Why Can’t Fallen Angels Repent?

            The notion that fallen angels cannot repent is, arguably, a common position held by many Christians. Since the Bible does not offer an explicit teaching on this theme, some Christians believe that fallen angels can repent. Since this is not an essential theme to uphold Historic Christianity, there is adequate scope for contradictory opinions.

            Understanding this theme will enable us to understand God’s expectation of man and the most appropriate response of man towards God.

Fallen Angels Cannot Repent

            Gotquestions.org states that fallen angels cannot repent:¹

First, Satan (Lucifer) was one of the highest angels, perhaps the highest (Ezekiel 28:14). Lucifer—and all the angels—were continually in God’s presence and had knowledge of the glory of God. Therefore, they had no excuse for rebelling against God and turning away from Him. They were not tempted. Lucifer and the other angels rebelling against God despite what they knew was the utmost evil…Second, God did not provide a plan of redemption for the angels as He did for mankind…Finally, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that angels would repent even if God gave them the chance (1 Peter 5:8). The fallen angels seem completely devoted to opposing God and attacking God's people. The Bible says that the severity of God’s judgment varies according to how much knowledge a person possesses (Luke 12:48). The fallen angels, then, with the great knowledge they possessed, are greatly deserving of God’s wrath.

            Although the reasons cited are highly persuasive, the question still remains as to why the fallen angels cannot repent.

The Intriguing Inability to Repent (The Freewill Conundrum)

            Angels were created by God as good beings. Hence the angels that rebelled against God should have had the freedom or freewill that caused them to rebel. This is affirmed by Gotquestions.org, “Satan was an angel who was cast out of heaven along with many other angels who decided to follow him and chose to sin (2 Peter 2:4). In terms of free will, the Bible reveals this was an exercise of their ability to choose (Jude 1:6).”²

            Hence, it is reasonable to believe that the angels had freewill. They would not have rebelled against God, in the first place, had they not possessed freewill. Moreover, God could not have created them as evil beings, since evil does not proceed from God.

            Since these fallen angels possess freewill, shouldn’t they be able to repent (they know God since the time of their creation, hence they have the opportunity to observe HIS goodness.)? If they cannot repent, does it mean that they have lost their freedom entirely or just the freewill to repent?

            If we believe that fallen angels cannot repent, then we need to resolve the freewill mystery. If fallen angels cannot repent, then it is quite plausible that they were deprived of their freewill after their fall. On the other hand, if their freewill is intact, why are they unable to exercise their freewill to repent?

            There could be another perspective to resolving this conundrum.

            When a pastor was exorcising a demon from a young girl, the demon apparently told him that they are under the tight control of Satan. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation between that pastor and the demon:³

Demon: I hate you. You get to go to heaven. I just hate you people. I believed Satan. He told us that we were gonna be greater. Ohh its so late…

Pastor: What happened when you were cast out of heaven?

Demon: Mmmmm….Jesus…HE just…I don’t know…I don’t know…

Pastor: You want to go back to heaven, don’t you?

Demon: Yes, if only I had a chance…if only I had a chance I’ll go back…

Pastor: God might have mercy on you. If you stop doing the things you are doing and making people sin.

Demon: I can’t do that. I can’t do that. Satan won’t let me. I can’t stop people from doing bad things; that’s what I am supposed to do. He makes me do it.

            From this conversation, an inference that the demons cannot repent since they are under Satan’s control is quite plausible. But to formulate a doctrine from a fallible source cannot be bulletproof, for the conversation between the pastor and the demon may have been fictitious.

            Gotquestions.org states that the direct knowledge of God may be the cause for the inability of the fallen angels to repent (by virtue of being in God’s presence), “Lucifer—and all the angels—were continually in God’s presence and had knowledge of the glory of God. Therefore, they had no excuse for rebelling against God and turning away from Him. They were not tempted. Lucifer and the other angels rebelling against God despite what they knew was the utmost evil.”⁴

            So the key to the demons’ inability to repent, it seems, is their direct knowledge of God. This is a conjecture, if not explicitly validated by the Bible. 

             If the Bible teaches about man’s inability to repent (a man who was a believer), then as an extension of that teaching, the inability of the demons to repent can be comprehended or justified.

            The Bible teaches that a man who has truly experienced God cannot be brought back to repentance if he/she rejects God, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 6:4-6, RSV, Emphasis Mine). Such a person, after his rejection of God, still possesses freewill. Although this freewill precludes the ability to repent.

