# Repentance of Fallen Angels Christians have long asked whether the angels who rebelled against God, Satan among them, can repent and be forgiven. The settled answer of the Catholic, Orthodox and historic Protestant traditions is no. A minority of early theologians, notably Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, thought otherwise. ## Intro The Bible is clear that some angels sinned and that they face judgment. Peter says God "spared not angels when they sinned" but is keeping them "unto judgment" ([2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/), ASV). Jesus speaks of "the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels" ([Matthew 25:41](/codex/matthew-25-41/), ASV). No passage describes a fallen angel being offered forgiveness, and no passage describes one repenting. What the Bible does not spell out is *why*. Is it that fallen angels are unable to repent, or that they never will? Most Christian teachers have said their choice was final, like a human life once it ends. A few early Christian thinkers wondered whether free creatures could ever turn back. This page sets out the passages, the positions, and the reasons on each side. ![A crowded painting of armored angels led by Michael driving a tumbling mass of monstrous, hybrid creatures down out of a bright sky](/codex/assets/bruegel-fall-of-the-rebel-angels.jpg) _Pieter Bruegel the Elder, *The Fall of the Rebel Angels*, 1562, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Image: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons._ ## In full Three distinct propositions are often run together and should be kept apart: (1) angels have moral agency, which Scripture plainly shows, since some sinned; (2) fallen angels are *capable* of repentance; (3) fallen angels *will* repent and be restored. The biblical data establish (1) and describe a final judgment for the fallen without any provision of redemption, which stands against (3). Proposition (2) is where the theological traditions divide. The dominant tradition denies it and gives reasons: John of Damascus ties the finality to angelic incorporeality and compares the fall to human death (*Exact Exposition* II.3-4); Thomas Aquinas grounds it in the immediacy and completeness of angelic knowing, so that an angel's free choice adheres immovably to what it has chosen (*Summa Theologiae* I q.64 a.2). The minority, chiefly Origen (*On First Principles* I.6.3; I.8) and Gregory of Nyssa (*Great Catechism* 26), held that rational creatures retain freedom and that God's restoring purpose might reach even the adversary. Eternal punishment and an intrinsic inability to repent are logically distinct claims; a theologian can affirm the first without settling the second. ## The biblical evidence ### Angels sinned and face judgment - [2 Peter 2:4](/codex/2-peter-2-4/), God "spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell... to be reserved unto judgment" (ASV). - [Jude 6](/codex/jude-1-6/), angels "that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (ASV). - [Matthew 25:41](/codex/matthew-25-41/), "the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (ASV). - [Revelation 20:10](/codex/revelation-20-10/), the devil "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone... tormented day and night for ever and ever" (ASV). ### Redemption is ordered to humanity - [Hebrews 2:14-17](/codex/hebrews-2-14-17/) grounds Christ's saving work in His sharing "flesh and blood" with those He came to deliver: "not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham" ([Hebrews 2:16](/codex/hebrews-2-16/), ASV). The Redeemer became human, not angelic, and the priestly work of the passage is "to make propitiation for the sins of the people." ### Passages used to argue for angelic restoration | Passage | The argument | The limit | |---|---|---| | Colossians 1:20 | Christ reconciles "all things... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens" | Reconciliation can mean the restoration of cosmic order under Christ, including the subjugation of enemies (Colossians 2:15), not the salvation of each rebel | | Ephesians 1:10 | All things in heaven and earth are summed up in Christ | Being brought under Christ's headship is not the same as being forgiven | | Philippians 2:10-11 | Every knee in heaven, on earth and under the earth bows | Bowing can be compelled acknowledgment of authority, not voluntary repentance | | 1 Peter 3:19-20 | Christ "preached unto the spirits in prison," whom some identify as the angels of Genesis 6 | The verb (*kēryssō*) means to proclaim or herald; the text never says the spirits repented or were saved | **[Colossians 1:20](/codex/colossians-1-20/) is the strongest of the four**, because it names "things in the heavens." Even so, none of the four says that a fallen angel repents or is forgiven. ## The positions ### 1. Their fall is final and they cannot repent (the majority tradition) - **John of Damascus** (c. 675-749): "It is not susceptible of repentance because it is incorporeal" (*Exact Exposition* II.3), and "after the fall there is no possibility of repentance for them, just as after death there is for men no repentance" (II.4). Human repentance, on this view, belongs to embodied creatures who change over time; an angel's choice is made once and whole. See [John of Damascus](/codex/john-of-damascus/). - **Thomas Aquinas**: an angel apprehends immovably and all at once what a human grasps step by step, so the angelic will adheres immovably to what it chooses. The demons are therefore obstinate in evil (*Summa Theologiae* I q.64 a.2). - **Roman Catholic teaching**: "It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable" (*Catechism of the Catholic Church* §393), followed by John of Damascus's sentence. - **Eastern Orthodox teaching** follows John of Damascus. ### 2. Their judgment is final, without settling whether they could repent (historic Protestant) - **Lutheran**: the Augsburg Confession (1530), Article XVII, condemns those who think "there will be an end to the punishments of condemned men and devils." - **Reformed**: the Westminster Confession (1646), 3.3, speaks of "some men and angels" foreordained to everlasting death. The emphasis falls on God's decree and the finality of judgment rather than on a theory of angelic psychology. - Most Protestant teaching, Pentecostal teaching included, affirms the final and eternal judgment of the devil and his angels on the strength of the passages above, without committing to Aquinas's or John of Damascus's explanation of why. ### 3. Rational creatures keep their freedom and may be restored (the minority) - **Origen** (c. 184-253) raised the question "whether any of these orders who act under the government of the devil... will in a future world be converted to righteousness because of their possessing the faculty of freedom of will" (*On First Principles* I.6.3), and wrote that evil powers "are unwilling rather than unable" to turn back (I.8). His surviving text comes largely through Rufinus's Latin, which smooths some passages, and his views on universal restoration were condemned in the sixth century. See [Origen](/codex/origen/) and [Universalism](/codex/universalism/). - **Gregory of Nyssa** (c. 335-395) wrote that the great adversary will himself at last find what God has done just and salutary, "when he also shall experience the benefit of the Incarnation" (*Great Catechism* 26). He is honored as a saint and his orthodoxy on the Trinity is unquestioned, which makes him the weightiest early witness for the minority view. See [Gregory of Nyssa](/codex/gregory-of-nyssa/). ## Assessment | Question | What the evidence shows | |---|---| | Do angels have moral agency? | Yes. Some sinned (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). | | Can fallen angels feel regret? | Scripture does not say. | | Is redemption offered to fallen angels? | No passage offers it; Hebrews 2:16 directs Christ's help to Abraham's seed. | | Has any fallen angel repented? | No passage records one. | | Is their judgment final? | Yes, on every major Christian tradition and on the plain sense of Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 20:10. | | Are they *intrinsically unable* to repent? | The majority answer, argued theologically (John of Damascus, Aquinas) rather than stated in a verse. | The early church was not unanimous, and that should be said plainly. But the minority view never became the church's teaching, and the biblical texts on the judgment of the devil and his angels support the majority's conclusion. ## Tensions - **Freedom and finality.** If angels freely chose to rebel, why can they not freely choose to return? The majority answer is that an angelic choice is made with full knowledge and is therefore fixed in a way human choices, made in time and partial understanding, are not. Critics reply that this is a philosophical theory about angelic nature, not a biblical statement. Both points are fair; the question of what Scripture *states* and what theology *infers* is distinct. - **Angels who sinned in God's presence.** If angels fell while in the heavenly realm, being near God did not make rebellion impossible. Why then will the redeemed never fall? See [Freedom in Heaven Objection Defeater](/codex/freedom-in-heaven-objection-defeater/), which answers that the redeemed are glorified and confirmed, not merely relocated. - **Why humans and not angels?** Scripture does not give a full reason why redemption is offered to sinful humanity and not to the fallen angels. Common answers: humans were deceived while the devil sinned without a tempter; humans sin in weakness of flesh while angels sinned in full light; and the Son took human nature, not angelic nature. These are theological reasons, held with different degrees of confidence. ## Debate and teaching notes - **State the strongest biblical point first:** Scripture describes the fallen angels' judgment and never their redemption. - **Do not overclaim.** No verse says in so many words "angels cannot repent." That conclusion is drawn from the passages and from reflection on angelic nature. Say so, and the rest of the case is more credible. - **Answer the universalist text by text.** [Colossians 1:20](/codex/colossians-1-20/) is the strongest; reconciliation under Christ's authority is not the same as salvation, and [Colossians 2:15](/codex/colossians-2-15/) shows the same letter describing hostile powers "triumphed over." - **A good question to ask:** "Where does Scripture offer redemption to a fallen angel?" ## See also - [Angels](/codex/angels/), the nature and ministry of angels - [Satan](/codex/satan/), the leader of the fallen angels - [The Devil](/codex/the-devil/), the devil's fall and work across Scripture and tradition - [Demons](/codex/demons/), the fallen angels in Scripture and experience - [Universalism](/codex/universalism/), the wider question of whether all will be saved - [Origen](/codex/origen/) and [Gregory of Nyssa](/codex/gregory-of-nyssa/), the early minority - [John of Damascus](/codex/john-of-damascus/), the classic statement of the majority view - [Freedom in Heaven Objection Defeater](/codex/freedom-in-heaven-objection-defeater/), why the redeemed will not fall as the angels did - [God Created Satan Knowing He Would Rebel Objection Defeater](/codex/god-created-satan-knowing-he-would-rebel-objection-defeater/), the related question of why God made a being He knew would fall
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Can Satan repent and be saved?** No Christian tradition teaches that he will. Scripture describes the devil's final judgment ([Matthew 25:41](/codex/matthew-25-41/); [Revelation 20:10](/codex/revelation-20-10/)) and never offers him redemption. Whether he is unable to repent or simply never will is a further theological question, and most traditions say his choice is final. **Q: Why can't fallen angels be forgiven?** The Catholic and Orthodox answer, from John of Damascus and Aquinas, is that an angel's choice is made with full knowledge and is irrevocable: the fall is to angels what death is to humans. Protestant traditions affirm the same final judgment on the strength of the biblical texts, usually without committing to a theory of why. **Q: Did any Church Fathers believe fallen angels could be saved?** Yes. Origen asked whether those serving the devil might one day turn to righteousness through free will, and Gregory of Nyssa wrote that even the adversary would at last experience the benefit of the Incarnation. Their view remained a minority and was not adopted as church teaching. **Q: Does [Colossians 1:20](/codex/colossians-1-20/) mean demons will be reconciled to God?** It speaks of reconciling "things in the heavens," which is why it is the strongest text for the idea. But reconciliation there means bringing all things back under Christ's rule, and the same letter speaks of hostile powers being disarmed and triumphed over ([Colossians 2:15](/codex/colossians-2-15/)), not forgiven. **Q: Did Jesus preach to fallen angels in [1 Peter 3:19](/codex/1-peter-3-19/)?** Some interpreters identify the "spirits in prison" with the angels of [Genesis 6](/codex/genesis-6/). The verb means to proclaim or announce, and the passage never says those spirits repented or were saved.