Pete's Blog

Second Peter 2:4 reads, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment."

And Jude writes, "And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day" (v. 6).

From Grudem's Systematic Theology:

They are removed from the glory of God's presence and their activity is restricted (metaphorically, they are in "eternal chains"), but the text [Jude 6] does not imply either that the influence of demons has been removed from the world or that some demons are kept in a place of punishment apart from the world while others are able to influence it. (p. 413)

He then argues in a note for this statement,

2 Peter 2:4 does not say, "God did not spare some of the angels when they sinned," or, "God cast some of the sinning angels into hell," but it speaks generally of "the angels" when they sinned, implying all of them who sinned. Similarly, Jude 6 speaks of "the angels that did not keep their own position," implying all who sinned. Therefore, these verses must say something that is true of all demons. Their current home, their dwelling place, is "hell" and "pits of nether gloom" [RSV] although they can range from there to influence people in the world. (p. 413n2)

So, from out of hell Satan and his demons are still able to impact worldly events, even to such a great extent that John writes, "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1J. 5:19).

I'd never thought about this before until I read it in Grudem. For example, consider Job 1 and 2: "The LORD said to Satan, 'From where have you come?' Satan answered the LORD and said, 'From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it'" (Jb. 1:7; 2:2). Or in 1 Peter, where the apostle writes, "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion" (5:8). From these verses it appears that Satan has freedom. But Jude says that he along with all the demons are in chains.

I guess that somehow they're being punished at the same time as they keep doing their evil work. Counter-intuitive. I'm not sure how else to describe it.