Who is a fallen angel in anime? Attacks on people. Because of what, the souls of gods and angels here on Earth fall into the wheel of Samsara

Believers are rarely interested in the names of fallen angels. Mentioning those who betrayed God is prohibited. Nevertheless, every person who considers himself a Christian is obliged to know not only the “good” ones, but also the “bad” ones.

How did the apostates appear?

Mentions of spiritual beings who rebelled against the Creator are found mainly in Judaism and Christianity. In Islam, angels are presented as completely sinless creatures. They are deprived of freedom of choice, which means they cannot go against the will of Allah.

It is believed that God created angels to convey His will to people. However, some spiritual entities created by Him decided to challenge the leadership of the Creator and establish their own orders. Rebellious angels, also called Nephilim or demons, were cast out of heaven. This happened after the army led by the Archangel Michael defeated the renegade warriors.

Priests are often asked the question of why God did not destroy the Nephilim if He was truly all-powerful. There is no clear answer to this question. There is an opinion that the fall of some angels was predetermined by the Creator himself. God was pleased to create an opposition force. A person must make a conscious choice in favor of good or evil. Demons are necessary for the spiritual growth of people. Moreover, if sin does not exist, there will be no virtue.

The leaders of the fallen angels are considered to be:

Among the fallen angels they also mention:

The names of fallen angels have long become common nouns. Disobedient wives are often compared to Lilith. The inappropriate behavior of a naughty teenager is equated to the rebellion of Lucifer, going against the Creator. The Christian Church calls on you to avoid dark angels and resist them in every possible way. Moreover, even among religious leaders there are many who understand the necessity of the existence of demons.

Fallen angel Ustar. 1. Angel expelled from heaven; evil spirit. ◊ In comparison. [ Baron:] Animal lust - this is the abyss into which you rushed, like a fallen angel. We prepared you to rule the world, you traded divine power for a girl(A.N. Tolstoy. Mahatma). 2. Peren. A person rejected by society. The enormity of the tragedy follows from the moral law implemented in it by the fate of its heroes - sublime and deep people or rejecters of human nature, fallen angels(Belinsky. “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov). In the defeat of the revolution and the empire, there was no time to come to one’s senses... The singer of this era is Byron, gloomy, skeptical, a poet of denial and a deep break with modernity, a fallen angel, as Goethe called(Herzen. Romantic dilettantes).

Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008.

Synonyms:

See what “Fallen Angel” is in other dictionaries:

    fallen Angel- Satan, father of lies, spirit of darkness, prince of darkness, Mephistopheles, devil, enemy of the human race Dictionary of Russian synonyms. fallen angel noun, number of synonyms: 9 enemy of the human race... Synonym dictionary

    FALLEN ANGEL- “FALLEN ANGEL (THE MAGNIFICENT II)”, Georgia USA, ARIES/IA CENTER/MERANI RICHARDS, 1993, color, 77 min. Comedy. The hero of the film experiences incredible adventures in the most exotic corners of the globe. And it doesn’t matter that this is a figment of the actor’s imagination when... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema

    FALLEN ANGEL- (fallen angel) A security on the US market, the value of which has fallen below its original value; the incentive to sell it may be increased income (yield) from it. Finance. Dictionary. 2nd ed. M.: INFRA M, Ves Mir Publishing House. Brian Butler,... ... Financial Dictionary

    Fallen Angel- this is an angel who rebelled against the will of God and was expelled from paradise by Him for this. For people, this is the angel of death, grief, and misfortune. Fallen angels are demons, demons, and devils. In the world this is what they call sinners, people who have stumbled, changed, betrayed,... ... Fundamentals of spiritual culture (teacher's encyclopedic dictionary)

    Fallen Angel- 1. Book. Outdated Angel expelled from heaven. F 1.14. 2. Unwind Iron. About a man rejected by society. F 1.14. 3. Jarg. they say Joking. iron. The male genital organ is in an unexcited state. Shchuplov, 53 ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

    fallen Angel- 1) Angel expelled from heaven; evil spirit. 2) About a person who is a social outcast... Dictionary of many expressions

