Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels, Messengers of God gone astray

In his Dutch article “Gevallen Engelen, Uitgerangeerden” Marcus Ampe talks about the so called cast out angels, or derailed messengers of God. He points out that we do have to be aware that in time past many stories were told and got interwoven with points of belief. Also in Jesus time and afterwards with the apostles ordinary people but also Pharisees and rabbis either told their pupils and bystanders to be careful for the falls teachings or even worse, wanted to be popular and used those falls teachings as background to build up untrue teachings. Lots of sayings were so popular that it was very difficult to preach against them or to avoid that they were taken up into the meetings and worship.

The apostles Peter and Paul warned their readers to be careful for mythological writings and other stories. But like Jesus they were not afraid to go into those stories and to use words or figures of speech their onlookers could understand. They knew their public and were aware of how they thought. They also used the words of their time, like they were understood in the first century of our common era. Peter for example did not belief in Greek mythology, but uses the word ‘tartarus’ because men were at that time generally buried in relatively shallow graves (6 feet deep or so) but in the case of Korah and his men, when the earth opened they were swallowed much deeper into the ground than a normal burial. The importance was the deepness to be expressed. Tartarus in Greek mythology was the deepest region of the world; beneath the underworld itself. There was supposedly the same distance between Hades and Tartarus as between Heaven and earth. Tartarus was the deepest dungeon of Hades, where the mythical gods of Olympus confined their prisoners. To indicate a place so deep that nobody would be thinking of getting to those bodies, it would be a nice expression. Also Paul dares to use ‘Hades’[1] which stood for the Greek mythological god who reigned over the dead in the underworld, the realm of the dead. Paul used it to indicate a grave in the darkness, the pit of oblivion. He knew and accepted that once a person died his life was finished. That person his life had ended and there was no way to return or to start all over again. For Paul it was clear that all had come to an end for that person, and he had no way out to change anything anymore. If he would have loved to come in the Kingdom of God he had to have taken care for that when he was alive.

Jude was also aware that what Jesus had told and what he knew from the Old Testament writings was Good News for men which had to be kept pure and clean of falls teachings. Jude wanted also to warn for all the rebellious people and those who wanted to undermine the followers of ‘the Way’ as they were called at that time. So did he also spoke about the leaders who rebelled against Moses when he used ‘tartarus’ or ‘the hell’ in his letter. He was not speaking of angels of heaven but referring to the incident of Korah Dathan and Abiram. (Jude 1:6)[2]

The word ‘hell’ at one time meant ‘to cover’ and was so used of the grave in the English language. We find in ancient English literature reference to the ‘helling’ of a house, meaning not the burning of the house, but the thatching of it. In agriculture the term ‘helling’ is in certain languages still being used. The farmer shall be ‘helling his potatoes’ to safeguard them. The meaning of the expression is not that he is making fried potatoes. No he is not roasting potatoes, but putting them into a pit and covering them for preservation from frosts, etc., until needed. In Dutch you also have a ‘helling’ or slope, ramp but in previous times was also a ‘talud’ or ’a bank’, a heap of sand or stones, a raising, heightening or embankment.

Though gradually meanings from a word may have dropped out of the word, we should be conscious about the terms used in the Biblical times.

This is also for the words ‘devil ‘and ‘Satan’ which are being understood differently by many readers. But also for those terms we have to go back to the oldest writings first. There we encounter the first indication about angels, or messengers of God who reacted in a certain way.

The prophet Balaam who lived in the days when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, had been told by God not to go on a certain hired mission to curse the Israelites. But he wanted the money offered him as a reward, so he went. Riding upon an ass, he soon found his way blocked by an angel. Normally we take it that angels are good beings. They are considered the helpers and messengers of God, not rebellious creatures. But here the angel of the Most Highest took his stand in the way as a devil or adversary (Numbers 22:22)[3]. In most translations we find ‘adversary’ for ‘satan’ like we are able to find in most Bible concordances that it is used in that way. And this not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament were we find Jesus calling Peter a Satan. Jesus did that after Peter had just made his great declaration of belief in Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" and Jesus had pronounced a blessing upon him as a result. But Jesus then went on to speak of his own fate; he would have to go to Jerusalem and there the leaders of the Jews would seize him and he would be killed, but he would rise again the third day. Peter could neither understand nor accept this and began to rebuke Jesus: "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." In other words, "You must not think of such a thing." But Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan: you are a hindrance to me." (Matthew 16:21-23)[4]

Jesus turned away from Peter because he did not like what he said. Peter was scandalous to Christ because this apostle was not minding the things of The God but human thoughts! Peter was at that moment a "satan" because he did not agree with what Jesus had said. He opposed the idea and was trying to persuade the Messiah not to do what he knew had to be done in his obedience to the will of God. From the old Testament we know that those who oppose the will of God are called ‘adversaries’ or ‘devils’. If Peter had had his way, Jesus would have rejected his Father's will and his great sacrifice for sin upon the cross would never have taken place. So Jesus had to tell this "adversary" (satan) to "get behind me". Peter, called "satan" was a man whorejected the will of God by preferring to do the will of man.

So first we had ‘satan’ being a good angel, and in the New Testament being an ordinary, but good man, which Catholics take as the only man to be taken as the ‘first pope’, the preferred one by God. In both cases we see that satan is not used as the name of a person but indicating a counter-action, a rebellion, a resisting but sometimes also a discouraging or preventing. The one who remonstrate or brings in objection can be called the contradictor, opponent, adversary, enemy, antagonist or objector.

It is a good angel who says about himself that he is the angel of God but has come as a devil or obstructer, an adversary because Balaam his way was perverse before him. (Numbers 22:32)[5]

But when we have that good angel who is a ‘Satan’, what about a bad angel?

Adam and Eve got tempted and many people do believe that was done by Satan, the devil in disguise of a serpent. Strangely enough then you could wonder why “Satan” was not punished, instead of Adam and Eve who now had to face dead, and all of us, who had nothing to do with it are damned to die.

