The Will of Angels

Hebrews 1:7 “And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.”

Scripture reveals to us three classes of beings that God has created. He has created angelic beings. He has created the living creatures on the earth. And He has created man. Angels were the first of God’s creations, and part of their make up is a free will given to them by God. So why did God give His angels free will? God has done that so that they can, as an act of their free will, choose to glorify Him as God and submit to their creator by serving Him. In the passage of scripture quoted above we see that God refers to the angels as His ministers. In other words angels were created by God to minister for Him. One of the primary ways in which angels’ minister to God is through worship (Hebrews 1:6). God only accepts worship done in spirit and in truth however (John 4:24), and so in order for angels to minister to God in worship they would need to meet both requirements. The above passage declares that angels are spirits and so they certainly qualify to worship God in spirit. So what about worshipping in truth? To worship God in truth simply means to worship Him without hypocrisy, and because angels can worship God as an act of their free will they therefore also qualify to worship God in truth. And so it is because angels meet both requirements that their worship is accepted by God.

Isaiah 14:12-14 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!  (13)  For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”

 Initially, all angels submitted to God and served Him as their Creator. This changed however when Lucifer the anointed cherub, as an act of his free will, chose to no longer serve God. When God created Lucifer He gave him extraordinary beauty and power. However because Lucifer had received so much from God he became full of pride and began to think that he could be like God. All of this culminated in Lucifer eventually rebelling against God. In the passage of scripture quoted above God gives us some insight into some of the thoughts that Lucifer had, that led him to eventually rebel against God. I want you to notice how many times in this passage we see Lucifer saying “I will”. In other words Lucifer decided as an act of his God given free will, to no longer submit his will to God, but  rather placed his own will above the will of God. And so as an act of his free will Lucifer sinned against God. No one forced him to sin, and unlike Adam and Eve, there was also no one who tempted him. And so when he sinned he no longer remained Lucifer the anointed cherub, but now became Satan and God cast him out of heaven (Luke 10:18). Before Lucifer sinned against God he had a kingdom and he had a throne. He received his kingdom and throne from God and he ruled that kingdom under God’s authority. When God gave Lucifer his throne and his kingdom, He did so for the pre-determined age that God had decided. And so when Lucifer sinned and became Satan, God did not take his throne or his kingdom away from him. Satan still has that kingdom until the end of the age pre-determined by God our Father.

Revelation 12:4 “His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”

In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us that one third of the angels were in Lucifer’s kingdom, for in this passage it is his tail that drew a third of the stars of heaven. The stars of heaven in this passage, refers to angels. It is obvious from this passage that all the angels in Lucifer’s kingdom decided to join and follow him in his attempt to become like God. And so in effect each one of them worshiped and served the creature i.e. Lucifer, rather than their Creator, God. Each one of those angels did that as an act of their free will. Satan and all of the angels that joined him have since been judged by God, and are destined for the lake of fire and brimstone that God has prepared for them at the end of the age (Matthew 25:41). Although this passage reveals to us that one third of the angels rebelled against God, it means that two thirds of the angels decided as an act of their free will to remain loyal to God as their creator, and so they continue to serve Him today. Scripture reveals to us that there will come a time in the future when the angels who have decided to remain loyal to God, will go to war against Satan and his angels and cast them out of heaven once and for all (Revelation 12:7-9). That event will bring Satan and his angels’ one step closer to the time pre-determined by our Father when they will be cast into the everlasting fire that He has prepared for them.

1 Timothy 5:21 “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.”

 Lucifer’s rebellion did not take God by surprise, for God had also predestined the rebellion of Satan and his angels as a part of His plan of salvation. That truth is confirmed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for in this passage the apostle Paul speaks about the “elect” angles of God. And so we see that just as God chooses which men will and will not be saved, so it is that He also chose which angels would serve Him for all eternity as His elect angels and which would suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire. Therefore we see that even among the angels, God works all things according to the counsel of His will, for He alone is God. Nevertheless the passages of scripture we have examined in this section show us very clearly that angels have a free will.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Will of Man

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