Fallen Angels’ Dark Secrets: The Sin So Heinous, Even Heaven was Shaken!

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly ( 2 Peter 2:4-6).

Notice how Peter connects “the angels that sinned” and judged by God (v. 4) with both the worldwide Flood during Noah’s day (v. 5) and the judgment of the ungodly people of Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 6).

There is nothing coincidental about the subject matter or placement of these three verses. The angels that sinned are the same mutinous beings described in Genesis 6 that came down from the heavens before the Flood and sexually comingled with earthly women. Those fallen angels were judged by God, who also dealt with the ungodly people of the world in Noah’s day and with the sodomites of Sodom and Gomorrah who went after “strange flesh.”

Without question, the sin of these angels was so detestable, Peter said that God did not spare them (see 2 Peter 2:4,5). The word “spare” in the original language means to spare or to treat leniently. In this case, Peter used a verb with a negative particle to state that God did not deal leniently with or spare these angels from punishment. Thus, God spared not — He was not lenient with — the mutinous angels who rebelled against His authority. Because their actions were so reprehensible, He made the irrevocable decision that these particular angels should be incarcerated until the day of the final judgment.

Peter also stated that these angels sinned (v. 4). The original word for “sinned” depicts those who erred from a correct course, missed the mark of what was expected, and are thereby guilty. The use of the Greek word translated “sinned” affirms that:

• These angels knew exactly what they were supposed to do.

• These angels knew that what they were doing was wrong.

• These angels willingly chose to err from a correct course; thus, they were blatantly guilty.

In fact, they were so guilty that Peter states that God “cast them down to hell” (2 Peter 2:4).

In Second Peter 2:4, the word “hell” is translated from the Greek word tartaros, and this is the only time it is used in the New Testament. The Greek word tartaros was a well-known term used in Greek and Roman mythology to depict an underground cavern where rebellious spirits are imprisoned until the time of judgment. This word is very familiar to anyone who knows Greek and Roman mythology, for it was used in these ancient pagan religions, preceding Peter’s epistle, to describe Tartarus, an underground abyss where rebellious spirits were imprisoned. Again we find a connection between Genesis 6 and the stories related in pagan mythology.

These Rebellious Angels were Placed in Chains, and God Keeps an Eye on Them to This Day

Although many allege that Tartarus is a mythological place, Peter unequivocally stated it is a real detention center where God has incarcerated the rebellious angels who sinned in Genesis 6:1,2, and 4. Peter went on to state that God “…delivered them [the fallen angels] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).

Peter further wrote that to ensure these angels never escape this place of detention, God put them in chains. The word “chains” here is plural and denotes multiple chains that bind. Thus, God did not bind them with a single chain — but to ensure they would never break free, He ordered them to be put into multiple chains until the day of eternal judgment that awaits them. God ordered these angels be locked into a subterranean abyss, and they are still chained there to this very day.

Like Jude in his epistle (Jude 1:6), Peter also stated that these angels are “reserved” in everlasting chains for judgment (see 2 Peter 2:4). The word “reserved” is from an original word that pictures a watch or guard of soldiers who are positioned to protect something very important that has been entrusted to their care.

Peter used this word very specifically to alert us that in some way, God Himself is standing attentively and perpetually on guard over this category of incarcerated, rebellious angels. Exactly how God is watching over them is not known, but Peter categorically stated that He is surveilling them to make sure they never escape this place of detention or their future judgment.

Friend, although we don’t know all the details of these events written about by both Peter and Jude, we know that the Word of God is true and that rebellious angels are being determinedly detained by God unto a future day of inescapable judgment.

Taking into account the meaning in the original language, the RIV (Renner Interpretive Version) of Second Peter 2:4 says:

…God absolutely did not leniently go easy on or spare the angels who erred from a correct course, who failed to meet God’s expectations, and who egregiously did wrong. Rather than go easy on them, on the contrary, God grabbed those rebellious angels by the scruff of their necks and handed them over in unbreakable chains into an underground dungeon — in a place void of all light and filled with a never-ending darkness — that is, to a subterranean abyss where rebellious spirits are assigned to reside until the time of judgment. And now, like a Mighty Prison Guard, God Himself perpetually and faithfully is watching over those rebellious angels to make sure they are securely kept until the judgment, which for them, will be the greatest crisis imaginable.

I realize the material in this chapter deals with a difficult subject — both to write about and to read. The fact is, God didn’t just one day decide that He was sorry and grieved that He’d created mankind (see Genesis 6:6). And He didn’t send a catastrophic flood to destroy the face of the planet and every living thing in it just because He felt like it.

The sin taking place on the earth in Noah’s day was so profoundly violent, depraved, and egregious that God swung into action to do the only thing He could do to preserve a small remnant of the human population, through which He would eventually bring forth the promised Seed — that is, Jesus the Savior of mankind and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

We have covered a great deal of material in this chapter, and in the next one, you will see that the events you have just read about were well-known by and were described in the writings of reputable voices in the ancient world. In fact, some of these ancients gave insights about the fallen angels and the monstrous hybrid creatures they produced that are quite astonishing.