FALLEN ANGELS

Look at Information on:
Introduction
Watchers
Nephillim
Fairies
Fate of Fallen Angels
Evil


INTRODUCTION
There are two definitions of fallen angels:

(1) An angel who has lost God's favour because of disobedience.
(2) An angel who opposed God and is a follower of Satan the Devil.

Some refer to these fallen angels as Demons, although the actual definition of what a demon covers more than just, fallen angels, and some distinguish the two terms entirely.

Some of them fell from grace when they chose to come to earth and have sexual relations with women. The Book 1 if Enoch and the Book of Genesis both tell stories of angels who forsook their places in Heaven to come to the earth to take wives for themselves from amongst the daughters of men. (See Watchers).

Other angels fell when they rebelled against God and followed Satan. Satan and one-third of the angels were thrown out of Heaven and cast down to Earth.

An interesting excerpt from Arnold Fruchtenbaum's radio series on the subject of demons, information for which can be found at "http://www-ariel.org/ff00082c.html" states that some of Satan's fallen angels (based on the concept that fallen angels and demons are the same) married human women to try to corrupt the Seed of Woman in an attempt at thwarting the messianic prophecy of Genesis 3:15. These angels and other demons who were initially free are now permanently confined in Tartarus (a section of Sheol or Hades). Other demons are temporarily confined to the Abyss (another section of Sheol or Hades) before they are released to roam free again. In the Book of Revelation the abyss "the bottomless pit" is where the archangel Michael will lock Satan away for a thousand years. Revelation 20:1-3 tells "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the abyss and a heavy chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent - that is, the Devil, or Satan - and chained him up for a thousand years. The angel threw him into the abyss, locked it, and sealed it, so that he could not deceive the nations anymore."

In Islam, demons are called Shaitans, and are sometimes referred to as black angels. Some of the angels became resistant to the position of mankind, so Allah sent Harut and Marut as tutelary spirits to Earth in themselves. As a result of this they were cast out forever from Heaven to join other Fallen Angels, such as Iblis and undertook to initial humans into the black arts.

In the Hebrew tradition, the Fallen Angels were identified as demons and devils in Satan's entourage of Hell and were responsible for inflicting misery and suffering on humans in the form of disease, conflict, and disasters. Their character and activities are traceable to the ancient patheism of surrounding nations, especially to such as Lilith and Canaanite deities known as Shedim.

The fallen angels are said to dwell in the lower realms, near the vicinity of the earth. The Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum in the thirteenth century predicted the number of fallen angels to be at 133,306,668. (Back to Top)

WATCHERS
An order of angels also called the Grigori. The Watchers were given the responsibility of being the teachers of humanity, also working with the archangels in creating Paradise.

They fell from grace when they were attracted to the women of earth and about twelve thousand years ago, two hundred of the Watchers left their positions in Heaven to come to the earth to have sexual relations with women.

Out of fear of God they made a pact amongst themselves that they would commit themselves to the act.

"And Semyaza, being their leader said unto them, `I fear that perhaps you will not consent that this deed should be done, and I alone will become [responsible] for this great sin.' But they all responded to him, `Let us all swear an oath and bind the deed.' Then they all swore together and bound one another by [the curse]." (Book of 1 Enoch 6:3-4)

They descended upon Mount Sinai (The mountain in the Old Testament where Moses first encountered the Angel of the Lord in a burning bush. It is also the place where Moses received the tablets that held the Ten Commandments from God) taking on fleshly bodies.

Genesis 6:2 says "When people begain to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose."

The Book of 1 Enoch 6:1-2 states, "In those days when all the children of man had multiplied, it happened that there were born unto them beautiful daughters. And the angels, the children of Heaven, saw them and desired them; and they said to one another, `Come, let us choose wives for ourselves from among the daughters of man and beget us children.'"

From their union with women, they produced children called the Nephillim who turned out to be evil giants.

It is because of the Nephilim that God sent out the deluge (the great downpour/flood) and according to one account, the Watchers shed their bodies and returned to the spiritual realm once the flood came.

The leaders of the Watchers who came to the earth were named Azaz'el (their chief), Arakeb, Rame'el, Tam'el, Ram'el, Dan'el, Ezeqel, Baraqiyal, Asel, Armaros, Batar'el, Anan'el, Zaqe'el, Sasomaspe'el, Kestar'el, Tur'el, Yamayol, and Arazyal.

The leader of the leaders was named Shemyaza.

