ANSWERS TO THE ANGEL QUIZ - BLOG # 11

ANSWERS TO THE ANGELS QUIZ – SO HOW DID YOU DO?

If you have been following this series of angel blogs, it was a LONG time ago that you took the quiz testing your knowledge of what the Bible has to say about angels.  Here are the answers.  How did you do?

FALSE                    All angels are good.

TRUE                     Angels are sent to minister primarily to believers in Christ.

FALSE                    People who die become angels who watch over their loved ones on earth.

FALSE                    Jesus is an angel.

TRUE                      Angels are unique, created beings.

TRUE                     Satan is a fallen angel.

TRUE                     Angels do not accept the worship of humans.

FALSE                    Angels hear and answer our prayers.

SOME DO              Not all angels have wings.

COULD BE             Every believer has a guardian angel.

FALSE                     Every time you hear a bell ring an angel gets his wings.  

TRUE                     Jesus, not angels, is the only mediator between us and God.

TRUE                     Angels will never understand the joy of salvation first hand.

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A TRULY BLESSED CHRISTMAS AS YOU WORSHIP THE ONLY ONE WORTHY OF THE HONOR – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

JESUS, THE ONLY OBJECT OF WORSHIP - CLOSING PRINCIPLES - ANGEL BLOG #10

This has been a LONG series of blogs!  I hope you’ve been enjoying them and learning some things you didn’t know before.  I don’t want to close out the series however, before giving some principles to remember when studying the subject of angels.  

#1  BE CAREFUL NOT TO SHAPE ANGELS INTO BEINGS OF OUR OWN MAKING

·         The Bible is our authority on ALL things having to do with God – and that includes angels.  Hopefully, as you’ve read through these blogs you learned t that some of the things we and others have believed about angels are not consistent with what God says in His Word! 

·         Like this line from the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”: “every time you hear a bell an angel gets his wings”!  If the classes of archangel and angel do have wings, they were created that way.  They didn’t have to earn their wings!  Sorry Clarence! 

·         If we get our ideas about angels from anywhere else – books we buy, or movies we see, or family traditions that aren’t based on the Bible, then we’re moving from the arena of TRUTH, into error. 

#2  ANGELS MUST NEVER REPLACE GOD IN OUR LIVES

·         The study of angels is fascinating – but my prayer is that it will simply give us a greater hunger to know GOD – the One who created these wonderful creatures and the One whom ALL the angels themselves worship. 

·         The magazine, Christianity Today, warns:  

o   “Angels too easily provide a temptation for those who want a ‘fix’ of spirituality without bothering with God Himself.” 

·         The theologian AW TOZER said:

 

o   “Forever God stands apart, in light unapproachable.  He is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite.  Both belong to the category of, “that which is not God, and are separated from God by infinitude itself.” 

·         Preferring angels to God Himself is an insult to God who is ABOVE all of His creation.

#3  ANGELS MUST NEVER RECEIVE OUR WORSHIP

·         In Romans 1: 25 Paul says, that when man “worships and serves created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised – he has exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”   

·         As we looked at Scripture passages in course of these blogs we discover that angels NEVER allowed man to worship them.  Both angels AND man have been created by God for the purpose of worshiping and serving HIM. 

So who has the greater place of honor in your thinking:  angels or God Himself?

BLOG # 9 WHAT ANGELS LONG TO KNOW BUT NEVER WILL

Did you know that believers in Christ are the object of the attention of angels?

The Apostle Peter, in his letter to believers throughout the world of his day, said this: 

I Peter 1:10-12

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.  It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.  Even angels long to look into these things.”

What is it that makes us the object of angelic attention?  

What can we know that angels never can?  Keep reading!

One major difference between us and the good angels is that they still are what they were created to be – but you and I are not.  

Adam and Eve were beautiful beings, created by God to reflect His image and to live in a perfect environment where they lived in perfect harmony with Him – walking and talking together.

But then, sin entered the picture when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and with sin came death – the death of the once intimate relationship Adam and Eve had with a holy God, and physical death – to a man and woman made to live forever.

Sin has been with us ever since – it’s in our genes, it’s part of our DNA.

It has infected all of us, enslaved all of us and cursed all of us with death and the fear of death.

Nobody escapes it.

BUT THEN GOD (three of my favorite words in the Bible!) provided a solution to the sin problem.

He sent His Son Jesus to be born as one of us – human. 

Angels participated in the announcement of His birth –

Gabriel appeared to the priest Zacharias telling him that he would have a son who would be the one to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah – that son was John the Baptist.

Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her should would have a child by the Holy Spirit and she was to name Him Jesus because He would save His people from their sins.

Then he appeared to Joseph, who was wavering about whether to marry Mary because she was pregnant with a child which was not his.  He told Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary because she would have a child of the Holy Spirit – He would be the long awaited Messiah.

When Jesus was born, a host of angels appeared to the shepherds announcing the birth of the child.

Jesus grew up to become a man, tempted as we are, yet without sin, and so able to become the perfect sacrifice, and to take upon HIMSELF the curse of sin, and die the death that was OURS.  He was the perfect sacrifice, the Only sacrifice which could once and for all forgive sin.  

