Angelic Conflict part 78: Angelology 102 – Eze 1:4-11; 28:15-16; Gen 3:24; 2Ki 6:17; Deu 4:15-20
length: 66:26 - taught on May, 16 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Angelic Conflict part 78: Angelology 102 - EZE 1:4-11; 28:15-16; GEN 3:24; 2KI 6:17; DEU 4:15-20 .
Announcements/opening prayer:
General facts about angels.
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 according with God’s desires and not mankind’s.
The desire in mankind since the beginning to worship angels, contact angels, and to force angelic beings to work on their behalf has led to cultism of all forms as well as pagan religions.
The angelic beings are declared to have interest in the things of earth, especially the Advent’s of Christ and the gospel of redemption.\
However, no revelation is given as to the extent and nature of their thinking and very little revelation is given on the reality in which they live, which reality extends before the creation of man for an unknown period of time.
There is a very good explanation for this.
The Bible is not addressed to the angels, nor does it enter upon an exhaustive description of their estate or interrelationships. It tells believers just what they need.
It is revealed, however, that a vast universe which the human eye but feebly penetrates is inhabited by unnumbered spirit beings, and that, upon release from the limitations of this sphere of the earthly, the dwellers of earth are inducted into those extended domains—not to become as angels, as many false religions have taught, but to enter the sphere which the divine final purpose has designed for them.
So much that is not divine revelation from the Scripture has been taught and believed and inferred over the course of human history. Remember, it was 2 cherubim that were placed at the gate of the Garden of Eden in order to keep fallen man from the Tree of Life and the unbelieving progeny of Adam and Eve witnessed these beings and began to construct idols in their image to worship them.
Let’s briefly meet the cherubim.
EZE 1:1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
EZE 1:2 (On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile,
EZE 1:3 the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.)
Eze1:4 And as I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.
EZE 1:5 And within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form. 6 Each of them had four faces and four wings.
EZE 1:7 And their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf's hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze.
EZE 1:8 Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them,
EZE 1:9 their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward.
EZE 1:10 As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man, all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.
EZE 1:11 Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another being, and two covering their bodies.
EZE 10:20 These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar; so I knew that they were cherubim.
They are very similar to the four living creatures around the throne of God in Rev 4, but with differences.
So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.
A lamassu is a protective deity, often depicted with a bull or lion's body, eagle's wings, and human's head
All pagan religions are distortions of God’s truths from the beginning.
In the Middle Ages, unprofitable and often grotesque speculation so characterized the discussion of the doctrine of the angels that a depreciation of this body of truth is abroad today.
Of these discussions Dr. Augustus Strong writes: “The scholastics debated the questions, how many angels could stand at once on the point of a needle (relation of angels to space); whether an angel could be in two places at the same time; how great was the interval between the creation of angels and their fall; whether the sin of the first angel caused the sin of the rest; whether as many retained their integrity as fell; whether our atmosphere is the place of punishment for fallen angels; whether guardian- angels have charge of children from baptism, from birth, or while the infant is yet in the womb of its mother” (Systematic Theology, sixth edition, p. 221).
Thus, also, Rossetti in his Shadow of Dante (pp. 14-15) says of Dante: “The fall of the rebel angels he considers to have taken place within twenty seconds of their creation, and to have originated in the pride which made Lucifer unwilling to await the time prefixed by his Maker for enlightening him with perfect knowledge” (cited by Strong, ibid.).
The presence of spirit beings has been recognized in almost all systems of religion. These mythological religions are used to blind men from the truth.
The truth is that satan has built these pagan religions from the beginning of fallen human history so that the Scripture would be discredited by unlearned people who assume that all religions are the same due to their apparent similarities. Unfortunately so many just don’t want to know so that a shell of an explanation is enough.
On this fact, Dr. William Cooke makes this comment:
Indeed, in nearly all the systems of religion, ancient or modern, we trace such beings; in the Aeons of the Gnostics [different levelled spirits], the Demons, the Demi-gods [half man half god], the Genii, and the Lares [guardian deities of Roman religion], which figure so largely in the theogonies [geology of Greek gods], poems, and general literature of heathen antiquity, we have abundant evidence of almost universal belief in the existence of spiritual intelligences, ranging in different orders between man and his Maker.
Here, however, we often find truth draped in fiction, and facts distorted by the wildest fancies of mythology. The doctrine of the heathen, respecting spiritual beings, may be thus briefly stated.
They believe the souls of departed heroes and good men were exalted to dignity and happiness; these were called demons, and were supposed to be employed as mediators between the supreme divinity and man.
There was, however, another class of demons, who were supposed never to have inhabited mortal bodies at all; and of these, there were two sorts: the good, who were employed as the guardians of good men; and evil ones, who were said to envy human happiness, and sought to hinder their virtue and effect their ruin.
In these notions we see a substratum of truth; but in the Scriptures we have the truth itself in its original purity, free from the corruptions of superstition and the licentious imagery of the poet; and truth the more majestic from its unadorned simplicity. Heathen philosophers and poets often spoke of the ministry of spiritual beings. Socrates often spoke of a good demon attending him, and directing and guiding him by his admonitions. Plato taught that the higher kind of demons, such as had never dwelt in mortal bodies, were appointed guardians unto men. But old Hesiod [wrote Theogany] ascribes a ministering agency to the spirits that had once inhabited mortal bodies during the golden age.
