Job 1:6-7 "One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD , and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD , "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

Job 2:1-2 "On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD , and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD , "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

So in Job we see that the angels would gather in the presence of God, and even Satan, whom had been prophesied against back in Genesis, was still allowed in the presence of God in Heaven. As such we can clearly see that Satan had not yet fallen from Heaven, and cast down to earth, as is described in Revelation, because Satan was still allowed in Heaven at this point, in the presence of God.

Earlier we saw that the nations of humans were divided according to the number of the angels, and ordered, organized, and subjected under them. At the time when this began, the time of Peleg, the angels can be assumed to have all been in good standing with God, and not to have yet become fallen angels. But after the time of Peleg the relationship some of these angels had with God changed.

One thing that happened was that people started to worship the angels, idols, and the creation, instead of worshipping God the Creator. God warned the Israelites against this as early as the time of Moses

Deut 4:19  “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.”

The people worshipping the angels instead of God was the fault of the people, not the angels, of course. However, this may have contributed to the angels doing things against God’s will, or it could be angels were encouraging this worship, though we can’t assume that from this passage. We read in a Psalm written about 300 years later, by Asaph a contemporary of David:

Psalm 82:1-8, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince." Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!”

These gatherings of the angels before God, as mentioned in Job, are here referred to as “the divine council”. The angels are here referred to as “gods” with a lower case “g”. The angels apparently had the job of or ability to be judges in human affairs, and some of the angels were doing a poor job of it. They were showing partiality to the wicked, and here God was rebuking them for it, and telling them like men they would also die, and fall just like a human ruler eventually falls from power. This partiality to the wicked may have had something to do with the wicked (being wicked) worshipping the angels in place of God. This I couldn’t say for certain. This was the state of affairs by the time of David. The once good angels, that God had set over the nations, were starting to fall.

We do know that people were worshipping idols and demons as “gods” and making human sacrifices to them.

Psalm 106:36-38 “They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.”

We also know that arguments could and did break out between the angels:

Jude 1:9 “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

From this verse we can see that disagreements were taking place between different angels, as early as the time of Moses, in this case Satan and Michael, in which Michael called upon God to rebuke Satan.

Were all of the angels starting to fall, or just some of the angels? Why were these angels turning against God and displeasing Him? To answer these questions, we must look ahead to the book of Revelation:

Rev 12:1-5 "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne."

In this passage the “stars out of the sky” referred to are angels, who are symbolically represented as stars. The dragon is symbolic of and represents Satan. We see here that only one third of the angels were swept by Satan’s tail out of the sky and down to earth. That means that two thirds of the total number of angels were Not affected by Satan’s tail. So although the details are not revealed to us, from this passage in Revelation we can see that it is Satan who was somehow bringing these angels down. So whatever dynamics may have been occurring between humans and angels when it comes to idolatrous worship, or impartial judgments, Satan had a large responsible part in it. It can be assumed here that two thirds of the angels of the divine council stayed in good standing with God in their role over human affairs, still to be considered Holy angels, while only one third of them fell and thus would be called fallen angels.

It is also important to note that we see in this passage that these angels are described as having been flung to earth before Jesus was born, but after the woman was preparing to give birth to Jesus. It is Jesus who will rule all nations with an iron scepter. (Praise the Lord!) The woman with the twelve stars on her head must be Israel (though she might also be considered Eve, Sarah, and Mary as well in other perspectives). One thing is definite, which is that the angels fell after the woman existed, which would certainly be no earlier than Eve, because there were no women before Eve. But I would say the best interpretation would be that the woman was Israel, and that these angels fell after the time of Sarah and Abraham, when God first made his promise to Abraham to make a great nation of his descendents. This was not very long at all after the time of Peleg. So that is when the angels started to fall, propelled by Satan.

Satan had managed to appeal to one third of the total number of angels, and involve them in his evil activities and agendas on Earth. It can reasonably be assumed these fallen angels were able to go back and forth between Heaven and Earth, as was Satan, at this time. An angel was sometimes known as a "prince". By the time of Daniel the situation had gotten even worse than at the time of David. We read:

Daniel 10:5-14, 20-21 "I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come." So he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince."

All of the princes referred to here are angels, of the divine council we read about earlier. And what we see here is all out warfare. This is a picture of total chaos of angelic feudalism, with no regard for the will of God. Try to grasp how horrible this situation is! God sent a Holy angel, Gabriel, to Daniel. This is the same Gabriel who went to Mary and told her she would give birth to Jesus! He is a Holy angel of the Lord, and we see he is given assignments of great honor. And the situation with the divine council had deteriorated to such extremes that Gabriel, an angel delivering a message from God, the Most High Creator of the Entire Universe, was caused such delay by fallen angels that it took him 3 weeks to be able to deliver the message! Can you see how outrageous this is?! I’m only a human being, and I can Fedex a letter half way around the world to Moscow in 3 days! The fallen angels on the divine council were causing such problems that it took a Holy angel of God 3 weeks to be able to deliver a message! That’s horrible!

