TESTING ANGEL STORIES WE HEAR TODAY - Part 5

How do we know when an angel story we hear today can be believed?

Give it the Bible test.

#1  Is the story consistent with what we know of God’s character and God’s Word? 

 

#2  Does it support or contradict what is said elsewhere in God’s Word?  Does it add to it?

The book of Revelation, chapter 22, verses 18-19 says this:

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.  If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.  And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

One of the reasons the Mormon church, considered by many Christians to be a cult, is because it claims to base its teachings on the Bible PLUS the book of Mormon – supposedly written on tables given by an angel named Moroni to a man named Joseph Smith back in the 1800’s here in the US.  That is an addition to the Word of God, something John the Apostle clearly warned about in the book of Revelation.

#3  Is it consistent with what the Bible tells us about the messages and ministries of angels?

·         Is the person claiming to see or hear from angels a believer in Jesus? 

o   Hebrews 1:14 “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

o   We read of a number of examples where known believers in Christ on their deathbed have sat up and said they saw Jesus and His angels coming to get them before they died.

o   These stories can be believed because they are consistent with what Bible says about angels coming for believers at death.

o   But if someone without a relationship with Jesus says they have had the experience of seeing an angel, it's good to be cautious.  Either that person’s experience with lead them to faith in Jesus, or they just might be untrue.

·         Remember that Satan was an angel himself. He is a deceiver and the "father of lies". 

o   In 2 Corinthians 11:14, the Apostle Paul says: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

o   Satan would love to lull those who do not know Jesus into complacency about their eternal destiny with visions of angels that might give comfort to those who have no eternal comfort apart from Jesus.  

#4  Is the message and/or the ministry of the angel glorifying to God or to the angel himself?  The primary ministry of angels is to worship God and bring Him glory.

If someone claims to have heard from a personal angel guide giving his own advice or guidance – be suspicious.

Is the person relating the appearance giving glory to God, or to the angel and his message?  An angel would never give a message inconsistent with the Word of God already given.

Satan would love to get our eyes off the worship of God and onto something else – like angels, or anything else that takes the place of God.

SEEN ANY ANGELS LATELY? - Angels Part 4

Although the Bible is full of angel encounters, we don’t hear many reports of people seeing angels today.  Why is that?

It’s not because they aren’t present among us.  But since they are spirit beings, angels are mostly invisible.

In Billy Graham’s book “Angels”, he says this:

Our eyes are not constructed to see (angels) ordinarily any more than we can see the dimensions of a nuclear field.  Our ability to sense (spiritual) reality is limited.  

One of my favorite Biblical accounts about angels illustrates what Billy Graham is talking about.  It’s from the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, chapter 6.

God was giving his prophet Elisha private information about the whereabouts of Israel’s enemies, the Arameans, enabling Israel to stay one step ahead of that attacking army.  So King Aram sent his men to surround the city where Elisha was staying.  

Verses 15-17 of chapter 6 read:  

“(When Elisha's servant) got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.  ‘Oh, my lord, what shall we do?’ the servant asked.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered.  ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’

And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’  Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

It took an act of God to enable the servant to SEE God’s heavenly army protecting Elisha from Israel’s enemies.

Sometimes God has permitted angels to take on in human form for specific purposes.  Sometimes they were recognized as angels and sometimes not. 

In Genesis 19 we read about the angels God sent to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Before they did so, they went to find Abraham’s nephew Lot, who lived in Sodom, in order to rescue him and his family before the destruction.  When the two angels arrived, Lot assumed they were only men, but later in the account we discover that they were indeed, angels.

In Genesis 32, when Jacob had left the home of his Uncle Laban and was on his way back to the land of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham, he was met by angels and recognized who they were, saying, “This is the camp of God!”  

In the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 10, verses 5-6, Daniel had no doubt that he was face to face with an angel.  The being's appearance was not like that of any man.  Daniel described him this way:

“I looked up and saw before me a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. . . . his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his voice like the sound of a multitude.”

His reaction is an interesting and not uncommon one when people come face to face with angels.  Daniel said this in reaction:

“I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless.”

Angels were seen at the tomb of Jesus and at His ascension and they were recognized as angels.

Matthew 28:2-4  “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”

Luke 24:1-6a  “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away. . . but when they entered, they did not find of the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”

Acts 1:9-10 After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers during a period of 40 days.  As they gathered one last time, Jesus gave His final instructions, and then this. . . .

“After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.”

Do angels appear today?   

Billy Graham’s book has a number of stories of people today seeing angels, but probably many of the accounts today are more likely to come from places where there is great spiritual darkness, such as the story below.

