Angelic Conflict part 77: Angelology 102 – Act 12:7,23; 27:23; 1Th 4:16; Jud 6-7.
length: 63:40 - taught on May, 15 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Angelic Conflict part 77: Angelology 102 - ACT 12:7,23; 27:23; 1TH 4:16; Jud 6-7.
Named angels: Gabriel
Meaning - God’s mighty one.
There are ten appearances of the “Angel of the Lord” in the NT without any other name and these are likely appearances of Gabriel.
Gabriel (Michael?) struck down Herod Agrippa I who received praise as a god and did not give glory to God.
ACT 12:18 Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.
ACT 12:19 And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
ACT 12:20 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king's chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king's country.
Tyre and Sidon depended on lands ruled by Herod for food and when Herod shut off the flow of food they probably bribed Blastus to gain an audience with the king.
Act 12: 21 And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel [robe of silver], took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them.
Josephus states that on the second day of a festival in Caesarea, Agrippa appeared in a theater with a robe made of silver. The people, seeing his robe sparkling in the sunlight, cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god and begged for his mercy. While the king was basking in the adulation, he noticed an owl on a rope, an omen of his imminent death. Immediately, he had severe stomach pains and was carried to his house and died five days later (Ant. xix.8 .2 [343-352]).
ACT 12:22 And the people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!"
ACT 12:23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
ACT 12:24 But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.
Here we see the power of angels.
Bless the Lord, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!
It is impossible to form a comparison of the power of angels and the power of man. Though we will be higher than them, right now they are superior in strength and intellect which enables them to:
Angels employ in a far higher degree than ourselves the resources of the universe, to fulfill any commission which God might give them to perform, sometimes that’s destruction.
What God commands them to do they can do, and elect angels are at times commanded to destroy.
And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.
And I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth."
It is gratifying to read that, in His kingdom reign, Christ will put down all rule and authority, and that, at the close of human history, He will, by the ministry of angels, gather out of human spheres all that offend.
"The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Gabriel assures Paul on the deck of a sinking ship.
ACT 27:20 And since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.
ACT 27:21 And when they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, "Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete, and incurred this damage and loss.
ACT 27:22 "And yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
ACT 27:23 "For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me,
ACT 27:24 saying,' Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.'
“granted you” - meaning Paul had prayed for them and their lives were spared through his prayer, i.e. they were given to him.
ACT 27:25 "Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.
ACT 27:26 "But we must run aground on a certain island."
/map\
They wreck and land safely on Malta.
Gabriel will sound the trumpet at the Rapture.
1TH 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.
1TH 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
How can mortal man penetrate beyond the grave and find assurance and peace for his own heart? From Old Testament days till the present, mankind has tried to solve the riddle of death and the afterlife. Philosophers have wrestled with the question of immortality. Spiritists have tried to communicate with those who have gone beyond.
In our modern world, scientists have investigated the experiences of people who claimed to have died and returned to life again. They have also studied occult phenomena, hoping to find a clue to the mystery of life after death.
Paul solved the problem when he wrote, "For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord" (1TH 4:15). We Christians need not wonder about death or life after death, for we have a revelation from God in His Word.
1TH 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
In no area of doctrine should we substitute human speculation for divine revelation?
It is important to note that the revelation concerning death and the afterlife was not given all at one time. Many cults use verses from the Psalms and Ecclesiastes to "prove" their false doctrines. These verses seem to teach that the grave is the end, or that the soul "sleeps" till the resurrection. We must keep in mind that God's revelation was gradual and progressive, and that it climaxed in the coming of Christ "who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel" (2TI 1:10). We look to Christ and the New Testament for the complete revelation concerning death.
1TH 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
It’s not the soul that sleeps at death, but the body. The soul/spirit is face to face with the Lord. JAM 2:26
the body without the spirit is dead
1TH 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
1TH 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
I read about a believer who said to a friend, also a believer, "I hear you lost your wife. I'm very sorry." He replied to him, "No, I didn't lose her. You can't lose something when you know where it is - and I know where she is!"
On the authority of the Word of God, we know that Jesus Christ will one day return and bring His entire Church together with Him, those who have died and alive.
One summer a church camp staff staged an elaborate "rapture" while the camp director was off the grounds. When he returned, everybody was missing, clothing was on the ground as though people had "passed through" it, a motorboat was circling on the lake without pilot or passengers, and everything in the kitchen was functioning without a cook. A carefully timed phone call from town ("Hey, what's happening? Everybody's missing over here!") only added to the effect. "I've got to admit," said the director, "it really shook me for a minute." Just think of what effect this event will have on a lost world!
Whether we Christians live or die, we have nothing to fear because Jesus will come either with us or for us! The fact of His return is a comfort to our hearts.
1TH 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Named angels: Lucifer
Meaning - shinning one.
Titles: devil and satan, beelzebul (lit. “lord of the heavens).
Activities ….
Apollyon (Heb. Abaddon)
Meaning - destroyer
Apollyon is the king of the fallen angels that were cast into the Abyss [REV 9:11], for which it is assumed that these angels abandoned their proper abode.
They did this quite possibly by lying with the daughters of men so as to pollute the pure human line of the coming Christ in the days on Noah in Gen 6.
Jud 6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
This reveals that the angels had a domain - [oiketerion = habitation, abode, dwelling place] - and the free will to keep it or to abandon it.
The place where the angels dwelt was somehow tied to their place of authority in the order God had established. Thus when they left the place assigned to them it was tantamount to rebellion.
Jud 7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh [this could be the hint at Gen 6], are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
In Sodom men, in great lust, wanted to lie with the angels visiting Lot and so it makes sense that these angels desired to lie with the beautiful women in the days of Noah and this was judged as confinement in eternal bonds under darkness.
General facts about angels.
From earliest times men have considered the question whether this earth is the only inhabited planet. Science ventures guesses, but the Bible speaks with authority on this age-old problem.
It is disclosed that the angels dwell in the heavenly spheres and in numbers beyond human computation.
Angels are gathered in groups which are identified as thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, authorities, and the hosts of heaven.
COL 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him.
This shows that the angels are linked in a corporation among themselves as an army or host whose number will not change.
We do not see their positions change. The archangel is such as are all the others without change. This reveals a steady and cooperative will amongst the elect angels.
No matter what their rank, all these are wholly subject to the Lord Jesus Christ who created this universe and all it contains, including angelic beings.
He created “things . . . visible and invisible” (COL 1:16).
Who [Jesus Christ] is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
The untold number of angels have their own abode or habitation that they were to remain in unless commanded by God to minister, Jud 6.
Angelic existence outdates human by countless ages and what they do is in dependence or opposition to God and not to man.
The elect angels are united and organized into thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities, and just like he always does, satan copied God’s organization in his own rebellion after he convinced one third of God’s angles to rebel with him.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Both organizations are either for or against God. This clearly explains the world’s unending conflicts, sin, evil, misery, disaster, etc.
satan’s organization opposes man as it advances his opposition to God. Man is nothing to him but a loathsome creature, both believer and unbeliever.
Elect angels minister to believers as God directs them and so they act in accordance with God’s desires and not mankind’s.
Connect
Subscribe to our mailing list |
Grace and Truth Ministries 1900 Hines S.E. Salem, Oregon 97302 |
 |
letters@cgtruth.org |
|
© Grace and Truth Ministries All Rights Reserved. |