We have here a brief representation of that general sentiment on the offices of these superior beings, which we find so abundantly amplified in the speculations of philosophers, and the dreamy fictions of the poets.
But with what steadfast foot we tread when, leaving the flitting theories and amusing dramas of the heathen, we come to the substantial verities of revelation, and in the narrative of simple truth hear what God has said and saints have seen of the angel world. [Dr. W. Cooke, Christian Theology]
The natural human vision is not able to discern the presence of angels, but that fact does not deny the truth that the angels are about us and all around us.
When the natural vision of the young man of 2KI 6:17 was augmented, he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
What the spiritual man Elisha knew by faith he had to show his servant who lacked faith. Faith is a powerful weapon.
It is obvious that angels remain invisible to human sight so that they will not be worshipped.
Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement [asceticism] and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
John when he received the Revelation did it twice.
And he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book; worship God."
Man, who is so prone to idolatry as to worship the works of his own hands, would hardly be able to resist the worship of angels were they before his eyes.
DEU 4:15 "So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
DEU 4:16 lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
DEU 4:17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,
DEU 4:18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth.
DEU 4:19 And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
DEU 4:20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.
Today - sex, chemicals, money, appearance, social, power, relationships, job, etc. All idols becomes demons and then you hate them and they destroy you.
In the light of so much revelation, the speculations of gnosticism regarding angels must be rejected.
The angels are living beings of the highest position and greatest consequence [fallen or elect] in the universe.
They are more than mere powers or forces emanating from God.
They are in no way independent in the sense that they are self -originating, self-sustaining, or capable of self-annihilation, they are free moral beings and have, in past ages at least, held their own destiny within the power of their own choice.
It is revealed that some of the angels “sinned” and that they “kept not their first domain” (2PE 2:4; JUD 1:6).2 Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
So many in the past and present have written far flung epochs of the reasons and motivations for this fall and none of them is to be seen as truth, no matter how entertaining they are. No one knows exactly what happened, but what we do know is that God saw unrighteousness in Lucifer’s heart which wasn’t there when he was created and that Lucifer, the star of the morning had a will that opposed God.
"You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created,
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
How the heavens must have shook when this unrighteousness was found and how expected it was to an all knowing God who now would unfold a plan of grace that would not be seen without it. God did not cause it, rather He allowed it from the free will given to the creature.
ISA 14:12 "How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
ISA 14:13 "But you said in your heart,
'I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
ISA 14:14 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'
ISA 14:15 "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.
ISA 14:16 "Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will ponder over you, saying,
'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
Believer, if God’s greatest enemy will be shown to be a nothing, a nobody, a weak and feeble creature before the mighty hand of God then you should look at every enemy, every problem, every difficulty, everything opposed to you and your walk with God in the exact same light!
Whatever occurred, there could be no breaking away from the justice of God. These fallen angels must in the end account to the One whom they repudiated (EZE 28:16-17; MAT 25:41).
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
As much as I loathe this creature I do not want him to go there, but it’s not up to me. It was his choice as it is with every creature. And it is also the choice of every person to be either influenced by him or not. I can say that I hate what satan did to some person, but it was really that person that allowed it to be done, whether in ignorance or cognizance.
So we see that the creature elect or fallen, believer or unbeliever is forever in relation to the Creator, whether under His justice or His love.
The sufficiency of the angels, like that of all created beings, is of God alone. They live and move by virtue of divine enablement.
Even Michael the archangel when in controversy with Satan asserted his dependence on God (Jude 1:9).
Jud 9
But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you."
The Scriptures maintain that man was “made a little lower than the angels” (PSA 8:4-5; HEB 2:6-7). Whether this refers to estate, or to essential, inherent qualities, is not completely revealed.
It is probable that the angels are superior to man in both respects.
The Bible does not state that angels were made in the image of God as it says of men and further, angels do not experience redemption or atonement which explains why they long to look into such things.
It was revealed to them [OT prophets] that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.
EPH 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles —
EPH 3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you;
EPH 3:3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.
EPH 3:4 And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
EPH 3:5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
EPH 3:6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
EPH 3:7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
EPH 3:8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
EPH 3:9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;
EPH 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Man possesses a material body with its experiences; no such experience is reported of the angels, though it is evident that demons seek embodiment whenever that is possible.
They are individual beings, and, though spirits, experience emotions; they render intelligent worship (Ps. 148:2); they behold with due understanding the face of the Father (Matt. 18:10); they know their limitations (Matt. 24:36), their inferiority to the Son of God (HEB 1:4-14); and, in the case of the fallen angels, they know their ability to do evil. The angels are individuals, yet, though sometimes appearing in a separate capacity, they are subject to classifications and varying ranks of importance.
Angels possess personalities as men do and so most likely no two of them are alike personally.
Intellect: They have and communicate insight and understanding.
DAN 9:21 while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.
DAN 9:22 And he gave me instruction and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.
They can know much but they also know their limitations.
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
Sensibility: They have a longing for more truth revealing a certain virtue.
It was revealed to them [OT prophets] that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long [strong desire] to look.
This verse reveals that they have a strong desire [same word as for lust] to look into the salvation of men. Therefore, since they desire to see love and grace fulfilling the justice of God through the work of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, it reveals their desire to know virtue.
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Will: satan and the fallen angels reveal their will to oppose God therefore elect angels had a will to submit to God, ISA 14:12; JUD 1:6.
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