Why are some fallen angels in chains, while some are not?
There are two references in the Bible which speak of fallen angels being in chains. Let’s take a look at them and see what we can learn about them.
“For if God spared not [the] angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness [to be] kept for judgment” (2nd Peter 2:4…DARBY).
“And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under the darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6…NKJV).
In Peter’s epistle we simply learn that “the angels had sinned.” But Jude gives us a very important detail regarding their sin, for he says they “did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode.” When God created them He gave them a special position of authority (i.e. domain) and a special place to live (an “abode” is a “dwelling place”), yet in rebellion against God they left abandoned both.
Many believe (the present writer included) that we have the historical account of this sin in Genesis 6:1-3. Those verses read, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the SONS OF GOD saw the DAUGHTERS OF MEN, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.” The words “sons of God” refer to “angels” in the Old Testament, as we see in Job 1:6, “Now there was a day when the SONS OF GOD came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” The words “daughters of men” refer obviously to “human women” and thus we learn here that LEFT THEIR PLACE in heaven to come down to earth in order to take brides for themselves.
We see later in verse 4 the result of this unholy union, “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” Their children “were giants…mighty men…men of renown,” meaning they were as “unnatural” as the union between angels and women! This view seems to be supported by Jude 7 where he compares the sin of these angels with the sin of those living in Sodom and Gomorrah: “JUST AS Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they IN THE SAME WAY AS THESE indulged in gross immorality and WENT AFTER STRANGE FLESH.” The damning sin in Sodom and Gomorrah was HOMOSEXUALITY, which God calls “unnatural” in Romans 1:26-27, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; fop their women exchanged THE NATURAL FUNCTION FOR THAT WHICH IS UNNATURAL, and in the same way also men ABANDONED THE NATURAL FUNCTION OF THE WOMAN and burned in their desire toward one another.”
The sin of those in Sodom and Gomorrah was so loathsome in God’s sight that He rained fire and brimstone down on them and destroyed them all. The sin of the angels in Genesis 6 (where they LUSTED AFTER WOMEN, causing them to ABANDON THEIR HOME IN HEAVEN and take wives of the daughters of men) was just as UNNATURAL and LOATHSOME in God’s sight and thus we read, “God spared not the angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness to be kept for judgment.” This does not mean that the sin of other angels (Lucifer and those who followed him in his rebellion against God) is not hateful in God’s sight, for it is. But their sin was not on the same level as the sin recorded in Genesis 6 and thus they are not bound in chains yet. (284.1) (DO)