“Angels Around Us”, by Doug Connelly

In the 1950s, a missionary group in Kenya learned of imminent attack on their mission by Mau Mau warriors.  To defend their families, men put up a barbed wire barricade and turned on floodlights.  With what few weapons they had they stood guard along the mission’s perimeter, while their wives and children prayed inside.

They waited all night, but no attack came.

Months later, a Mau Mau tribesman who converted to Christ explained that just as he and his fellow warriors prepared to attack the mission from all sides, large fiery figures appeared from out of the night.  They stood between the Mau Mau and the missionaries, racing in circles around the barricade.  Frightened by the sight of them, the warriors fled.

The missionaries had not seen them, but God opened the warriors’ eyes to what normally would have been invisible – God’s holy angel warriors!

If you’ve ever had a near miss in a car accident – you have probably strongly believed that there was an unseen angel there, protecting you just when you needed it – well, that just might have been the case since the author of Hebrews says: “Angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.”

Want to increase your likelihood of seeing an angel?  Well, you might not recognize him as one, but there is something the Bible says we can do:

Hebrews 13:2:  “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Knowing that puts hospitality in a whole new light!

HEAVEN, THE HOME OF ANGELS - Part 3

So where do YOU call home?  I was born in Washington DC but spent all the rest of my life here in New Jersey.  I’ve come to love the “Garden State” because of its change of seasons and rare extremes of weather.  Few tornadoes, mostly the “tail end” of hurricanes, the rare earthquake, only a few really big snow storms in the winter.  Oh, and we have hardly any animals that eat you. :)

So, what place do angels call home?  Why heaven, of course!

·         In the recording of the Christmas story in Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, verses 13-15, we read that a host of angels announced Jesus's birth to the shepherds and then returned to where they came from - heaven.

·         In Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, verse 43 in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest, when Jesus was in an agony of prayer over what lay ahead, Luke says:  “An angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened Him.”

·         Matthew reports in his gospel, chapter 28, verse 2, that on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection:  “an angel came down from heaven and rolled away the stone.”

Heaven is God’s dwelling place, “God’s throne”, as Isaiah says in 66:1, and that is primarily where the angels live and work.

•  They do not belong to earth, although sometimes their ministry is here.
• Heaven is the home of the angels.
• Earth is the domain of Satan & his demons.

Although angels are spirit beings, without permanent physical bodies, at times God has permitted them to take on human form.   More about that in a later blog!

The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews 1:14 calls angels“ministering spirits".

·         “Spirit means existence on a level above and beyond matter, it means life subsisting in another mode.  Substance that has no weight, no dimension, no size or extension in space.  Yet spirit has true being and is objectively real.”   A. W. Tozer

Even though we cannot see God, who is spirit, we know that He is real, and the same is true of angels.

But, even though angels are spirits, as God is spirit, God is their creator and they are the creatures, so angels have limitations that God does not have:

·         Angels can’t be in more than one place at a time – while God is omnipresent - everywhere at once.

o  Speaking of God,  Psalm  139:7-8 says: “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”   

·         Angels are limited in knowledge. 

o   In Matthew 24:35 Jesus said that the angels didn’t know the timing of His second coming.  On the other hand, God is omniscient – all knowing.

·         Angels are powerful – but they are limited in power – unlike God, who is all powerful.  Angels are strong and powerful but they can do only what God empowers. 

o   In John’s vision for the end of time in Revelation 7:1 he says: 

§  “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.” 

§  The angels were powerful enough to hold back the wind, yet they were directed to do so at God’s command.

o   Revelation 18:21  One angel “picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea”

·         The holiness of angels is also limited and lesser than God’s – He is perfect in holiness.  We know angels are limited in holiness because some angels fell from their original state of goodness. 

·         God, on the other hand, will always be perfectly holy, just, righteous and loving.

o   In Revelation 5:2-5 John describes God holding in his hand a scroll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals.  

§  A “mighty angel” shouts, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?  But no one in heaven or earth or under the earth could open it.  I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll.  Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep!  See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

§  Jesus, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David”, is the only One worthy to open the scroll because He IS perfect in holiness, justice, righteousness and love.

There is good reason to be in awe of these powerful spirit beings – but as majestic and awesome as they might be, they can never surpass the Lord Jesus in majesty, power, perfection and holiness!

So, did you learn anything today that you didn’t know before?  How does the truth of God’s Word compare with what you’ve always believed about angels so far?  What adjustments do you need to make in your thinking to bring your mind into conformity with God’s truth?

In the next week or so we’ll be getting out our Christmas ornaments and decorations.  Take a look at your angel ornaments.  How do these representations influence what you think angels look like?   How would you describe them?

