I am a bit confused. Are men inherently depraved now, or have some demons escaped?
2 Peter 2:4 “God did not spare angels when they sinned. Instead he sent them to hell. He chained them up in dark prisons. He will keep them there until he judges them”
That is a heavy question to wake up to. When you look at what’s going on in the world, it’s easy to see why it feels like either human nature has completely bottomed out or something supernatural has broken loose.
To answer this Biblically, we have to look at how Scripture balances human responsibility with spiritual warfare. The short answer is that the Bible doesn’t blame everything on escaped demons; instead, it points heavily to the depth of human brokenness, while acknowledging a very real, but restricted, spiritual battle.
2 Peter 2:4 (Are they loose?) The verse you brought up actually argues against the idea of a massive prison break of these specific spirits. The Greek word used here for “hell” is Tartarus, which is the only time it appears in the New Testament. In ancient thought, Tartarus was a subterranean abyss or a place of confinement for the lowest rebellious spiritual beings. Peter is making a legal argument: if God didn’t let ancient, powerful spiritual rebels slide, He certainly won’t let false teachers and corrupt human leaders off the hook today.
According to this specific text, those particular rebellious angels are indeed “Chained up in dark prisons” or “pits of gloom,” and kept secure until the final judgment. So, from a strictly Biblical standpoint, those specific ancient rebels haven’t escaped. They are under divine lockdown.
If they are locked up, why does the world still feel so spiritually dark? The New Testament describes a tiered spiritual reality. While certain ancient rebels are confined, other spiritual forces are described as active, though operating on a leash.
Paul mentions this in Ephesians 6:12, noting a struggle against “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” However, the Bible rarely gives humans an “out” by letting them say, “The demon made me do it.” Satan and spiritual forces are usually depicted as tempters and deceivers rather than absolute rulers over a person’s free will. They exploit the cracks that are already there.
The sad truth is, we are “inherently depraved.” This brings us to the first part of your question: Are men inherently depraved? Biblically, the diagnosis of the human condition after the Fall (Genesis 3) is severe. Theologians often use terms like “total depravity” to describe this, but it doesn’t mean humans are as bad as they could be. Rather, it means that every part of human nature, be it our minds, wills, and desires, has been compromised by sin.
Scripture places the weight of the world’s darkness squarely on human choice and the condition of the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26
When we see horrific things happening, the Biblical explanation is usually that human beings are fully capable of immense cruelty all on their own when left to their own devices, without needing a fresh batch of demons to prompt them. The devil is blamed for things that would even make him blush.
How do we tie it together? The Biblical picture is that human hearts are inherently broken, or prone to sin, and we live in a world where spiritual deception is real, but the ultimate authority remains with God. Rebellious spiritual forces might fan the flames of human hatred and greed, but the fuel belongs to us.
The encouragement in texts like 2 Peter is the reminder that evil, whether human or angelic, is ultimately on a timeline. It has an expiration date, and God’s justice is secure.
Peter
Some people I interact with see no fault in their unbelievably horrific crimes. I almost cannot imagine a demon not being involved. People were obviously demon possessed during Jesus’ time, but now I don’t hear a peep. Have we just rationalized away possession?
As I understand Scripture, there’s no teaching that clearly describes “Hell” as a place where evil spirits or Satan are based or held. As used in many translations it uniquely refers to the place of future punishment. So who or what could be in it right now? It’s not populated yet.
In fact, strictly speaking the word “Hell” worked its way into English translations hundreds of years ago, notably in the 1611 KJV. This has unavoidably led to confusion. False concepts are very often imposed on Bible teaching. (Because there is so much misunderstanding and misuse, I personally never use the word Hell. But that’s just my approach to this problem.)
It’s helpful to understand what words the Bible actually uses when we come across the word “Hell” in the text. Terms like Gehenna and Hades should always be understood in context. (Check out, Sense and Nonsense about Heaven and Hell by Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr.).
As Peter has shared, the Greek word used in 2 Peter 2:4 is Tartarus, “a place of torment in Greek mythology where the Titans were imprisoned (see Hesiod’s Theogony, which has conceptual parallels with Gen 6:1–4). Some Jewish writers also apparently borrowed or adapted this concept; it is mentioned in 1 Enoch 20:2” (Faithlife Study Bible).
According to the Bible, where are demons actually found? Evil spiritual forces are in the heavens (Ephesians 6) and the waterless places (Matthew 12:43). The evil spirit himself is the ruler of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). Do the forces of wickedness have an HQ or are they locked away in some kind of prison? I personally don’t know of anywhere in the Bible that clearly teaches that.