We do agree that angels are celestial beings created by God before men. They receive a higher place then men and can be accommodated in heaven, a marvelous place without problems or pain. Angels are sometimes referred to as sons of God (a title also used of men who serve God)[6]. We also know about two named angels, namely Michael an Gabriel. Jude says that Michael is an ‘archangel’ meaning a chief or leading angel and the assumption is made that Gabriel is also an archangel. They both seem to have a special commission in respect of the purpose of God. [7]

Several biblical writers gave us an insight on the sort of angels or their purpose.

Not only can we read that these celestial beings called ‘Malak’ in Hebrew are messengers from God. In the King James translation of the Bible, the word is translated ‘angel’ 111 times, ‘messenger’ 98 times, ‘ambassadors’ 4 times. The Greek ‘Aggelos’ from aggello means ‘to bring tidings’. In the New testament version of the In the King James translation of the Bible the word is translated ‘angel’ 179 times and ‘messenger’ 7 times.

Angels in appearance look like men and are sometimes described as men, working for God.

We are told that they are in heaven to the glory of God and who do His bidding. They are even ranked there, because we find mentions of cherubim which are higher placed beings, but are still lower then God.[8] David calls them to bless Jehovah They excel in strength and obey the commandments of God.[9] Doing this they can come to the earth to protect people in the name of God.[10] Figuratively we are told that they even can take care that we do not hurt ourselves by doing something wrong, i.e. that we do not sin. [11] In that way the angels serve God to the benefit of human beings who can count on it that when they keep faith and to the truth they shall find those celestial beings, sent for to minister for their sakes, which shall be heirs of health and making it that they can inherit salvation. (Heb 1:14)[12]

The angels are sometimes referred to as sons of God (a title also used of men who serve God). But we also find references to stars as a Day star and a Morning star. [13]

Those angels are often sent by God for a certain task but also to represent God Himself. God always deals with men through angels and when God is said to appear to men it is always as an angel that people find the encounter with the Higher being. Therefore we can find notes as “the Angel of His presence”.[14]

Though nobody has seen God[15] people felt His presence and by the way of an Angel God spoke to them.[16] God led Israel through the wilderness by an angel who carried his name.[17]

People can feel Gods power in the presence of angels because they exercise the power of God in judgment upon nations.[18] So people, like Abraham Lot Joshua and could see angels.[19] When Christ had left the ‘hell’, the sepulchre or grave, were his ‘soul’, his full dead body had been but did not come to corruption[20], angels came to sit in that tomb. [21]People also could ask God to intervene for them. [22] But in all cases when people saw or met these angels they had the impression that it were men. [23] Perhaps it still can be that we are also confronted with messengers of the Lord, but do not know it. It can be that we meet or see an angel, but we will believe him to be a man unless he chooses to enlighten us as part of God’s plan and purpose. But we can wonder if they would sojourn on our shoulder. In case there would be one good angel on our right shoulder and a devil on our left shoulder, then that devil is certainly not being in hell, and would not have much trouble of torturing flames on our shoulder. We may be sure that it is not to be supposed that an angel’s normal mode of moving from place to place involves walking down the street (unless being seen to walk down a street has a purpose). We can stumble on that street, but can the angel stumble figuratively? When Isaiah talks about Lucifer, the one that many take to be a devil, he is talking figuratively and talking about the fall of the king of Babylon from the political heavens of his day.[24] Jesus, knowing very well his Scriptures uses also this figure of speech for the political system, with satan falling from heaven (again the political heaven) as a consequence of the preaching of his disciples.[25] Jesus could not openly speak about the Romans and attack them with words. By putting his thoughts in a ‘cloudy phrase’ onlookers could see the connection. Also the apostle John knew to keep himself safe by dressing the story with the heaven representing the political heavens of the Roman Empire. To keep himself safe John uses a lot of symbols. None of the symbols, the heaven, the woman, the child, the dragon, the stars, Michael and his angels, the war in heaven, the casting out into the earth are intended to be understood literally. (Try to clothe a woman with the sun or imagine stars cast upon the earth by a dragon’s tail – stars are suns in their own right, just one would obliterate the earth).

It only makes sense if the symbols are describing a cataclysmic change in the religious/ political ‘heaven’ of the Roman Empire.

The ‘war’ in his Revelation, also described in Ephesians by Paul[26], represents the struggle of the idolatrous government with Christianity. It ended when the Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion and Idolatry was suppressed. The clue to the reality represented in symbol appears in Revelation 12:11 where the Christian brothers conquered the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ the Messiah, and by the word of their witness. Lots of our first brothers and sisters really gave their ‘soul’, their body and flesh for their belief. They loved not their souls until death.[27] There was victory by this foolishness of men preaching and being prepared to die for their faith, represented by ‘Michael and his angels’.[28]

The ‘dragon’ was removed from the political heaven by the preaching and martyrdom of believers upon earth. It took some 300 years.

The devil in context is the propensity to sin in men who governed the Roman world with their idolatrous beliefs; one of the most pernicious being that the Emperor was a god to be worshipped. Christians were martyred because they refused to offer sacrifice to the Emperor.

Jesus with the foresight of the holy spirit was able to see the success of the seventy as the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom of God which would eventually ‘turn the world upside down’ and bring the benefits of Christian teaching and morality into Government.

Hence his comment ‘I beheld Satan as lightning (ie quickly) falling from heaven. [29]

Was this then the serpent, now the dragon, cast in a place of torture by fire? And was this devil as an angel taken by another angel with keys to that burning hell? [30] The abyss or a pit without a bottom means the hole people used to make to bury their dead. John tells us that Jesus shall come back to reign for a thousand years and shall rule the earth with a rod of iron. At the end of the thousand years a final rebellion is prophesied indicating a relaxation of Christ’s rule and a re-emergence of godless government. When all that are left are immortal they will no longer sin because they possess the divine nature and it is not possible to sin. That beautiful prospect can come to everybody who has chosen for the truth. The verity which is not what lots of people would like to be true. Not pagan philosophy, a life without boundaries or obligations and godless government. Even the Jewish myths would have to be broken. Many of these Jewish myths are fantastic fiction about Old Testament figures, such as Seth, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Solomon and Ezra. One of the religions appointed as the whore Babylon by some denominations, the Roman Catholic church, likes to keep to those Jewish myths which also can be found in the Apocrypha [31] and in other surviving Pseudepigrapha - meaning ‘false writings’. Jewish myths about angels and demons are also found inscribed on papyrus and pottery fragments dug up by archaeologists, and in the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered in Israel in 1948. They had lain hidden since around AD70 - exactly the time at which Peter and Jude were writing. In the Dutch “Gevallen engelen en hun verblijf”[32] Marcus Ampe points out to the 1st Century best-seller Book of Enoch, which is an imaginative expansion on the Sons of God and Daughters of Men in Genesis 6. Like many bestsellers today lots of people know about what the work is, but do not want to take it as true or would not like to agree with. The apostles Peter and Jude addressed their Christian brothers and sisters with the knowledge that they would know this literature. Like many educated Jews, they did not accept it as fact. Also the 1st Century Pharisee known as Pseudo-Philo (Book of Antiquities 3:1),Rabbi Simeon Ben Yohai (Genesis Rabbah 26:5), and Trypho, the Jew who debated with Justin Martyr (Dialogue 1:79:1) rejected this book of Enoch. Not to mention the Lord Jesus himself (Mark 12:25)[33].