More to come. . . . . .

POST SURGERY REFLECTIONS ON PSALM 119:1-8

Last week, in my progression through the Psalms, I got to Psalm 119.  I love that psalm, but I only read it in small chunks so I don't miss anything.

I read verses 1-8 that day and thought, "I need to blog about this".  But then I began to do the intellectual thing of looking up the Hebrew meanings of the English words and got bogged down.  Suddenly I lost all interest in blogging my original, more spiritual, less intellectual thoughts when I read it through devotionally.

Stay with me now, I'll get back to Psalm 119!

Today, I had minor surgery to remove a benign cyst.  I wasn't concerned at all about the surgery because I would be happily unconscious throughout!  However, I had a procedure beforehand that sounded unpleasant for which I would only have a local anesthetic, so I was anxious about that.

To increase my anxiety level a bit more, they delivered me to the ultrasound lab way before the doctor arrived to do the procedure, so all I had to do was sit in the hall all alone and think.  Usually a dangerous thing for me!  But this time, the thinking was comforting, and that takes me back to Psalm 119:1-8.

Because I'm never far from being the "teacher", let me give you a little background (from my Life Application Bible) on the Psalm before I tell you how much, and why, it blessed me.

“Psalm 119 is both the longest psalm and, with 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible.  Some suggest it was written by Ezra the priest after the temple was rebuilt (see Ezra 6:14-15) as a repetitive meditation on the beauty of God’s Word and how it helps us to stay pure and grow in faith.   

Psalm 119 has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section.  Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. “  

Back to Psalm 119:1-8, which says this:

v. 1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, and who walk according to the law of the Lord.

I looked up the word "blameless", translated "undefiled" in the King James Version of the Bible, and found that its Hebrew meaning is: "without blemish", or "complete".  The thing is that I know that "blameless" is not a word I would ascribe to myself, nor, most likely, would the psalmist ascribe it to himself either.  

No one is more knowledgeable about my failings than I am - although I can be self deceived!  But ask God, or even my family - and you'll get the REAL scoop!  Uh, blameless, no!  I'll have more to say about this later.

The Hebrew word for "walk" has the meaning of "to behave oneself" and "following", and "continuing on".  So walking according to the law of the Lord, which I interpret to mean God's Word, is a continual action that lives itself out in a life.

v. 2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

There is a reward for those who keep God's commands (statutes, laws, ordinances) and who seek him with all their heart!  They are blessed!

But here's the rub!  The psalmist couldn't keep God's statutes with any degree of blamelessness any more than I can - not because he's not as "spiritual" as I am, but because we are both sinners!  And he probably had as much success seeking God with all his heart (this heart seeking involves our whole being - emotions, will and intellect!) as I do!  I regularly can go for days being busy and giving God little thought at all!   

The sad but true reality is, we all miss out on the fullness of God's blessings because we don't keep His commands and we don't seek Him wholeheartedly!

v. 3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.

Ah, there it is again, that absolute "they do NOTHING wrong"!  So not true of me!  

v. 4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.  

But the Lord laid down His precepts EXPECTING that they are to be FULLY obeyed!  So what's a woman (or a psalmist or a human being) to do?????

v. 5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!  

I don't know whether the psalmist meant for verse 5 to be a lament, but that's the way I "hear" it.  There seems to be a longing there my own heart can echo:  Oh, how I WISH that I were steadfast (Hebrew meaning:  wholehearted) in doing what you want me to do Lord!  But I'm just not!

v. 6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.

Because if I were, then I wouldn't have to be ashamed (Heb. "disappointed") when I consider (Heb. "look intently") your commands, Lord and how far I fall in trying to keep them! 

v. 7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.

 This has the meaning of:  I will praise you with a heart of understanding as I become skilled in your righteous laws.

v. 8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.

This is the verse that had the biggest impact on me when I read it and was brought home again today as I waited alone for the pre-surgery procedure.

Again, I'm "hearing" something I thought the psalmist was saying when I first read it and before my intellectual searching set me on another course of thinking.  I'm going to share it the way I "heard" it.

The Psalmist says, "I WILL obey your decrees. . .".   Ah, but what about the lament of verse 5:  Oh that I were steadfast in doing so!  

The psalmist must have realized the same disappointment and frustration I feel - in my heart, I WANT to obey. . .but at the same time, I continually fail to do so!

He goes on to say, as I "hear" it:  (so Lord when I do fail, which we both know I will!), "do not utterly forsake me!"

This was the same lament of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do. . . . I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. . . . . What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God - through the Jesus Christ our Lord!"