While on earth the Watchers taught their wives many things. Much of this was knowledge forbidden to humans. The Book of 1 Enoch details much about this saying, "And they took wives unto themselves, and everyone chose one woman for himself, and they began to go unto them. And they taught them magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them about plants. (l Enoch 7:1-2)

After their descent to earth the Watchers were never allowed to enter Heaven again.(Back to Top)

THE NEPHILLIM
The offspring of the group of angels known as Watchers (see above) who came to earth to have sexual relations with women. Their children, the Nephillim, became fierce, evil, giant mutants, who were hated by the people. They were said to have consumed so much food that the people grew tired of feeding them. They then began to eat birds, large and small animals, reptiles, fish, and they drank blood. They eventually turned on the people and began to eat them as well. In 1 Enoch, God referred to them as "evil spirits". The Book of Genesis 6:4 also speaks of Nephillim: "In those days, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings." The First Book Enoch 15:8 tells us, "But now the giants who are born from the [union of the ] spirits and the flesh shall be called evil spirits upon the earth." The Nephillim are also said to be responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel. Four hundred and nine thousand of them were destroyed during the great flood. Once their physical bodies were destroyed, their spiritual bodies continued to dwell on earth. They are thought to be some of the evil spirits that roam the earth. They are also called the Anakim. A variation of the name Nephillim is Nephilim. (Back to Top)

THE LITTLE PEOPLE/FAERIES AND ELVES
In one concept of Fallen Angels, the disgraced spirits, when they fell from Heaven, scattered into the provinces of the Earth - the air, the land, the waters, and the mountains - as well as into Hell.

Those that fell into the realms of earth became the Little People, the elves, the fairies, and other spirits who were too malicious for Heaven, but too good for Hell. The most malevolent of them fell as demons.

Little People constantly attests to remorse at their demise and desire for a soul in order to regain their place in Heaven. The demon traditions detail only the Fallen Angel's allegiance to Satan and their place in Hell, even when being moderately benevolent towards humans eg; Asmodee or Angel Oliver.

On the Isle of Man, the Manx Fairies were called the Adhene and known as Cloan ny moyrn, which means the Children of Pride/Ambition, because they were regarded as being Fallen Angels cast from Heaven but too good for Hell. They could be benevolent but were mostly mischievous in association with humans, taking babies or wives when they wished (parallels to the Watchers perhaps) although it was believed that their powers were not effective over any human on an errand of mercy.

Other views on fairies places them as small, beautiful, angelic beings with wings and supernatural powers belonging to the familiy of nature spirits and sometimes called "little angels". They are guardians of animals and vegetation.

In Persian mythology, the Peri are beautiful fairies residing in heaven. In Arabic lore, the jinn were considered a type of fairy - regarded as guardian angels who could grant wishes and who would protect their charges, portrayed in art as winged or un-winged. In Islam jinn are considered demons. (Back to Top)

THE FATE OF FALLEN ANGELS

Matthew 25:

"When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory" (25:31)

He will say to those who are condemned:

"Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (25:41)

Two significant things can be obtained from this verse:

1."The everlasting fire" has already been prepared for the devil and his angels. Their future is fixed and certain. They run loose today, but at history's end God will condemn them to everlasting fire.

2. The everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and his angels. God did not design hell with human beings in mind. What God has had in mind from the beginning is made clear in Christ, who sacrificed Himself that we might be given eternal life (John 3:16)

God in Christ has done everything necessary to save human beings from suffering the fate. He determined for Satan and the fallen angels, those who chose to disregard God's revelation of Himself, who fail to respond to God's trust, have chosen to be independent from God, the very independence which Satan craved. Tragically, they have chosen Satan's fate - doom, for certain.(Back to Top)

THE TYPES OF EVIL

This section deviates slightly from the topic of angels, yet it is good background information in understanding some of the subject matter presented on this web site. For that reason it's included here.

Philosophers have traditionally identified three kinds of evil:

1.Moral Evil
Evil that occurs when an intelligent being knowingly and deliberately inflicts suffering upon another sentient being (excluding things such as a surgeon's inflicting necessary pain on a patient) This does not have to be physical pain, but suffering which involves a conscious knowledge, anticipation, and dread of pain without an understanding of any good reason why one should be hurt.

2.Natural Evil
Suffering resulting from processes of nature such as cancers and tornadoes. Some argue that natural processes should not really be called evil though.

3.Metaphysical Evil
An abstract concept. It is the necessary lack of perfection that exists in any created cosmos, since no cosmos can be perfect as God is perfect.

Evil also comes on different orders of magnitude.
Some are personal, such as when an individual murders a child.
Some is transpersonal, such as when a mob lynches a victim, or a government bombs a city.
There are no limits to transpersonal evil eg; nukes
There may also be transgeneric evil if there were intelligent and morally flawed beings existing on other planets.
Evil may extend beyond transgeneric to the cosmic, where the evil occuring in the world may be
the will of the Devil himself who conciously chooses to destroy and ruin the cosmos to the extend
that he is able. Inflicting suffering for the sake of suffering, doing evil for evil's sake.

The fallen angels fell because of some evils they performed many of this evil committed on a cosmic scale.

(Resource: The Prince of Darkness - radical evil and the power of good in history by Jeffery Burton Russell, published by Cornell University Press, 1988) (Back to Top)

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