Who is the Death Angel? Does the Death Angel come for all people, even the Christian? This is a question that has interested theologians for centuries. Let's see what the Scripture has to say on this subject.

In order to understand who the Death Angel is, we first need to understand death itself. The doctrine of death begins, as most things do, with the Book of Genesis. In five days the Lord God created a perfect habitat, a perfect earth, and on the sixth day He planted a perfect Garden for the habitation of man on the east side of Eden (Eden, by the way, means "Garden of Delight"). In the middle of this Garden God placed a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and placed that tree there to resolve an issue. The issue was, will man in a perfect environment follow after God of his own free will, or would man follow after Satan though it meant his own destruction?

This was a necessary test of mankind, not because God didn't already know the outcome, but because we didn't know the outcome. In our modern society it is popular to blame "environment" on many of the criminal activities prevalent in our country. When a man murders another man it is popular for the court systems to get him off scot free because he was raised in a less than ideal environment. "He was a one parent child", or "she was abused as a child", or "the whole family was poor, so this person acted out of a sense of need", or "it's his way of striking back because his forefather was a slave". Always environment, whether social or actual, is blamed for the criminal element. Yet Adam had no such excuse. He was placed in a perfect environment, given wonderful things, and yet he failed. This stands as an object lesson for us today - environment, though liberal humanism may trumpet its cause as the root of all evil, truly has nothing to do with disobedience. The heart, dear soul, is the root of the trouble.

So Adam was created, Adam our father, and placed in the Garden and given a specific commission from God:

Genesis 2:15  "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Adam's job was to "dress" and "keep" it, or literally (`abad,  aw-bad'; a primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication to serve) to "serve" and (shamar,  shaw-mar'; a primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard) to "guard" it. These are two very key words. Prior to the Fall of man there were no weeds on the earth. Nature itself was beautiful, without sin, without thorns. There was no need for Adam to "weed the Garden" so to speak, but he was to serve and guard that Garden. Adam's main duty was to guard the Garden from Satan, who had previously stomped out of the throne room of God in arrogance (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28) and pride. The only way that sin could enter the Garden was if man, the head of the Garden by God's decree, allowed sin to enter in.

Adam was the "Federal Head" of creation by divine decree. As the first man, the first ruler of earth all that he did would have a tremendous impact on those who would come after. In order that Satan and man have a focal point, God placed a tree in the Garden then asked man to guard that tree. You see, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows Satan, too, and knew that if He placed one tree as "off limits", then Satan would naturally make for the one thing the Creator forbade. God offered this warning to Adam:

Genesis 2:16-17 "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

God withheld nothing from man but one thing. Man could eat of any tree, partake of anything and share it with his mate - as long as he left this one tree alone. But if man ate of the forbidden tree - well then, on that day man would surely die. This was not something that God would bring on man - no, God is perfect, sinless, and death is not in Him. Death is corruption, a lessening of the perfect, a cessation of spiritual and physical life. No, this would not be a punishment that God imposed, but a punishment that man brought on himself.

When I was growing up my parents often forbade me to do certain things. Now, I was certain that these things were, indeed, fun, and they were forbidding them out of a desire to deprive me. As I grew older and moved outside of my parents sphere of influence I started trying these things. The things I tried that were forbidden brought with them their own misery, self induced misery. This was not misery that someone else brought on me, but what I brought on myself. Sin's like that.

God tells us to avoid fornication, avoid illicit sex. Yet we think within ourselves, "What an old fuddy duddy! How can this type of pleasure be wrong?". So we go out, do it, and discover that the cave we explored truly has monsters hidden in its depths. AIDS is discovered, and homosexuals and other free love proponents are struck down with the innocent. Herpes is discovered, and we spread this little gem around to everyone we sin with. When we discover the scar tissue of sin in our lives we have the pomposity to cry out to God, "Why have you done this to me? Why have you made me such?", yet He doesn't answer. He doesn't answer because both He and we know that He told us, but we ignored Him. He warned us, but we did it anyway. We are like the fools who, when warned that the bridge is out ahead, drive on anyway. Then, with our car totaled and our heads dented we cry, "Why didn't someone tell me?". Someone did, you just weren't listening.

"Thou shalt surely die" wasn't a promise of impending punishment, but a warning of the reality of sin. God knew that if man elected to follow Satan, contrary to His express warning, then man's life would be corrupted. We would, in essence, become a little like Satan. We would have rolled around in sin like Satan, and would have its stink on us just as it was on him. Sin or disobedience of God brought with it the sting of death, spiritual death, and this spiritual death would cause physical corruption or death in our members:

1 Corinthians 15:56  "The sting (kentron,  ken'-tron; from kenteo (to prick); a point (“centre”), i.e. a sting, poison) of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."