    Fallen Angel (film)- Fallen Angel (film, 1988) This term has other meanings, see Fallen Angel (film). Fallen Angel Broken Angel Genre Romance Director Richard Heffron ... Wikipedia

    Fallen Angel (film)- Fallen Angel (film, 1945) Fallen Angel (film, 1988) Broken Angel Fallen Angel (film, 1990) Fallen Angel (film, 2003) Fallen Angel) See also Fallen angels... ... Wikipedia

    Fallen Angel (film, 1990)- Fallen Angel Descending Angel Genre drama Director Jeremy Cagan Starring Eric Roberts George Scott Diane Lane Duration 98 min ... Wikipedia

    Fallen Angel (film, 1988)- Fallen Angel Broken Angel Genre melodrama Director Richard Heffron Starring Susan Blakely William Shatner Duration 96 min. Country... Wikipedia

Books

  • Fallen Angel, Camila Castelo Branco. The novel by the Portuguese writer Camilou Castelo Branco The Fallen Angel (1865) has not previously been translated into Russian; this is the first attempt at a scientific publication of one of the most famous works...

We have all heard the word “angel” more than once. And they not only heard it, but also used it in their speech. What do we know about angels? Who is this, and why is the first association that arises when you mention this word - divine power and something spiritual? What do they look like and what is their mission? We will learn about all this in this article.

Who is an angel?

An angel is a messenger of God, His servant. This is exactly how this concept is described. This is actually a literal translation, which from the Greek ("angelos") is translated as "messenger, messenger."

Who an angel is is known all over the world, in every religion. According to the Holy Scriptures, angels were created long before the creation of the whole world, and their purpose was to serve God. What kind of service? They glorify God, convey messages from Him to man, protect people and carry out many other tasks. Many of them have a specific mission.

But there are also those angels who refused to obey the will of God for unknown reasons. They were cast into the underworld as punishment and are called fallen. The fallen angel refers to the misanthropic and evil army of entities that rebelled against God and man.

What does an angel look like?

Many clergy express their opinions regarding the essence of the angel. For the most part, they agree that an angel is a light, fiery, insightful and quick entity. They are also credited with the desire for good and service to God, which is quite appropriate, discipline and infallibility, nobility and humility. Such qualities of an angel come from the purposes they serve.

An angel does not have a physical body, and is endowed with immortality. A rational entity with intelligence and relative freedom. Angels, not surprisingly, have no age or gender and do not change over time. As it was originally created, it remains in this form.

Despite the freedom given to the angel, he is limited by space. That is, he cannot be in several places at the same time, but he is capable of moving at tremendous speed.

Who this angel is can only be learned from the words of clergy and eyewitnesses who managed to see his coming. It is impossible to confirm or deny these facts.

Of course, we can only assign all these traits to angels conditionally, since no one knows exactly what they look like. This is a completely different level of understanding and awareness that people are not given.

We know angels as creatures that look like a person with white wings on their backs. Wings in this case are a symbol of the speed of fulfilling the will of God.

Angels are often depicted in armor or robes, with staffs, spears or axes in their hands as the personification of the Heavenly Host.

Angelic ranks

There is a certain system, a special hierarchy, generally accepted by everyone. Thus, the entire angelic army is divided into three large groups, or triads.

The first triad includes Cherubim (the name means “abundance of knowledge and wisdom”), Seraphim (“flaming ones”) and Thrones (“those withdrawn from earthly things and striving for God”). These are the highest ranks who are the purest and most unbreakable in their devotion to God.

The second triad contains Dominances, Powers and Powers. These angels are constantly enlightened by God's wisdom, and they do not listen to it, but simply contemplate it. Dominions are engaged in instructing earthly kings and rulers to wisely rule. Angels of the rank of Powers send grace to God's saints and work miracles on earth. But in the powers of the Authorities there is the taming of the devil’s plans, the angels of the Authorities take temptation away from us; These church angels also control the natural elements.

