Angels: Their place in scripture?
1. In the Parables etc, what view did the early followers of Jesus understand when the word 'devil' was used? What is today's understanding of "devil" in contemporary theology?
2. Angels: their place in scripture, their place in our lives today.
Bible
The word for “angel” is from the Greek angelos meaning messenger or the Hebrew malak Yahweh transliterates as messenger of the Lord.
In the Old Testament when the word “angel” is used it often denotes simply that a messenger. Sometimes the messenger is a heavenly being. In this case the “angel” is God appearing in human form. The idea here is that no one can see God and live, thus God creates a visible form in which to meet with people. Only later did the idea develop that angels were beings separate from God.
Cherubim and seraphim were winged angels, often with animal faces, glowing with fire that are an aspect of Israel’s culture background incorporated into religion. The main function of cherubim and seraphim is to sing God’s praises. Thus, for us today, the cherubim and seraphim are symbols that remind or invite us to worship God with our whole lives. Seraphim is from the Hebrew seraph meaning burning brightly with fire. Here again is an invitation applicable today: that we are so close to God’s presence through prayer and worship that we allow God’s love to shine through everything we do.
The word for “devil” is the Hebrew language is ha satan meaning an accuser. The word satan is someone’s job description rather than their name. Job 1.6 describes an angel whose job it was to evaluate virtue through accusing Job of not being holy.
Another occasion when reference is made to ha satan is 1 Chronicles 21:6–7; 27:24: “A satan rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel”. Here again this is an opponent or an agitator who offers an alternative view.
Another reference that is used to describe “a devil” is Isaiah. Isaiah 14.12 speaks of a carrier of light (a lucifer) being thrown into an abys because of pride. In the context of Isaiah, however, the image of the morning star (a lucifer or light carrier) being thrown to earth could likely have referred to the demise of the Canaanite religion. Later of course it becomes a reference for the devil, but this idea seems superimposed by later interpreters. Jesus referred to Isaiah 14 when he said to his disciples “I saw Satan fall like lightening from the sky” (Luke 10.18). While some suggest that this is Satan, the devil, others argue that Jesus is announcing the end of judgement and accusation and the beginning of the era of grace.
The above is an all to brief survey that shows that the Old Testament does not offer any concrete evidence for belief in “The Devil” as a monstrous entity opposing God and damaging humans. Note that in Genesis 3, the serpent that speaks to Eve is just that – a talking serpent, not a demon and not “The Devil”.
By the time we reach the New Testament it is clear that there is a belief in “The Devil” and demons. The devil is the leader of evil who opposes God and therefore opposes Jesus. Jesus cast out demons and at times even dialogued with them. For example, Luke 4:35: “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.” Christians are also warned to expect opposition from demonic forces or the devil; James 4.7 instructs “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Clearly some development took place at the end of the Old Testament and before the beginning of the New Testament that concretised a belief in the devil and demons.
The intertestamental period between the end of the Old Testament and before the beginning of the New Testament was marked by conflict, oppression, and division for the Jewish people. The Hebrews suffered oppression from the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Jewish elite, and the Romans. Through the experience of suffering and exposure to other religions through war with Persians, Medes, Greeks, and Romans, the idea of the devil developed to explain the cause of suffering. In painting a picture of who the devil was the Jewish people adopted and adapted aspects of the gods from the cultures that oppressed them.
Tradition
Church tradition as expressed in its catechism, liturgies and hymns, continues the New Testament belief in the devil. The Devil is explained as a fallen angel who now leads forces of demons responsible for the evil we find in the world. Perhaps one of the clearest representations of the traditional church’s belief in Satan (the devil) is the Baptismal liturgy: “Do you renounce Satan and all evil? I renounce all that evil. Almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness and lead you in the light of Christ to his everlasting kingdom. Amen. “ (A Prayer Book for Australia p. 56).
Reason
The questions ask What is today's understanding of "devil" in contemporary theology and Angels: their place in scripture, their place in our lives today? In thinking of your own answer to the question it is helpful to be aware of how different our world view is in comparison to Jesus and the early Christian writers. Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age (Harvard University Press, 2007) tracks what we already know; that the enchanted worldview of the early disciples took as self-evident the existence of a spiritual universe where everyone without exception believed in God or gods, demons and angels. This is in direct contrast to our highly secularised, disenchanted worldview where, at best, belief in God is optional and marginal. Our disenchanted, secularised world view anticipates scientific evidence as answers to questions we might have. Thus many modern scholars explain that Jesus and the early Christian writers need to be read and interpreted within their own context: namely that it is natural for first century people to ascribe illness and suffering to the work of demons and the devil. Moreover, the belief in paranormal entities such as demons and angels is greatly influenced by other cultures. For example, Beelzebub or Lord of the flies is both a Philistine god and a variation of Baal, a god venerated by early Canaanites with whom the Hebrews came into contact. Our modern discoveries would give medical explanations for much of what Jesus, the early disciples and Christian writers experienced. For example, Luke 9.8-42 describes a boy suffering from epilepsy “a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.” Or Matthew 8.32 describes possible psychosis or schizophrenia: “When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.”
While an over-rationalised, materialist, disenchanted, scientific explanation for the belief in a spiritual realm may be appropriate in an academic setting, pastoral ministry with its various, inexplicable encounters, makes such a view difficult to maintain. The experience of Spirit and also of evil is real, although more “liquid” or diffused, not with the medieval imagination that reduces spiritual realities to animation cartoons. Thus, while some scholars rationalise that angels, demons, and the devil are aspects of a premodern worldview, other highly regarded scholars such as Walter Wink offer an alternative: “I will argue that the “principalities and powers” are the inner and outer aspects of any given manifestation of power… As the inner aspect they are the spirituality of institutions, the within of corporate structures and systems, the inner essence of outer organisations of power. As the outer aspect they are the political systems, appointed officials, the chair if an organisation, laws – in short all the tangible manifestations power takes. Every Power tends to have a visible pole, an outer form—be it a church, a nation, or an economy—and an invisible pole, an inner spirit or driving force that animates, legitimates, and regulates its physical manifestation in the world.” (in 1983/09/01:5 in Naming the Powers).
In summary, in determining your answer to the questions about the devil and angels, it is likely that your view would be situated on a spectrum of belief between non-belief on the extreme left and a belief that angels and demons exist in physical form on the extreme right. My own view is situated in the middle where I acknowledge the reality of spirit but suggest with Walter Wink that it does not take on a physical form that can be photographed or drawn/depicted. Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum, angels and demons are not an article of faith. Nor does a such a belief affect a good relationship with God and others. We can also know that a good God created a good universe, that Jesus has conquered all evil and that the Spirit that is in us was confirmed at our baptism – we are all sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked by Christ: “Christ claims you for his own. Receive the sign of the cross” (Baptism Liturgy).