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Digression 32: The Devil and His Angels

Comments

1. The Devil and his angels are to be destroyed. Everlasting fire is symbolic of total destruction (Jer. 17:27; Jude 7). Angels in the sense of supernatural beings cannot die (Lk. 20:35,36).

2. ‘Angels’ can refer to men (e.g. John the Baptist, Mt. 11:10; John’s disciples, Lk. 7:24; the two spies, James 2:25), the original word aggelos being translated and implying a messenger or, by extension, a follower.

3. This verse is describing the judgment at Jesus’ return (v. 31,32). If the Devil is a personal being, he is destroyed then, but Revelation 20:10 describes the Devil being thrown into a lake of fire at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ, which will begin at His return. If the Devil is a person, he can only be destroyed once – either at the end or the beginning of the 1,000 years. Seeing that Scripture says the Devil is destroyed at both times, it follows that it is not a specific individual but representative of something or various groups of people.

4. Matthew 25:32 says that the purpose of the judgment is to punish the wicked men of all nations, the “goats”. Why then is v. 41 saying that the Devil is going to be punished, seeing that, according to popular belief, he is not an ordinary man?

Suggested Explanations

1. The fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels; those “on the left hand” are thrown into it. It would seem that the Devil’s angels are the goats on the left hand, who are ordinary people guilty of vs. 42–45 – not visiting the sick or giving to the poor, etc. People who follow the Devil – their evil desires – are guilty of neglecting such things, therefore they can be described as the Devil’s “angels” or followers.

2 We have shown that “everlasting fire” represents everlasting punishment. The Devil and his angles are to be thrown into everlasting fire. Verse 46 says, “these (the unloving men and women of vs. 42–45; the “goats” of the human nations of v. 32) shall go away into everlasting punishment”. Thus the Devil’s angels are equated with fleshly people who are “angels” (messengers, i.e. servants) of their evil desires.

3. Matthew 13:38–42 says that those people who are sinners although apparently still in the kingdom of the Jewish world (vs. 38,41) are “tares” sown by the Devil, and they will be punished by eternal fire (punishment). The tares are plants similar to the wheat – the faithful – but at the day of judgment there is a division made between the good and bad Christians. Bringing together Matthew 13 and Matthew 25, we can see that the Devil’s children or “angels’ are the same as wicked men:

The good seed, the Word, wheat	Tares
Sown by Jesus	Sown by the Devil
Children of the Kingdom	Children of the wicked one
Sheep	Goats
The righteous	The wicked
Enter the Kingdom	Go away into everlasting punishment (death)
Loving people	Selfish people
(Mt. 25:35,36)	(Mt. 25:42–44) Them (people) which do iniquity wail and gnash their teeth (a reaction experienced by men).