            Since the Bible teaches that a man, who has truly experienced God, cannot repent if he rejects HIM, fallen angels who have rejected God cannot repent, for they rejected HIM while they were in HIS presence.

            The inability of the fallen angels to repent need not necessarily be construed as an unforgivable sin committed by the fallen angels. The doctrine of the unforgivable sin presupposes the ability to repent, for the process of forgiveness cannot be initiated without repentance.

            Therefore, the teaching that repentance is impossible for those who reject God after having truly experienced HIM provides clarity to the inability of the fallen angels to repent even while possessing freewill. (The metaphysics of this freewill that precludes the ability to repent would be an intriguing theme to discuss, but that’s for another day.)

God’s Expectation & Man’s Most Appropriate Response

            What does this theme (the inability of fallen angels to repent) teach us?

            God expects HIS people to love HIM and love HIM more. God has done everything for us to love HIM and not reject HIM. Our love for God would be strengthened if we [strive to] remain in HIS presence always.

            The world and its ruler – Satan, will do everything possible to distract us from loving God. If we consciously or unconsciously allow that distraction to gain strength in our Christian life, then our relationship with God would be on shaky ground.

            Therefore, our most appropriate response is to remain with God; love, obey and trust HIM at all times – be it in moments of joy or pain, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NET).

Endnotes:

¹https://www.gotquestions.org/angels-repent.html (last accessed on 10^th August 2017)

²https://www.gotquestions.org/angels-free-will.html (last accessed on 10^th August 2017)

³http://www.deonvsearth.com/i-wish-i-could-go-back-to-heaven-demon-speaks-through-16yr-old-girl-video/ (last accessed on 10^th August 2017)

⁴https://www.gotquestions.org/angels-repent.html (last accessed on 10^th August 2017)

Photo credit: Guillaume DELEBARRE (off for a while) via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Do Angels Visit Us Now?

Angels are God’s special agents. The Bible uses various terms for angels – ‘spirits’ (Hebrews 1: 14), ‘sons of God’ (Job 1: 6, 2: 1), ‘holy ones’ (Psalm 89: 5,7), ‘watchers’ (Daniel 4:13, 17, 23), ‘powers’ (Ephesians 1: 21), and ‘thrones,’ ‘dominions,’ ‘principalities,’ ‘authorities’ (Colossians 1: 16).

Angels, although obviously inferior to God, are superior to man (Psalm 8: 5, Hebrews 2: 7). Angels serve mankind, especially children (Psalm 91: 11-12; Matthew 18: 10; cf. Acts 5: 19, 12: 15).

However, I do not subscribe to the belief that there are individual guardian angels (one angel for every person), for the Bible does not offer any convincing support to this notion.

The Bible cites various angelic visitations (2 Kings 6: 15-17; Luke 1: 11; Acts 12 et al.). Angels have appeared in their original form or in human form (Genesis 18: 2; Joshua 5: 13-14; Mark 16: 5 et al.).

If angels appeared to people during the Old and the New Testament days, we can reasonably expect angelic visitations now, unless there is a divine prohibition for angelic visitations.

When this subject is discussed, some would vouch for angelic visitations alongside which there are others who would ridicule the belief of such supernatural occurrences. This is a given. But skeptics cannot alter the truth.

Searching for ‘angel encounters’ or ‘angel visitations’ in Google, yields several occurrences of angelic visits. While it may be hard to believe everything we read, the fact remains that such supernatural visits are indeed possible.

Why? Since the Bible says so. Moreover, credible sources have experienced angelic visitations.

J.P Moreland, a very well respected Christian philosopher and theologian, is a distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He explains his angelic encounter in this video. Please take a moment to watch this clip. 

I would not have ventured into writing this blog if I did not have an angelic visitation. But I do believe that I encountered an angel once.

The incident occurred in Mumbai in 2003. I was en route to Hong Kong. The domestic flight from Coimbatore to Mumbai was inordinately delayed, due to which I had only half hour to board my international flight.

But the International airport at Mumbai was a half hour ride by a cab or a bus in moderate traffic (the same time span in which I was to board my flight!). And there I was stranded at the domestic airport during the peak evening traffic hours.

I was informed that the airport shuttle would take me from the domestic to the International airport. But as soon as I got out of baggage clearance I was told that the airport shuttle was scheduled to leave 15 minutes later.