Well, the third triad consists of the Principalities, Archangels and Angels. This is the group closest to people. Thanks to them, the will of God is conveyed to us, helping us to improve ourselves. The principles govern all the laws of nature, the Universe, and protect nations and peoples. Archangels are conductors of God's revelations, they bring good news about the mysteries of God. There are angels with every person. They are assigned to protect and instruct us in spiritual life.

Who are fallen angels?

In fact, this essence was once also light and pure, created by God. But once having abandoned God, this angel was expelled from the Heavenly Kingdom for his atrocities, which is why he became dark and vengeful, and was now called a “fallen angel.”

In Orthodoxy, fallen angels are also called angels of darkness. The most famous representatives are demons and demons; they serve Satan, the devil.

Satan first appears during the time of Adam and Eve in the form of a tempting serpent, who persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and disobey the will of God, for which they were later punished and expelled from Paradise.

A fallen angel is a cunning tempter whose mission is to destroy a person’s inner peace, his faith in God and virtues, and encourage him to commit sinful actions that alienate a person from God.

The Devil (Lucifer) was also once the supreme angel, among those closest to God. But it so happened that he became proud of himself and equated himself with the Father, for which he was cast into Hell. It was he who became the first of the fallen.

Guardian Angels: who are they?

The idea that each of us has a personal patron is repeatedly mentioned in literature, cinema, music and everything that surrounds a person. What kind of patron is this, on whose help many people count? This is a guardian angel.

According to Holy Scripture, such an angel is given by God to every person from birth and baptism. The strength and capabilities of this angel depend on the spirituality of a person, the positivity of his thinking and the good deeds that he performs.

Christian traditions say that every person has two principles - good and evil. Behind his right shoulder stands a good guardian angel, guiding him on the true path, and behind his left shoulder is an evil tempting spirit who wants to turn a person into evil. These two angels accompany a person throughout his life. Afterwards they lead to the gates of Heaven (heavenly angel) or Hell (fallen angel), depending on what path in life a person has chosen - good or more evil.

That is why we cross ourselves from right to left, the handshake is done with the right hand, and the right hand is also applied to the heart. Many more such examples can be given, but the essence remains the same: the right side is very symbolic in Christianity.

Do Guardian Angels Really Exist?

When it becomes clear who the patron angel is, questions arise about whether their existence is true. Is our spiritual protector really with us throughout our lives? Can anyone confirm the existence of such an entity as a guardian angel?

Of course, there is no scientific confirmation of the existence of angels, nor is there a refutation. Many people turn to angels and God in the most difficult moments in their lives, despite the lack of evidence.

There are many different situations in which people miraculously survive. This can be attributed to a happy accident and said that “a man was born wearing a shirt.” That's what the skeptics will do. But we can conclude that since a person survived under incredible conditions, it means that he is kind, and a strong guardian angel is assigned to him, who protects him.

Angel of Death

Before we talk about this angel, it is worth noting that the Bible does not say anything about the existence of a separate angel responsible for being with a person who is dying.

Despite this, there are references to such a creature in other religions. For example, in Judaism the angel of death is known as Sariel, Azrael or Samael, in Islam it is Malak Al-Mawt, in Hinduism it is Yamaraja or Yama.

In different religions and mythologies, this angel is represented in different ways - a skeleton with a scythe in a black robe, a young woman or an old woman, even a child. Despite its appearance, its mission is one: being present at the moment of a person’s death and either contemplating this process or directly participating in it.

In Christianity, such obligations could be placed on any angel solely by the will of God, but the angel of death does not exist separately. Often these angels are mistakenly called fallen angels, but this is not true.

What language do angels speak?

Today it is generally accepted that Enochian is the language of angels. The reliability of this fact cannot be confirmed or refuted. This language was created by occultists J. Dee and E. Kelly, it was classified. As the creators of this theory themselves claimed, Kelly received this knowledge from angels during meditation.

Doesn't exist as a separate one. There is an alphabet, and also the keys to it, since the language is encrypted.

How to pray to an angel correctly?

