Angels and Demons?

[crystal]

So, what's your take on angels and demons? Do they exist or not? And if you believe they do exist, what do you believe they are, and what do they do?

As for me... I believe that angels and demons are living beings, just not human. I believe that there are possibly millions of them, and each one serves a specific purpose, but when humans die, they do not become angels. Angels were created before man was created.

But this is just my opinion. So, how about it? What are your opinions?

[Red Rebel]

Note that much of this is my opinion. When I type it out, it will seem as if I'm stating it as fact. For me, it is fact, but not necessarily for you. Just keep that in mind, I'm not trying to force anything on anyone, only express my beliefs.

I agree with you, although I'd like expand with my views. I believe Angels and Demons are spiritual beings (I'm unsure of whether I would say they are "living", since the definition for life is

–noun
1. the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.

As far as I know, spiritual beings have no need to breath, eat, sleep, or grow. I do believe that Angels and Demons can manifest themselves in the physical world, when given the authority to. When God first created man, we were given Dominion over the earth. We were like Lords of medieval times. Ruling over the Earth under God's guidance. Once Sin was introduced to the Earth, Satan basically staged a revolution and usurped authority from us.

Authority could be restored to men, although it was difficult since one seeking God had to be righteous by himself. After Jesus sacrificed himself, we are able to become righteous through Him.

I didn't mean to go off in that direction, but I said all that to say this lol... When Demons are given the proper authority (either through someone not claiming dominion over themself / their family, or someone intentionally "summoning" a demon) they can manifest in the physical, as what many refer to as ghosts, or poltergeists. I believe they can be seen, but probably not touched.

Angels manifest in the physical also, but I do not believe they do the things we attribute to ghosts. Psalm 91:12 states:

12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

I believe this is quite literal, that Angels protect us from harm on many occasions, whether we know it or not.



Then to answer the first question (I did this backwards...) I believe Demons were originally Angels who followed Satan when he was cast out of Heaven.

Angels were created for the pleasure of God. They worship him constantly and carry out what work they can on the Earth. But I believe God found the worship somewhat empty, since the Angels lacked free will, and worshiped because they had to, not necessarily because they wanted to. Which is why Man was created, so that God could be worshiped by someone who choose to.

So yeah.

[Junk Angel]

If I remember correctly, the bible itself does say, that demons were the host of the highest seraphim in the among those of god. I don't remember anymore if it was Lucifer himself though.

They grew proud and were cast out of heaven to become demons.

Then, various cultures played with this concept, to fit their cosmology.
For instance, the ancient slavs defined these demons after where they fell into.
Thus old forest and mountain spirits became case out angels that fell onto the ground. They became the devils as we now them.
And those that fell into water, took the role of water sprites and kelpies.

[wes]

As stated previously. Demons were angels that were cast out with Lucifer(Satan/Devil). They can possess people, as seen with Job, but only with God's permission(I think).

[marnaveign]

What I say about this is my opinion. It is a bit long, but believe me, I cut it back as much as I felt I can. Religiously, I'm a bit long winded at times, which I apologise for. In order to help you understand my thoughts about angels and demons, I feel I need to explain a bit before getting directly to the topic.

In my church, we are taught that everyone started out as a spirit child of God. There was a war in heaven and afterwards, Lucifer and his followers are cast out. Those who decided to follow Christ remained waiting in the pre-existance (heaven) until we are born and get a body. After this life, we return to heaven as spirits until we are resurrected and get our body back for all eternity. Most of us will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus, though some are already resurrected beings.

Demons are those who followed Lucifer before the world began. They never will have bodies of their own because of their choice to follow Lucifer instead of Jesus. They are very unhappy beings and their goal is to make us ultimately unhappy as well. Misery loves company, as the saying goes. They inspire people to do stupid and evil things. They do whatever they can to get to us. But because they do not have bodies, they are not able to physically affect anything unless they posess someone. They are able to plant thoughts into the minds of people who can physically affect things. Like the father who throws his kids off a bridge and jumps himself because he thinks that God told him to do it, when it was actually the devil or one of his demons.

Angels come in 2 varieties. There are the spirit angels, and the resurrected being angels, who would be considered guardian angels. The spirit angels are like the good guy version of the demons. They want us to be happy, where demons want us to be miserable. If we are good and avoid things that drives the Spirit of the Lord away from us, like illegal drugs and sin, the angels can help protect us from the unseen enemy who is out to get our soul. They can also inspire us for good the way demons inspire us for evil, if we allow it.

The guardian angels are different. They have a body, though they are able to either allow us to see them or not, depending on what the situation calls for. They are able to protect us from the demons, but also from physical harm. They are the guardian angels that appear out of nowhere to help someone and dissapear into nothing when the job is done. My Mom and sister personally got help from this type of angel, and they learned a lesson from that experience. If you've ever had a terrible day, needed a hug, and when nobody is around you feel arms around you, it's this type of an angel.

To keep either type of angel around to help you, you do need to be doing what you can to please God. If you do bad things, that invites the demons around and makes it so the angels can't be. If you do good, the angels can come and do what they can to keep away the demons.

That's my opinion on it. There is a lot more behind my opinion about this topic, but I'm going to stop with this.

[Junk Angel]

They are very unhappy beings and their goal is to make us ultimately unhappy as well.

Interesting, I always found hell to be the lesser of two evils

Demons are those who followed Lucifer before the world began. They never will have bodies of their own because of their choice to follow Lucifer instead of Jesus.

From where then comes the typical picture of a devil/demon, which is clearly based on that of a satyr?

[crystal]

marnaveign, I've found your posts to be very interesting, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your opinions and beliefs