Are angels and demons real?

What the Bible says

The Bible does not treat the visible world as the whole of reality; God has also made beings we cannot see. First, angels: Hebrews asks what they are for.

Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Heb 1:14

Angels are God's messengers. They appear most clearly around the birth of Jesus. Gabriel told Mary, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God" (Luke 1:30), and an angel brought the shepherds the news.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:10

The angels of Scripture are not winged babies. People are often afraid of them, and their first word is often "Do not be afraid." And they are always creatures. When John fell at an angel's feet to worship, the angel said, "Worship God!" (Rev 22:8-9). Paul likewise warns against the worship of angels (Col 2:18).

On the other side stands a being who opposes God. The Hebrew satan (שָׂטָן) means "adversary" or "accuser," and he appears in Job and Zechariah. In the New Testament he is called the devil, Satan and the ancient serpent (Rev 12:9). He tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Matt 4:10-11), and his power became plain when Jesus drove out evil spirits.

All the people were amazed and began to ask one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him!”

Mark 1:27

The spirits knew who Jesus was (Mark 1:24), yet they could only obey. Paul says the Christian struggle is not only with visible people.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Eph 6:11-12

Peter describes the same reality.

Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Pet 5:8

But what Scripture stresses most is that this enemy has already been beaten.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Col 2:15

So James says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). The devil is not a second god on an equal footing. He is a condemned creature (John 16:11). The church has long read the "angels when they sinned" of 2 Peter 2:4 as meaning that these beings were first created good and then fell (2 Pet 2:4).

The church's witness

From the beginning the church confessed that angels and the devil are real. The Nicene Creed confesses God as maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible The Nicene Creed, and the church has understood the invisible to include the angels. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) taught that the devil and the other evil spirits were created good by nature but made themselves evil.

Traditions differ about the angels' work. Catholic and Orthodox Christians teach that each person has a guardian angel and keep traditions of angelic ranks. Matthew 18:10 is often cited, and Jerome marvels at it: "High dignity of souls, that each from its birth has an Angel set in charge over it!" Jerome. Origen, by contrast, reports that there were different opinions about it Origen. Protestants are generally more cautious, since Scripture says little about the angelic ranks. Calvin warns against curious speculation, does not dare affirm that each believer has a single guardian angel, and urges readers to stay with what Scripture gives: angels carry out God's will and care for believers Calvin, Institutes 1.14.7.

The Fathers read the exorcisms for the limits of the devil's power. On Mark 1:23 Pseudo-Chrysostom teaches, "let us not believe devils, howsoever they may proclaim the truth" Pseudo-Chrysostom. Bede explains why the spirits were afraid: "For the devils, seeing the Lord on the earth, thought that they were immediately to be judged" Bede. On Ephesians 6, Matthew Henry urges: "We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The Hebrew malak (מַלְאָךְ) and the Greek angelos (ἄγγελος) both mean "messenger." Both are used of human messengers too, and are translated "angel" when the context speaks of a spiritual being.

"Devil" is the Greek diabolos (διάβολος), "slanderer, accuser," the same idea of accusing and dividing that lies in the Hebrew satan. The word daimonion (δαιμόνιον), "demon," could mean a lesser divine being or spirit to Greek readers. In the New Testament it is used interchangeably with "unclean spirit" (Mark 1:23, Luke 4:33). The church's tradition has understood demons as fallen angels, not as the souls of dead people.

Common objections

"This does not fit a scientific worldview. Why believe in beings we cannot see or measure?" This is a fair question. Angels and demons cannot be tested in a laboratory, and much that ancient people explained as spirits we now understand as disease or natural events. But the scientific method limits itself to natural causes, so it cannot rule on whether anything exists beyond nature. If God exists, it is not odd that he made other spiritual creatures, and to say flatly that none exist is a philosophical assumption, not a scientific result. This is not proof, but for those who trust the Bible it weighs that Jesus himself spoke of angels, demons and Satan.

"Demon possession was just the ancient way of describing epilepsy or mental illness." There is something in this. The boy in Mark 9 foamed at the mouth and ground his teeth (Mark 9:17-18), and modern medicine might think of epilepsy. Many Christians therefore urge people with such symptoms to see a doctor first. Yet the New Testament itself makes distinctions. Matthew lists "the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed" separately (Matt 4:24), and it does not blame every illness on demons. In these stories the spirits also speak and name Jesus, which some find hard to explain by illness alone, while others read it as the way things were described then; Christians differ here.

"Evil is done by people. Does talk of the devil let us dodge responsibility?" The worry is just, and Scripture never lets the devil be an excuse. James says each person is tempted "by his own evil desires" (James 1:14-15). Responsibility stays with us, while the devil deceives and urges.

Going further

In the preface to The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis says there are two equal and opposite errors about devils. One is to disbelieve in them. The other is to believe in them and feel an unhealthy interest in them. The devils, he says, are pleased by both. Scripture avoids both. So too with angels: we neither ignore them nor worship them, but look to the God they serve.

For readers in Korea, the word gwisin may bring to mind shamanism and the spirits of ancestors. The evil spirits of Scripture are not the dead, and Christians need not meet them with fear. See also Can Christians take part in ancestral rites (jesa)?. And if a trouble seems spiritual, seeking help from a doctor or counsellor does not oppose prayer.

You might ask yourself: Have I lived as if the unseen world did not matter, or am I gripped by fear of it? How could Christ's victory change my anxiety? Paul says that neither "death nor life, neither angels nor principalities" can separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38-39). What would it mean to rest on that today?

To read further, see Are miracles possible? and Why does a good God allow evil?.