That the host of invisible, wicked beings arrayed against God and His people operate under the leadership of Satan, their director. Once a high angelic creature, he rebelled against God (before man was even created) and was cast down from heaven. The prophet Isaiah has this to say about the fall of Satan: "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14).Even though Isaiah was speaking of the king of Babylon in these verses (a type of Antichrist), it's quite obvious that the full import of his words is not limited to an earthly king. They do point to a real man, the king of Babylon. But they also refer to Satan, the power behind that wicked monarch. He is the invisible sovereign of the anti-God world-system. Called "son of the morning" in verse 12, Lucifer is the one who sought to encroach upon God's authority. Thwarted and dethroned, he became the devil, the adversary of God and the accuser of His followers. As a result of his rebellion, Lucifer was cast out of heaven. As Satan, he no longer serves with the holy angels who stand before the throne of God.
The devil was indirectly referred to by Ezekiel. Speaking to the prophet, the Lord said: "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God; You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering; the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." (Ezekiel 28:12-15)
Here again, as with the Isaiah passage, the words recorded by the prophet were directed to an earthly king. Their significance, however, was not limited to the king of Tyre. The ultimate object of God's Word through the prophet was Satan himself, the invisible ruler of the wicked world-system. Before his fall, he was a mighty and exalted prince in a wonderful piece untouched and unmarred by the ravages of sin. But when he rebelled against God, he lost his high position and was cast down to the earth.
The devil was not alone in his defection. A number of other angels joined him in his rebellion against the Almighty. Peter spoke of "the angels who sinned" (2 Peter 2:4). The author of Jude referred to "the angels who did not keep their proper domain" (v. 6). And John envisioned a red dragon (which we believe refers to Satan) pulling down "a third of the stars of heaven" with his tail (Revelation 12:4). Those stars may well represent fallen angels who now hate God and serve the devil. On the basis of these passages, we believe that Satan has a large number of sinful, fallen angels who obey his commands. These are the "principalities," "powers," "rulers of the darkness of this age," and "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," with whom we wrestle (see Ephesians 6).
The question has been raised as to whether or not we should distinguish between fallen angels and demons. Some students of Scripture would say there is a distinct difference between the two.
First of all, some contend that demons are not fallen angels, but are the disembodied spirits of a race of people who lived on this earth and were destroyed before Adam came from the hand of God. They point to fossil remains that they believe are indicative of prehistoric life, including creatures whose anatomy was similar to that of modern man. They conclude that those remains are indications of an original human creation that existed before Adam's day but that was ruined because Satan's fall. They look demons, therefore, as distinct from fallen angels. They view them as the spirits of humanoids, an extinct, pre-Adamic race of people.
Second, other Bible scholars would tell us that demons, in contrast to fallen angels, are the spirits of giants produced by angelic "sons of God" who came down to this earth and married human "daughters of men." As a basis for their belief, they point to the first four verses of Genesis 6, which read as follows: "Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shat not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.' There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown" (Genesis 6: 1-4).
The "sons of God" mentioned in that passage are thought to be fallen angels who took upon themselves human bodies and married "the daughters of men." It is also believed that the product of this unholy union was a mongrel race, neither angelic nor human. And these scholars conclude that demons are the disembodied spirits of those hapless and hopeless creatures, and that they have a strong desire to live again in human bodies.
I might add that the students of Scripture who identify demons in this manner believe that the book of Jude makes reference to the "sons of God" of Genesis 6. The passage reads: "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 6,7).
Some Bible interpreters, claiming that the sin of the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 was similar to that of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah (sexual immorality and going after strange flesh), believe that those angels are now "reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). Others disagree. This is an area in which no one can speak with absolute certainty.
Of this we can be positive: Satan heads a great kingdom with a host of evil spirits. "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:13).
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