The judged humans who are approved by Christ Jesus shall become like angels. It is said that they shall be equal to angels because they shall not sin anymore.[34] For indeed when people cannot die anymore and are God’s sons by being sons of the resurrection, being equal to the angels because they are not able to sin anymore this would implicate that angels can not sin. (Luke 20:36)[35] This is contradiction to what those believe that Satan, would be an angel that sinned, and that his followers, all devils, would also been rebellious angels and by angels taken humans.

When angels cannot sin nor die you can wonder how badness can be cast out and how Jesus would make an end to the devil.

Did you also not wonder why in the Holy Scriptures we do not find the story where it is told when the first angel went wrong and what God did with him? Would you not question why God did not cast out this devil “Satan” and made an end to him so that he could not tempt the rest of creation? Why was Satan not punished but Adam and Eve cast out of Eden, and why was the whole world destroyed with the flood, but not those devils? It just does not make sense.

Through history lots of stories found their way in the beliefs of people. Churches were also pleased with certain bestsellers, because they were very handy to go into and use them to scare people. The Catholic Church saw the opportunity to use that fear to bring in money for building their cathedrals, by letting people believe that they could even buy their heaven or reduce their time in a purgatory.[36] Ancient Greek and Roman myths stayed popular in times and their characters were also the base for the epic poem La Divina Commedia, written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321.This book has an imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife. The allegorical description is divided into three canticas (Ital. pl. cantiche ) describing sin (in the Inferno) (Hell) and virtue (in the Purgatorio and Paradiso) Purgatory and Paradise. In this book we also find the "deep place" (basso loco) where the sun is silent ('l sol tace). The church found it interesting to plot out the allegorical meaning of the Inferno. It represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.[37] Professor Miguel Asín Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter indirectly from the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi[38] and from the Isra and Mi'raj or night journey of Muhammad to heaven.[39] The latter is described in the Hadith and the Kitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before [40] as Liber Scalae Machometi, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has some slight similarities to the Paradiso, such as a sevenfold division of Paradise, although this is not unique to the Kitab al Miraj. Also in Resalat Al-Ghufran [41]the journey of the poet in the realms of the afterlife is described and includes dialogue with people in Heaven and Hell. Both were places which intrigued many people and were a goo substrate for several breeding grounds of stories about angels, devils, sorts of life in heaven, purgatory and hell.

Despite Paul’s warning (Titus 1:14)[42] some of the converts from Judaism to Christianity had brought with them Jewish myths - including the Book of Enoch and the legend of the fallen angels - and the documents of the early church indicate that these myths were later taken up by the Gnostics. Peter and Jude warned their beloved brothers and sisters to be observant and not to believe all those falls teachings.[43] Peter and Jude in their letters refer to the Book of Enoch.[44]

"Enoch the Seventh from Adam" is according to Jude a Jewish author who only prophesied to those that were taken in by his book. In the time Jude was writing his letter the false prophets mentioned in Peters letters had really come.[45]

In Jude 13 the "wandering stars" applies not to the 200 fallen stars as found in Enoch but is reapplied by Jude to those false teachers using the Book.[46]

In Jude 14 the apostle carefully uses "to" (see note on the Greek text at the end of this booklet), rather than "concerning" (NIV follows the traditional but incorrect reading found in the KJV, which is itself following the Latin text of Jude 14 not the Greek).[47]

Here Jude makes it clear that this particular "Enoch" (i.e. the Book, not the Genesis patriarch) did not prophesy "concerning" these false teachers "to" Jude himself, nor "to" the faithful, but only prophesied "to" the false teachers. This is Jude's way of making it clear that the quote that follows is not from the real Enoch of Genesis, but from the Jewish author who styled himself "Enoch the Seventh from Adam" and who only prophesied to those that were taken in by his book.[48]

In the Book of the Giants we get a continuation of the fallen angels fathering a race of giants[49].When angels do not marry[50] but would have made children by humans, they fornicated and did a sin which would have required the death penalty. The referral in the book of Enoch to Genesis mentioning the sons of God that saw the fair daughters of men and took themselves wives of all whom they chose[51], is wrongly placed to angels.

The archangel Michael accuse in the story the other angels, and binds them in Tartarus, the deepest region of the World, to await judgment for 70 generations. The angels ask Enoch to mediate with God on their behalf, but Enoch’s requests are refused. The giants also cause havoc on the earth, Michael appeals to God again, and they are drowned in the flood. This then also would mean that an end would have come to their existence. So they would not be able to do any further harm.

These children of the angels, led by their leaders Ohiyah and Mahawi, also ask Enoch to mediate for them. God decrees that the spirits of the giants shall survive to torment mankind and they become a new class of beings, the demons (one of the most powerful of whom was the same Asmodeus mentioned in the Book of Tobit). The giants’ human mothers also survive and become Sirens.

Jude uses the popular idea of angels that would have sinned and looks at the wandering stars of the Book of Enoch. (Enoch 21:3)[52] He employs a language used in Enoch about false shepherds of Israel: "trees without fruit" (Enoch 80:3), "plucked up" (Enoch 83:4), "raging waves" (Enoch 101:3-5?).[53]

At the beginning of creation God made those angels and allowed them to stay in heaven. That place is considered the place of total justice and total perfectness. Jesus told people to ask His Father to bring unto them also the blessings like they exist in heaven. If angels sin then the will of God is not done perfectly in Heaven and the request in the ‘Lord’s prayer’ that the will of God might be done on earth as it is in heaven, becomes meaningless. Certainly when also seemingly such an unfair treatment would be brought on the humans against those brought to those celestial beings.

