“…God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment…” (II Peter 2:4).
“…the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6).
These two passages raise several questions as they are in apparent conflict with what scripture says elsewhere about the holy angels of heaven. Who are these angels? Can angels sin? What was their first estate? How and why did they leave their first habitation? What are the chains of darkness? Who is going to judge them? Will they be judged with us? Or perhaps by us?
One of our difficulties is that original readers of the letters of Peter and Jude were familiar with the events described. Peter gives no background: he simply states, “For if God spared not…” Jude states, “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this…” They are not breaking new ground on this point. It was known and had been discussed before with those receiving the epistles.
Various groups explain these verses in one of three ways:
A common wrong view
1) They say the references are to the fall of some of the angels of heaven who sought too much authority. One, Lucifer, sought equality with God and was rebuked, cast out, consigned to perdition. Supposedly this took place before the creation of Adam and Eve. Following are a few passages used to support this view.
“There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels…And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7-9).
“How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning…thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:12-15).
“And he (Jesus) said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
“Behold, he (God) put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly” (Job 4:18).
Differences from Jude and Peter
Note that these passages do not directly relate to those in Peter and Jude. They indicate a freedom of movement by certain individuals (except Isa. 14) which Peter and Jude do not portray. In addition, the verses cited are not consistent with other scriptural principles related to the angels. For example, Paul says, “are they (the angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14).
Furthermore, it is not reasonable to assume God would be slack in His control of heavenly affairs or be ignorant of activities in heaven. Jesus, in one of his parables, eliminates the possibility of an angelic rebellion. When dealing with the accusation he was casting out “devils…by Beelzebub the prince of the devils,” Jesus states, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation…or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house” (Matt. 12:24-29). Jesus would conquer Satan by binding him, then spoiling his house. For “Satan” to spoil God’s house he would first have to bind God — a ludicrous thought.
Exercising common sense
Common sense and simple truth rule out the concept of a fallen-angel Devil. The issues are clearly stated: “The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” If an angel sinned, would he be allowed to live — eternally? Would eternal life be given to any creature out of harmony with God and His purpose? Would the Almighty permit rebellion in His heaven when Jesus states that God’s will is done in heaven unalteringly? (Matt. 6:10).
From the very beginning, God demonstrated the principle. Following their sin, Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, “lest (they) put forth (their) hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.” They would have been immortal sinners and God would not allow that (Gen. 3:22).
Another wrong approach
2) Another explanation given for the verses in Peter and Jude refers back to Genesis 6:1,2. According to this view, a group of angels were sexually attracted to the “daughters of men” and they left heaven to have immoral relations with the women. It is asserted that their offspring were giants. Because of their sin, they were cast down to hell before God judged the world with the flood. I Cor. 11:10 is said to refer to this incident: “For this cause ought the women to have power (a covering) on her head because of the angels.” After all, it is said, the angels are attracted to women because of their beautiful hair. If angels can fall, then men in the “church” can too; so women should cover their hair.
This explanation can be discarded by referring to Luke 20:35-36. The Master says, “they which are accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” The angels of heaven do not marry and do not die. They were not the ones involved in Genesis 6.
A third attempt rejected
3) The third explanation given claims there is no scriptural reference or support outside the references in Peter and Jude to the incident of the sinning angels. The claim is made that there must have been some rebellion which took place before creation not directly referred to elsewhere in scripture.
We cannot accept this explanation either. It would be inconsistent with all the information revealed regarding angels to accept that an immortal angel could sin.
Then what do the passages mean?
A careful reading
Several phrases are common to both Peter and Jude.
Obviously, both passages deal with messengers. The word “angel” is translated from the Hebrew word malak, which means a messenger, and from the Greek word angelos which also means messenger. In fact, the word malak is translated “angel” 111 times, “messenger” 98 times and “ambassador” four times. When translated “angel,” the word is often qualified as “angel of the LORD” or “angel of God.” The Greek angelos is translated “angel” 181 times and “messenger” 7 times.
(As an interesting aside, in Psa. 8:5, the Hebrew word elohim is translated “angel;” the New Testament quote of the passage (Heb. 2:7) uses the word angelos for elohim.)
Both Peter and Jude speak of the angels as being “reserved unto (the) judgment.” The original Greek words are the same in both epistles. They have not received final judgment but are being held until the time of the judgment seat of Christ. This would suggest they are messengers who functioned during this present era.
Both writers use the phrase “chains of (under) darkness.” In both cases, the Greek zophos is used for “darkness.” This is a strong word indicating gloom, impenetrable darkness. The Greek words for “chains” are different in the two epistles with Peter using a word which seems to indicate “pits” such as those used for storing grain or fruit.
Peter uses an unusual word to describe where the angels were cast — tartarus. This is the only place the word is found in scripture and it occurs infrequently even in non-Biblical works. In Greek mythology, Tartarus was the lowest hell; it was the place the Titans were cast who rebelled against Zeus.
Jude writes that the chains are everlasting — rather age lasting; until (the) “judgment of the great day.” Peter tells us that “God spared” them not; he gave them no leniency.
II Peter 2
The context of II Peter 2 deals with the perversions of false teachers who “privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” Peter uses three known historical events to prove that God does not allow such wickedness to continue indefinitely but will cataclysmically end it. Furthermore, God will save righteous individuals out of these apocalyptic events and reserve the evildoers for future, additional punishment. The occurrences cited by Peter are the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and the sinning angels.
Peter’s point is that, as proven by God’s past actions, the false teachers will meet certain judgment. This clearly indicates the historical events should be ones recorded in scripture and thus known by Peter’s immediate readers and those who would follow after, including ourselves.
Jude
Whether writing about the same heretics or others of the same type, Jude’s language is similar. “For there are certain men crept in unawares…denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jude also uses three significant, known events to convince the readers that evil will be recompensed: Sodom and Gomorrah, the Jews who were delivered from Egypt but rejected God in the wilderness and the sinning angels. In addition, he refers to three wicked individuals with specific characteristics of evil: Cain, Balaam and Korah. We believe the sinning angels can be identified as Korah, Dathan and Abiram of Numbers 16 and we propose to advance evidence to establish this identification in our next article.
In Jude’s case, he exhorts the brethren to stubbornly resist the false teachers and carefully seek to save those who can still be helped to remain faithful to the Truth.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One