You can turn to an angel for help. There are special prayers addressed to a personal guardian angel and calling on him for protection and assistance.

It is important to treat with all sincerity and to be pure at heart. In fact, it is not so important what you say and what your prayer to the angel will be. He knows about your thoughts, and if you ask for help in a good deed, he will definitely help.

Some servants of God have become the embodiment of the forces of evil. Fallen angels - who are they and how did they appear? The reasons for the fall were different: some had accumulated resentment towards God for his decision regarding Dennitsa, some believed Lucifer, and there were those who had evil hidden in their souls for a long time. In the article you will learn how the fallen angels appeared, what were the reasons for their uprising, who was first, their names and powers.

It is generally accepted that the fall of the angels began with the victory of the army of God, led by the Archangel Michael, over the army of the Devil. As you know, Dennitsa (known as Lucifer) was the most beautiful and bright angel, he was closest to God. However, Lucifer became proud of himself and tried to put himself on an equal footing with the Creator. This behavior infuriated God, Lucifer was very dissatisfied and rebelled against paradise, gathering many followers who later became demons.

A large number of the future fallen angels were the most powerful servants of God. All future demons had their own goals and motives.

  • For example, a demon Abaddon possessed destructive power, this should have been his advantage. He took the chance to continue this business without any restrictions.
  • Another demon named Gaap sought to implement his ideas and saw such an opportunity in joining Lucifer. At the same time, Gaap very often carried out his plans by helping people.
  • Daemon Asmodeus thirsted for power and strength, he also did not miss the opportunity. There is also another reason for the fall of angels: the so-called essence, which did not allow them to grow spiritually.

No holy scripture mentions the exact time of the fall of the angels. For example, Christian sources claim that it was Satan who began the Fall. At the same time, ancient Jewish sources describe Samael- the strongest of the angels who tempted Adam and Eve, who despite this was not punished.

Lucifer - the first fallen angel

Despite the angelic hierarchy, almost all angels had their own goals and desires. The first who dared to go against the will of God was Lucifer. He was God's favorite angel; he had no equal in beauty or strength. Even the translation of his name meant “Bringer of Light”; he was compared to Venus, the morning star.

There are people who believe that Lucifer did not at all seek to overthrow the Creator. He just wanted to express his power and prove that he could be on an equal footing with God, but God misunderstood him and expelled him from heaven.

In the Church of Satan, Sandor LaVey takes Lucifer as a symbol of rebellion and the desire for better, for change. On the contrary, the traditional church believes that Lucifer was overthrown because of his pride, he was too proud of himself and considered himself equal to the Creator.

There are many opinions regarding the first fallen angel. Among them are those who believe that God and Lucifer are one and the same. Proponents of this point of view say that the Lord originally intended all the temptations emanating from the Devil in order to test people who must resist such temptations, not allow them to control themselves and continue to grow spiritually.

Perhaps all of you have read the brilliant novel “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov. It is there that you will meet the point of view described above: without sin, virtue does not exist.

Names of fallen angels and their powers

During the Middle Ages, there was a lot of research on demonology and the names of fallen angels. It was at this time that grimoires were written, which described the fallen angels, their history, powers, reasons for exile. Some names may be familiar to you: for example, Satan, Lucifer, Belial, Leviathal. In fact, there are hundreds of fallen angels, all of them differing in their powers, methods and reasons for expulsion from heaven. Female names are very rare because angels were not usually female. The names Lilith and Casicandriera, considered the queen of hell, are known.

Do not forget that demonology was forbidden and only in the 19th and 20th centuries such important figures as MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley began to appear, who wrote their works and practiced this science. It was at this time that new interest arose in her. There was a need to systematize already known medieval knowledge with new ones, and this was the result of the work of these magicians. They performed rituals with demons, allowing them to take a fresh look at the powers of fallen angels.

The Renaissance brought a new perspective on fallen angels. Cultural experts, artists, and sculptors tried to find positive traits in the traitor angels. They endowed them with such qualities as confusion, the struggle to express their own ideas and inner strength; negativity was practically invisible in this era.

