Dr. Mike Petillo
1. No one should
fear Satan like a Christian fears God, because fear of Satan may mean
worship. Saints cannot defeat Satan on their own but it takes the divine
intervention of the all-powerful Christ.
2. Fallen angels (or
evil spirits) may cause psychiatric problems like in ancient Israel in the case of Saul (1 Sam. 16:32). Not every psychiatric case is because of
demons (but merely a chemical imbalance) but they may cause mental
oppression. Do not mess with the hell-fire of the occult!
3.
Lev. 17:7 refers
to abolishment of sacrifice to “goat demons.”
The nature of the occult is to
worship the creature over the Creator.
4.
Deut. 32:17
refers to worship of demons through sacrifice that are not by nature
self-existent (from everlasting to everlasting) but merely finite creatures
(they had a creaturely beginning).
5.
Ps. 106:37 refers
to human sacrifice to demons. Animists
seek to appease the spirits, but we ought to embrace the Cross alone. It is
where Jesus fully appeased the Father’s wrath for His people. Those involved in the occult have a
greater liklihood of demon harassment, oppression and possession.
6.
Fallen angels and
Satan are a defeated foe already because of the person and work of Christ alone
for God’s people in eternal security (Jude 1:1).
7.
A true Christian
is possessed by the Triune Godhead. Fallen angels and Satan cannot possess a
true Christian (For example Gal. 2:20).
8.
What is angelology? It is
the study of angels in the written Word alone.
9.
What is
demonology? It is the study of demons in the Bible alone.
10. What is Satanology?
It is the study of Satan in God’s
holy written Word alone.
11. There is a great deal of superstition in the
non-biblical understanding of elect angels, fallen angels and Satan.
12. The elect angels are heavenly beings created by the
Blessed Trinity.
13. Angels are described as spiritual beings (Heb. 1:13-14).
14. The angels were created by the God who is from
everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 148:2, 5; Col. 1:16).
15. The elect angels are spiritually immortal (Lk 20:36).
16. The elect angels are superlatively holy (Mt 25:31).
17. The elect angels are innumerable (Heb. 12:22).
18. The elect angels are wise (2 Sam. 14:17, 20).
19. The elect angels are supernaturally, cosmically and
spiritually powerful (Ps. 103:20) but God alone is supremely powerful.
20. The holy or chosen angels unto perfection are elect (1
Tim. 5:21).
21. The elect angels are respectful of cosmic and civil
authority (Jude 9; Rom 13).
22. There are elect angels who are in the appearance of men
and women in time and space, but theologians would say they are sexless beings
by nature in their perfected state in glory (Mt 22:30).
23. The angels are invisible in space and time especially
to those who are spiritually blinded (Num. 22:22-31).
24. The elect angels are spiritually obedient to God alone
(Ps. 103:20).
25. The elect angels possess emotions (Lk 15:10).
26. The chosen good angels are interested and concerned in
human things related to God and the outworking power of His Word (1 Pet 1:12).
27. The chosen angels appear in human form (Gen.
18:2-8). The good elect angels appear in
human form in the OT point to the real historical doctrine of the Incarnation
of God the Son. Those elect angels who
appear in human form after the Incarnation of Christ point back to the actual
event of God Incarnate.
28.
Genesis 18
says there were three that appeared to Abraham, but first Moses mentions the
Lord’s appearance. He came among the angels who serve Him alone. This appearance of God the Son is a Christophany
of Jesus Christ. That is, in OT days God
the Son took upon Himself a temporary body that in some ways foretold of the
historical Incarnation of God the Son. This would refer to God the Son as a Pre-Incarnate appearance. A theophany is an appearance of God the Father, but
He does not possess a human body.
Mormonism says that God the Father possess a human body and had literal
relations with the Virgin Mary to cause the conception of Jesus. On the contrary the Bible says, that
the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary because it was a supernatural and
miraculous and virginal conception that was not of normal relations.
29.
The fallen angels are charged
with cosmic folly (Job 4:18).
