Appendix

1. Satan's Fall from Heaven
There is not a single place where the Bible says that Satan is a wicked angel who was expelled from heaven. Nevertheless there are two New Testament passages that do speak of Satan falling from heaven. We must now look at these, to see how they fit into the Bible's use of Satan as a parable of human wickedness.

The first occurs in Luke 10:18, where the Lord Jesus Christ said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven". What did he mean by that?

It is not possible to answer that question correctly without first answering two other questions. When did Jesus say it? And to whom was he speaking?

It might be a good idea to turn up the tenth chapter of Luke and read it for yourself. Then you will see that this was the first thing he said to his seventy disciples when they returned from their first preaching tour, full of excitement. He had sent them out to do two things: to heal the sick, and to preach the gospel (verse 9). They came back rejoicing, and saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" As we saw in Chapter 6, this was just their way of saying, "Lord, you were right. We have been able to cure even the most horrible kinds of illness!" Jesus replied that he saw Satan fall from heaven. Obviously he was referring to what the disciples had just said—not to something that had happened thousands of years before. It was evidently when the seventy "cast out demons" (that is, cured illnesses) that Jesus "saw Satan fall from heaven".

It is not difficult to see what Jesus probably meant. Illness and death are the consequences of human sinfulness. The big problem was therefore to overcome sin. After that, the conquest of illness was relatively easy. So there could have been no miracles of healing until Jesus had shown that he could conquer human sin in his own life (see Chapter 5). In other words, when the disciples "cast out demons" (healed the sick) this was proof to the world that "Satan" (human sinfulness) was being defeated, for the first time in history. In poetical language, Satan was falling like lightning from heaven.

2. The Great Red Dragon
The other reference to Satan falling from heaven is this:
"And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems [crowns] upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth ... Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come'." (Revelation 12:3-10).

This is a difficult passage to understand. But one thing is very clear. It does not teach that Satan is a wicked angel who rebelled against God and was expelled from heaven, thousands of years ago. There are three reasons why we may be quite sure of this.

First, the Book of Revelation is a book of visions. These visions are written in picture-language: they are like vivid and unearthly parables. They all have a meaning, but we can only get at that meaning by interpreting the pictures. This dragon called Satan represents something. So do all the other features of this parable-vision—his seven heads with crowns on, his ten horns, his tail catching hold of the stars, his angels, heaven—all these represent something. It would be foolish to try and understand this vision as a literal story. Who ever heard of a fallen angel with seven heads and ten homs!
Secondly, the Book of Revelation is not a history book. Its very first sentence says that it was given to show us "what must soon take place". It tells us about the future, not the past.


Thirdly, look at the last sentence of the passage quoted above. It says that, as a consequence of the dragon's downfall, people will rejoice because God's kingdom has come. This confirms that the event described in this vision must be still future, since we know that God's kingdom has not come yet—that is why God's children still pray to Him, "Thy kingdom come".

Thus we may not be able to say exactly what the devil-dragon of Revelation 12 represents. But at least we know that he represents a power (some kind of human power) that will soon be destroyed to make way for the worldwide kingdom of God. We may be sure that it is a human power, because savage animals are always used in Bible prophecy to represent armies and kingdoms (see Daniel 7:17, for instance) and are never used to represent supernatural powers. ...,.,..,.•-,-..


3. Test the Spirits
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God" (1 John 4:1-3).

Some people quote this passage as evidence that there are two kinds of spirit beings: "spirits of God" (angels), and "spirits not of God" (evil spirits). But this is obviously not what this passage means. The end of the first sentence shows that "spirits not of God" are actually false prophets.
Then why does John call these men "spirits"? Simply because they were claiming to be prophets. True prophets spoke by inspiration of the Spirit of God (see 2 Peter 1:21) and false prophets claimed to speak by inspiration of the Spirit.

Various miraculous powers, or "gifts" as the New Testament calls them, were given to some Christians in the first century. Paul indicated that one of these gifts was the ability to tell which men were true prophets and which were false prophets. He called it "the ability to distinguish between spirits" (1 Corinthians 12:10). [This subject is dealt with in depth in the booklet, The Gifts of the Spirit, available from the address on the back cover].

So "test the spirits" means this: When a man comes to you and claims to speak by inspiration of God's Spirit, don't just accept his claim. Examine him carefully, to see whether he really is speaking by the miraculous power of God's Spirit, or whether he is just an impostor, a false prophet.

4. Spirits in Prison
"For Christ also died for sins ... being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; by which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah" (1 Peter 3:18-20).