There are a large number of rituals necessary to summon the fallen, including Baal, Asmodeus, Lilith, Azazel and many others. Before you begin the ritual of summoning the fallen, you must carefully prepare. Dealing with them is a dangerous game and should be taken very seriously.

THE DEVIL IS A REAL PERSONALITY, AN EVIL SPIRIT WHO OPPOSES HIMSELF TO GOD

At the end of the 20th century, when man has made an immeasurable leap in understanding the secrets of the universe compared to the Middle Ages, is it possible to speak seriously about fallen angels, about the devil as a real being, a real force operating in the world? All the talk about the devil these days is not a relic of the distant past, or the product of a sick imagination or a disordered psyche?

Many people, having heard something about the devil and his wiles, take it for a fairy tale. But no matter what people say and think about the devil, he really exists, this is undeniable. The devil exists, and his destructive actions are manifested everywhere in the world. According to one French writer, the greatest victory of the devil was that he was able to convince people that he did not exist.

By the devil, Holy Scripture understands a person, a free-thinking and disembodied being who fell away from God of his own free will. Some philosophers try to misinterpret the word of God and say that in those places of Holy Scripture where evil spirits are spoken of, it is necessary to allegorically imply human sins, vices, passions, and unclean desires. But this is fundamentally wrong. In the Holy Bible, the evil spirit is given names that clearly depict him as a person - “the evil one,” “Satan,” “tempter,” “murderer,” etc. Whoever replaces the personal name of the devil with the impersonal word “evil” denies the real existence of an evil spirit, and such a person cannot be a true Christian follower of Christ the Savior, who became incarnate for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil.

THE FALL OF ANGELS, THE FORMATION OF EVIL SPIRITS

God created all angels good. But some of them, as beings with free will, abused their freedom and took the path of resistance to God, that is, they fell into sin. No necessity forced them to do this. Holy Scripture clearly testifies that in the beginning the fallen spirits were sinless. This primarily follows from the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, when He, denouncing the Jews who did not believe in His words, told them that their father was the devil, who “did not stand in the truth” (John 8:44). Also St. The Apostle Peter in his 2nd epistle says: “...God did not spare the angels who sinned, but, having bound them in the chains of hellish darkness, he handed them over to be kept in judgment for punishment” (2 Peter 2:4). St. ap. John the Theologian testifies: “Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first” (1 John 3:8). The Holy Church, through the mouth of its God-inspired men, great ascetics of piety, has always maintained that fallen spirits were created good, and then they themselves became evil.

“We say otherwise,” writes Blessed Theodoret, “as if the spirits of evil were created evil from the beginning by the Lord of all, and as if such a nature was given to them; but that they themselves, through a decline in their will, rushed from the best to the worst.” Regarding the fall of the devil, St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes: “No one sinned before the devil; he sinned not because by nature he received the necessary inclination to sin (otherwise the cause of sin would have fallen on the one who created him as such); but, being created good, of his own will he became the devil.” According to St. Augustine, “the devil is an unclean spirit; there is good, like spirit, and there is evil, like unclean; he is a spirit by nature, and unclean by sin; of these two properties, the first is from God, the last from the devil himself.”

But how did the fall of the devil happen? All created angels were given freedom: either to be with God or to move away from him. At the moment of creation, the angels did not have final perfection and were called to achieve it through constant communication with God, which, in turn, provided them with indescribable bliss. But one of the closest to God, the Cherub-Daily, was seduced by his closeness to the Almighty and his role as a mediator between God and the angels closest to Him. Pride flared up in him before the angels, a consciousness of his superiority, since through him other angels received light and grace from God. Why did the highest angel become proud? This question should not occupy the human mind, since only God knows the answer to it. Is it logical for us, limited beings, to delve into those mysteries of existence that are known only to the Almighty? Along with pride, the star appeared envy of God as the Source of all heavenly powers and blessings. Then he, the very first light-bearer in the angelic world, was inflamed with an insane desire to become like God, to be God himself for the heavenly angelic ranks and the rest of the world. Envy pushed the star to slander God before the angels, and this created temptation among them, which led to the greatest catastrophe in the angelic world. The prophet Isaiah describes the fall of the star like this: “How you have fallen from heaven, O star, son of the dawn! He crashed to the ground, trampling the nations. And he said in his heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mountain in the assembly of gods at the edge of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-15). With these words, the prophet Isaiah shows the star in the image of a very great ruler who has lost his dominion due to his exorbitant pride.

