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August 10, 2005
Ch. XIII. Q. 80. Good and Evil Angels
THE first estate of all the angels was one of grace and blameless, but probationary. "Under the leadership of Satan many of them sinned and were cast out of heaven.1 The consequence is that there are rival hosts of angels, the good and the evil, and no salvation of evil angels is now possible.2
2. The angels were created for free service under God. They had to be prepared for this by moral probation, and in this probation they must have been endowed with sufficient grace to be able to approve themselves to God.3
3. The sin by which Satan and his host fell was pride.4 Some have thought that the occasion of their rebellion was a revelation of the coming Incarnation and of their obligation to worship the Word-incarnate.5
4. The present abode of evil angels or devils is described in Scripture as partly in hell and partly in this world, especially in the air around us.6 By ensnaring men in sin they have acquired great power over them;7 but this power has been broken for those who are faithful to Christ by the redemption which He has achieved.8 Hell has been prepared for the everlasting punishment of devils and of obstinate human sinners.9
5. The opinion that men "were created to fill the place of fallen angels10 is speculative. Men are destined to angelic conditions and glory,11 but must forever remain distinct in nature.
1 St. John viii. 44; 2 St. Pet. ii. 4; St. Jude 6. Cf. Revel. xii. 9.
2 St. Matt. xxv. 41.
3 Creation, p. 164; St. Augustine, de Civ. Dei, XII. 9; St. Thomas, I. Ixii. 3. Cf. Ezek. xxviii 11-15.
4 Isa. xiv. 12-15. Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 6.
5 Texts appealed to are Heb. i. 6; Revel. xii. 1-9. See W.H. Hutchings Holy Ghost, pp. 53-55; Cath. Encyc., s. v. "Devil", p. 765, 2d col. On evil angels, E.H. Jewett, Diabology; W.A. Matson, The Adversary; W.H. Hutchings, Mystery of Temptation, Lec. iii; St. Thomas, I. Ixiii-lxiv, cix, cxiii-cxiv; Dic. of Christ. Biog., s. v. "Demonology". Other refs. in Creation, p. 163, n. 3.
6 St. John xii. 31; : xiv. 30; xvi. 11; 2 Cor. iv. 4; Revel. xii. 4, 7-9. Rich. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, I. iv. 3.
7 2 Cor. iv. 3-4; Ephes. ii. 2; vi. 11-12; Revel, xiii.
8 Revel. v. 9; xii. 11; vii. 13-14. Cf. St. Thomas I. cxiv; H.P. Liddon, Passiontide Serms., pp. 84-99.
10 Petavius, de Angelis, I. xiv, gives patristic views.
11 St. Matt. xxii. 30.
Posted by AKMA at August 10, 2005 02:08 PM