You are right. As Peter has also rightly said, we are all “inherently depraved”:
“For out of the heart come wicked thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, adulteries, thefts, false testimony, slanders, murders, acts of greed, destructive wickedness, as well as lying, indecent conduct, envy, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (based on Matthew 15:19 and Mark 7:20-23, from various translations).
This is an excellent point.
I shared above where evil spirits are found, but you have highlighted that according to Scripture they are also found in people. Although we see no indication that this resulted in barbaric behaviour, it’s still a fact that this is where evil spirits can live.
Recently I watched a series of brutally frank documentaries about war, from the American Civil War to the Vietnam conflict. The horrific crimes people on all sides have committed might make us wonder if people are indeed possessed as well as depraved by nature.
When we read modern English translations of the New Testament, we often see the words Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus lumped together under the single English word “Hell.” To the original Greek readers, however, these three words painted completely different pictures. They referred to entirely distinct locations, timeframes, and purposes in the spiritual realm. Flattening them into one concept has caused centuries of confusion about Biblical judgment.
Here is the breakdown of what those words actually meant in the original Greek, and how they reshape our understanding of the afterlife.
Hades (ᾅδης): The temporary waiting room. In the Greek New Testament, Hades is the equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew word Sheol. It is not the final place of eternal punishment; rather, it is the universal abode of the dead where souls go immediately after physical death.
It was viewed as a shadowy, subterranean realm. In the New Testament, most notably in Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16), Hades is depicted as having compartments: a place of comfort for the righteous (Abraham’s Bosom) and a place of torment for the unrighteous, separated by a great chasm.
It is strictly temporary. Revelation 20:14 explicitly states that at the final judgment, “Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” Logically, Hades cannot be the final lake of fire if it gets thrown into it.
Gehenna (γέεννα): The final lake of fire. When Jesus warned about the “fires of hell,” the word he used almost every single time was Gehenna. This is the closest Biblical concept to the modern idea of eternal damnation and final spiritual judgment. “Gehenna” is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, meaning the Valley of Hinnom. This was an actual, physical valley just outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was the site where ancient apostate kings performed pagan child sacrifices by fire (Jeremiah 7:31). By Jesus’ time, it had become the city’s burning garbage dump, where refuse, dead animals, and the bodies of executed criminals were thrown. Fires burned constantly to consume the waste, and maggots thrived in the unburnt rot.
Jesus used this horrific local landmark as a vivid, visceral metaphor for ultimate, irreversible spiritual destruction and separation from God. A place where “the maggot does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).3.
Tartarus (ταρταρόω): The Spiritual Maximum-Security Prison. As I touched on earlier, this word appears only once in the entire New Testament, as a verb in 2 Peter 2:4 (“cast them down to Tartarus”). In classical Greek mythology, Tartarus was the abyss below Hades, reserved as a prison for the rebellious Titans who fought against the gods. Peter adopts this well-known cultural concept to describe a highly specific spiritual holding cell. Tartarus is not a place for human souls. Biblically, it is an exclusive, maximum-security lockdown zone reserved for fallen spiritual beings (angels) who committed infractions so severe that God chained them in darkness ahead of the final judgment.
The Three Terms Compared: Current Status / Timeline: Hades, The Unseen Realm / Grave Deceased human souls active now; temporary waiting zone until the resurrection.Gehenna Valley of Hinnom (Jerusalem dump). The unrighteous at final judgment Future; the ultimate, permanent "Lake of Fire."Tartarus, the Abyssal Prison. Ancient rebellious angels are active now; a cosmic holding cell for demonic spirits, not humans. When you separate these words, our understanding of the Biblical afterlife narrative changes dramatically in three major ways: Judgment has a chronological sequence. The Bible does not teach that a person dies and immediately goes to their final, eternal heaven or hell. Instead, there is an intermediate state (Hades/Sheol) where souls await the final resurrection and the Great White Throne Judgment.
Yes, Hell is not currently occupied by humans. If Gehenna is the final destination after judgment, then “Hell” in its ultimate sense is currently empty. It is a future reality that takes place at the end of human history. The spiritual realm is highly organized. The use of Tartarus shows that God manages spiritual rebellion with strict boundaries. The cosmic forces of evil are not running completely wild; there are different tiers of restriction based on divine justice. By looking at the original Greek, the picture becomes less about a singular, generic underworld and more about a calculated, orderly progression of divine justice for both humans and spiritual beings.
Peter
Yes, there are a few other specific passages in the New Testament that point directly to this same event and reveal more details about these locked-up angels.
