Demons—Who Are They?
During the 15 centuries following Satan’s deception of Eve in Eden, God’s family of angels observed that Satan the Devil succeeded in turning aside from God all humans except a few faithful ones, such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah. (Genesis 3:1-7; Hebrews 11:4, 5, 7) Some of the angels also yielded to Satan. The Bible refers to them as the spirits who were disobedient “in Noah’s days.” (1 Peter 3:19, 20) How did their disobedience become evident?
In Noah’s time an unspecified number of rebellious angels left their place in God’s heavenly family, came down to the earth, and materialized fleshly bodies. Why? They had developed a desire to have sexual relations with women. This led to their fathering offspring called Nephilim, who became violent giants. Moreover, “the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time.” However, Jehovah God did not allow this corruption of mankind to go on. He brought a global Flood, which swept away all wicked humans along with the Nephilim. The only humans preserved alive were God’s faithful servants.—Genesis 6:1-7, 17; 7:23.
The rebellious angels escaped destruction at the time of the Flood. They abandoned their fleshly bodies and returned to the spirit realm as spirit creatures. Thereafter, they are referred to as demons. They put themselves on the side of Satan the Devil, who is called “the ruler of the demons.” (Matthew 12:24-27) Like their ruler, demons crave the worship of humans.
Demons are dangerous, but we need not dread them. Their power is limited. When the disobedient angels returned to heaven, they were not allowed back into God’s family of faithful angels. Instead, they were cut off from any spiritual enlightenment from God, with only a dark outlook for the future. Indeed, they were confined in a condition of spiritual darkness known as Tartarus. (2 Peter 2:4) Jehovah restrained them with “eternal bonds,” so that they are in spiritual darkness. Furthermore, they are now unable to materialize human bodies.—Jude 6.
Thus the prison that these fallen angels inhabit is spiritual with literal parameters that have been set by God. The message that Jesus preached to these demons was condemnatory. Only the final abyssing and everlasting destruction await these rebellious angels who sided with Satan and escaped the flood of Noah’s day.
