Mather’s Theological Compendium

Chapter 7
Angels
There are essentially three types of “spirit” in existence: God (Jn. 4:24; Acts 17:24, 25), angels (Heb. 1:4-14), and humankind (Gen. 1:27; 2:7; 1 Cor. 2:11). Angels are a separate creation from humankind. This means they do not share the same kind of spirit we do. And the souls of humans do not ever become disembodied spirits, walking around on the earth doing good or evil after they die (Heb. 9:27; 2 Cor. 5:8). This is because, according to the Bible, we will always remain human, and they will always remain angels (Heb. 2:5–9; 1Cor. 6:3). Also, the human spirit “goes back to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7), so we do not remain here on earth after we die.
There are two types of angels: good angels and bad angels. Good angels are ministering spirits for humankind (Heb. 1:14; Ps. 34:7; 91:9–11), and bad angels are bent on doing evil all the time (Eph. 6:12; Jude 6). The latter are those angels who followed Lucifer,or Satan, the once-upon-a-time guardian of the throne of God (Ezek. 28:13-15), who fell and took one-third of the angels with him (Rev. 12:3,4,9).

I. Good Angels
As mentioned previously, good angels are guardian angels sent to minister to humankind. These, I believe, are the angels in general (Lk. 2:13), of which there are millions. Other kinds of good angels are the cherubim (Gen. 3:24; 1 Sam. 4:4; Ezek. 10:1–20; Rev. 4:6), who surround and support the throne of God (2 Ki. 19:15; Ps. 18:10; 80:1; 99:1); the seraphim (Isa. 6:2, 6; Rev. 8:3), who are above the throne of God (Isa. 6:1); and the archangels (1 Thess. 4:16; Jude 9), who herald new events (Lk. 1:11-20, 26–38; 1 Thess. 4:16), protect nations (Dan. 10:5-21; 12:1), and are sent to defeat Satan and his angels in their attempt to thwart the plans of God (Rev. 12:7–9).
II. Bad Angels
Bad angels, or demons, are the one-third of the heavenly host that Satan took with him when he fell (Lk. 10:18; Rev. 12:4). There are two kinds of bad angels, those who are kept in prison (Jude 6; Rev. 9:2–11) and those not kept in prison (Ps. 78:49; Dan 10:13; Matt. 12:43-45; Mk. 1:34; 3:11,12; 5:2-14; 6:7; 9:20; Lk. 10:17-20; Acts 10:38;).
Satan is the leader of all bad angels. Scripture indicates he was once a very beautiful angel (Ezek. 28:12c–15), but this is not the case anymore (Isa. 14:12–15). He and his angels do not have any kind of a facsimile of their old selves, and all of what heaven had to offer was lost to them (Isa. 14:15).
We are not told exactly when Satan’s fall took place, but we do know he was on earth to tempt humankind before Adam and Eve fell. So he was here for an undetermined amount of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This being the case, the creation of humankind and a beautiful home for us proposed a threat to Satan’s total control of the earth.

III. The Difference between Humans and Angels
First, angels are different from humankind in that they do not have as free a will as we do. In other words, when they make a decision to do something it cannot be changed. This is illustrated by the fact that when Satan determined to do evil, and when one-third of the angels did the same, it has not changed through the ages. They are still acting in gross rebellion toward the Lord and will always act that way.
Another difference between angels and humans is that good angels can go from one tangible level to another without the means of physical death. It is true they must have permission, or a commission, from the Lord to do so, but they can go from spiritual beings to having a physical body and back again when the need arises (Gen. 18:1, 2, 22; Heb. 13:2). Evil angels, however, cannot do this. They can move things around in a very limited fashion (Ex. 7:11, 12), but they cannot do anything with this world’s elements without the aid of a very strong medium. But Scripture says if we cavort with mediums we are committing sin (Deut. 18:9–14; Gal. 5:20), so it shouldn’t be done under any circumstances.