 When I read this psalm last week I thought:  unlike the psalmist who was aware of the necessity of obeying God's law, yet failing to do so, and being concerned that that would cause the Lord to forsake him - I had no such concern.

Jesus has rescued me from this body of death - that WANTS to do God's will, obey His commands and seek Him wholeheartedly - emotions, intellect and will - but continually FAILS to do so!

Because Jesus has paid the penalty for my sin, I am His and He is mine - eternally!   Through His indwelling Spirit, He has also given me the power to say no to sin - there is nothing I can do or fail to do that will change the fact that in His eyes, I AM blameless and complete, not because I no longer sin, but because HIS righteousness has been credited to my account, by His grace, through faith! 

Today as I waited for the procedure alone, I was also grateful for the reality that even when I am separated from loved ones, needing to go where they cannot go, I am NEVER alone.  Jesus will never "utterly forsake me", EVER.

 To be rescued from this body of death by the Lord Jesus Christ is to NEVER be forsaken.  Thank you, Lord Jesus!

ANGELS, GOD'S HEAVENLY MESSENGERS - Part 2

I'm fascinated by the angel sightings in the Christmas story.  Angels appear individually to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, then to Mary and later Joseph.  Angels appear to lowly shepherds on a quiet hillside in the middle of the night.  Always they come with messages that leave those who see and hear them changed forever!  Maybe you are equally curious and fascinated by these beautiful, yet terrifying beings.  So let's find out more about them.

The simple, basic definition of angels is this:   spirit beings from outside this world, and there are two broad categories – good, or holy angels, and bad angels.

The good ones are God’s angels who have always loved and served God and always will.

The bad ones are fallen angels, Satan and his demons, evil spirits who disobeyed God and who will continue to do so.  More about this later.  For now we’ll concentrate on the “good” or “holy” angels.

The word translated “angel” in Old Testament Hebrew and in New Testament Greek, means:  “messenger”.

When we encounter angels on the pages of God's Word, they are couriers of God's message.

• They are God’s ambassadors, His agents.
• They represent Him alone, never themselves.
• As God’s agents, they are channels to carry His information.
• They speak & act according to God’s instructions.
• They bear God’s authority.
• Their overarching purpose is to do God’s will and accomplish His work.

The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is filled with accounts of angel appearances in which God’s heavenly couriers bear specific messages from God, or minister to people.  There are fewer appearances of angels in the New Testament.  

Why is that?  During those Biblical times when angels were more prominent, there was no written word of God as we have it today.  God relied on other means to communicate His message:

He communicated then and He communicates now through creation:

§  Romans 1:19 – “Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what was made.

 Even today we have only to look at the beauty of a sunrise or sunset, trees changing in the fall, new fallen snow, the tiny, perfect fingers and toes on a newborn to see the invisible God’s power in the glory of His creation!

God also communicated His message through the Old Testament prophets – like Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Joel and John the Baptist, the last of the prophets.  

Now that the written word of God is available and accessible to everyone – it has become the primary way through which God communicates today.

• 2 Tim. 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”

God also speaks to us through His Son Jesus – about whom the entire Bible testifies:

• Heb. 1:1-2 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. 
•  
• God also speaks to us through His Holy Spirit:

•   John 15:26 Jesus said: “When the Counselor comes (by which He meant the Holy Spirit), whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”

Through the Old and into the New Testament, angels have always been ONE WAY messengers, delivering God’s messages to us.  Never are they man’s messengers to God.  Why not?

We don’t need an angel to communicate FOR us TO God, because Jesus already fills that role!

o   I Timothy 2:5 “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.”

Why would we want to approach God by means of an angel, when we can approach Him by means of His own Son?

There must have been those in the first century who believed that angels were superior to Christ because the author of book of Hebrews opens his book with an argument to prove the superiority of Jesus over angels.

Take a look at chapter 1 of the New Testament book of Hebrews:

o   1:4-5 God calls Jesus His Son – a title never attributed to angels 

o   1:6 God commands the ANGELS to worship JESUS  

o   1:7-8 God gives Jesus an eternal throne from which to rule as King.  Angels minister at His command  

o   (1:9) Jesus knows more gladness than angels.  God set him high above his companions (the angels) by anointing him with “the oil of joy”.  

o   V. 10 -13 Jesus himself created the world – a temporal world with an appointed end.  Meanwhile He himself stays unchanged and eternal, sitting at right hand of God in the place of honor.

