Do Angels Sin?
The question of whether angels can sin clarifies what Scripture teaches about angels, moral responsibility, and the nature of sin.
Read Time: 5 minutes
Many within mainstream Christianity believe angels are flawed beings who can sin. This idea is used to support the doctrine of a personal devil. He is believed to have been an angel who sinned and was consequently cast out of heaven, becoming God’s adversary ever since. This teaching, however, is not at all supported by the Bible.
Angels do not sin. We’re told in Scripture that “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). We’re also told that angels cannot die: “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:36). If angels do not die, then they also do not sin because sin brings forth death. Also, since this verse in Luke 20 refers to the humans who will be accepted into the Kingdom at Christ’s return, does this mean that in the Kingdom the saints will still possess a sinful nature, since they’ll be made “equal unto the angels”? Of course not. There will be no sin in the saints in the Kingdom, as shown in Isaiah 11:9, Isaiah 35:8, Zechariah 14:20-21, Revelation 21:27, Revelation 22:3, etc. This concept further proves that angels do not sin.
Angels are also God’s messengers who can take on His name. This is shown in Exodus 23 when God is delivering a message to the Israelites: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.” (Exodus 23:20-21).
Another example that proves angels can take on the name of God is found in Judges chapter 6, where an angel of the LORD delivers God’s message to Gideon:
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? (Judges 6:12-14).
In this passage, when the angel looks upon Gideon and speaks to him, it’s equated to God looking upon Gideon and speaking to him.
Even in the first verse of the Bible we can see angels taking on God’s name and carrying out His commands: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The Hebrew word translated as “God” in Genesis 1:1 is elohim, which is a plural word meaning “mighty ones.” This clearly refers to the multitudinous company of angels active in creation.
If angels could sin, why would God allow them to take on His name? Surely, no sinner would be worthy of such an honor. So where did the idea of a fallen angel originate? Perhaps the most commonly referenced chapter used to support the idea of a fallen angel is Isaiah chapter 14. Starting in verse 12, we read:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15).
These verses are often cherry-picked and misinterpreted to mean that there was an angel named Lucifer who selfishly sought to exalt himself above God and was stripped of his heavenly position as a result. This is incredibly incorrect. First of all, the word Lucifer should not actually appear in the text. The Hebrew word translated as Lucifer is helel, which means “morning star.” It appears as Lucifer in some translations because, around AD 405, Jerome of Stridon translated the Bible into Latin and used the Latin word lucifer, which also means “morning star.” Later, the word Lucifer became treated as a name and was further applied to the idea of a fallen angel.
The Bible must be read in context, and when Isaiah 14 is read that way, it becomes clear this passage refers to the king of Babylon, not an angel. In fact, the words angel, devil, and Satan do not appear once in the entire chapter. Earlier in the chapter, we read:
And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! (Isaiah 14:3-4).
The king of Babylon Isaiah 14 refers to is Nebuchadnezzar II, who, as we read in Daniel chapters 1-4, tried to exalt himself above God and was humbled as a result. The astronomical language describes Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling from his exalted status. Stars are often used as symbols of authority in Scripture (Genesis 37:9-10, Numbers 24:17, Daniel 8:10, Matthew 24:29). The planet Venus is often called the Morning Star because it appears before sunrise but then disappears once the sun rises and overwhelms its brightness. Nebuchadnezzar is compared to Venus, whose glory God (the sun) took away.
Two passages in the New Testament are often cited as clear proof that angels can sin. They’re found in the books of 2 Peter and Jude:
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. (2 Peter 2:4).
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6).
These passages can seem confusing and contradictory at first read, and they’ve even led some to suggest that they refer to a pre-Adamic creation. But when we really break down the text, the pieces come together effectively.
A critical fact to understand regarding these passages is the meaning of the word “angels.” The Greek word translated as “angels” in these verses is aggelos, which means “messenger.” The word aggelos usually refers to heavenly, immortal angels, but it can also refer to human messengers of God. For example, John the Baptist is called an aggelos: “As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger [aggelos] before thy face, Which shall prepare thy way before thee.” (Mark 1:2).
So the way we can tell whether aggelos refers to heavenly, immortal angels or human messengers of God is based on the context of the passage. Since we’ve already established that angels do not sin, these verses in 2 Peter and Jude must be referring to human messengers of God. These verses say that certain human followers of the LORD failed to endure to the end, turned to the sinful ways of the world, died, and now await the coming judgment after the resurrection of the responsible.
Angels do not sin; they have absolutely no desire to. We humans, on the other hand, are constantly tempted and fall into sin. This sinful nature we possess comes from within us (Mark 7:21-23), not from some outside force. Believing in a supernatural creature who tempts us to sin is enticing for many, since it places the blame on something or someone else for their own personal errors. Despite the fleshly inclinations we possess, we can be assured that if we endure to the end in faithful obedience, our nature will be changed from corruptible to incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:50-54) and thus we will be made “equal unto the angels.” (Luke 20:36).
William Rundle,
Boston Ecclesia, MA