Yes, that disobedience brought with it a poisonous goad that immediate killed us spiritually and would ultimately kill us physically. God created all things, but He never created sin. This was Satan's contribution to the earth, and ultimately, man's.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26  "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

Isaiah 25:8  "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it."

God didn't create sin, Satan and man did. God didn't create death, death was the byproduct of sin that Satan and man brought on the earth. Who was the Father of Sin? Satan, who first fell, then brought its concept to earth. And Satan himself is, in fact, the cause of death and suffering even today. He is, in effect, the Death Angel:

Hebrews 2:14  "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had (ECHO, Present Active Participle = that keeps on having and holding) the power of death, that is, the devil"

Jesus Christ came to earth in God's appointed time to suffer THANATOS, death for us, so that He would have the authority to destroy Satan who has the power of death. In order to understand this concept, you need to return to the idea of Federal Headship. God created man and placed him in the Garden. After placing him there, God commissioned man to guard that Garden. Man was, in effect, Federal Head of the earth. Yet man allowed Satan to deceive him, and followed after Satan in partaking of the tree and disobeying God. Man, in essence, turned his Federal Headship of the earth over to Satan. In order to regain this Federal Headship man would have to pay the penalty for his sin, and Adam was patently unable to do this. How can a dead man offer God anything? So Jesus Christ came, took on humanity, and went to the Cross to pay the penalty for Adam's disobedience. He paid this price in full, and as a result He has become the Federal Head of those who accept Him as Lord and Savior. As Federal Head Jesus has the authority to destroy Satan when the time is right, in the latter days. He has the authority to cast that old usurper Satan into the Lake of Fire, to be imprisoned forever. Yet Jesus tarries. Why? To allow as many as will come to accept Christ as Savior, and thus come out from under the bondage of spiritual death.

Satan still has the power of death in this present age. The Hebrews Scripture we just read states that Satan "keeps on having and holding" the power of death (THANATOS). He has the "power", KRATOS, ruling power of death. Satan keeps on having and holding the ruling power of death. He is an angel, and has the power of death, therefore he is the Death Angel. Yet even Satan does not have this power without regulation. God regulates if and when Satan can exercise this power:

Psalms 68:20  "He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death."

"Issues" is the Hebrew towtsa'ah,  to-tsaw-aw'; or totsa'ah, to-tsaw-aw'; from the Hebrew 3318 (yatsa'); (only in plural collective) exit, i.e. (geographical) boundary. In other words, God controls the boundaries of death. Before Satan can take life he must ask God, "Am I allowed to do this?". If God allows it, then Satan may take that life, that physical life, but not the spiritual life. If God refuses Satan that power, then he cannot exercise it on the person. This was illustrated in the story God told of Job:

Job 2: 1-6 "Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.  And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life."

Unless the Lord gives a person, any person, over the Satan for death then they are protected from death. God allowed Satan to torment Job, to test Job, but God ordered Satan "save his life". King David fell into fornication with Bathsheba, murdered her husband Uriah, and basically fell far out of fellowship with God. God punished him, punished him severely - but not to death. God refused to allow Satan to destroy his life because David repented:

Psalms 118:18  "The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death."

The Scripture tells us that believers can move so far out of the Will of God that the Father can release Satan on them to take their lives. This is what is known as the "sin unto death". You hear very few preachers talk about this sin in our day and age. Sadly, many Churches have moved from proclaiming the great truths of God's Word and into a type of social gospel. Very few believers understand the ramification of our new status with God after salvation. We become His adopted Children by Faith in Jesus Christ, but with this adoption comes responsibility. God expects us to continue to seek Him, more than ever, after salvation. Many people join the Church and feel that they have reached the apex of their Christian experience. Some even hold the Church out as that which saves - but no Church saves, only faith in Christ. Some join with Christ and His Church then continue their walk unchanged, thinking that they are now freed from the guilt of sin so they may sin with impunity. Yet the Scripture warns that we who are in a relationship with God are in a complete family relationship. We may sin, howbeit willingly or by accident, but unless we rapidly repent after that sin Satan can be loosed on us to our physical destruction.