In case everything in heaven is perfect, then the angels must have been perfect as well.

If angels can sin and die and we are made equal to them after the resurrection you can question the promise to those that believe the gospel and we will be no better off than we are now and then.[54]

When Peter used a hypothetical "if"[55]: "if the angels sinned.... then..." he presented a logical argument. And in his letters he asks his readers also to think logically. We do have to take all the texts of the Holy Scriptures into account and put them next to each other.

Taking the referrals of what people can expect in the coming Kingdom of God we know that angels cannot sin, therefore there cannot have been a first cherubim who brought the first men into rebellion against God, because that would be opposing the Will of God and be sinning. This signifies that Satan the devil cannot be the fallen angel of popular Christian mythology but must be a personification of something else, namely the act itself of going wrong.

In case Satan is a wicked something, why is he not destroyed when all wickedness shall be destroyed? According the bible wicked shall perish and enemies of Jehovah shall receive the same treatment as all wrongdoers. They all will come to destruction, and the haters of the Only One God will be like the fat of lambs, they will be burned up; they will go up in smoke, and never again be seen. (Psalm 37:20)[56] The passing away in smoke means like going up in thin air, becoming nothing and disappearing for ever.[57] Would a fallen angel not be far away from God? When that Satan rebelled in God was it then not because he did not trust Him? So would that angel lost faith in God? After Jesus had died on the wooden pole did he not make an end to evil and brought satan to an end? Would God not grant His son then the honor of bringing his words in reality and look at this Satan so that he would vanish and be gone like a puff of smoke, like a blob of wax in the fire ? (Ps 68:2)[58]

Jesus who was first lower then angels, even was tempted by ‘satan’ (read ‘evil’) shared our blood and flesh and partook of the very same things as all humans do, so that by means of his death he might render completely ineffective the Satan or Devil who caused death. (Hebrews 2:14)[59] As Christians should we not believe that Jesus really died and by doing that brought the prophesies to reality? Therefore “Since, then, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, in like manner He Himself also shared the same things, that through death He might cause to cease the [one] having the power of death, (that is, the Devil);” (Heb 2:14 LIT) Through death, Jesus vanquished him who had the power of death, that is, the satan or the devil. If this ‘Satan’ would be an angel residing in hell he should be dead by now or at least when the work of Christ would be finished. So he would not be able to stay in a place of real fire to suffer forever. When Jesus is going to finish the work God has asked him to do all be changed. Yes we may believe that those who are dead shall rise up again to live. In a second, in the shutting of an eye, at the sound of the last horn: for at that sound the dead will come again, free for ever from the power of death, and we will be changed. For our body which comes to destruction will be made free from the power of death, and the man who is under the power of death will put on eternal life. But when this has taken place, then that which was said in the Writings will come true, Death is overcome by life. In the Holy Scriptures it is cried out: “O death, where is your power? O death, where are your pains?”[60] The pain of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law. By dying we paid for our sins.[61] Jesus Christ being a man who could but did not sin, put away sin for ever [62] and destroyed the devil "through death", and that can only mean through his own death, by dying himself; and that the devil has "the power of death". The Greek word for ‘satan’ or devil is masculine, and so the pronoun standing for it is the masculine "he", but that does not mean that ‘it’ has to be a ‘man’ or person. Often in the Holy Bible do we find personifications and the apostle Paul makes also use of that. [63] In case Satan is a person, then he must have an incredible lot of power. If Jesus' purpose was to destroy a powerful enemy, would he not have done far better to have had a strong, immortal nature like the angels? What was he doing sharing the weak nature of flesh and blood?

Clearly from the context of the New Testament "destroying the devil" is the same as "putting away sin". Hebrews 2:14 declares that the devil "has the power of death". The evil, wickedness handling or sin is often regarded as something high, a master or even a king. As sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21 )[64]

The sin, or the going against the will of God is the evil ‘satan’ of Jesus says to go away. In the rebuke to Peter Jesus even find that this so loved apostle is a danger to him because his mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men. (Mathew 16:23) [65] And that sheds a light on what that evil satan can be. When Jesus said to the Pharisees “ I am the light of the world; he who comes with me will not be walking in the dark but will have the light of life.” He continued to tell the Pharisees that they were the children of their father ‘Satan’, the Evil One. He then explains why. Jesus accuses them of being devils children because it is their pleasure to do ‘his’ desires. For Jesus their father Satan was a taker of life; and he did not go in the true way because there is no true thing in him. Jesus does not find that they are really the children of this so called fallen angel. He uses a personalization to indicate were those teachers and so called godly people go wrong. For Jesus their lives and deeds were evil By indicating that when the Pharisees their father says what is false, because it is natural to him, he points out to the essence of sin, the being of falsehood, the lie, the deceit. (John 8:44) [66]

When Jesus speaks about this deceit or about sins he also often refers to the lusts or desires of men.[67] Those desires and the lusts of the predecessors is always denoting human nature, something angels do not have. It is the human desire which is hostile to God. The evil is the living in the way of the flesh giving their minds to the things of the flesh. (Romans 8:5)[68] Angels are spiritual beings and would not gain much by becoming fleshy beings. So they are not interested in setting their mind on the flesh. And when they would do that they would die because “For the mind set on the flesh is death.” (Romans 8:6 EMTV)[69] Sinning is the enmity against God. We as carnal people can have our mind set on the flesh and by such be hostile toward God; for our mind does not submit to the law of God. (Romans 8:7)[70]

It are not voices of fallen angels, or devils which lure us in temptations, but our own desires. Though they are not always pleasant or right we can receive a blessing by undergoing this form of testing. “Blessed [by God] is the person who endures trials. Because having become approved such a person will receive the crown of life which [God] promised to those loving Him.” (Jas 1:12 MHM)[71] It are we ourselves who may not let our desires conceive us. “Rather, everyone is tempted by their own desire, being drawn away and allured. Then, the desire having conceived gives birth to sin, and this sin, when it reaches full growth, brings forth death.” (Jamess 1:14-15 MHM)[72]