When you look at these texts together, they actually form a tight, consistent theological mosaic in the New Testament regarding a specific group of spiritual rebels who crossed a line and were placed under divine maximum security.
" 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. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." Jude 1:6-7
The book of Jude is famously similar to 2 Peter, and Jude gives us a second, highly descriptive witness to this imprisonment. He adds a critical detail about why they were locked up. Jude notes that these angels “abandoned their proper dwelling” or their rightful sphere of existence, to cross into a realm where they did not belong. Just like Peter, Jude emphasizes “everlasting chains” and “darkness,” reinforcing that this is a permanent lockdown until the final judgment.
1 Peter 3:19–20 Christ’s proclamation to the Spirits in prison. Peter actually mentions this imprisonment twice, though his first mention is often considered one of the most enigmatic passages in the New Testament. He ties these imprisoned spirits directly to a specific historical era:
" For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water." 1 Peter 3:19–20
Peter calls them “imprisoned spirits” (the Greek word for spirits here, pneumasin, is almost always used for supernatural beings when not explicitly modified). He explicitly links their rebellion and subsequent imprisonment to the days of Noah. These points readers right back to the strange events of Genesis 6:1–4, where the “sons of God” (a Hebrew idiom for angelic beings) stepped out of their assigned roles before the Flood.
When Christ died and descended, He went to this “prison” not to offer them a second chance at salvation, but to proclaim His ultimate victory over their ancient rebellion.
In Revelation 9:14, we see the angels bound at the Euphrates. While Peter and Jude look backward at angels already locked up, the Book of Revelation looks forward to a moment during the end-times judgments where a specific group of high-ranking, imprisoned fallen spiritual beings is temporarily let off the leash:
“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.” Revelation 9:14–15
Notice the text explicitly says they are “bound.” Holy angels are never described in Scripture as being bound or chained; this language is reserved strictly for hostile spiritual forces under divine restraint.
Even though they are immensely destructive, they are completely subject to God’s clock. They are held in check until the exact “hour, day, month, and year” that God allows their release for judgment. This consistent imagery shows that while the spiritual battle we experience today is real, God has already shown the cosmic forces of evil exactly how secure His handcuffs are.
Peter
I bet when this earth and all evil are done and over with, that we will be able to look back and marvel in amazement at just how saturated the earth (was) with evil spirits and fallen angels.
Add in all of God’s Angels and maybe the entire atmosphere is full of spirtual beings. Full full.
Even scientists are now saying that material earth and universe make up perhaps 5% of reality.
1 Peter 5:8 says that the angels who left their proper domain are the ones locked up. Those who are not guilty of that crime are not locked up.
Now here I’m going to get a little weird…
Back in Genesis 6 God talked about how the sons of God saw the daughters of men they desired and took wives. To them were born the Nephilim or mighty men of old and renown.
Adam is called a son of God because he was God’s direct creation. We only become sons of God through the new birth in Christ. Angels are a direct creation of God and I believe this phrase ‘sons of God’ refer to fallen angels who left who they were (proper domain) and took on human form. These are the angels that were locked up.
A man that I listen to used to be the head of the Satanic church in South Africa. He talks about what he calls familiar spirits or a type of demon. Familiar because they follow family lines and they know everything there is to know about you and your family. That’s his experience.
There are all sorts of demons as we see in Ephesians 6: principalities, rulers, authorities, hosts of wickedness.
I guess my answer to your question is that not all demons are locked up. Only those who left their proper domain.
This is an interesting audio study on the Nephilim you might like.
https://gracethrufaith.com/audio/the-nephilim/
My sincere thanks to all for clearin this up. I feel edified!
I’ve talked about it I think back in the day and today there is evil possession . I feel with their talk of here drink my blood and eat me is the fact that they were canibals. Even Gods word says they are close to animals and please don’t take offense but God is saying they have no intellect we have to not forget this fact and they shouldn’t be leaders . People should never make excuses for uncivilized behaviors yes they could possibly be possessed if we can believe in God and the Holy Spirit we can believe in devil possession. One time I became tired and I started taking naps daily and they got longer etc, I got this notion it was a evil possession and I fought to stop taking naps and increase energy and I succeeded but to me it was taking life it was evil and I felt it leave but I have to always beware of it
I don’t think we’re supposed to know.
First, you have to pull yourself from Church dogma!
Hell/Hades = the grave. (Adam, and Christ himself went to hell)
The soul= us
“Tartarus” is mistranslated as “Hell”.
With these FACTS in mind, you can come to your conclusion honestly!
Not sure of whom you are responding. Are you implying that you do not believe that Hell is a real place and a destination based on your decisions while here?