Dennitsa carried away with him countless angels who were seduced by him. We read about the tragedy that happened in Heaven in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them, but they did not stand, and there was no longer a place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7-9).

In the Holy Gospel of Luke, the Son of God says that He saw the fall of Satan: “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Luke 10:18). That the devil carried away some of the angels with him, Christ speaks very clearly about this, depicting the Last Judgment: “Then the Lord will say to those on the left side: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” ( Matthew 25:41).

The fall of evil spirits was so deep that they will never rise again, will not repent of their evil and pride. There is no room for repentance for them; they can never receive God's grace.

Evil spirits fell away from God quite consciously, deliberately, because the Lord gave them a very great mind and revealed many heavenly secrets. They fell away without any outside influence and with extremely stubborn bitterness. Moreover, as disembodied spirits, they are free from any material shell and, therefore, were not subject to any temptations of the flesh. Therefore, the falling away of some of the angels from God was for them tantamount to death, after which there is no place for repentance, just as there is no place for repentance for a person after his death.

HOW TO RECONCILE THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS WITH THE GOODNESS OF GOD?

The devil, having fallen away from God, became the beginning, source, completeness and personification of evil, which at its core is a rebellion against God. Evil in itself is not an independent principle, not some kind of primordial evil nature, co-eternal with God, not a special original essence, but a state of the will of a spiritual-rational being that has fallen away from God. The Russian philosopher V. Lossky wrote: “The beginning of evil is rooted in the freedom of the creature. This is why it is unforgivable: evil is born only from the freedom of the being who creates it. Evil is a lack of good. God is infinite good. Therefore, evil has nothing to do with God, but only with limited rational creatures.” Evil is not created by God, and God is not responsible for it. On the contrary, the Lord, by His Providence, turns evil into good. Explaining the origin of evil, St. Gregory of Nyssa writes: “The rational nature was given freedom and combined with the power that invents what it desires, so that arbitrariness takes place. Good was not something forced, but was credited to free will. And since this free movement allows one to exercise one’s will, someone was found (the Lucifer, the highest angel) who used freedom for evil and, in the words of the Apostle, became “inventive for evil” (Rom. 1:30). He, since he himself was created by God, is our brother, and since he autocratically refused to participate in good, he opened the entrance to evil and, becoming the father of lies, placed himself among our enemies in everything in which only our freedom desires good. Therefore, for others there was a reason for the loss of benefits, which is what later happened to human nature.”

People often ask the question: did God know, when creating angels, that some of them would fall away, and if he knew, then why did he create them? Of course, He knew, for He is omniscient. But why did the Almighty create them? The Holy Scripture answers such questions: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Is. 55: 8-9). The personality of both gel and man is the highest creation of God, therefore the Lord, being infinite Love, wants to have communication with His spiritually intelligent creatures through love, and that is why God puts into His spiritualized creations the ability of love, which is based on choice. Both angels and man are free to choose either to remain in communion with their Creator, or to refuse such communication. But evasion from God as the source of good deprives the creature of good and leads it to the path of evil.

Some may ask: “How can we reconcile with Divine love and goodness the fact that creatures created by God will suffer forever?” Answering this question, one should first of all say that the All-Holy God loves only good, and He cannot in any way love evil, sin. The devil, the demons, have nothing good left. For this reason, unclean spirits cannot be the object of God’s love.

In addition, during creation he granted free will to the fallen angels as one of His highest gifts. The Lord does not constrain it, does not disturb it in order to forcibly attract these beings to bliss. The eternal bliss of all rational-moral beings lies within themselves, figuratively speaking, in their heart, and it cannot be given to anyone from the outside if there is no soil for it in the heart, which is prepared by the rational-moral being itself. There is not the slightest good left in evil spirits, from which the desire to free themselves from evil and become good could arise and develop.

