The Fallen Angels
In the beginning God created all
angels as benevolent celestial beings. They
were created with a free will and to choose to
follow God's will or like Adam decide to
follow their own will and oppose what God
wanted. Lucifer was one of those angels that
rebelled and misused the freedom that God had
given him.
Saint
John of Damascus tells us the following:
"Lucifer was not made wicked in nature but was
good, and made for good ends, and received
from his Creator no trace whatever of evil in
himself. But he did not sustain the brightness
and the honor which the Creator had bestowed
on him. Of his free choice, he was changed
from what was in harmony to what was at
variance with his nature, and became roused
against God; thus, he was the first to depart
from good and become evil. For evil is nothing
else that absence of goodness, just as
darkness also is the absence of light. For
goodness is the light of the mind, and,
similarly, evil is the darkness of the
mind....Now along with him an innumerable host
of angels, subject to him, were torn away,
followed him, and shared in his fall.
therefore, being of the same nature as the
angels, they became wicked, turning away at
their own free choice from good to evil."
Lucifer was filled with pride and
boasted that he would establish his throne on
the clouds of heaven and become equal to God.
Esaias writes, "How has Lucifer, that rose in
the morning, fall from heaven! He that sent
orders to all the nations is crushed to the
earth. But thou saidst in thy heart, 'I will
go up to heaven, I will set my throne above
the stars of heaven; I will sit on a lofty
mount, on the lofty mountains toward the
north.' But no thou shalt go down to Hades,
even to the foundations of the earth (Is
14:12-15)." Lucifer fell from glory as the
Lord reminds us in the Gospel, "I was
beholding Satan as lightning having fallen out
of the heaven (Lk 10:18)." All the angels that
were subject to him also rebelled against God
and followed their leader Lucifer. They then
assumed a black and dismal appearance instead
of their previous radiance and became demons.
 This is described in the book
of Revelation with the following details:
"There occurred a war in the heavens. Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon, and
the dragon and his angels fought against them.
However they did not prevail, and there was no
room for them in heaven. The great dragon was
cast down, that ancient snake, known as devil
and satan … and his angels were also cast down
with him" (Revelation 12:7-9). Peter writes
that the final judgment is still due these
fallen angels. "Those angels who kept not
their first place, but deserted their own
habitation, He hath kept in everlasting bodes
under darkness until the judgment of the great
day (Jude 1:6)"
Saint Dionysus the Areopgite
says, "If they are called evil, it is not in
respect of their being, since they own their
origin to the Good and were the recipients of
a good being, but rather because being is
lacking to them by virtue of the inability, as
Scripture puts it, 'to keep their first
place.' For I ask you, in what way are the
demons evil except in the fact that they have
put an end to the habit and the activity of
divine good things? Their evil consists in the
lack of angelic virtues!...If they are
declared evil, the reason lies in them, their
move away from what befits them....What has
happened to them is that they have fallen away
from the complete goodness granted to
them....The are called evil because of the
deprivation, the abandonment, the rejection of
the virtues which are appropriate to them."
Archangel Michael seeing the
downfall, knew the reason. With obedience and
loyalty of a dutiful servant to God, he
protected his own glory as well as the glory
of the other angelic powers. He was appointed
by God as chief among the angelic powers. He
summoned the angelic powers uniting them
proclaiming, "Let us attend! Let us stand
well! Let us stand with fear!". He praised and
exalted God, the King of the universe, and
chanted along with the other angelic power the
divine hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of
Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory." These words he issued as a rallying
cry for those who had not rebelled against God
are words we hear in every Divine Liturgy.
We celebrate this day called the Synaxis of
the Angels on November 8th.
John of Damascus tells us, "Of
the future both the angels of God and the
demons are alike ignorant; yet they make
predictions. God reveals the future to angels
and commands them to prophesy, and so what
they say comes to pass. But the demons also
make predictions, sometimes because they see
what is happening at a distance,and sometimes
merely making guesses. Hence much of what they
say is false, and they should not be believed,
even although they do often, in the way we
have said, tell what is true; besides, they
know the Scriptures.
"All wickedness, then, and all
impure passions are the work of their mind.
But while the liberty to attack man has been
granted to them, they have not the strength to
overmaster anyone; for we have it in our power
to receive or not to receive the attack. thus,
there has been prepared for the devil and his
demons, and those who follow him, fire
unquenchable and everlasting punishment.
"Not further, than what in the
case of man is death, is a fall in the case of
angels. For after the fall there is no
possibility of repentance for them, just as
after death there is for men no repentance."
The battle between good and evil
began even before the creation of the world
and will continue until the day of the final
Judgment. Actually the battle in heaven is
finished, with the complete defeat of evil.
Now the site of the battle has been
transferred into the world, more precisely
into our minds and hearts. As we shall see,
the good angels, and in particular our
Guardian Angels, actively help us in our
battle against evil.
Adapted from The Great
Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church -
November, Trans from Greek by Holy Apostles
Convent, Buena Vista, Co.
An
Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book
II,Chapter IV, by Saint
John of Damascus
Also see Missionary
Leaflet 14E, Holy Trinity Orthodox
Mission, Editor: Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
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