Do you believe in angels and demons?
What do you believe about them?
Has that belief evolved?
I really want to hear your stories as well because I think this helps me make sense of how and why my own perceptions might be changing.
As a child, I think I blew them up to be extra large humans in spiritual bodies kind of mirroring and manipulating our lives from the spiritual realm. I believed they existed and I was fascinated by them.
But over time, they have faded from my view. I have a concept of good forces and evil forces, but not bodily, ghostly creatures…
Yet I almost fear disowning them completely. Here’s why:
I have never actually deconstructed my beliefs about these so-called spiritual creatures. I guess it just wasn’t a pressing issue, until I realized recently that the reason most of us were taught to believe in angels and demons is because we were taught to view life through the lens of war.
I was taught that there is one superior God, albeit, made of three persons/personalities—the trinity—which made this God of love and goodness, about thrice as strong as Satan. I was taught that Satan was probably (though not definitely) a fallen angel. This angel took one third of the other angels with him and those angels became demons by default.
God = the triune being with ultimate authority and power, as well as love and goodness.
Satan = God and humanity’s arch nemesis, out to steal, kill and destroy all that is good and loving and wholesome.
Demons = Fallen angels = enemies of human race.
Angels = on God’s side and impartially supportive of the human race, working toward their salvation from all things satanic and demonic.
Even when I became a universalist, none of these beliefs changed. What changed was that a slowly stopped seeing Satan and demons as the enemy, and started to see them as lost beings who would eventually be found just as I believed any lost humans would eventually be saved.
Yes, my friends, I became the kind of universalist who believed in the redemption of Satan himself. The whole cosmos redeemed. Justified. Sanctified. United with the Trinity in holy bliss for all eternity. Amen.
As a child, I embraced the idea that we were always at war. There was a spiritual battle going on around all of us. Good versus evil. Heaven vs hell. Angels vs demons. I fully believed that angels and demons looked mostly masculine, with muscles, towering over human beings—ten feet tall. I believed they held swords in their hands and they were always fighting each other, but none of them ever died. The fight wasn’t to the death, the fight was literally over how much territory they “possessed” or manipulated in the earthly realm, whether human beings themselves, or land, or spiritual atmosphere.
I wrote novels in my twenties about these characters. These angels and demons. This war between the forces of “good” and “evil.”
The angels fought to bring more godliness to earth and life and the human race—more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc.
The demons fought to wreak havoc, death, cancer, mental illness, natural disasters etc.
I thanked God and God’s angels for “good” things and I was taught to question whether demons were behind “bad” things.
Becoming a universalist neutered Satan and the demons a little bit. I figured that whatever damage they caused was temporary. They were on a fool’s errand. They could never win. Not even one soul. They would eventually repent and turn back to God for themselves and the whole of earthly life with its “sin” and “evil” and “problems” would be like a blip on the radar of eternity, or indigestion in God’s gut, when God reconciled ALL THINGS in heaven and on earth and under the earth and we simply became… ONE.
But now I wonder about the line between what we judge as “good” and “evil.” The things we want to thank the angels for, or blame the demons for. The “good” weather and the “bad” weather. Natural “disasters.” Sickness and disease that simply result from natural bodily processes and the things we expose those bodies to. The fact that death has always been part of life—why are we so afraid of it? Why do avoid it? Why do we curse it? What if we perceived it as something more neutral, commonplace, and, yes, inescapable?
What if there are no angels and demons in the sense of some spiritual beings with muscles that are gigantic and are fighting over our hearts, souls and minds?
What if there are forces in the world that we create with our own ways of thinking—especially group-think—and what if they exist in more of a vibrational sense? An aura. A mentality. A theology.
What if the only war going on, is the one that you and I create?
If our perception of world peace expands, will it become our reality?
Are good and evil simply human concepts that we have projected onto the world around us to try to explain things like death…
Do you believe in good and evil?
Is believing in good and evil almost the same thing as believing in angels and demons?
I think this may be the reason I haven’t officially deconstructed angels and demons yet. Because as much as I want a world of peace without war, I still want to judge various institutions and systems as “evil” and see no way of escaping those things (like the patriarchy for instance) without fighting (warring) against them…
Maybe angels and demons are simply evolving with my concept of good and evil. As long as I still believe that some things truly are reprehensibly “evil,” I will still call those things demonic, and perceive a demonic force propelling and possessing it. As long as I believe some things are deeply wholesome and “good,” I’m going to thank God and the angels and perceive a loving force propelling those things.
Truthfully, I do want “good” to “triumph” over “evil.” This is a Biblical phrase. But it resembles war. It is dichotomous/dualistic.
I guess the conclusion I’m coming to right now as I sit here and spew these ideas, is that my concept of God is still dualistic.
How about you? Where are you on your deconstruction journey regarding angels and demons? Good and evil??
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