Peter
One must start at the beginning, and take a look at what the words meant originallly!
When did God create his Hellfire?
He said that Adam would DIE- not continue to live.
And sheol/hades/hell = the grave. (Except in religion)
It’s possible. Not escaped but rather, it is their time? Hell in this passage translates from the word Tartarus, the deepest abyss of hell. It is said to be as far below earth as earth is below heaven.
ταρταρόω tartaróō, tar-tar-o’-o; from Τάρταρος Tártaros (the deepest abyss of Hades); to incarcerate in eternal torment:—cast down to hell.
Scripture says the Euphrates river will dry up and the Angels relased from their prison…so, yes.
Hell is a very real place. However, let’s look into what Jesus actually says.
" And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Wait. Stop. WHAT does Jesus say was prepared for us from the foundation of the World? “The Kingdom.” Read that again.
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Then read this.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
He said He prepared the kingdom for the saved and eternal fire for the sinners. Wait? No. Actually, He said this.
“Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
The eternal fire, AKA hell, was created for whom? “The Devil and his Angels.” God is not some old man, sitting on a throne, waiting to see how many He can cast into hell. He is not sitting there waiting for you to slip up so He can punish you. He never intended you to go to hell at all. He created hell for one purpose. “The Devil and his Angels.”
Not sure of your point. Are you referring to this?
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
The Hebrew phrase: Mot Tamut? The phrase translated as “you shall surely die” is מוֹת תָּמוּת (mōṯ tāmūṯ). Linguistically, this is a Hebrew infinitive absolute paired with a finite verb. Literally, it translates to “dying, you will die.” In ancient Hebrew grammar, repeating the root word like this wasn’t meant to distinguish between living and dying, but rather to add intense emphasis or certainty to the statement. It means the outcome is absolute, inescapable, and completely guaranteed.
The phrase “die and not live” is a biblical way of expressing a final, physical end. God’s direct command to Adam in the garden relied on the emphatic mot tamut (“dying you shall die”) to stress the absolute certainty of the consequence.
Sheol (Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל). In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Sheol is the universal destination of the dead. It functionally means “the underworld,” “the pit,” or “the grave.” In ancient Jewish thought, Sheol wasn’t a place of fiery torment or moral punishment. It was a shadowy, silent, neutral existence where everyone went when they died, whether they were righteous or wicked.
When Jacob is grieving his son Joseph, whom he thinks was torn by wild beasts, he says, “I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning” Genesis 37:35. Jacob didn’t think his innocent son was in a place of torment; he simply meant he was going to the place of the dead or the grave.
Hades (Greek: ᾍδης). When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (the Septuagint), a couple of centuries before the New Testament, translators had to find a Greek equivalent for Sheol. They chose Hades. In classical Greek culture, Hades was the realm of the dead, ruled by the god of the same name. Like Sheol, it originally just meant the place where departed spirits go. Over time, and by the time of the New Testament, Greek thought began to heavily influence the concept of Hades, dividing it into compartments, like Tartarus for the wicked and Elysium/Abraham’s Bosom for the righteous.
Hell (English / Germanic) This is where the real confusion sets in. “Hell” is an English word, not a biblical one. It comes from the Proto-Germanic *haljō, which means “to conceal” or “to hide.” Historically, a “hellier” was a person who covered a house with thatch or slate. So, etymologically, “hell” originally meant a hidden, covered place, which fits the concept of a buried grave perfectly.
Over centuries, English translators used this single word “Hell” to translate three completely different Greek words in the New Testament: Hades (the grave/underworld), Tartarus (a place of confinement for fallen angels), and Gehenna (the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, used by Jesus as a vivid metaphor for destructive judgment).
When people read modern translations today, they see the word “Hell” and immediately picture a fiery medieval landscape of eternal torment, an image heavily shaped by Dante’s Inferno and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Yet it is in The Word several times as a place of suffering.
Matthew 8:12, Matthew 13:41–42, repeated in Matthew 13:50. Matthew 22:13, Matthew 25:30,
Eternal Torment and Unquenchable Fire? Mark 9:43, 48, Matthew 25:41, 46, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 20:10, Jude 1:7,
Then you have the Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells a story that explicitly uses the word torment to describe the conscious experience of someone after death. Luke 16:22–24.
Peter
You are normally concise- focusing on scripture!
I never expected this mixture of that and religious dogma!
Adam WAS a soul- and that soul (he) died.
No heaven. No Hellfire.
He is STILL dead.
Elaborate on the “No heaven or afterlife” using Scriptures.
J.
Yehovah told Adam he would DIE, not FRY or FLY.
Did He change His mind?