  (1:14) Angels, on the other hand, are only servant spirits whose job is to wait on US – those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ   

o   In the world to come, it isn’t angels who will be in charge, but Jesus  (2:5, 7-8)

Angels can SERVE us, but they can’t SAVE us from our sins – only Jesus can do that and that is why He is superior to the angels.

o   In Philippians 2:9-10 Paul tells us that, “God has exalted Jesus to the highest place and has given Him (not angels) a name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven, and on earth and under the earth.”

Angels are created beings.  God made them – the way God made everything else in creation.   

·         Colossians 1:16, speaking of Jesus says:  

o   “By Him all things were created:  things in heaven and on earth, visible (like us) & invisible (like angels); all things were created by Him and for Him”.

·         Jesus is the cause of everything that has been created,

o   He is the means through which they were created and

o   He is the purpose of their existence. 

·         When the Apostle John gives us a glimpse into heaven itself in the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, chapter 5, verse 11, we see the angels acknowledging the superiority of Jesus for themselves: 

o   “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.  They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang:  Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain (this is Jesus), to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.”

·         If angels are CREATED beings, then are the following statements true or false?

1.      People who have died become angels who watch over their loved ones

2.      Humans can evolve or transform into angels.

3.      Each of us has an “angel within us”

§  ALL ARE FALSE

o   God created angels to be angels and people to be people – and never the twain shall meet!

When did God create angels?

·         Scholars believe that the answer lies in the Old Testament book of Job, the oldest book of the Bible, in chapter 38, verse 4.

·         God asked Job: 

o   “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation, while the morning stars (probably means archangels – angels are referred to “stars” in other places in God’s Word) sang together and the angels shouted for joy?”

o   God’s question to Job suggests that when God laid the earth’s foundation, the angels had already been created, since they sang for joy at the laying of it.  

o So when in the sequence of creation, would that have been?  For the answer, we need to go back to Genesis 1:

• V. 3 On the first day of creation God separated the light from the darkness. 
• V. 6  On the second day of creation, God made a separation between the waters above (sky) and the waters below.
• V. 9-10  On the third day of creation, God gathered the waters together and the ground appeared so that there was land and there was sea.  

If the angels were there to celebrate when God did these things, He must have created angels BEFORE the end of the 3^rd day of the week of creation.  

If when God finished the work of creation and said this:

• ·         Genesis 1:31 – “God saw all that He had made and it was VERY good.  And there was evening, and there was morning – the 6^th day.”

Then when did the bad angels go bad?  Can you reason it out?  

It seems reasonable to expect that bad angels went bad sometime between the end of creation and the temptation of Adam and Eve recorded in Genesis 3, since Satan played a critical role in their deception and temptation to sin.

Let’s look at some passages that talk about Satan’s rebellion.

• Isaiah 14:12-14  “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn (The King James Version of the Bible says: “O Lucifer, son of the morning)! 

• You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!

• You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God (angels); I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

•  Ezekiel 28:12-17 (Ezekiel is speaking about the King of Tyre but using some words that could only apply to an angel) 
• “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.  You were in Eden, the garden of God.  You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.  You were on the holy mount of God. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.   
• So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God and I expelled you, O guardian cherub. . . Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.”

So what was Satan’s downfall?  Pride.  He was not content to simply serve God.  He wanted to be worshiped as God is worshiped.  

• In  Luke 10:18Jesus says: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

• In 2 Peter 2:4 Peter says: “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment. . .”

• In Jude 6: “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home – these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.”

Bible scholars estimate that about 1/3 of the angels in heaven joined Satan in his rebellion.

Has God created any more angels since?

·         There is no Biblical evidence that He has. 

·         Apart from the angels who fell –there is no reason to believe that there has been any loss or gain in the number of angels.  Since they don’t marry – they probably don’t reproduce.

o   Matthew  22:30 “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”

Exactly how many angels are there? 

·         A lot!  The Bible doesn’t give us an exact amount.  The words that are used indicate a vast number.

o   Matthew 26:53 mentions “legions” of angels.  A typical Roman legion included from 3000-6000 men.  Twelve legions would be 144,000 angels who could have come to Jesus’ rescue.

o   Hebrews 12:22 pictures:

§   “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” – The Greek word for “thousands upon thousands” is the word:  myriad

o   Psalm 68:17 -  David, probably thinking of angelic warriors, speaks of  – “tens of thousands and thousands of thousands”

o   Daniel 7:10 – Daniel saw God on a flaming throne surrounded by:

§  “thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.”  This would be 100 million angels!

o   John uses the same description in Rev. 5:11

We may not know how many there are, but God knows EXACTLY how many – for us, all these words simply describe a VAST, HUGE, MYRIAD number of angels – probably more than we can imagine!

More angel blogs are coming.  We've covered about 5 of the true or false quiz questions so far.  How did you do?