30.
The angels are organized in ranks
or orders (Is. 6:1-3; 1 Thess 4:16).
31.
The ministry of elect angels towards saints is to guide them
(Gen. 24:7, 40) but it does not mean we ought to pray to them.
32.
Elect angels provide for God’s people in Christ (1 Kin
19:5-8).
33.
Elect angels protect God’s people (Ps. 34:7).
34.
The elect angels deliver God’s people (Dan. 6:22; Acts 12:7-11).
35.
The angels gather God’s elect at the Last Day (Mt 24:31).
36.
The ministry of elect angels have particular tasks and
special activities for each angel assigned to a believer in Christ (Acts 8:26).
37.
The chosen angels comfort God’s people in Christ (Acts
27:23, 24).
38.
The elect angels minister and serve God’s elect people in
Christ (Heb 1:14).
39.
The ministry of chosen angels toward unbelievers is
destruction (Gen. 19:1, 13). For a
reprobate everything is working out for his evil, because he is not called to
belief in Christ with no love of Him. It
is possible for damned angels to also be an instrument of cosmic judgment to
correct believers (2 Cor 12:7). They understand right and
wrong but in the end they seek to destroy themselves because of the
deceitfulness of their cosmic sinfulness but the only reason why they want to
be pardoned by oath from God is not to serve Him but because of fear of
punishment who are the neither living nor dead.
That
is, they do not have spiritual life but the spiritual second death, but they
are not really dead yet (though they have been already judged) and await the
second death in eternal punishment. For
the Christian a tormenting demon would be understood as chastening to conform
sinners to the image of Jesus Christ, but in the end for the Christian it is
not that Christ makes possible our merits to add to His but that His unified
merits alone are glorified through the exaltation of Him in the Word preached
by the conquering power of God’s Spirit.
40.
Acts 12:23 speaks of a chosen angel that
caused sudden death because of judgment for sin. That is, elect angels know that perfect
justice was applied to Christ alone at His Cross alone for His people. They know who God’s people are, but angelic
chastening to God’s people is not redemptive satisfaction but a corrective
judgment.
41.
The Angel of the Lord drives the enemy away (Ps. 35:5-6).
42.
Exodus 23:20-32 speaks of an angel that does not pardon sin,
but to obey Him for His Name’s Sake.
This shows that the fallen angels will never be pardoned. I suggest to you that they do not really want
to be pardoned, because they want entrance into heaven to destroy it.
43.
Elect angels in the ministry of Jesus Christ is meant to
announce His conception (Mt 1:20-21).
44.
Elect angels always seek to exalt Jesus Christ alone to the
glory of God the Father by the work of the Spirit. Though sometimes demons tell the truth at the
command of the name of Jesus, they hate to exalt Jesus Christ but seek to be
worshiped in cosmic and supernatural idolatry and pride.
45.
Elect angels herald the birth of Jesus Christ (Lk 2:10-12).
46.
Lk 1:26 speaks of Gabriel who came from the
immediate presence of God. Gabriel immediately obeys
God’s command to visit His people.
47.
Lk 1:28 refers to Gabriel meeting the
Virgin Mary. Romanists will wrongly say
that he was giving her a kind of worship. The Virgin Mary was like everyone who has the
gift of God’s fear. That is, God’s
people because of Christ alone are highly favored (Lk 1:30).
48.
Lk 1:35 refers to Gabriel’s testimony of
the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ our God and Savior.
49.
Mt 4:11 speaks of angels ministering to
King Jesus, because He was fully human without the stain of any kind of sin.
50.
The angels witnessed the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ
(the sign of Jonah) in 1 Tim. 3:16.
51.
God’s holy angels accompany Jesus in His set apart Ascension
(Acts 1:9-11).
52. Acts 1:11 refers to the angelic
testimony that Jesus is not called upon in heaven by authentic priests of the
gospel to consecrate a Roman host to be transformed into the “material” body and blood
of Jesus Christ. Rather the angelic
testimony is that “…This Jesus, who was taken up from you
into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” That is, He will come back in His Second Coming in
bodily form devoid of Roman or Orthodox consecration.
