Fallen angels?

[turboEDvo]

OK, so what’s the scoop with fallen angels. I learned in one of my religion classes that the difference between humans and angels is that humans have the choice to worship God or not to, while angels are simply programmed to do so. If that is true, how can there be fallen angels and the whole deal with the battle between the angels. Did God will them to do that?

Eamon

 

[Arlene]

I think I remember learning that angels also have free will.

Arlene

 

[SummaTheo]

God gave them a choice at one time (even though God exists outside of time) to choose him or Lucifer. Once they chose it was set. So those that choose God stayed and the other were sent to the fires of Gehenna(sp?).

 

[Fidelis]

Judging by the apparent quality of your instruction, you may want to invest in a Catechism:

**I. THE ANGELS **

**The existence of angels - a truth of faith **

328 The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition.
**
Who are they? **

329 St. Augustine says: “‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit’, from what they do, ‘angel.’” With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they “always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” they are the “mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word”.

330 As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.

**II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS **

391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.” The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.”

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”

 

[Aureole]

A lecture by Dr. Kreeft may help, I asked a similar question to this a few months ago and was introduced to him. I found it very helpful. (Not to mention he has far more lectures and writings available on that site.)

peterkreeft.com/audio/10_aquinas-angels.htm

 

[Fashina86]

Arlene:

I think I remember learning that angels also have free will.

Arlene

that is what I seem to recall too!

 

[DavidB]

turboEDvo:

OK, so what’s the scoop with fallen angels. I learned in one of my religion classes that the difference between humans and angels is that humans have the choice to worship God or not to, while angels are simply programmed to do so. If that is true, how can there be fallen angels and the whole deal with the battle between the angels. Did God will them to do that?

Eamon

If angels can rebel (as in follow Satab), then they have free will and are thus capable of choice and sin. They are therefore NOT programmed by God. They are obedient by choice.

And to respond to someone else’s comment, there’s no reason to conclude that anything has now changed, that somehow now that the Satanic rebellion is done that the angels no longer have temptations and the ability to sin. As far as know, angels still have free will, to say otherwise is pure speculation.

David