate authority. When it comes to life we look to one of four different authorities for truth. The first is human reason, the second empiricism which is the process of scientific study and observation, the third is through mysticism which is subjective and has to do with the fact that people often have experiences where they think things happen and these are so overwhelming that they have these intuitive flashes of “truth.” In mysticism our own experiences or intuitive insights become the ultimate authority. Fourth, the final authority is the revelation of God. What happens often in spiritual warfare is that people are basing their doctrines not on what the Scripture says but on intuitive insights. For that reason there is a tremendous amount of confusion about spiritual warfare.

b) the non-operational demons, the fallen that are not involved in human history right now. There are two categories of non-operational demons. The first are the demons of Genesis chapter six. These are the demons who sought to destroy the genetic purity of the human race and are currently confined. The second group of non-operational demons is described in Revelation chapter nine, a demon assault army that is under the command of Apollyon.

3. The fact of their judgment: When was the original judgment of the demons? We know that it happened at some time in the past, according to Matthew 25:41. The verb there is the perfect passive participle of hetoimazo [e(toimazw], indicating something that was completed in the past with ongoing results. That indicates that the lake of fire was established at some time in the past and is still in existence, but it is empty. God has created the lake of fire for the judgment of the fallen angels and they are not in it. Why has there been this delay? Why did God not execute their judgment in eternity past? We do know that there was a judgment in eternity past, a consequence to their sin, and the earth was punished. We know that the earth was judged because of certain phrases in Genesis chapter one, verse 2—“The earth became without form and void,” tohu waw bohu, a technical term used for calamity, for chaos, and in other passages where it is used in the Old Testament it describes God’s judgment on something. For example, in Isaiah 34:11 there is a prophecy of the judgment of Babylon where two words, confusion and emptiness, are translations of tohu waw bohu. Then in Jeremiah 4:23 ^NASB “I looked on the earth, and behold, {it was} formless and void [tohu waw bohu]; And to the heavens, and they had no light.” Secondly, Genesis 1:2 uses the term “darkness.” When we examine Scripture we know that darkness is contrasted to light. Darkness is often a picture of sin and judgment. Isaiah 45:7 ^NASB “The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity…” The parallelism there shows that darkness and calamity are parallels. [18] “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it {and} did not create it a waste place [tohu], {but} formed it to be inhabited) …” In the future heavens and earth there is no night time (Revelation 21:23, 25). So in the future there is no darkness, there is continual light. So what brought about darkness? Then there is the third category which in the Hebrew tehom, which is the deep; and this is a reference to the salt sea. The salt sea is often a picture of calamity and death. For example, in Genesis 8:2 it talks about the fountains of the deep, and that is associated with a judgment. Ezekiel 26:19 use the term “the deep” to indicate judgment again. But in Revelation 21:1 we are told that in the new heavens and the new earth there is no longer any salt sea. So there is no “deep” in the eternal state. That would have been true in eternity past as well, so when we come upon tohu waw bohu in Genesis 1:2, there is darkness and there is a salt sea, all of this is associated with divine judgment. We have these three things in the verse indicating that something must have happened. Therefore the conclusion is that between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 there is a lapse of time, and in that time there was the fall of Lucifer and the fallen angels, a judgment on the planet, and the creation of the lake of fire as the eternal abode for these angels. The judgment if these angels is certain. It is referred to in Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4, and it is also mentioned in Isaiah 24—a reference to the judgment of angels at the end of the Tribulation. Isaiah 24:21 ^NASB “So it will happen in that day, That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth. [22] They will be gathered together {Like} prisoners in the dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they {will} {be} punished.” If we put that together with Revelation chapter twenty we discover that there is a judgment at the end of the Tribulation. Those who are involved in executing that judgment are church age believers who have received their rewards in heaven and are now ruling and reigning with Christ.

That brings us to the question: Why was this judgment postponed? In a nutshell, Satan challenged God and man was created in order to demonstrate God’s point that the creature could not survive and exist and find happiness and meaning in life apart from complete and exclusive dependence on God. So we are witnesses in that trial. We are witnesses to demonstrate that the creature cannot rule himself, that the creature does not have the authority or the ability to rule himself and that no matter what the creature tries it will always end up in calamity. The only success goes to those who are completely dependent upon the Lord.