When Were Angels Created?

Ella (age 13) asked,

“When were angels created? They are not omnipresent because only God is. In Genesis 1 and 2 it does not mention any angels. The first angel mentioned is Satan in the form of a serpent. Satan is an angel, though he is an evil fallen angel. So the angels were created before the fall of man, but when?”

Ella, you’re thinking really well about what the Bible tells us about angels!

Angels were created. That means that they began to exist at a certain point in time, unlike God, who is not a created being. He is the Creator. However, like God, angels are spiritual, which means they exist in the spiritual realm. But they can interact with our physical world and us.

Genesis records God’s creation of the physical world. It doesn’t clearly tell us when God created the angels. But there are some hints we can get from Scripture.

God created everything during creation week—there was nothing except God before then. Job 38 calls the angels “morning stars” and “sons of God” and says they were witnesses of creation, so they may have been created early during creation week.

What about Satan? When we first see him in Genesis, he is already evil, but we know that God called his creation “very good” at the end of day six. He blessed the seventh day, so it’s unlikely that Satan became evil on the seventh day either. He rebelled sometime after creation week but before Adam and Eve sinned.

Do you have a question about God’s Word or his world that you want us to answer? Is there a topic you want to learn more about? Ask your parents to help you submit your question today. Watch for our answer here on the blog or in Kids Answers magazine. We’d love to hear from you!