In 1 Corinthians 5 a young man decided to have an illicit sexual affair with his stepmother. The Corinthian Church, rather than rebuking the young man, tolerated his abusive behavior. Paul told the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 5:4-5 "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Hence you can see the Death Angel could be called by a minister of Christ to dispense judgment on the unrepentant, if it was within the providence of God. Paul didn't say that the young offender was to be "turned over to God", but instead he was to be "delivered unto Satan". Once the believer is released from the protecting arms of the Church because of his unrepentant attitude, God releases Satan to wreak death in that person. Be aware, it is a fearful thing to fall away from God, to consider your relationship with Him to be a thing taken lightly. Satan can and will be released on believers who, of their own volition, walk away from the God who loved them. And when he attacks, that attack is not a gentle caress - but a touch of death.

1 Corinthians 10:10  "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer."

Job 15:20-21 "The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.  A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him."

Many tread on dangerous ground in our day, taking lightly God's judgment and Satan's power of death. How it saddens my heart to see the one who became entangled in sexual sin withering away in bed under the hand of the Death Angel. Did you not call him by your actions? Did you not, in your self gratification, tell God "I have no need of You, of Your precepts", while enjoying yourself in your sin. Did not God repeatedly warn you that He forbids fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality - yet you ignored His cries of warning and satisfied yourself anyway. The fruit had to be picked, you knew better, and now you're dying under the Death Angel's onslaught.

Leviticus 18:22  "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

Leviticus 18:23  "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion."

Leviticus 20:15  "And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast."

Leviticus 20:16  "And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

You can justify it in your heart, if you so desire, but did not God tell you not to do it? You may think "but I love him" and "I was made this way", but the words of God make this out to be a lie. You were warned, you sinned, you ate the fruit - now you have the Death Angel to contend with.

You may say, "I don't believe in a Death Angel", but what does the Scripture say? When Pharaoh refused to release the children of Israel Moses warned him that the firstborn of the land would die:

Exodus 12:29  "And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."

Most have looked at this passage and said, "but it says the LORD did this thing, not Satan". Yes, the Lord allowed it, and took responsibility for it, but it was Satan that did the killing. For the text also tells us:

Exodus 12:23  "For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."

Note that when the Lord saw the blood on the lintel, He "will not suffer the destroyer" to come in. In other words, the Lord walked among the Egyptian households on that very fateful night, but another walked behind Him. This other, called "the destroyer", was held in check if the Lord hold him in check. And if God allowed him, the destroyer went into that household and took the life of the firstborn. "Destroyer" is the Hebrew shachath,  shaw-khath'; a primitive root; to decay, i.e. (causative) ruin (literal or figurative) :- batter, cast off, corrupt (-er, thing), destroy (-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, × utterly, waste (-r). In other words, the corrupter, the destroyer, the one who causes to perish. This was Satan, the author of corruption and sin. God preceded the destroyer and gave him authority to kill or not kill in order that His will be carried out. God, in turn, based His decision as to whom the destroyer would kill on one thing and one thing only: Whether the person who owned that household did as He said. If God came to a household and it had blood on the lintel, blood that prophetically symbolized the Atonement of Christ that would come one day, then God told the destroyer "NO! This house is a house of faith. This house is a house under the blood.". The Lord moved on to the next house, looking for the blood, looking for faith.

For just as it has always been, man has brought his own misery on himself. Those who heeded God's Word and placed the blood on the lintel, these were saved. But those who hemmed and hawed, who oscillated, who said "well, won't grape juice do instead of blood" or said "I really don't believe in this, so I won't do it", these ate of the fruit of the tree. These did what they wanted to do, disobeyed God, and brought death into their own lives.

Are you one of these? Are you like Adam, ignoring God's Word and eating the forbidden fruit of sin? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, or are you convinced there's another way to Heaven? Be aware, God is not mocked - whatever you sow, you will also reap.

Revelation 20:10, 14 "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

There is coming a day when God will cast Satan and the fallen angels into the Lake of Fire, and right after the master of death goes in so will go his servant, death. Death will enter that fire, never to be released again. The Scripture comforts us by telling us:

Revelation 21:4  "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

This is the end of death, and the beginning of eternity. Are you on board this great ship of Grace, ready to enjoy life eternal with God in Heaven. Or are you still, like Adam, plucking fruit from the forbidden tree? Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior while you have hope, dear one. Come to Him in faith believing that He died for you, and put the blood on the lintel of your heart by faith.

John 3:16-20 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

If you are a Christian who has wandered away from a right relationship with your God, then repent! Avoid the Death Angel. The natural corruption that sin has wrought in your body will eventually bring you to death - unless the Rapture of God occurs - but the death of the righteous in fellowship with God is not like the death of the wicked. When the Death Angel comes, that death is not pretty - but the believer in fellowship with his God has no hopelessness or fear in death - only hope. For we know our destination, where we are going. Repent and return to full fellowship in Him.

Psalms 116:15  "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."

Proverbs 14:32  "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death."