Will ANGELS be judged?
Will MAN judge the ANGELS?

Q. What does the Bible say about the judgment of angels? Why would the angels be judged in the first place? Will humans or someone else judge the angels?

(Submitted by: Lisa)

A. Let's look at the word that is translated out into English as angel. In the original Hebrew the word was translated from "MLAK" transliterated malak meaning a messenger 98 times, angel 111 times, and ambassador some 4 times. In Greek the word translated into the English as angel is angelos meaning messenger and envoy.

The responsibilities of angels are to bring messages from one part of the universe to the other to God the Father and his Son Jesus the Christ and to execute their will. They look after:

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." (Psalm 91:1, NKJV throughout)

Matthew 18:10, in discussing the elect, especially the newly baptized elect whom Jesus calls "one of these little ones" or a small innocent child not yet baptized, says that:

". . . in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. " (Matthew 18:10)

This implies that one of the tasks of angels is to look after each one of us who have been called and baptized as well as little children.

Some have contended that angels are not able to die. This might be conjecture as there is no scripture that states such. The angel's body at the present time is made up of a spiritual substance. They were created beings and have been given the ability to choose to obey or not the Law of God and His voice.

Ezekiel 28:11 begins an interesting discussion that initially seems to be about the King of Tyre, but the end of verse 12 shows that the context is speaking of the leader of the fallen angels, Satan the devil.

"Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,  "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:  You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

"'You were in Eden, the garden of God.  Every precious stone was your covering:  the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.  The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.

"'You were the anointed cherub who covers.  I established you.  You were on the holy mountain of God.  You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.  You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.'"" (Ezekiel 28:11-15)

The devil is being discussed in these verses because he was the one who walked in the midst of the stones of fire at the throne of God on his holy mountain. Verses 18 and 19 of the same chapter state that God will make the devil into ashes and that he will be no more:

"' . . . And I turned you to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all who saw you.  All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you.  You have become a horror, and shall be NO MORE forever.'" (Ezekiel 28:18-19)

This certainly is a strong indication that the devil can be put to a final death (destroyed) even though he is made of spirit.

Ezekiel 18:20 says that the soul that sins shall die. If this word soul would be translated as LIFE FORCE then it might be speaking to the angel realm as well as the human realm. Only God can prevent humans from being resurrected into a new body containing that human's life force and only God can remove the life force from the bodies of angels.

Satan convinced one-third of all the angelic beings to follow his rebellion (Revelation 12:3-4). Most of the rebellious angels, now called demons, have been incarcerated in a bottomless pit until such time that the Father will permit their release for their judgment:

"But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;" (Jude 5-6)

I can find no scripture that says evil, unrepentant angels will be in torment or tortured forever.

When the elected saints have been raised into their spiritual bodies at the first resurrection they will not only help judge the world but also the angels. The apostle Paul stated this in 1Corinthians:

"Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?  Do you not know that the saints will JUDGE the world?  And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?  Do you not know that WE SHALL JUDGE ANGELS?  How much more, things that pertain to this life?" (1Corinthians 6:1-4)

The angels do a lot but do not know all there is to know. They look for the day when the elected saints will teach them the deep things of God. 1Peter 1:12 tells us that they want to understand these things but they do not even understand why they are doing what they are doing. The angels were not promised to rule the world to come or to be sons of God (Hebrews 2:5).

There will be a day that even the angelic world will be judged to see if they have obeyed the laws of God, especially the Ten Commandments. Why do angels need to be judged? Because at least one third of them have sinned and deserve death. Who will do this judging? Those who have entered into the Kingdom of God as spirit born children of God.