If I were to wait for the airport shuttle, I was sure to miss my international flight.

Time assurances in India aren’t necessarily sacrosanct. I didn’t want to wait for the airport shuttle. I was perplexed and angry.

Just then an auto rickshaw driver approached and assured me that he would take me to the international airport in 15 minutes flat.

I had no other option but to believe him. So I accepted his offer. But he had a word of caution for me! He cautioned me to hold on to the metal rod that was behind his seat. As a compelled passenger, I held on to that metal rod as if my life depended on it.

The next fifteen minutes was probably the most exciting fifteen minutes of my life! Although the auto rickshaw was thundering and weaving through heavy traffic at a very high speed, I felt rather safe!

To cut the long story short, the auto rickshaw driver took me safely to the International airport and I was the last passenger to board my flight.

The airport authorities wondered how I reached the international airport from the domestic in 15 minutes. They knew about the very late arrival of my domestic flight, and they knew the impossibility of the situation to reach the international airport at that time of the day.   

It is customary of the auto rickshaw drivers to extract large sum of money from their helpless passengers. But this man was radical. He took the exact amount his meter reading displayed. 

My friends who were familiar with the Mumbai traffic refused to believe this incident, for they said that it was impossible to cover the distance between the domestic and international airport during the peak evening traffic in 15 minutes.

But this was an unexplainable reality in my life. And even to this moment, I believe the auto rickshaw driver was an angel in human form. Else it was impossible to board the international flight, especially when it was unwilling to wait for one passenger and was scheduled for an on-time take off.

Although I believe in the Bible, this incident reinforced my belief that angels do exist and they do visit us.

But why do the angels visit us? Is there a pattern to their visit? In other words, when do the angels help us?

           

Even a cursory look at the table below indicates the presence of angels to deliver God’s people from their troubled situations. Therefore, we can reasonably conclude that when God’s people are in distress, God would send HIS angels to deliver and comfort those in need.

People in Bible	Scripture	Context of Angelic Visitation
Lot and his family	Genesis 19	Deliverance
Hagar	Genesis 16	Deliverance: Instruction amidst duress
Hagar and her child	Genesis 21	Deliverance: Rescuing Hagar and her child
Israel	Exodus 14	Deliverance: Protection
Gideon	Judges 6	Deliverance: Encouragement
Samson’s mother	Judges 13	Deliverance: Instruction
Elijah	2 Kings 1	Deliverance: Instruction
Elijah	1 Kings 19	Deliverance: Encouragement
Hezekiah	2 Chronicles 32	Deliverance
Daniel	Daniel 10	Instruction
Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, Shepherds,	Gospels	Birth Announcement
Jesus Christ	Matthew 4: 1; Luke 22: 43	Ministering & Strengthening Jesus Christ
Mary Magdalene & Mary	Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24	Encouragement amidst duress
Apostles in Prison	Acts 5: 19	Deliverance
Philip	Acts 8: 26	Instruction
Cornelius	Acts 10	Instruction
Peter	Acts 12: 7	Deliverance
Paul	Acts 27: 23	Deliverance, Encouragement & Instruction

The angels have also visited humans to convey instruction(s) from God. But we need not limit angelic visitations to specific instances such as distress or conveying instructions etc. God can send HIS angels anytime to fulfill HIS holy, pleasing and perfect will. Situations do not limit God.  

Let me add a word of caution here; while there are good angels that are in obedience to God, there are evil angels that rebel against God. While God’s angels would visit to help us, the Satan’s angels could visit to drive us away from God so to destroy us.

Any angelic announcement or intervention that contradicts God’s Word – The Bible, is from the evil angels, and is to be discarded immediately. The Bible is the final authority for mankind.

It is only when we remain in Christ would we have the ability to discern between good and evil (1 Corinthians 12: 10; 1 John 4: 1 - 3). So let us be watchful of these evil forces.

It is significant to observe that deliverance occurs only during distress. In other words, distress is necessary for deliverance. Therefore, while our innate inclination is to pray for a distress free life, let us pray for God’s will for our lives. And who knows, you may even have an encounter with an angel!

When angels do visit us, may we have the discernment to realize and recognize these supernatural occurrences in our life.

Have you had an angelic visitation in your life? If you have encountered angel(s), please do take a moment of your time to post your experience by commenting to this blog. May God bless and protect us from all harms and dangers. Amen.