The words printed in italics are sometimes quoted on their own, by people who believe that the spirits in prison are demons who have been locked up by God, and that Christ once went and preached to them.
But by reading the whole sentence we can easily see that this is not what the verse says. It says that the spirits in prison were those who did not obey in the time of Noah. That is, they were the wicked men and women who were drowned in the Flood.

Why are they called spirits? We have just seen in the previous section that people who possess, or claim to possess, the Spirit of God, are called spirits. God said of the people of Noah's day, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh" (Genesis 6:3). This is probably Peter's reason for calling these people spirits.

How could Christ be said to have preached to the wicked people of Noah's day? Only in the sense in which Peter had already used a similar expression, two chapters earlier. He said that the Spirit of Christ was within the prophets of old, who predicted the coming of Christ long before it took place (1 Peter 1:10).

Noah seems to have been a prophet. In another chapter Peter calls Noah "a herald [preacher] of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). So it seems that, in Peter's own language, the Spirit of Christ must have been in Noah when he preached the way of salvation to his neighbours.

This idea fits in well with the passage in question, which does not say that Christ preached to these people personally. It says he preached to them "by the spirit". (The actual words, as quoted above, are "... the spirit, by which he went and preached ...") There is an interesting parallel in 1 Corinthians 5:3 and 4, where Paul speaks of his written message as himself "present in spirit", and as "my spirit".

5. The Angels that Sinned
Here are two related passages which are best studied together:
"For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment..." (2 Peter 2:4).
"The angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by Him [God] in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6).

Those who believe that the devil and demons are rebel angels often quote these two verses to justify their views. But a thoughtful look at both passages shows that they do not support such ideas. These angels that Peter and Jude mention—whoever they may be—are not free to tempt men or possess their bodies. They are safely chained up until the Day of Judgment.

[original text in English edition]
In fact they are not "angels" in the usual sense of the word, at all. They are sinful men. There are three good reasons for saying this.

To begin with, the Bible tells us plainly that the angels always do God's will; they can neither sin nor die" (Matthew 6:10; 18:10; Luke 20:36).
Also, the term "angel" is sometimes applied to ordinary men, when they are given work to do for God. In such places the Hebrew and Greek words for "angel" are translated "messenger" in the English Bible. (For examples of this, see Malachi 3:1 and Matthew 11:10, where John the Baptist is called an "angel" in both the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Bible.)

If any doubt remains, turn up 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 in your own Bible and read a few verses before and after them. In both cases these sinful "angels" are mentioned in a list of sinful men and women mentioned in the Old Testament. Peter introduces his list by saying that "false prophets also arose among the people" (2 Peter 2:1).

Who were these angels, or messengers, that sinned? We cannot be certain, but Peter and Jude were probably referring to the Jewish leaders Korah, Dathan and Abiram. (Korah is mentioned by name in verse 11 of Jude.) These men rebelled against God, and the earth opened and swallowed them up; in other words, they were "cast into hell". [In the Bible several different Hebrew and Greek words are translated "hell". This one means "a place of darkness under the earth". Hell is not a place of torture. Write to the address on the back cover if you would like a free booklet explaining what the Bible really teaches about hell.]

[new text used in Chinese edition]
The historical background to these verses is complex, and to understand it fully demand some knowledge of a Jewish myths popular in Peter and Jude’s day. There was a mythical story about 200 angels who fell from heaven to the earth shortly before the flood and married with human woman.

But, first, what is more important than the details of the myth are what is said above: Peter and Judas said the angel is "the eternal chains". Therefore, even if the story was true, which it is not, such angels are no threat to men and women and cannot be used to prove the existence of the devil. In fact these verses are no evidence for the devil. Note that the original text of 2 Peter to uses "if” (English if), which is a supposition to state: "Even if angels sinned, then God has locked them away... ... therefore even if this Jewish myth is true there is nothing to fear”. Such a hypothetical argument is no evidence for fallen angels. In fact the context shows that Peter and Jude do not believe this myth:
2Pe.2:1-2 warns of false teachers in the church
2Pe.2:3 introduces the angels that sinned story as “deceptive words”
2Pe.2:10 says that the false teachers “slander heavenly beings”
2Pe.2:12 says that the false teachers “slander what they do not understand”

Now if Peter says that the false teachers are spreading “deceptive words” and “slandering” heavenly beings, that means that the accusations they made against heavenly beings were lies. If the false teachers said angels sinned, and Peter says that is “slander”, then that is solid proof that angels do not sin.

