Are angels and demons real?

Angels are God’s servants sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. Hebrews 12:22 says there are thousands upon thousands of angels that God created to help carry out his will. Hebrews 13 talks about how you and I ought to always be welcoming and hospitable to strangers. It even says, who knows? Some of you by doing that may have even entertained angels unaware. There are only three angels mentioned by name: Michael the Archangel, Gabriel who appeared to announce the birth of Jesus, and Lucifer. 

So what do angels do? First and foremost, they worship God. They bring messages from God such as the Christmas story. Like when the angels showed up to a bunch of shepherds to announce, we bring you good news, great joy for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. The Bible also tells us angels throw parties in heaven for prodigals like you and me when we come to our senses and head for home, and for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Bible tells us they also help us in times of need. There was a time when Jesus was in the wilderness right before he started his ministry. He’s doing battle with Satan and all these temptations and it says, after it was all done, Jesus was spent. He was depleted so the angels came and cared for him. Who knows how many times you and I have been cared for when we didn’t even know it, comforted, protected when we were weak and depleted? Scripture also tells us that angels will be there at our death. So angels are messengers created by God to worship him, to bring messages from him, and to provide and protect God’s people.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a third angel Lucifer.  Whenever you talk about Satan and demons, I think we have to be careful to avoid two extremes. Some people like to see a demon under every rock, behind every bush, and that kind of thinking can fill us with kind of a fanatical type of fear. The other extreme is to totally dismiss this very real dark side as a kind of silly mythology that gives us a false sense of security. The Bible makes it very clear. It says in Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is not against humans, it is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Revelation 12:9 gives a brief description of this evil leader, the great dragon, the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. So where did this formidable, albeit defeated adversary come from? Well, in the Old Testament, we were told that God in eternity past created a wise, brilliant, and beautiful angel who was known as Lucifer. We’re told in Isaiah 14 that this angel became proud mainly because of his stellar good looks and sought to ascend to the throne of God himself. He wanted to be like God and wanted to reign as God. He wanted to be God and we’re told that as a result of his rebellion against God, he and his band of rebellious free-willed followers were cast from heaven forever. When Lucifer fell he took a host of angels with them and ever since they have been God’s relentless and contentious opponents.