Pastor John,
If Satan and his angels were cast out in heaven when Jesus ascended to heaven, then who were the devils that Jesus cast out in earth?
Leika
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Hi Leika.
Thank you for the question.
Satan and his angels were heavenly beings, of course, and could speak face-to-face with God. The Bible tells of times when that happened. God often sent them to earth, as He did other angels, to accomplish one purpose or another. In fact, Satan was in charge of this world; so, he was here often. You will remember that Paul called him “the god of this world”. In the Temptation, when Satan offered Jesus authority over the nations of earth, he had the power to do that because, as Satan mentioned to Jesus during the Temptation, God had given all the kingdoms of the world into his hand.
Satan’s angels are the demons that Jesus cast out of people when he was on earth. They had left their own heavenly bodies behind in order to live in human bodies, but they still had access to heaven when they were not in the human bodies they had possessed. In Genesis 6, we are told that these “sons of God” possessed human bodies in those early days because they lusted after women. Read 1Kings 22, and you will see an example of a demon talking face-to-face with God in heaven, and then coming down to earth to possess humans – false prophets, in that case.
What is meant by Satan and his angels being cast out of heaven is that they had their privilege to be in God’s presence taken away. Instead, they were condemned to wander among men on earth until the end, when Satan and all his angels will be damned forever. God has cursed them with the greatest curse, the curse of not being able to repent. They cannot feel regret for wrongdoing. Therefore, all they can do is sin. Peter describes their spiritual condition this way: “God spared not angels who sinned, but tartarized them and consigned them to chains of blackness, to be held until the Judgment” (2Pet. 2:4).
So, Satan and his angels, as well as other heavenly beings, were once blessed to be in heaven, but they often came to earth. Now, they can be nowhere but on earth. By the way, I love the sympathy for us that came from one of God’s faithful heavenly beings when he saw Satan and his angels cast down to earth to live here all the time with man: “And the great Dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Accuser, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven saying, “For this, rejoice, O heavens and those who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea! For the Accuser has come down among you, having great anger, knowing that he has little time” (Rev. 12:9, 10a, 12).
Hope that helps answer your question.
Pastor John