And so I am also making the point here that God, being omnipotent, could have sent the message to Daniel directly and instantaneously. But God chose to send the message through the channels of the system He had put in place, the angels of the divine council. And so these verses in Daniel demonstrate to us just how corrupted that system had become because of Satan and the other fallen angels responsible for all this fighting. At this time, Satan and other fallen angels were still allowed in Heaven in the presence of God, though it is questionable as to how much time they spent in heaven, and how much time they chose to stay on Earth.

And this anarchistic dysfunctional system is what remained in place until the time of Jesus.

The first major attack on Jesus was of course, Satan working through Herod, trying to kill Jesus right after his birth. This is part of what was referred to in Revelation 12. The next major event was when Satan tempted Jesus in the desert and failed.

Matt 4:1-11 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."" Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: ""He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”

Mark 1:12-13 “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”

Luke 4:1-13 “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: "Man does not live on bread alone."" The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."" The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written: "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Jesus answered, "It says: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."" When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

So from these verses we can gather that at this time, Satan tells Jesus that all the authority and splendor of all the kingdoms of the world has been given to him. Now, if all the peoples of the world had been divided according to the number of the angels, and only one third of the angels became fallen, how can this be? How could Satan have all the authority over the kingdoms of the world?

Well, one way to look at this is that Satan’s power and authority has always been linked to the power of death, and Satan did not gain dominion until after Adam sinned. Satan held the position of the “mighty angelic guardian”, as is written in Ezekiel 28. His dominion over the world of men was in place since Eden, long before the divine council was began in the time of Peleg. Although I do not fully understand Satan’s position or it’s relation to the divine council, Satan must have had a parallel power and authority, and influence, over the divine council. If Satan had his power because of death (or absence of life), and all people die, then this is the way in which he held jurisdiction over all peoples, even though they were subjected under other angels of the divine council.

Another thought is that it is obvious from the passage in Daniel that some angels were more powerful than other angels. Also, there are many angels, and God said he divided the nations according to the number of the sons of God. This method of proportionality is vague. It very well might be that the one third of the angels which fell were the more powerful angels on the divine council, and many of the angels which remained true to God were the less powerful angels in comparison. It could be that some angels were over other angels, in a hierarchal system. It could be the angels that fell were the angels at the top of the heirarchy, and the angels which remained true to God and Holy were those at the bottom of the heirarchy. The passages in Daniel 10 do not specify, nor do any other passages that I know of. But these possibilities I have listed show that there are ways in which this situation could make sense. And somehow, it does make sense that while only one third of the angels fell, nevertheless Satan had gained authority over all the kingdoms of the earth.

I tentatively (because we know Satan is the father of lies so one can’t just believe anything he says) accept the presupposition that Satan was accurate about his claims of his authority, because of some things Jesus said:

A couple of days before his death on the cross Jesus said:
John 12:31 “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”

We will shortly get to what Jesus meant by “driven out”.

John 14:30 “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”

John 16:11 “Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

Three times Jesus refers to Satan as the “prince of this world”. That seems to me to indicate that Satan had a position of being a prince over this world, more than just a prince over Greece or Persia, like the angelic princes mentioned in Daniel. Rather, Jesus says Satan is the prince of this World, implying the whole world, not just one country or people. And as such, he must somehow effectively be in a position over the divine council, because he is over the kingdoms of the world.

It is important to point out and make clear that when Satan said, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.", that there is no indication that God is the one who gave Satan this authority over the world in any direct way. Rather it was the fallen angels of the divine council who gave this authority to Satan, handing over their once God-given authority to Satan. Satan was given this authority directly from other fallen angels, not directly from God.

Satan also was in a position of authority over demons (also called evil spirits, the disembodied spirits of dead Nephilim and their Nephilim descendents). Satan was called the “prince of demons”, and also referred to as “Beelzebub”. There is no doubt from the below verses that Satan had the demons working for him.

Matt 12:22-28 “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

It is in the Gospels we learn that demons, being disembodied spirits, are capable of entering into the bodies of other creatures, such as people and animals, and causing them problems. And here we see one of the most impactful aspects of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus cast demons out of people by the Spirit of God, healing the people. Also, we learn more about what the demons were capable of doing, and all sorts of conditions are attributed to people having demons, including muteness. We will cover the abilities of demons more in a later chapter. The important point for now was that Jesus had authority over the demons, which we see below:

Mark 1:27 “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him."

Luke 4:36 “All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!"

Not only did Jesus have authority over demons, but he gave authority to his disciples as well:

Matt 10:1 “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

Matt 10:7-9 “As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

And we know that the demons knew who Jesus was, that they knew he was the Son of God.

Mark 3:11 “Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God."

And we also know that the demons were aware that there was a time appointed for them to be judged and punished, as is recorded in First Enoch. And we also see verses confirming the demon’s awareness of the Abyss or Tartaros, serving as a confirmation of what we read in the beginning chapters of First Enoch.

Luke 8:30-31 "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.”

Matt 8:29 “And they cried out, saying, "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"

Jesus anointed his disciples with the power to cast out demons, and cast out numerous demons personally, throughout His glorious ministry.