Jesus told the listeners that he was going to come back, after he had died, been resurrected and gone up to his Father, to judge the living and the dead. Jesus then will come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he will give to every man the reward of his works. (Matthew 16:27)[73] Jesus at first being placed lower then angels is then to come down from heaven with a word of authority, with the voice of the chief angel. We are also told that the angels of his power shall come in flames of fire, with the sound of a horn: and the dead in Christ will come to life first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:7)[74] It was about this event that also many stories did go round and the prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these angels, “The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints, To be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him. These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men’s position in the hope of reward.” And the apostle Jude points out that the wicked had to be careful because also in the last days there will be men who, guided by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things. These are the men who make divisions, natural men, not having the Spirit. Clearly by being natural men it are not spirits or devils not from this world. (Jude 1:14-25)[75]

This man Jesus has always been a person whom we could believe. He was the most faithful witness who brought us the Word of God and delivered us from sin.[76] At the time of his return we shall get a form of rebirth again, a regeneration,[77] and men shall receive a form without shortcomings. Jesus shall sit on the throne with holy angels.[78] And once more in Scriptures we do not find not any reference to bad angels. So at the crucial moment of liberation from the evil, the badness, we are not told anything about angels going wrong and being punished. Instead we only here what happens at last with all men, the good and the bad ones.

We are told in the Holy Scriptures that when the glorious Son of Humankind returns with all his angels, at that time he will sit down upon his glorious throne of judgment and he who has then received all power to judge, may call himself the King. Seated on his throne he will also speak to those persons on his left-hand: ‘Depart from me, those who are cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!” (Matthew 25:41)[79] Jesus Christ is speaking of Judgment of which John also speaks in Revelation. The ‘naughty’ people, the ones who rebelled against God, shall be cast away as the rejected ones. This shall happen by having to face death again. Those resurrected and rejected will die again, that is why it is called the second death. By receiving that second death they are not going to go to a place where they shall be able to feel something, because in death we cannot fell anything. So they will not literally be tormented forever because Solomon tells us that the dead know not anything. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10) [80] They will be utterly destroyed and return to dust.[81] In case bad people would be placed in a chamber of flames to give them a same horrible treatment as the so called “fallen angels” or devils, then that would mean that they also would receive an eternal life in a conscious state.

The “the lake of fire” or ‘everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’ is a symbolic reference to the ‘second death’ meaning complete annihilation.

We know from the New Testament that with the return of Christ it is not yet directly finished. No, we shall have to face another thousand years. But we can have hope. We do not have to worry that we shall have to undergo the same difficulties like we get now. The old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, described as being cast into a bottomless pit, means the ‘tempting shall be brought to an end’. The angel coming down out of heaven, has the keys of the great deep in his hand, being the closure of the grave. That grave shall be sealed. (Revelation 20:1,3) [82]

If we understand it that in the Millennium Jesus will rule the earth with a rod of iron and that pagan philosophy and godless government will not exist during this time then the symbol makes sense and our understanding is intact.

But we are also told that after the thousand years, those who shall be born in the mean time, and did not had a test for proving that they are really for God, would have to endure for a short time a testing. This shall be done by letting the freedom of thought be tempted again by possible lusts and free governments. The Satan let loose out of his prison is not a person as above been proven, but is the evil that is given freedom to enter the world again. By giving the possibility of those characteristics entering the world again, nations can be formed again and be put in error. Perhaps it even can look like getting the unfaithful to God together to war. Though they may go up over the face of the earth, and encircle the living quarters of the saints, and the well loved town, they shall not be able to harm the righteous because fire shall come down out of heaven for their destruction. (Re 20:7-9) [83]

This prophesied final rebellion is indicating a relaxation of Christ’s rule and a re-emergence of godless government, not fallen angels who return to the earth to break Christ’s rule, because that is impossible. Jesus his position as High priest and as King of kings shall be forever. Those judged by Jesus at his return do not have to have a second judgment and belong to the ones who received the blessing to live forever. They received the possession of a divine nature. In their previous life they have proven to haven chosen for Christ Jesus and His Father Jehovah, the only One God. With their blessed form they received after Judgment left equal as the immortal angels[84], they will no longer sin because and it would not be possible to sin for them. Therefore there will be no more death and no more graves (hell).

The locked angels and devil do not have to be celestial beings. In the New Testament the Greek word ‘aggelos’ translated angel is not restricted to divine beings.

It is used of John the Baptist and his messengers.in Matthew 11:10 and Luke 7:24 “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger <aggelos> before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Plus “And when the messengers <aggelos> of John were departed,”.[85]

It is used of Jesus’ disciples. For example in Luke 9:52 “And sent messengers <aggelos> before his face:”[86]

Previously we also showed that the devil’s angels can easily be understood as meaning men whose lives are evil. Like Jesus who says of the Pharisees that they ‘are of their father the devil.’ (John 8:44)[87] They were not literally children of a bad spirit but their deeds, their mind was evil.

Death (mortality) nor hell (grave) cannot be literally cast into a lake of fire.

The devil or evil ones spoken of are the feckless, unbelieving, abominable, faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars. For them it’s Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death! (Revelation 21:8)[88]

The Beast of John’s Revelation which theoretically could be cast into a lake of fire cannot be understood as a literal beast. There is no such beast with seven heads and ten horns literally tormented in a lake of fire – it represents something else which will be destroyed, namely Godless government.

The false prophet (which is another name for the two horned beast) is not a literal person – it represents apostate religion - something which cannot be literally tormented by fire.

And as we have seen is the devil not the fallen angel of Christian mythology but rather a symbol for the propensity to sin which resides within man both individually and collectively in human government and society, which cannot be literally cast into a lake of fire or tormented. Angels can also be ordinary messengers but also the advocation of something evil or something unjust. All messengers or angels of bad news or evil actions are people with a character which is not immaculate. Those “devils” are not “fallen angels”. Satan, the devil is every evil action and shall being destroyed forever. This means the end to all evil. Therefore there will be no more death and no more graves (hell).