This myth about the 200 angels was very popular among Jews of Peter and Jude’s day, but just because many Jews believed it does not make it true. Paul in Titus 1:14 warns Titus to “avoid Jewish myths”. It appears that Christ had also heard this myth about angels, “sons of God”, marrying and sinning, because in Luke 20:35-36 and Mark 12:25 Jesus condemns this story. Jesus says that in the resurrection men and women will not marry because they will be “sons of God”, equal to the angels, and angels do not marry. If Jesus says that angels do not marry, that supports Peter’s view that the people who promoted this story were “slandering heavenly beings”. Finally Hebrews 1:14 shows that “all” angels are ministering servants, not “some” angels - so the author of Hebrews denies this myth too.
[A more detailed analysis of this Jewish myth and Peter and Jude’s opposition to it can be found in a separate booklet]

6. Spiritual Hosts of Wickedness
"Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:11,12).
The first thing to notice about this passage is that it is written in parable-language. In fact, the whole section of Ephesians in which it occurs (chapter 6, verses 10 to 17) is a kind of parable. In it the Christian is likened to a soldier, wearing armour and carrying weapons.

His "breastplate" is righteousness, and his "girdle" is truth. His "shoes" represent the equipment of the gospel, his "shield" is faith, his "helmet" salvation, and his "sword" the Word of God.
To remind his readers that the Christian's enemies in this parable are not actual soldiers, Paul says that "we are not contending against flesh and blood". He then names the enemies: (1) principalities, powers and world rulers; (2) spiritual hosts of wickedness.

It helps us to see what these two kinds of enemies were if we look at Paul's other warning to the Ephesians. We read in the Acts of the Apostles how Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus to beware of two dangers:

"Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock ... After my departure (1) fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and (2) from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:28-30).

Danger No. 1, "fierce wolves", was obviously that of persecution from outside the church. (Compare Matthew 10:16-18, which also speaks of persecutors as wolves attacking Christ's sheep.) Danger No. 2 was that of false teachers inside the church.

A close study of the passage in Ephesians shows that Paul still has the same two groups of enemies in mind. "Principalities, powers and world rulers of this present darkness" appears to be one of Paul's names for the Roman rulers who persecuted the early Christians. He actually uses the same two Greek words, "principalities and powers", of the rulers of the Roman empire in Titus 3:1, where they are translated, "rulers and authorities".

The second enemy is "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places". This is a difficult phrase, but in all probability it does in fact refer to the second enemy of Acts 20: false teachers inside the church. We can see that this is so by considering the expression a word at a time. "The heavenly places" is a translation of a Greek word that does not mean literally, "heaven". It is a figurative expression that Paul used several times. It nearly always means "positions of high honour". In Ephesians 1:3 it refers to the great honour of belonging to the Christian church in this present world. That is what it can be taken to mean here in Ephesians 6:12, also. But who were these "spiritual hosts of wickedness" in the early church? First note that the expression "of wickedness" is just a Hebrew way of saying "wicked". The phrase "men of worthlessness" is often used in the Hebrew Old Testament, and it always means "worthless men". In Deuteronomy 13:13 it is used to describe men who say, "Let us go and serve other gods", and Paul may have had this verse in mind when he wrote Ephesians 6:12. "Spiritual hosts" is a loose translation of one Greek word, the word "spirituals". This word was evidently used in the early church to refer to Christians who could prophesy by the Holy Spirit—or, at least, who claimed that they could do so. The word is used in this way in 1 Corinthians 14:37. So we see that, in the language used by Paul and his readers, "spirituals of wickedness in the heavenly places" evidently meant, "false prophets in the church". And this is exactly what the parallel passage in Acts 20 led us to expect.



REFERENCES
1. The Hierarchy of Hell (Robert Hale, London, 1972), page 91.
2. Jesus Christ (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1927), Chapter 1, Section V.
3. Jesus of Nazareth (Thornton Butterworth, London, 1929), Chapter 2, page 47.
4. Satan Wants You (Hart Davis, London, 1971), page 28.
5. Article, "Satan", in The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge (Behrman, New York, 1934), page 492.
6. Dictionary of Judaism (Shapiro Valentine, London, 1959), page 67.
7. Cited by I. Asimov, in Guide to Science (Basic Books, New York, 1972), Volume 2, Chapter 4.
8. Articles "Hippocrates", and "Galen", in The Penguin Medical Encyclopedia (Penguin Books, London, 1972).

Other Pamphlets Published by the CBM
Bible Teaching about Voodoo, Sorcery and Spirit Religions
Living the Truth
Preaching the Truth
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Sabbath War and Politics: The Christian Duty

Inferno - Falling from Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEC0kCi2_jU