53.
The angels shouted for great joy at God’s creation of the
world (Job 38:7). The creation of the
angels is not mentioned in the Genesis account in explicit terms (but we know
by their existence that God really did create them), but I suggest to you that
God created them somewhere in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.”
54.
Acts 7:30 refers to a Pre-Incarnate
appearance of God the Son in the bush at Sinai.
Romanists
will say the bush is the Virgin Mary, but the Bible clearly shows that the bush
was God the Son alone. In other words, it’s an anachronism to interpret the Bible
like that. The scripturally consistent view of the Bible is to
honor Jesus Christ above His creation by showing that Scripture is a Book about
Him.
55.
Acts 7:38 refers to angels speaking to our
fathers and God’s people. The love to exalt God’s
holy Word not anything added to it.
56.
Acts 7:53 refers to the moral law delivered
by elect angels. In our country, leaders
of civil government disregard the moral law of God delivered by chosen
angels. May God cause a new great
reformation through the furtherance of the invisible but real ministry of His
angels! Should it not be supposed that
God’s angels were also involved in Luther’s Reformation where the gospel was
“rediscovered” like the Book of the Law in ancient Israel? (For example 2 Kin 22:8).
57.
Satan is bound to the bottomless pit for forever (Rev.
20:1-3).
58.
The elect angels have a special task in the Second Return of
Christ (Mt 13:41, 49; 1 Thess 4:16).
59. The elect angels bring a curse among those are of the
non-elect (Judges 5:23).
60. The elect angels bring pestilence because it is God’s
mission of judgment (2 Sam 24:15-17).
61. The saints in Christ have a greater righteousness than
elect angels, because our righteousness is not of own. Rather the righteousness of a true Christian
is the imputed unified merit of Christ alone.
Elect angels do not possess the
merit of Christ alone but an angelic kind of perfection that God allows them to
possess to stand in His set apart presence for worship and praise to Him alone.
62. The imputed righteousness of Christ alone is greater
than all the perfection of the elect angels combined.
63. Fallen angels (demons) do not possess authentic
perfection. They masquerade as angels of
light.
64. Everyone is in the holy presence of God. However, touching God’s immediate presence
no mere sinner can stand; no mere demons can reside, because there must be pure
perfection.
65. The nature of Satan is to undo God’s people (Mk 4:15).
66. The nature of Satan is to have men turn away from God
(Job 2:4-5).
67. Satan loves to cause abominable and complete and
extreme evil (Jn 13:2, 27).
68. Satan wants men to worship him (Lk 4:6-8; 2 Thess 2:
3, 4).
69. Satan seeks sinners to sin above the brim because in
spite he hates the victory of the Cross that is verified by Jesus’
resurrection.
70. Satan hates God because He works out everything (even
extreme sin) for the believer’s good.
71. Satan cannot defeat a predestinarian God, because it
makes Satan what Luther called “the Lord’s devil.”
72. The character of the devil is that is a cosmic
deceiver (Rev. 12:9).
73. The character of the devil is that he is the father of
lies (Jn 8:44).
74. The make-up of Satan is that he is the ultimate
adversary of God (1 Pet 5:8).
75. No one should depend on Satan for gospel truth or
Christian living, because he is the leader of lies.
76. Satan cannot defeat a God who even works out the even
lies of Satan for the good of God’s people, because heresy can also make the
believer in Christ more refined in His thinking for sound doctrine.
77. Satan seeks to excuse his rebellion through a
predestinarian God like those who are wise unto this world but blind (Mt 11),
but God calls everyone to be responsible in light of God’s written Word. God
will use Satan for His glory unto His perfect justice as a second cause. This means that God is not the author of
sin. Rather Satan is the author of sin
(Gen. 3ff) but God created all things (Eph 3:9; Col. 1:16). We must separate like a detective lawyer
in court the author of sin and creation of all things to honor God and
the solidarity of the divine Word.
