Since it is often thought that James´ treaties on faith (or Manton´s comments on James) is enough to win the argument, that passage will be evaluated first. James, in the second chapter of his Epistle, addresses the subject of how to identify the subject of how to identify true Christian faith in another, and makes this statement: "œYou believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe "“ and tremble." Since this is after all a discussion on saving faith, the question must be asked, can be demons be saved? This has been the source of some discussion throughout church history, but the true Reformed faith has replied with a fairly unanimous opinion. The fall of angels was entirely supralapsarian. God decreed, before their fall, that certain angels would maintain their state of holiness and righteousness, and that others would sin and fall. As Reymond says in his superb chapter in defense of Supralapsaianism, "œThe angels who did fall, though they are creatures of God as much in need of redemption as are fallen men, will know no divine efforts to redeem them." (481) If a demon is not given a system to be saved by, then it doesn´t matter how many conditions he meets in any other system "“ he cannot be saved. The salvation of men, which is through saving faith, is given in a system known as the Covenant of Grace. As the Westminster says, "œthat Covenant was made with Christ and in Him, with all the elect as His seed" (LC, Q31). If then the system is only given to Christ´s elect, out of the sons of men, then no demon can ever been in that Covenant. If no demon is in the Covenant of Grace then no demon can achieve salvation through it. Plainly put, the offer of the Gospel is not made with fallen angels, so they could, theoretically, believe anything contained in Scripture, including the Gospel, and still fail to be saved. Do not misunderstand, I do not believe that demons can or do assent to all Scriptural truths, my point is simply that it wouldn´t matter if they did. Those who try to make some deduction of the nature of saving faith from a faith that can never save miss the point of the argument entirely. As Herman Hoeksema, founder of the PRCA, has noted, "œIt may be said that the fall of angels is absolute, that is, there is no salvation for them"¦In the world of angels, election and reprobation are in force. God´s council also there makes a separation. The difference however is this: that while in the world of men all fall under sin, and therefore the elect must be saved, the elect angels never fell. The power of election causes them to remain standing. Part of them fell, and because they fell without a Mediator, and a saving Head, all devils are fallen absolutely" (Reformed Dogmatics, 253). It can also be further stated that the faith described in James sounds similar to that described by Manton. These demons not only assent to the idea of a God, but they react to that in a volitional and emotional manner. They shudder. These demons not only believe that God exists, but fear Him, and trust in His threatening. It may be countered that they do not believe in Christ as their personal Savior. With this I would agree, but this gets, first of all, into the manner of the propositions believed and not the quality of belief. And secondly, it subjectifies the Gospel into a belief that "œChrist died for me," when the true Gospel contains objective truths about Christ´s life and death, but more on that later. Plainly said there is no way to know exactly what these demons do and do not believe. The only thing that we know is that they realize there is a God and that He is one. As Clark says, "œThe only belief James mentions is the belief in monotheism. Islam would therefore be a dead faith" (What is Saving Faith 35). James writing to Jews whose test of orthodoxy was monotheism, counters that this belief isn´t enough. This is clear from the lifestyle led by those who hold to monotheism, including demons. Belief in monotheism isn´t enough to change men´s lives, men need true faith in Christ, and the way we test this from the outside is by seeing its fruit. I do not believe that James is trying to make some kind of comparison of what is a true faith vs. what is a false faith. He is trying to tell us how to identify true faith in another, and lets us know along the way that the faith that demons have, monotheism, doesn´t produce works in and of itself. If, therefore, little can be drawn from James as to the distinguishing characteristic of saving faith, then we can easily turn to other Scriptures.
