Spiritual Warfare Series
“There are two states of being: submission to God and goodness or the refusal to submit to anything beyond one’s own will -- which refusal automatically enslaves one [opens one to being enslaved] to the forces of evil. We must ultimately belong to either God or the devil.” - M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Fallen angels (also known as in popular culture as demons) attack you during the Spiritual Warfare of good versus evil that is constantly going on in the world. They aren’t just fictional characters in novels, horror movies, and video games. Fallen angels are real spiritual beings who have dangerous motives to harm humans when they interact with us, even though they may seem benevolent (good) in order to influence people.
Fallen angels can hurt you in a variety of ways, from lying to you and tempting you to sin, to causing mental anguish like depression and anxiety or physical illnesses or injuries in your life, according to the Torah and the Bible. Fortunately, those religious scriptures also suggest several ways that you can protect yourself from falling prey to the evil that fallen angels can bring into your life.
Here's how to protect yourself from fallen angels:
Be Careful When Contacting Angels On Your Own
The Torah and the Bible advise people to be careful when they're contacting angels on their own rather than waiting for God to bring angels into their lives according to his will. If you contact angels yourself, you can’t choose which angels will respond, say Jews and Christians. A fallen angel may use your decision to reach out to angels rather than directly to God as an opportunity to manipulate you while disguised as a holy angel.
2 Corinthians 11:14 of the Bible says that Satan, who leads the fallen angels, “masquerades as an angel of light” and the angels who serve him “masquerade as servants of righteousness.” Realize That You’re in a Spiritual Battle
The Bible says it’s important to remember that people are part of a spiritual battle every day in this fallen world, in which fallen angels who aren’t usually visible nevertheless influence human lives: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
Beware of False Messages & Messengers
The Torah and the Bible caution that fallen angels may speak as false prophets and says in Jeremiah 23:16 that false prophets “speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.” Satan, whom the fallen angels follow, is “a liar and the father of lies,” according to John 8:44 of the Bible. When spiritually opening yourself up to guides or contacting those who have passed on you are at great risk! Often demonic forces will masquerade as a familiar person, loved one, a child or some other entity that seems innocent, so that your guard is down. Yet, you have just invited evil into your life, enegertic field and spiritual space. This is why the Bible so harshly tries to warn us not to play around with mediumship, guides, tarot/oracle readings and otherwordly connections outside of God, Christ or the Holy Spirit. It's not to scold us it is to protect us, because doing so places us in great danger to be harmed and do harm to others.
Test the Messages that Angels Give You
Don’t just accept whatever messages you may receive from angels or spirits as true without examining and testing those messages. 1 John 4:1 advises: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
The acid test of whether or not an angel or other spirit entity is truly communicating a message from God is what the entity has to say about Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 John 4:2: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”
Find Wisdom Through a Close Relationship With God
The Torah and the Bible say that it’s important for people to stay closely connected to God since the wisdom that comes from a close relationship with God will empower people to discern whether the angels they encounter are faithful angels or fallen angels. Proverbs 9:10 declares: “The fear [respect] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Choose to Follow Where God Leads
Finally, it's important to intentionally base your daily decisions on the values that reflect what God says matters most. Whenever possible, choose to do what's right, as God leads you. Don't compromise what you believe when you make choices during each day. This is crucial because fallen angels an unclean spirits are constantly tempting you to participate in and do things that try to pull you away from God. Some Additional Knowledge Shared from M. Scott Peck, M.D.
One of the fascinating things about M. Scott Peck, M.D. is his credibility. He is a graduate of Harvard and Case Western Reserve Universities. He is not a religious zealot, but a highly educated man that has been involved with a deep breadth of study and understanding into human behavior and our existence for decades. For a Western trained doctor to acknowledge the spiritual facet in our human existence and experience is rather extraordinary.
Best-selling author and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote a book about evil called People of the Lie. In it, Peck says that the way to be free of bondage to evil is to submit to God and his goodness: “There are two states of being: submission to God and goodness or the refusal to submit to anything beyond one’s own will - which refusal automatically enslaves one to the forces of evil. We must ultimately belong to either God or the devil.”
First published in 1983, People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil followed on from Peck's first book The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth. In "People of the Lie" Peck describes the stories of several people who came to him whom he found particularly resistant to any form of help. He came to think of them as evil and goes on to describe the characteristics of evil in psychological terms, proposing that it could become a psychiatric diagnosis. Peck points to narcissism as a type of evil in this context.
On this same subject, M. Scott Peck, M.D also explores the “real” but “rare” phenomenon of demon possession of human beings in his book Glimpses of the Devil and concludes that: “Possession is not an accident. In becoming possessed, the victim must, at least in some way, cooperate with or sell out to the devil.”
Recognize the Enemy in Disguise - Not Everything that Shines is a Benevolent Spirit
The name Lucifer in Hebrew means the "shining one, the morning star. Lucifer was a fallen angel who he and other angels (followers) were cast out of heaven when he rebelled against God. He aspired to be like the God of heaven in position, power, and glory, but not in character. He desired for himself the homage of all angels that was due to the Creator alone. Instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections of the angels, he sought for himself first place in those affections.
The main reason for his rebellion was due to God asking him to bow down to humanity, in particular, Adam. However, Lucifer viewed Adam as inferior and was jealous of God’s love of him. Another character flaw was his pride against God, which over the course of history, became more important than his jealousy. In fact, today Lucifer is still considered as a warning against pride rather than envy.
Lucifer led a great host of angels to join him in the rebellion. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Revelation 12:7,8).
After the War in Heaven, which Lucifer lost, he and his devote followers (other angels) were cast out of heaven.
After this, he was known as “Satan” and became the devil – the king of hell. Since that day, Satan devotes himself to opposing the work of God in every way possible and to attempting to destroy all of the good that God has created in the natural order. He personifies evil and temptation. Satan, is also known as the prince of lies and deceiver that leads humanity astray. Hence, the term “the/our enemy.” Satan became the “angel who fell out of favor with God, seducing humanity into the ways of sin (wrongdoing) and who now rules over the fallen world.”
Satan is often considered the opposite of God; however, he is a creature that was created by God. Hence, he is more akin to the archangel Michael, rather than God himself. Lucifer and Satan are actually two different aspects of the same creature. Lucifer was an angel beloved by God; some stories claim the most beloved. However, after his rebellion, he became Satan. While there is a significant difference between the two, the terms today have become synonymous with each other and with the devil.
Later on, Satan deceived humans and they disobeyed God. So, he became the ruler of this world (Genesis 3). But through Christ’s loving sacrifice (John 3:16), the Savior triumphed over the devil. Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
The apostle John wrote of the great number of the angelic host: “Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands” (Revelation 5:11). Also, Paul affirmed that there are “innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).
John gives us the percentage of the angels that actually fell with Satan, “…an enormous red dragon…His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angel followers with him” (Revelation 12:3–9). From this passage, we can conclude that one third of the angels joined Lucifer in rebellion against God and were cast out of heaven with him.
Resource List:
Learn Religions, Mar. 4, 2021, learnreligions.com