In Jesus time everybody knew the fire out of Jerusalem which was kept burning, to make sure that all the corpses could safely be destroyed. The bodies brought to that place received complete annihilation.

The lake is clearly just the end of everything, the final place of oblivion, which shall bring an end to all previous things. It means that no death shall be able to come over somebody and that they also shall not have to face any temptations. There just shall not be any mourning, nor crying, nor pain, no fear, unbelief, murders, fornication, sorcery, idolatry, or lies.[89] All wickedness shall be destroyed forever, so it shall also not exist somewhere in a place of fire or place of suffering. It all shall .be vanished.[90]

Angels cannot stumble but we, human beings have to be careful that our foot does not causes us to lose our faith. The eternal fire or Gehenna fire (Mark 9:45)[91] that shall not be quenched has the limited sense of not being put out until all that it is intended to consume has been consumed.

If God brings us to a knowledge of salvation and we willfully continue to sin then the sentence is still death but with the added punishment that we will be raised to see the promised kingdom of God and then die again.

It is only the false doctrine of the immortality of the soul and its conscious existence after death which makes eternal torment a possibility.

Once we understand Bible teaching that when a person dies his soul dies because the soul is the person and that there is no conscious existence after death, eternal torment becomes a none starter.

To have eternal torment one must have eternal life in a conscious state.

The Bible teaches that eternal life is a reward given to the righteous not to the wicked.

It also teaches that we do not have to be afraid of demons or ghosts, even not of real men, but for the reaction God is to take when we do vile things. It is the wrong going which is dangerous and where we have to be careful for.

Would you like to consign your enemies to eternal torment?

God is also mentioned as being an all-burning fire.[92] But He is more presented as the loving Creator, who often adopted His Plan to be helpful and forthcoming to the people. As a God of love who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He would not find pleasure in the suffering of elements of His Creation.[93]

The overall teaching of the Bible, found in 288 references about angels is that those celestial beings really are all, meaning all without exception, ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. We do not have a bad angel on our left shoulder, but we can trust that God can use messengers of Him to stand with us. Yes, Jehovah’s angel is ever watching over those who have fear of him, to keep them safe. It is not a fallen angel that comes around us or encamps around those that fear God. (Psalm 34:7)[94]

Let us be aware of the false shepherds mentioned in Peter[95] and also do not slander those celestial beings by thinking that they could ever come to sin. When we say that there are Fallen Angels we do bring against these honorable persons not just a kind of judgmental criticism, but a railing accusation. (2 Peter 2:11) [96] and remember when Michael, one of the chief angels, was fighting against the devil or Evil One for the body of Moses, fearing to make use of violent words against him, he only said, May the Lord be your judge. Remember he was talking to the situation of the bringing in of damaging evil, and not a person called Satan. (Jude 1:9)[97] According to Enoch it was Michael and three other archangels, who accused Shemihazah and Azazel, but according to Peter angels (specifically Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel) "do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord", and Jude adds that Michael would not accuse the devil himself. In other words the story of Michael making an accusation against the angels in Enoch 9 is false - and if the story of the accusation is false then so is the story of the angels’ sin.

So there are no angels that sinned, therefore we cannot say that there are Fallen Angels, and hell is just the grave, the sepulcher and no place of eternal torment, not for angels and not for dead persons because it also would not be useful for them because death people can’t feel anything[98] and only Jesus and God have power over the death, no angels.

Angels can’t sin, and the only who can do this are people who shall die.[99] When dead they shall not be able to do anything and they’ll perish for ever.[100]

Let us be happy that the Creator provided us with only good angels and accept the help of those messengers, who also prepared the way and brought the Good News of a Child of Salvation being born out of the virgin Mary.[101]

Jesus, the only begotten son of God is the only man now powerful than angels. He is also the master over death and life. He’ll wipe every tear from our eyes and banish death forever. Death shall be no more, nor grief, nor crying; nor shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. So there shall not be any place of further torture where people would have to endure more pain.

Let us not pay attention to the many stories people told about several heavens and hells or places in the deepness of the earth. It’s urgent that we listen carefully to the Holy Scriptures and to what the Master Teacher Jesus, Christos the Messiah told. Anyone who believes what Jesus said and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put Jesus in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. do not keep to the doctrines of certain churches but believe Him who sent Jesus. [102]

Dare to take the giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living and know that you have been transferred from death to life. (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14)[103] Come to the truth and accept that there are no Fallen Angels, no devil or hell and the only enemy you have to fear lies in yourself but can be concurred by keeping to the Word of God. Try to resist this only and last enemy Death brought forth by Sin, which shall be destroyed. (1 Corinthians 15:26)[104]

[1] ‘Hades’, corresponds with the Hebrew ‘sheol’ (grave), is translated ‘hell’ 10 times and ‘grave’ once. In most translations we do find in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “O death, where your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1Co 15:55 KJBPNV)

The other places where ‘hades’ is translated as ‘hell’ Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27,31; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 20:13.

[2] “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6 KJBPNV)

“And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained to Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that pertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” (Nu 16:32-33 KJBPNV)

[3] “And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of Yahweh stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his donkey, and his two servants were with him.” (Nu 22:22 KJBPNV)

[4] “From that time forward began Yahshua to show to his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from you, Lord: this shall not be unto you. But he turned, and said to Peter, Get you behind me, Satan: you are an offense to me: for you savor not the things that are of God, but those that are of men.” (Mt 16:21-23 KJBPNV)

[5] “And the angel of Yahweh said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? behold, I went out to withstand you, because your way is perverse before me:” (Nu 22:32 KJBPNV)

[6] “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7 KJBPNV)

[7] “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Da 10:13 KJBPNV)

“But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince.” (Da 10:21 KJBPNV)

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Da 12:1 KJBPNV)

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord [Yahweh] rebuke you.” (Jude 1:9 KJBPNV)

“And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” (Da 8:16 KJBPNV)

“Yes, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.” (Da 9:21 KJBPNV)

“And the angel answering said to him, I am Gabriel, that stands in the presence of God; and am sent to speak to you, and to show you these glad tidings.” (Lu 1:19 KJBPNV)

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,” (Lu 1:26 KJBPNV)

[8] “O Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, that sittest [above] the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.” (Isa 37:16 ASV)

