From Heinrich Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
Sections 26–34, “Of Angels.” Schmid’s text is a mosaic of quotations from the Lutheran dogmaticians of the seventeenth century. Their names, abbreviated in the original, are given here in full:
- Johann Gerhard (1582–1637), Loci Theologici
- Abraham Calov (1612–1686), Systema Locorum Theologicorum
- Johann Andreas Quenstedt (1617–1688), Theologia Didactico-Polemica
- Johann Wilhelm Baier (1647–1695), Compendium Theologiae Positivae
- David Hollaz (1648–1713), Examen Theologicum Acroamaticum
Volume and page numbers in parentheses are Schmid’s references to those works. Scripture citations have been spelled out; the wording of the translation is unchanged. Section numbers in brackets are Schmid’s.
The Good Angels Are Not to Be Worshiped
Hollaz (392): “Angels are not to be adored or invoked.”
Is There an Order Among the Angels?
Hollaz (392): “There is no doubt as to the existence of a certain order among the good angels, but what or what manner of angelic order that is, we think no one can know in this life.
Proof: (a) From the general rule, according to which God wishes everything in the church militant to be done decently and in order, 1 Corinthians 14:40. There is no doubt, therefore, that there is a certain order among the blessed angels, and that so much the more perfect, as the church triumphant is more splendid than the church militant. (b) From the different designations of the celestial spirits, Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and Jude 9. The different names imply a distinction among the angels. (c) From analogy. There is an order among the wicked angels; therefore also among the good. The former is proved by Luke 11:15, where Beelzebub is called the chief of devils, and Matthew 25:41, where mention is made of the devil and his angels.”
Why Some Angels Are Called Evil
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 450): “Angels are called evil, not because of their essence, for in respect to their essence they are good, and were created along with the rest of the angels in truth, holiness, and righteousness; but
- in respect to their evil conduct, namely, their malicious defection and apostasy from God;
- in respect to the habitual wickedness, or the horrible depravity of their nature, which was consequent upon that conduct;
- in respect to their perseverance and persistence in incorrigible wickedness; and
- on account of their evil doings; for they perpetrate only evil.”
What Was Their First Sin?
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 452): “It does not appear what exactly was the first sin of the evil angels. The temptation, however, with which Satan attacked and overcame our first parents, Genesis 3:5, and his character and his perpetual effort to transfer the glory of God to himself, Matthew 4:9, render probable the opinion of those who think that it was an affected resemblance to the Deity (deiformitas) or an affectation of superior pre-eminence (ὑπεροχῆς, hyperochē, a grasping at supremacy).”
The Fall Was Free and Deliberate
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 452): “The generic form of the diabolical fall consisted in the free and spontaneous turning away from God and the rule of right. For they were able to persevere in truth and concreated holiness and not fall away from it; they were able to keep the rule of right by the grace of creation; of their own accord, therefore, and freely they sinned, by the abuse namely of the liberty that was bestowed upon them. For they did not sin through any defect or impotence of nature, but from pure malice and contumacy, and by the spontaneous abuse of the will conferred upon them.”
How Many Fell, and in What Order
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 452): “Those who fell were individual angels, whose number is not mentioned in the Scriptures; that they were many, however, we infer from the multitude of demons, Mark 5:9; Luke 8:30.”
Quenstedt again (vol. I, p. 453): “In what order the wicked angels sinned, whether all at once, whether one after another, or whether first one fell and by his example and persuasion induced others to apostasy and the fall, concerning this the Scholastics dispute, but ἄτερ γραφῆς (ater graphēs, apart from Scripture), with no scriptural ground for their opinions.”
Hollaz (399): “It is probable that the wicked angels fell under the guidance of a certain leader or chief, whom the Scriptures call Satan and the devil, John 8:44; Luke 11:15, who by his example or persuasion drew many angels into the fellowship of his crime. Acts 12:4.”
When Did They Fall?
Hollaz (same place): “They fell, not within the six days of creation, but after they were ended (Genesis 1:31). Before the fall of our first parents, in the second week of the foundation of the world, but upon what day it is uncertain.”
Their Punishment
Baier (280): “The crime having been committed, all those angels lost the grace that had been concreated with them, and so fell into the most horrible misery, without hope of restoration.”
