The "angels who sinned," Peter and Jude say, were cast down to Tartarus ("a place of restraint," a prison) where they are bound until God judges them. This Tartarus, this "hell" where the demons are restrained, is none other than their "first estate," their "proper domain," earth!
Read more: http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseact...#ixzz2GYUo0KaH
This quote above from VIW is provocative.
"!" indeed. It always seemed to me that the angels' "first estate" was God's kingdom in heaven, and that the Genesis 6 story, amplified in Enoch (which was quoted by Jude), showed that the "Watcher" angels were not supposed to interfere with humanity on earth. They were supposed to watch and report back to the Boss. But some of them were deceived, and like bank guards becoming bank robbers, they took on the flesh of humanity and dwelt among them and took wives, which led to perversity and punishment (i.e. "the Flood").
How someone could infer from this that "earth is the first estate of the angels" is a mystery to me. Of course, I may have fundamentally mis-read or mis-interpreted the section quoted above.
A second point about Christ descending into the heart of the earth and "preaching to disobedient spirits": it seemed to be chronologically concurrent with Paul's idea of "taking captivity captive" in Ephesians 4. Both events must have largely occurred simultaneously, no? I have always perceived it as such. There's nothing that I am aware of that joins the two sections; it has just seemed to me that both events must have occurred together: Jesus rescuing one group and refusing another.
When the demons cried out, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us before our time?" it doesn't suggest to me a potential reconciliation in the offing, but rather a complete negation. Just as light cannot co-exist with darkness, neither can God and Jesus reconcile with the demons.
I know this isn't necessarily addressing either of VIW's first two questions. I just thought that the quote from
cgg.org was maybe coming from somewhere I wasn't aware of.