[9] “A Psalm of David. Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength.” (Ps 29:1 ASV) “A Psalm of David. Give unto Yahweh, O you mighty, give unto Yahweh glory and strength.” (Ps 29:1 KJBPNV)

“Bless Yahweh, you his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word.” (Ps 103:20 KJBPNV)

“Praise you him, all his angels: praise you him, all his hosts.” (Ps 148:2 KJBPNV)

[10] “For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” (Ps 91:11 KJBPNV)

[11] “They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (Ps 91:12 KJBPNV)

[12] “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1:14 KJBPNV)

[13] “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7 KJBPNV)

“How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!” (Isa 14:12 KJBPNV)

[14] “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.” (Isa 63:9 KJBPNV)

[15] “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.” (Joh 1:18 KJBPNV)

[16] “And Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.” (Ex 33:11 KJBPNV) “And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” (Ex 31:18 KJBPNV)

“Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” (Ac 7:53 KJBPNV)

[17] “But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.” (Ex 23:22 KJBPNV) Here we also find the satan against the satans.

[18] “O Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, that dwells between the cherubims, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: you have made heaven and earth.” (Isa 37:16 KJBPNV)

[19] “And Yahweh appeared to him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;” (Ge 18:1 KJBPNV)

“And there came two angels to Sodom at evening; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and lodge all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, No; but we will remain in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in to him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men which came in to you this night? bring them out to us, that we may know them.” (Ge 19:1-5 KJBPNV)

“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went to him, and said to him, Are you for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, No; but as captain of the host of Yahweh have I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said to him, What said my lord to his servant?” (Jos 5:13-14 KJBPNV)

[20] “Because you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.” (Ac 2:27 KJBPNV)

[21] “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothes white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.” (Mt 28:2-4 KJBPNV)

“And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why seek you the living among the dead?” (Lu 24:4-5 KJBPNV)

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep.” (Joh 10:11-13 KJBPNV)

[22] “And the angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold now, you are barren, and bear not: but you shall conceive, and bear a son.” (Jud 13:3 KJBPNV)

“Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child that shall be born. And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, that came to me the other day. And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Are you the man that spoke to the woman? And he said, I am.” (Jud 13:8-11 KJBPNV)

“And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, until we shall have made ready a kid for you. And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat of your bread: and if you shall offer a burnt offering, you must offer it unto Yahweh. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of Yahweh. And Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when your sayings come to pass we may do you honor? And the angel of Yahweh said to him, Why ask you thus after my name, seeing it is secret? So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto Yahweh: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of Yahweh.” (Jud 13:15-21 KJBPNV)

[23] “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Yahshua, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Ac 1:10-11 KJBPNV)

[24] “That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!” (Isa 14:4 KJBPNV)

“How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!” (Isa 14:12 KJBPNV)

[25] “And he said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Lu 10:18 KJBPNV)

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,” (Re 12:7 KJBPNV)

[26] “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:12 KJ21)

[27] “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Re 12:11 KJBPNV)

[28] “And He said unto them, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Lu 10:18 KJ21)

[29] “Then Jesus said to them: “I saw Satan already fallen from heaven like lightning!” (Lu 10:18 MHM)

[30] “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Re 20:1-3 KJBPNV)

[31] Tobit, Bel and the Dragon.

[32] Gevallen engelen.

[33] “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels who are in Heaven.” (Mr 12:25 KJ21)

[34] “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (Lu 20:36 KJBPNV)

[35] “because they can no longer die. Being children of the Resurrection, they are like angels; indeed, they are children of God.” (Lu 20:36 CJB)

[36] The indulgence, to which Luther resisted that the church would press the people.

[37] Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on page 75.

[38] Ibn 'Arabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (1165 – 1240) Andalusian Arab Sufi mystic and philosopher.

[39] In Islamic tradition, the Night Journey, Isra and Mi'raj (Arabic: الإسراء والمعراج, al-’Isrā’ wal-Mi‘rāğ), are the two parts of a journey that the Islamic prophet Muhammad took in one night on a winged horse, around the year 621, of which a brief sketch can be found in verse 1 of one of the Quran chapters (#17: Sura Al-Isra).

[40] I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," in Le Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet, Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection Lettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.

[41] Resalat Al-Ghufran ( Arabic رسالة الغفران), meaning “The Epistle of Forgiveness”, is a famous Arabic book from the 10th century written by Abu 'alaa' al-Tanookhy al-Ma'arri (Arabic أبو العلاء التنوخي المعري ).

[42] “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.” (Tit 1:14 KJBPNV)

[43] “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evilly spoken of.” (2Pe 2:1-2 KJBPNV)

[44] As many as 30 references to the Book of Enoch can be found in 2 Peter and Jude.

[45] “But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.” (2Pe 2:1-2 WEB)

“knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,” (2Pe 3:3 WEB)

“Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:3-4 WEB)

[46] “They are wild waves of the ocean, foaming up their own shamefulness. They are wandering asteroids for whom the gloom of everlasting darkness is reserved. But the seventh person after Adam, Enoch, prophesies to these persons, saying, “Behold, YHWH arrived with his holy myriads,” (Jude 1:13-14 MHM)

“Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints,” (Jude 1:13-14 KJBPNV)

Jude quoting from the Book of Enoch: "See the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done" (1 Enoch 1:9)

[47] “They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for ever. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones” (Jude 1:13-14 NIV)

[48] Steven Cox in “The Angels That Sinned - Slandering Celestial Beings”.

