“But surely, John, the devil was the archangel in charge of worship? Which is why there are so many evil songs!”

Well, er, no.

First, there is only one archangel mentioned in the Scriptures―Michael (Jude 9), who is also called a ‘chief prince’ (Daniel 10:13). Revelation 9:11 says the devil is the ‘angel of the Abyss’, where he is also named, Abaddon and Apollyon, both meaning ‘Destroyer.’ (Gabriel is never called an archangel, and Raphael only appears in the Apocrypha.) So the devil IS an angel, but no archangel!

Second, he wasn’t in charge of worship. So where did we get the idea from?

Two Old Testament passages probably speak of satan: Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-19. (Take a moment to check them out). If that is true, then the devil was the guardian cherub on the mount of God, before he was thrown to earth. Isaiah 14:12 says ‘cast down’, Ezekiel 28:17 says ‘threw’, and both agree with Revelation 12:9: The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Now Ezekiel 28:13 (NIV) describes his beauty: You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.

However, the King James translates that last sentence:  …and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

And from that translation of that one verse, it has been deduced that the devil is a musician.

So where did tabrets and pipes come from? They translate two words, tuppeka and uneqabeka that appear nowhere else in the Bible. I am no Hebrew scholar, but the passage is about jewelry…

As we’ve seen from my earlier post, angels don’t sing. The devil is an angel who tempts his followers to worship him. That was all he wanted in the first place.