Their eternal fate will be in accordance with their moral state. To better understand what has been said, let us give an example. Suppose a person who has developed a frantic passion for fornication, for sexual perversion, is placed against his will in a monastery, where everything breathes the holy atmosphere of chastity; or a blasphemer, a God-fighter, imbued through and through with hatred of religion, the church, is forcibly drawn into the church choir so that he constantly lifts up praises to the Lord with his lips. What will it be like for them, both the carnivore and the hater of God, in an atmosphere of moral purity and holiness that is unnatural for their internal state? If the Lord had not expelled the fallen spirits from heaven, then the heavenly atmosphere of holiness and love. The Divine Light illuminating the Heavenly Abodes would scorch these corrupted evil spirits an infinite number of times more painful than the fire of hell. That is why, in the fact that the Lord expelled the angels who had fallen into sin from Heaven, His goodness was also manifested. The condemnation of demons for all their evil deeds to endless torment in hell is in full accordance with the justice of God. It must be said once again that with your small human mind, with your meager logic and philosophy, you should not intrude into those higher spheres of the mysteries of existence that are known only to God and where there is an impenetrable boundary for the human mind. Is it really possible that a man-creation, who in the hands of the Creator is the same as clay in the hands of a potter, has the right to reach such audacity as to ask the Almighty why He does this or that?

NUMBER OF FALLEN SPIRITS, THEIR NATURE, STRENGTH AND POWER

The names “Satan” and “devil”, referring to the most important of the fallen spirits, mean: enemy, adversary, accuser, slanderer. He is the enemy of God and man. The devil slanders man against God (Genesis 3:1-7) and God against man (Job 1:9; 2:4). Unlike their leader, other fallen spirits are called demons. How many demons are there? Holy Scripture does not define, but makes it clear that this number is very large. Unclean spirits form a whole kingdom led by Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Matthew 12:24). The Holy Gospel says that the Savior cast out a legion of demons from one man in the country of the Gadarenes (Luke 8:30). From. The Holy Gospel also knows that Christ cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). The Word of God reveals to us that armies of demons are fighting against us, “... our struggle is against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, ... against the spirits of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12), writes St. ap. Paul. There is a difference in strength and power between unclean spirits.

Having moved away from God, demons have lost their sense of the joy of their existence, and now they can only manifest themselves in harmful evil actions. They constantly experience immeasurable sadness, grief, despair, melancholy, and despondency. Their internal state is an indescribable, painful fear of God in anticipation of the great day of the Last Judgment, at which they will be condemned to endless torment in the flames of hell.

Despite the fact that demons are forever entrenched in evil, they nevertheless have mind, will and feelings. They know a lot. In terms of intelligence, they are significantly superior to humans. Their will was immeasurably established in evil. They are irreconcilable opponents of truth and goodness. As for their feelings, the word of God speaks of their trembling and fear of God: “the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19), about their malice and hatred of everything good, about their envy, pride, etc. n. Demons, having possessed a person, can speak on their own behalf. At the same time, they can darken the mind and torment a person to such an extent that he can, emitting foam, fall to the ground. For example, the Evangelist Luke talks about this (Luke 4:35; 8:27; 9:39). Even before he fell away from God, the devil was a powerful angel, and while he remains powerful, he is not omnipotent, his powers are limited. Christ calls him “the prince of this world” (John 14:30). According to St. ap. Paul, Satan is the prince of the power of the air: “According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Satan leads the kingdom of darkness. He has power over the kingdom of death. St. ap. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews says: “That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).

What is the final fate of the devil and all his angels? They were defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary and on the day of the Last Judgment they will suffer final defeat and will be forever “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev. 20:10). Victory over the devil is granted to every Christian who accepts the atoning Sacrifice of the Son of God, worthily partaking of the Body and Blood of the Lord.