78. The spiritual design of Satan is to masquerade as an
angel of God (2 Cor. 11:14).
79. Those who make agreements with Satan or compromise
have failed to be a loyal solider of King Jesus.
80. Satan abuses, misuses and misinterprets Scripture in
an intentional malice to destroy Christ and God’s people (Mt 4:6).
81. Satan uses his schemes to advance his cause through
his own initiative (2 Cor 2:11). He always accuses God's people but no charge can be laid against them because of the Cross of Jesus.
82. Satan afflicts the saints in Christ but Jesus has
greater power (Lk 13:16).
83. Satan is already judged and bound (Mk 3:27; Jn 16:11).
84. Satan is eternally assigned to hell (Mt 25:41).
85. There are dimensions of the place of Satan, hell,
heaven and Christ on His throne. Satan has access to a part of heaven but he
cannot enter heaven because he is impure (see the Book of Job and Revelation).
86. A demon is an evil spirit (Lk 10:17-18).
87. Demons are powerful but not as powerful as elect
angels (Lk 8:29).
88. Demons are numerous but not as great as elect angels
(Mk 5:8-9).
89. Demons are spiritually unclear and cosmic offenders
(Mt 10:1).
90. Fallen angels follow the papal-like leadership of
Satan (Mt 12:24-30).
91. Demons know and recognize Christ (Mk 1:23-24).
92. Demons know the appearance of Christ because He
created them (see the Book of Colossians 1:16)
93. Angels pre-existed merely before creation of the
world, but God the Son always existed in His eternal and divine self-existence.
94. Fallen angels possess human beings not in Christ (Mt 8:28-29).
95. Fallen angels can overcome mere sinners (Acts 19:13-16).
96. Demons know their eternal end (Mt 8:29-33).
97. It is wrong to have demons receive sacrifice (1 Cor 10:20).
98. Demons love to instigate deceit (1 Tim 4:1).
99. There is division among true believers in Christianity
on some doctrine, but it remains in the “pal of orthodoxy.” This is the design of Jesus, but that
division which is not in the “pal of orthodoxy” is of Satan (Mt 10:34; Rom 16:17;
Jude 1:19). We are all called to sound doctrine (1 Tim
4:6).
100.There is a real
activity of real demon possession (Mk 1:23-26;
1:32; 5:1-5; 16:9; Mt 4:24; 8:28-34;
9:32-33; 12:22-23;
15:22-28; 17:14-21).
Mighty God, while angels bless thee,
May a mortal sing thy name?
Lord of men as well as angels,
Thou art every creature's theme.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Lord of every land and nation,
Ancient of eternal days,
Sounded through the wide creation
Be thy just and lawful praise.
For the grandeur of thy nature,
Grand beyond the seraph's thought;
For created works of power,
Works with skill and kindness wrought.
But thy rich, thy free redemption,
Dark through brightness all along,
Thought is poor, and poor expression,
Who dare sing that awful song?
Brightness of the Father's glory,
Shall thy praise unuttered lie?
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence,
Sing the Lord who came to die:
From the highest throne in glory,
To the cross of deepest woe,
All to ransom guilty captives,
Flow my praise, for ever flow. (Th, 5).
May a mortal sing thy name?
Lord of men as well as angels,
Thou art every creature's theme.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Lord of every land and nation,
Ancient of eternal days,
Sounded through the wide creation
Be thy just and lawful praise.
For the grandeur of thy nature,
Grand beyond the seraph's thought;
For created works of power,
Works with skill and kindness wrought.
But thy rich, thy free redemption,
Dark through brightness all along,
Thought is poor, and poor expression,
Who dare sing that awful song?
Brightness of the Father's glory,
Shall thy praise unuttered lie?
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence,
Sing the Lord who came to die:
From the highest throne in glory,
To the cross of deepest woe,
All to ransom guilty captives,
Flow my praise, for ever flow. (Th, 5).
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