And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Read Chapter 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
As for the power of darkness, what is it but the power of the devil and his angels, who, after being angels of light, did not use their free will to stand in the truth but by falling from it became darkness? I am not teaching you this; I am advising you to call to mind what you know. So, the human race became subject to this power of darkness by the fall of the first man who was induced by that power to commit sin, and in him we have all fallen. Letter , To Vitalis.
So powerful is the attraction of the virtue of purity that practically every human being is pleased to hear it praised, and no one is so sunk in depravity as to have lost all sense of decency. Hence, unless the malignity of the demons somewhere “transforms itself into an angel of light,” as we read in our Scripture, it cannot carry out its business of deception.
Satan sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light in order to test those who need testing or to deceive those who deserve deception. Nothing but the great mercy of God can save a man from mistaking bad demons for good angels and false friends for true ones and from suffering the full damages of this diabolical deception which is all the more deadly in that it is wily beyond words.
These illusions are apparitions of that spirit who seeks to ensnare unhappy souls in the deceptive rites of a multitude of false gods and to turn them aside from the true worship of the true God, by whom alone they can be purified and healed.
Further, let those who say that philosophy took its rise from the devil know this, that the Scripture says that "the devil is transformed into an angel of light."
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. He says of light, because good angels, being blessed, are wont, when they show themselves to men, to appear full of light and glory. Secondly, of light refers to the light of truth, righteousness, and godliness. Satan assumes these virtues, promises them to those men before whose eyes he appears in visible form, or into whose imagination he insinuates himself and his counsels, when really he is an angel of darkness, inasmuch as he suggests nothing but what is sinful, erroneous, and false. To unmask him and recognise his wiles there is nothing better, as the Fathers, and holy men, and experience itself teach, than to disclose your thoughts and suggestions to some prudent, pious, and learned Prayer of Manasseh , preferably your Superior or Confessor, and to follow his advice. But Satan hates the light, and therefore dissuades and prevents his followers from doing this. From neglecting this counsel many, even hermits, have been by h...
He invented heresies and schisms to undermine faith, pervert truth and break unity. Unable to keep us in the dark ways of former error, he draws us into a new maze of deceit. He snatches men away from the church itself and, just when they think they have drawn near to the light and escaped the night of the world, he plunges them unawares into a new darkness. Though they do not stand by the gospel and discipline and law of Christ, they call themselves Christians. Though they are walking in darkness, they think they are in the light, through the deceitful flattery of the adversary who, as the apostle said, transforms himself into an angel of light and adorns his ministers as ministers of righteousness. They call night day, death salvation, despair hope, perfidy faith, antichrist Christ, cunningly to frustrate truth by their lying show of truth. That is what happens, my brothers, when we do not return to the fount of truth, when we are not looking to the head and keeping the doctrine taug...
Evil apes respectability, and tares do their best to look like wheat, but however close a similarity to wheat they have in appearance their taste completely undeceives the discerning. Even the devil “transforms himself into an angel of light,” not meaning to ascend again to his former place (for he possesses a heart as hard as an anvil and has no intention of repenting ever) but to snare those who are living the angelic life in blinding darkness and infest them with a condition of faithlessness. There are many wolves going about “in sheep’s clothing,” but though they wear the coats of sheep, they possess nonetheless both talons and teeth. They wrap themselves in the gentle creature’s hide and with this disguise deceive the innocent only to inject with their teeth the deadly poison of their irreligion. We therefore need the grace of God, a sober mind and watchful eyes, so as not to eat tares for wheat and come to harm for not knowing better; so as not to mistake the wolf for a sheep and...
So that if one ought to marvel, this is what he ought to marvel at, and not at their transformation. For when their teacher dares do any thing, no marvel that the disciples also follow. But what is an angel of light? That has free liberty to speak, that stands near to God. For there are also angels of darkness; those which be the devil's, those dark and cruel ones. And the devil has deceived many so, fashioning himself into, not becoming, an angel of light. So do also do these bear about them the form of an Apostle, not the power itself, for this they cannot. But nothing is so like the devil as to do things for display. But what is a ministry of righteousness? That which we are who preach to you a Gospel having righteousness. For he either means this, or else that they invest themselves with the character of righteous men. How then shall we know them? By their works, as Christ said. Wherefore he is compelled to place his own good deeds and their wickedness side by side, that the spurio...
Demanding then a law of God, you have that common one prevailing all over the world, engraven on the natural tables to which the apostle too is wont to appeal, as when in respect. of the woman's veil he says, "Does not even Nature teach you? ".
And, for every one hurt by such snakes-that is, his angels.
God forbid, however, that we should suppose that the soul of any saint, much less of a prophet, can be dragged out of (its resting-place in Hades) by a demon. We know that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light".
An angel of deceit, "transformed into an angel of light".
If "Satan himself, too, is transformed into an angel of light".
Passed away from his own bodily substance; and that Satan himself, when "transformed into an angel of light"
