Question: Hi Greg!

Thanks for the great job you all do. Please would you help clarify the difference between demons and fallen angels. There is a school of thought that says there is a difference between demons on the one hand and fallen angels on the other hand. And there is the school of thought that says demons and fallen angels are the same. The school of thought that says demons are different from fallen angels says that fallen angels are (for lack of a better term) a race or inhabitants of the earth, i.e. pre-humans. But they (demons) are spirits.

Samson

Answer: Dear Samson,

The only biblically based option is the one which says that demons are fallen angels – just as Satan was Lucifer. So demons were once angels – but both Lucifer and the angels fell according to many passages in the Bible. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that demons are pre-humans, or some ethnic group or some alien group resident on the earth – the only possible passage I can think of that might be used to allege such a thing would be Genesis 6:2-4.

This passage speaks of sons of God, daughters of men and Nephilim – some believe that these sons of God were fallen angels and the daughters of men were human women – demons marrying human women producing a race of people called the Nephilim. While this makes sensational tabloid-like copy and raises an almost conspiracy-like curiosity, Jesus tells us that angels (fallen or otherwise) do not marry, (Mark 12:25). This passage in Genesis probably refers to human men from the godly line of Seth intermarrying women from the line of the murderer, Cain. Their offspring were "nephilim" (heroes) of a human sort, the kind of hero that we exalt in our culture, the ones that we admire, not necessarily ones with godly qualities. This comment fits in the general contextual description of Genesis 6 as pre-flood conditions are being discussed.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht