The Evil Angels
Vai Pieper’s Dogmatics vol. 1, p. 510
The activity of the evil angels against the Church is portrayed fully in Scripture. According to Matt. 16:18 “the gates of hell” are continually waging war against the Church, and it is Christ alone who preserves the Church against the onslaughts of the powers of hell. Behind everything that harms the Church are the evil spirits. They bring about the inattention of the hearers of the Word (Luke 8:12: “Then cometh the devil and taketh away the Word out of their hearts.”) and the falsification of the divine doctrine, which Christ would have His Church maintain in purity (Matt. 13:25: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat”; 1 Tim. 4:1ff,:”the doctrines of devils”). Especially the Papacy is described in Scripture as the devil’s masterpiece in the Church, 2 Thessalonians 2. We have lost the Biblical judgment on false doctrine if we do not regard it as the work of the devil. Also persecution and oppression of the Church by the State and organizations within the State is a result of the activity of the evil spirits. As Satan increasingly wages war on the Church so he is also in arms against the divine order of the State and the family. He persuades David to take a census of the nation (1 Chron. 21:1) and Ahab to wage war against the Syrians (1 Kings 22:21-22). It is the devil who forbids to marry (1 Tim. 4:1-2) and who tempts married people to infidelity (1 Cor. 7:5). Scripture also tells us that God uses the evil angels not only to punish the godless (2 Thess. 2:11-12), but also to try believers, as was the case with Job (Job 1:7ff) and the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:7).