[49] "And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ And Shemihazah, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear you will not agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then they all swore together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred who descended on the earth in the days of Jared." (Enoch 6:1-6)

[50] “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Mt 22:30 KJBPNV)

[51] “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” (Ge 6:2 KJBPNV)

[52] "wandering stars for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for ever" (Enoch 21:3)

[53] “For certain persons have sneaked in—their doom was written down long ago—godless persons, who turn the favor of our God into an excuse for licentiousness, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that although the Lord had saved a people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And angels, who did not preserve their original rank but left their proper home, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness, for the day of judgment, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in grossest immorality and unnatural vice, stand as a perpetual warning, in suffering the punishment of eternal fire. In just the same way these dreamers defile the body, discard authority, and deride the majesties. But the archangel Michael himself, when he disputed and argued with the devil about Moses’ body, did not dare to bring against him a charge of blasphemy, but merely said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" But these persons abuse everything they do not understand, and they are going to be destroyed by the very things they know by instinct, like the irrational animals. Alas for them, because they have trod the road that Cain did; for gain they have rushed into Balaam’s error and have perished in rebellion like that of Korah! They are blots on your love feasts while they feast with you, daringly caring for no one but themselves; rainless clouds swept along by winds; leafless trees that bear no fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars that are forever doomed to utter darkness.” (Jude 1:4-13 Williams)

[54] “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Mt 22:30 JB2000)

[55] “For if God did not forgive the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down into the deepest abyss and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;” (2Pe 2:4 JB2000)

[56] “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of Yahweh shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” (Ps 37:20 KJBPNV)

[57] “For, lo, they that are far from you shall perish: you have destroyed all them that go a whoring from you.” (Ps 73:27 KJBPNV)

“As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.” (Ps 68:2 KJBPNV)

[58] “(68-3) As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.” (Ps 68:2 JPS)

[59] “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the empire of death, that is, the devil,” (Heb 2:14 JB2000)

[60] “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Yahshua the Messiah. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Co 15:51-58 KJBPNV)

[61] “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Yahshua the Messiah our Lord.” (Ro 6:23 KJBPNV)

[62] “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Heb 9:26 KJBPNV)

[63] See the letter to the Romans chapter 5 and 6 where sin is personified; and in both clearly it is sin that "has the power of death".

[64] “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Yahshua the Messiah our Lord.” (Ro 5:20-21 KJBPNV)

[65] “But he turned, and said to Peter, Get you behind me, Satan: you are an offense to me: for you savor not the things that are of God, but those that are of men.” (Mt 16:23 KJBPNV)

[66] “Then spoke Yahshua again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said to him, You bear record of yourself; your record is not true.” (Joh 8:12-13 KJBPNV)

“You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Joh 8:44 KJBPNV)

[67] “Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Joh 8:44 AV)

[68] “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (Ro 8:5 KJBPNV)

[69] “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Ro 8:6 KJBPNV)

[70] “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Ro 8:7 KJBPNV)

[71] “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.” (Jas 1:12 KJBPNV)

[72] “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.” (Jas 1:14-15 KJBPNV)

[73] “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (Mt 16:27 KJBPNV)

[74] “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in the Messiah shall rise first:” (1Th 4:16 KJBPNV)

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Yahshua shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,” (2Th 1:7 KJBPNV)

[75] “Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth." These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead. But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: "In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts." These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit! But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the [real] life! Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven. And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating— to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.” (Jude 1:14-25 Message)

[76] “And from Yahshua the Messiah, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” (Re 1:5 KJBPNV)

[77] “And Yahshua said to them, Truly I say to you, That you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Mt 19:28 KJBPNV)

[78] “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:” (Mt 25:31 KJBPNV)

[79] “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory. And all nations shall be gathered before Him. And He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.” (Mt 25:31-32 MKJV)

“Then He also shall say to those on [the] left [hand], Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Mt 25:41 MKJV)

[80] “For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” (Ec 9:5 JPS)

“Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” (Ec 9:10 JPS)

[81] “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust.” (Ec 3:19-20 JPS)

[82] “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.” (Re 20:1 KJBPNV)

“And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Re 20:3 KJBPNV)

[83] “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encircled the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” (Re 20:7-9 KJBPNV)

[84] “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (Lu 20:36 KJBPNV)

[85] “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare your way before you.” (Mt 11:10 KJBPNV)

“And when the messengers of John had departed, he began to speak to the people concerning John, What went you out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?” (Lu 7:24 KJBPNV)

[86] “And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.” (Lu 9:52 KJBPNV)

[87] “You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies.” (Joh 8:44 Message)

[88] “But as for the cowardly, the untrustworthy, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those involved with the occult and with drugs, idol-worshippers, and all liars-their destiny is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, the second death.” (Re 21:8 CJB)

[89] “and he will wipe away every tear from the eyes of them, and the death not shall be longer; neither mourning nor crying nor pain not shall be longer; because the first things passed away.” (Re 21:4 Diaglot)

“To the but cowards and faithless ones, and abominable ones, and murderers and fornicators, and sorcerers and idolaters, and all the liars, the portion of them in the lake in that burning with fire and brimstone, which is the death the” (Re 21:8 Diaglot)

[90] “But wicked people will disappear. The LORD’S enemies will vanish like the best part of a meadow. They will vanish like smoke.” (Ps 37:20 GWV)

[91] “And if your foot offends you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter lame into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:” (Mr 9:45 KJBPNV)

[92] “For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” (De 4:24 KJBPNV)

[93] “And Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,” (Ex 34:6 KJBPNV)

“O taste and see that Yahweh is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him.” (Ps 34:8 KJBPNV)

“He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.” (1Jo 4:8 KJBPNV)

[94] “The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them.” (Ps 34:7 ASV)

[95] “These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved.” (2Pe 2:17 ASV)

[96] “whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.” (2Pe 2:11 ASV)

[97] “But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” (Jude 1:9 ASV)

[98] “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” (Ec 9:5 ASV)

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest.” (Ec 9:10 ASV)

“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.” (Ps 146:4 ASV)

[99] “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18:4 ASV)

“And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” (Ac 3:23 ASV)

[100] “As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun.” (Ec 9:6 ASV)

“They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish.” (Isa 26:14 ASV)

[101] “As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare your way before you.” (Mr 1:2 KJBPNV)

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary: for you have found favor with God. And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name YAHSHUA. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” (Lu 1:26-33 KJBPNV)

[102] “Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (Joh 5:24 KJBPNV)

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother remains in death.” (1Jo 3:14 KJBPNV)

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1Co 15:26 KJBPNV)

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Re 21:4 KJBPNV)

“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for Yahweh has spoken it.” (Isa 25:8 KJBPNV)

[103] “I (Jesus) tell you this truth: The person who listens to my word and continues to believe in the One who sent me possesses endless Life. And so that person does not come into condemnation, but has crossed over from the Death unto the Life.” (Joh 5:24 MHM)

[104] “Death is the last enemy to be rendered completely ineffectual.” (1Co 15:26 MHM)