Calov (vol. IV, p. 318): “The punishment of the wicked angels is partly the eternal desertion of God, whence they can never be converted; partly, rejection to infernal torments to be endured forever.”
Hollaz (403) more specifically distinguishes the punishment of loss from the punishment of the senses: “The punishment of loss, which is also designated as privative, is the most lamentable casting away of grace and glory. The punishment of sense consists of the positive torments which the demons are keenly enduring ever since the fall, and the still greater ones which they will undergo on the day of final judgment (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).”
Baier (288): “The punishments which are inflicted upon the wicked angels will be eternal. Matthew 25:41–46; Mark 9:43.”
Why They Cannot Be Restored
To the question, “Why may not the wicked angels be restored to favor?” Gerhard (vol. IV, p. 34) answers: “It is better to proclaim the wonderful philanthropy and mercy of the Son of God towards the fallen race of man, by which on our account and for our salvation he descended from heaven and became man, not taking on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16), than to scrutinize beyond [proper] limits the causes of that most just judgment, by which God delivered the angels who had fallen away from him to be hurled in chains of darkness into hell, to be reserved for judgment.”
The reason for their eternal rejection is usually found in the greatness of their crime. Hollaz (398) indicates the atrocity of their crime: “(a) From the person offended, who is God, the most kind and mighty Creator of the angels. (b) From the helps, by the aid of which they were able to turn aside the evil. For the intellect of the angels was resplendent with an extraordinary light of knowledge. Their will was distinguished by perfect holiness. (c) From the mode of sinning. For the angels sinned, not through infirmity or inadvertence, but in the full possession of their intellect, with deliberate design and the voluntary abuse of their free will, no one instigating them.”
What the Evil Angels Still Know
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 454): “The evil angels did not lose, through their fall, their natural knowledge, or that which they had by the light of nature, for they know God and other supernatural things after a certain manner. But that knowledge of supernatural things is joined,
- with great hatred and murmuring against God;
- with jealousy, envy, and rage against good angels and pious and happy men;
- with ignorance, doubt, error, and forgetfulness. Matthew 4:6; John 13:2; 1 Corinthians 2:8.
Yet they have altogether lost the knowledge derived from the light of grace.”
Hollaz (399): “The evil angels know God, but they dreadfully shudder at this divine knowledge.”
Baier (280): “Their intellect is deprived, not only of the light of grace, but also of the light of glory; and, being fixed upon the contemplation of the divine wrath and their own misery, it is as it were blunted, and wants a sound judgment concerning the doing of that which is good. (Besides, the corruption of the diabolic intellect can be shown from the fact that Satan so studiously sought to accomplish the death of Christ, not thinking that he was thereby bringing the greatest adversity upon himself. But the natural knowledge that remains in the wicked angels adds no happiness to those rejected by God.)”
Their Will and Their Power
Their further gifts are thus described by Hollaz (399): “Their will, inclined to evil, does not rejoice in that liberty which implies indifference to good or evil, or to many things that are good, but their freedom is exercised with reference to particular evils. Their power is, indeed, more than human, but it is restrained by the divine power, so that without the permission of God they can accomplish nothing.”
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 454): “From divine revelation they sometimes have certain knowledge of future contingencies, Job 1:12; 2:6; 1 Kings 22:22. And some things they know with a measure of probability by their natural sagacity.”
What the Evil Angels Do
Hollaz (400): “The doings of the wicked angels are of various kinds, but they are all directed to the injury of the divine glory (Revelation 12:7), and to the temporal as well as eternal ruin of individual men, and of the hierarchical estates.”
Their Assault on the Three Estates
Specifically (403): “The evil demons are assiduously plotting to disturb, overturn, and totally destroy
- the ecclesiastical estate (by scattering heresies, Matthew 13:27 and 28; by hindering the efforts of pious ministers of the Church, 1 Thessalonians 2:18; by averting the minds of hearers from the meditation and practice of the divine Word, Luke 8:12; by exciting persecutions against the kingdom of Christ, Revelation 12:7),
- the political estate (1 Kings 22:21; 1 Chronicles 22:1), and
- the domestic estate (by alienating the minds of married persons; for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, who delighted in sowing contentions, John 8:44; by lying in wait for the children and possessions of parents, Job 1:13).”
Possession, Spiritual and Corporeal
Among the evils that are inflicted upon individual persons by the evil spirits there is especially reckoned corporeal and spiritual possession. The general description of this we cite from Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 456): “It is an action of the devil, by which, through the permission of God, he instigates men to sin, and occupies and torments their bodies, that they may throw away their eternal salvation. Through the former, namely, the instigation to sin, there originates the spiritual possession; through the latter, namely, his occupation of human bodies, there originates the corporeal possession.
The former is meant when it is said that the devil possesses and fills the minds and hearts of the wicked, enters into these, and works in them (ἐνεργεῖν, energein, to work inwardly), Acts 5:3; Luke 22:3; John 13:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Ephesians 2:2.
The latter is meant when the devil immediately and locally exists, and operates in a body, and controls it for the time being. Matthew 4:24; 8:16 and 28; Mark 7:25; 9:17; Matthew 12:22; 15:22; Luke 4:33; Acts 8:7; 19:13.”
The spiritual possession is more minutely described by Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 456) as follows: “Its form consists partly in the closer nearness (propinquiori adessentia) of the substance of the devil to the soul of the wicked person, Luke 11:24, 26; partly in an efficacious working (ἐνέργεια, energeia) propelling to certain crimes.”
As the subject in which the spiritual possession takes place there is designated: “the soul of a wicked person, conducting itself not merely passively, but, at the same time, actively and as a co-worker with the devil. John 8:44.”
As the subject in which the corporeal possession takes place there is designated: “a human body in a merely passive condition; mediately, however, and by way of sympathy also, the soul is affected by that evil. (Satan moves the body of the possessed person and its members at his own pleasure, and so forth.)” (vol. I, p. 457.)
Possession Can Befall the Pious
Quenstedt (vol. I, p. 457): “The subject of it is not only a wicked man, but also sometimes a pious one, Mark 9:21; since it occasionally happens that, through the secret but most just judgment and purpose of God, also upright men are possessed by the devil. God gives over the wicked to be possessed by the devil, that they may be punished and corrected, but the pious, that the wickedness of their sins may be exhibited and their faith exercised.”
The Signs of Corporeal Possession
Hollaz (402) remarks: “Let the various signs of corporeal possession be carefully examined, some of which are peculiar to the possessed, and some are common also to the melancholy, ecstatic, and phrenetic: and so they are to be taken and considered, not separately but conjointly, lest we consider those afflicted with serious diseases as possessed persons. The marks of corporeal possession are:
- The knowledge of strange languages and branches of knowledge, obtained without study;
- The knowledge and manifestation of occult and future things;
- Speech, uttered with open mouth, and without the necessary movement of the organs;
- The mimicking of little birds, sheep, oxen, swine, bears, and the like;
- Strength superhuman, in carrying immense burdens;
- Horrid blasphemies uttered against the most sacred Deity;
- A sudden tearing (diductio) of bodies without the dissolution of the bodily frame, Luke 4:35;
- Impure, cruel, terrible gestures and acts; for example, they sometimes foam at the mouth, gnash their teeth, cast themselves into the water, into the fire, and try to commit suicide;
- Severe internal torment in the bowels and other parts of the body, and swelling of the belly;
- Loss of the senses, both internal and external, and of the faculty of locomotion, Matthew 15:22; 17:15; Luke 8:27–35; Mark 1:24.”
Spectres
Some of the Dogmaticians mention also spectres, by which the evil spirits have frightened men. Hollaz: “The Scriptures teach that the evil demons make a mock of men with spectres, Isaiah 13:21; 34:14; Wisdom 17:3, 4; Matthew 14:26; Luke 24:37.” But, “Spectres are not the souls of the dead. Luke 16:29; Wisdom 3:1.”
God’s Use of the Evil Spirits
Baier: “Meanwhile God himself uses the ministry of evil spirits for chastising the pious in this world (Job, for example), and for punishing the wicked, as well in life (Psalm 78:49) as after death (Matthew 18:34).”
