Was The Church Chosen To Replace The Fallen Angels?

Augustine believed that God created the order of angels to exist in a perfect harmonic balance with one another which was subsequently lost due to the fall of Satan (and those who followed Satan in his rebellion). This showed the tragedy which developed as a result of Satan’s rebellion.

Not only did the fallen angels suffer from their turn away from God, in ways which we probably cannot understand because we are not pure spirits like they, but the angelic order was wounded, as its intended internal order was turned into disorder. Their interdependent relationship which formed an integrated whole suffered loss because a portion of that whole was cut out from within, like a cancer cut out from an otherwise healthy body.

The damage had been done. While the angelic choir continued to exist, what was excised from it had left its mark, and the beauty seen and experienced through the original angelic harmony had been diminished, though not entirely lost.

The solution to this problem, suggested St. Augustine, was to see how those fallen angels could be, and would be, replaced by redeemed humans, God’s very chosen people – THE CHURCH THAT BELONGS TO JESUS.

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