The Devil and His Demons

In the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed, it says, "I believe one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible." We Orthodox Christians believe in the existence of invisible things as well as visible things. Some of the invisible things are the angels.

Among the angels, there are holy angels who live in obedience to God and unholy ones who disobey Him. The angels consist of nine choirs: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, powers, dominions, authorities, principalities, archangels, and angels. There may be other choirs of angels, but these are the only ones that we know of and that are mentioned in the Bible.

The unholy angels are called demons. Their leader is Satan. There are different ranks among the unholy angels, just as there are among the holy ones.

Sometime before the creation of man, Satan led a rebellion against God in Heaven and got one third of the angels to follow him. (Rev. 12:3,4) Pride was the first sin. (Isaiah 14:12-15) Jesus the Son of Sirach said that "pride is the beginning of sin." (Ecclus. 10:13) It was the sin of pride that evolved into the sin of rebellion and sparked the Satanic revolt in Heaven.

After the creation of man, Satan developed the sin of envy. He envied man and wanted to cause his downfall. (Wisdom 2:24) He encouraged man to sin by lying to him and thus caused his death. (Gen. 3) The sin of envy produced the sins of deceit and murder. Jesus said that Satan is "a liar" and was "a murderer from the beginning." (St. John 8:44) He said that he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (St. John 10:10)

Later, after the creation of man, some angels of the lowest order fell into the sin of lust. They saw the female offspring of man and desired to mate with them. (Gen. 6:1-4) These fallen angels, according to some ancient writers, are the ones who introduced man to the occult arts of astrology and witchcraft.* In the Hebrew text of Isaiah, the name of a female demon is mentioned. Her name is Lilith. (Isaiah 34:14, NRSV) According to a Jewish myth, she seduced Adam and became his first wife.** According to Babylonian mythology, she seduces men in desert places. In the Book of Tobit, the name of another demon is mentioned. His name is Asmodeus. He lusted after a young Hebrew woman named Sara and killed her first seven husbands before they could consummate their marriages with her. (Tobit 3:7,8; 6:12-17) So, there are male and female demons who lust after humans and even try to encourage them to lust. In demonology, these demons are called incubi and succubi. An incubus is a male demon who lusts after human women. A succubus is a female demon who lusts after human men.

St. Paul told the Ephesian Christians that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual hosts of wickedness, that is, the demons. (Eph. 6:12) The demons are still working to cause the downfall of man. They oppose any of attempts of man to acquire the likeness of God and participate in the divine energies. They inspire people to do evil, encourage hate, and try to put man against man. They promote greed, covetousness, lust, sexual immorality, and sexual perversions. They try to undermine any work of God. They encourage the spread of heresies. Many of the modern heresies are just ancient ones taught by modern people.

We are supposed to abstain from every form of evil. (I Thess. 5:22) We need to shun sin in all of its forms. In the process of trying to abstain from evil, however, we often encounter attempts by the demons to pull us into evil. There is an ongoing warfare going on for the souls of humans.

Steve

* When, therefore, the number of men had begun to increase, God in His forethought, lest the devil, to whom from the beginning He had given power over the earth, should by his subtilty either corrupt or destroy men, as he had done at first, sent angels for the protection and improvement of the human race; and inasmuch as He had given these a free will, He enjoined them above all things not to defile themselves with contamination from the earth, and thus lose the dignity of their heavenly nature. He plainly prohibited them from doing that which He knew that they would do, that they might entertain no hope of pardon. Therefore, while they abode among men, that most deceitful ruler of the earth (II Cor. 4:4), by his very association, gradually enticed them to vices, and polluted them by intercourse with women. Then, not being admitted into heaven on account of the sins into which they had plunged themselves, they fell to the earth. Thus from angels the devil makes them to become his satellites and attendants. (The Divine Institutes, Book II, chapter XV, by Lactantius, 260-330 A.D., vol. 7, p. 64, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

These [the angels who had intercourse with human women] were the inventors of astrology, and soothsaying, and divination, and those productions which are called oracles, and necromancy, and the art of magic, and whatever evil practices besides these men exercise, either openly or in secret. (The Divine Institutes, Book II, chapter XVII, by Lactantius, 260-330 A.D., vol. 7, p. 65, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

** The New Revised Standard Version of Isaiah says:

Wildcats shall meet with hyenas, goat-demons shall call to each other; there too Lilith shall repose, and find a place to rest. (Isaiah 34:14, NRSV)

Lilith, according to ancient Jews and Babylonians, was a female demon. A Jewish myth said that she was Adam's first wife and that Adam had intercourse with her before having intercourse with Eve. Maybe some of this myth is true and some of it is false. Maybe she seduced Adam, but was not his first wife. Maybe she seduced him after he had some children with Eve. 99.99% of Adam's biography is missing from the Bible. We do not have a full, detailed account of Adam's 930 years of mortal existence.

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts