Where is the judgment of fallen angels?
The Judgment of fallen angels will certainly take place (Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4; Matt. 25:41) and saints will play a role judging them (1 Cor. 6:3), but scholars cannot agree where the judgment occurs in the Bible.
I believe their methodology is flawed, that if we use Sherlock Holmes-like deduction the precise time and place of the judgment of fallen angels can be found in the Bible. Scripture provides the clues; we need only connect the dots:
Fallen angels are judged on the “great day” of God Almighty:
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 1:6 NKJ) See also 2 Pet. 2:4
The Church will participate in their judgment:
2 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?
3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? (1 Cor. 6:2-3 NKJ)
The “great day” of God Almighty spans the time before the coming of Christ (Mal. 4:5; Rev. 6:17; 16:14) and End Time Judgment.
Accordingly, there seems to be a judgment prior to Christ’s return (Dan. 7:9-12; Rev. 20:4-5) and another after the Millennial reign of Christ, the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 13:11-15):
9 “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;
10 A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
11 “I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
12 “As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (Dan. 7:9-12 NKJ)
The Church “received authority to Judge” (CJB) in Revelation 20:4 and this implies they continue to play a role in the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11-12.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Rev. 20:4-5 NKJ)
Although the angels are not explicitly said to be judged by what’s written in the books, its follows from the existence of “elect angels” (1 Tim. 5:21) that their names also appear in the “book of life” just like human elect (Phil. 4:3).
That this judgment includes more than the human “dead” is implied in Revelation 20:13. It is impossible to personify “Sea…Death…Hades” in this verse, therefore listing “sea” alongside “death” —which contains all human dead who died in the sea; is tautological UNLESS the intent is to imply angels leaving their prison Tartarus (5020 ταρταρόω tartaroo, 2 Pet. 2:4), whose entrance was believed to be in the sea (Compare Job 26:4-5).
Corroborating this, theSea of Chaos (Prov. 8:29) is associated with angels and demons (Job 26:13; Isa. 27:1; 51:9; Ps. 74:13-14; Dan. 7:2; Rev. 7:1; 13:1). Moreover, the sea is “the realm of the Devil” (Isa. 27:1; Dan. 7:2-3; Rev. 20:13). That would explain why the “sea” does not exist in the New Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21:1).
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:11-15 NKJ)
Both angels and men will be judged together.
The punishment of God must fall at the same time both upon the princes of heaven and upon the princes of earth…Verse 22a announces the preliminary punishment of both angelic and human princes.-Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 7, p. 282). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
21 It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth.
22 They will be gathered together, As prisoners are gathered in the pit, And will be shut up in the prison; After many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be disgraced And the sun ashamed; For the LORD of hosts will reign On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem And before His elders, gloriously. (Isa. 24:21-23 NKJ)
At Armageddon Satan’s “angels” (= “stars” Rev. 1:20; 9:1) his angelic UFO armada fall from the heavens like “untimely figs” while the Beast’s armies are bombarded on earth (Isa. 34:4-8; Rev. 6:13-17). Then the “mighty”(2478 ἰσχυρός ischuros) Nephilim “Kings of the sunrising” (395 ἀνατολή Anatole) (Rev. 16:12; 19:18) are slain alongside the Beast’s human army by the King of Kings Jesus Christ our LORD (Rev. 19:11-21). Imprisoned in their appropriate places in Hell they wait for the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:11-15) on Judgment Day.
The Beast and False prophet are cast body and soul into the Lake of fire (Rev. 19:20; Mt. 10:28), perhaps in a “twinkling of an eye” their bodies changed (Contrast 1 Cor. 15:52) into abominable bodies reeking of corruption (Dan. 12:2; Isa. 14:11; 66:24; Mk. 9:42-48; Gal. 6:8). Satan is bound and imprisoned in a separate place to be unleashed once again on the earth (Rev. 20:1-3, 7-9) and will join the Beast and False prophet in the lake of fire later (Rev. 20:10).
The judgment of fallen angels was prefigured when a legion of demons, imprisoned in “unclean flesh” (which could symbolize the abominable resurrection bodies of the damned), were driven into the Lake where they died physically, their spirits ending up in the very abyss they feared. Gehenna, Lake of Fire, Furnace of Fire, the Depths, Destruction, and Abyss refer essentially to the same place:
30 And Jesus questioned him, saying, ‘What is thy name?’ and he said, ‘Legion,’ (because many demons were entered into him,)
31 and he was calling on him, that he may not command them to go away to the abyss,
32 and there was there a herd of many swine feeding in the mountain, and they were calling on him, that he might suffer them to enter into these, and he suffered them,
33 and the demons having gone forth from the man, did enter into the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep to the lake, and were choked. (Lk. 8:30-33 YLT)
END NOTES:
[1] Contrary to the “ruling” of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, angels are corporeal (1 Cor. 15:40). The theory angels materialize physical bodies to appear physical in our realm is a hasty generalization fallacy confusing “spirits” with “angels”. They are distinguished from each other in Acts 23:8-9. The lying spirit who fools the prophets (1Kings 22:21-22) is nothing like the angels who ate and drank with Abraham (Gen. 18:1-8) or sat under a tree speaking to Gideon (Judges 6:11-12). Rather than conjure up physical forms to be seen, it appears they have cloaking technology (2Kings 6:17) and appear in our matrix without walking through doors or walls just as Jesus did in his physical resurrection body (John 20:19-20). Jesus eats a fish to contradict any suggestion He is a spirit (Luke 24:36-43).
Angels are always represented as physical and the theory they have God like power to create living bodies contradicts the declaration God alone has that power (Dt. 32:39). Rather, scripture reveals there are portals that can connect earthly and heavenly realms. Jacob saw angels walking through a portal on a ladder through the “gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:12, 17). John went through a similar door to enter heaven (Rev. 4:1). So did the chariots of fire that took Elijah away, a swirling energy vortex (2 Kings 2:11). Christ and His heavenly army will enter our Matrix through an opening in the sky (Rev. 19:11) perhaps similar to when the clouds concealed His departure during his Ascension (Acts. 1:9).
When the “complete” (5046 τέλειος teleios) and “partial” (3313 μέρος meros) (1 Cor. 13:10) touched each other [“kingdom of God came in power (Mk. 9:1)] during the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah step into our Matrix still physical as Peter confirms by wanting to build tents for them (Mk. 9:4-5). [Satan had tried to prevent the resurrection of Moses (Jude 1:9)]. It is a massive violation of Occam’s razor sola scripturists ignore these scriptures to perpetuate the error proposed by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
“Spirits of demons” implies angelic bodies contain within them an immaterial spirit (Rev. 16:14). Spirits and angels are distinguished from each other (Ac. 23:8-9). The hapax legomen λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα “ministering spirits” in Hebrews 1:14 notwithstanding. This is not a reference to angelic nature, but to their function as minsters of the spirit. If these were immaterial spirits, then God wouldn’t have to make them spirits after creation (Ps. 104:4. Heb. 1:7).
Nothing about New Jerusalem coming down from heaven implies an “immaterial city”, it follows neither would their likely builders be immaterial (Rev. 21:10-27). If one cannot be physical in heaven, why didn’t Paul realize he wasn’t still in his own body while in third heaven? (1 Cor. 12:2, 4). The description of this matrix as a “partial” requires it is less substantial as “the complete”. The “teleios” contains dimensions of revelation of God we lack (1 Cor. 13:8-12). If anything is “immaterial”, it be us ghostly photons consisting in the Infinite Mind of God the Eternal Son held together by His thought (Col. 1:17. Ac. 17:28). As the “Word of God” Jesus makes concrete what Triune YHWH God conceives (2Cor. 4:6. Gen. 1:1).
Let’s not confuse the “spirits of demons” (Rev. 16:14) with angels still having “celestial bodies” (1Cor. 15:40).
Unclean spirits and demons wandering tombs etc. craving corporeality, are the spirits of Nephilim Fallen Angels who did not corrupt the image of God in man; but not permitted to reenter the dimension of heaven as the flood waters killed all flesh alive on the earth (Gen. 7:21-23). Included among these are the evil hybrid offspring of the angels (Gen. 6:4). Desperately craving corporeality, they pathetically roam the wastelands possessing anything they can, insects (2Kings 1:2), animals (Lk. 8:33) or men (Lk. 8:30-32).
Nephilim Fallen Angels and the Sons of God
Angels are cast out of Heaven Twice?
God vs Devil How could Satan hope to win?
Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs: The Big Lie God is an ET
The War Between God and Satan: The Seven Bowls
What did the apostle John reveal when he said: “It is the last hour”?
Do Ancient Aliens Appear in the Bible?
The Origin of Satan and Demons
The Coming False Christ and His Followers Revealed