In power Jesus rose again – proving Himself victorious over sin and death and the Only One able to save us.

When you and I grasp that truth BY FAITH (cause it’s only way we can grasp it), we are finally FREE – free from the penalty of death because Jesus took it for us, free from the power sin used to have over us, free to love God wholehearted and obey Him.  

Without Jesus, we found it impossible NOT to sin, but through faith in Jesus, we are finally free NOT TO SIN.

God’s provision for our salvation from sin is amazing, joy producing and wonderful – because it’s completely undeserved!

SO WHAT DO THE ANGELS THINK OF IT?

o   I Peter 1:12 “Even angels long to look into these things.”  What things?

o   The things pertaining to OUR salvation.

Do they long to look into them because they lack knowledge about God’s great plan of salvation?  NO.  

Being citizens of heaven itself, being present when the Lord Jesus descended and became one of us – they would have known all about God’s plan to save man from sin.

No, they long to look into the things pertaining to our salvation not because they lack the intellectual knowledge– but because they have never FELT salvation, never experienced it for themselves.  Our salvation, which they can never experience, makes them curious observers of US.

In I Peter 1, the Apostle mentions some things that are outside the range of what angels personally experience.

·         In verse 2, Peter addresses his letter to the “elect”, believers in Jesus scattered throughout the world of his day, who have been sanctified – set apart for God – through the sprinkling of Christ’s blood.

o   Because the holy angels don’t sin - they have never known, and never needed to know, the cleansing available to us constantly through the blood of Christ.  

·         In verse 3, he says:  “In His great mercy He has given us the new birth”.  When we trust in Christ, we are born again spiritually into a new life. Angels have remained the same since they were created, while God has changed us completely, from the inside, out.

o   Our new birth comes thru God’s great mercy – MERCY is an attribute God expresses toward us when He withholds from us the just punishment for sin that we deserve.  Since the angels have not sinned, they have never needed God’s mercy.

In verse 4, Peter says: “We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for us”.   Angels already have what is theirs.  The treasures being stored in heaven now are for OUR benefit.

In verses 3 and 7: We read that we have a “living hope”,  - that our faith “will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  This is not a cross your fingers, pie in the sky hope, rather it is a CONFIDENT ASSURANCE!

o   The angels have no need of hope - because Christ’s glory is something they already see first hand.

In verse 8 Peter says:  “Even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him”.  

o   We believe – we have to walk by faith in a God we cannot SEE with our eyes.  The angels have no need of belief.  They know the Lord by sight, not by faith.

When Peter says angels long to look into these things – the Greek word meaning “look into”  doesn’t mean a casual peek.  It’s an intense term – it means not a quick glimpse, but a close up, detailed analysis.

o   Our salvation makes the angels intensely curious!

o   They wish they could see and feel and especially experience, the blessings of our salvation firsthand.

o   But what they can only LONG to experience, we CAN experience through faith in Christ.

The chorus of the hymn:  “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing”, expresses this well.  It says:

• o   Holy, Holy, is what the angels sing.
• o   And I expect to help them make the courts of heaven ring.
• o   But when I sing redemption’s story, they will fold their wings,
• o   For angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings.

Even though angels can never experience the joy of our salvation – they rejoice over it.   Jesus said, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Angels can participate in the announcement of salvation. They can testify to God’s provision of salvation for sinners.   They can have joy over the repentance and salvation of sinners, but they can never experience it themselves.

Are you still looking at believers in Christ and wondering what it is they have that you don’t? 

 Put your faith in Jesus and wonder no more.  Your salvation will set the angels of heaven to rejoicing!

RANK ON RANK THE HOST OF HEAVEN - Angels #8

Nearly every Advent season for several years now I’ve enjoyed reading my way through the book, “O Come All Ye Faithful”.   

A collaborative effort by Joni Eareckson Tada, John MacArthur, and Robert and Bobbie Wolgemuth, the book highlights some of the carols of the season with devotionals and a history of each.  I love the music of the season, but I also love the words of these old hymns of the faith.

One of my favorite, but rarely sung, Advent songs is, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”.   It’s from one of the stanzas that I took the title for today’s blog:

“Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,

As the light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,

That the pow’rs of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.”

What are these angelic ranks mentioned in the carol?

In Billy Graham’s book “Angels”, he lists four angelic ranks spoken of in the Bible.  

The first is Archangel

The prefix “arch” refers to a principle or chief or great angel.

Michael, is the only angel specifically named in the Bible as an archangel. 

In Daniel 12:1 Michael is spoken of as the “great prince who protects God’s people (the Jews)".


Most often when we read about him, it’s in the context of a battle between him and the forces of darkness.

In Jude 9 he’s contending with the devil over the body of Moses.

In Revelation 12:7-12   Michael is leading the heavenly armies that battle Satan at the great battle of Armageddon before the return of Jesus.  At the end of the battle he will be victorious and Satan will be defeated.

In I Thessalonians  4:16 we read that when the Lord returns it will be Michael who announces His coming: 

·         “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” 

The 2^nd rank is “angel”.   As was mentioned in a previous blog, there are many, innumerable angels, but only Gabriel is specifically named in the Bible.

o   His name means, “God’s hero”, or “the mighty one”

o   The Bible often refers to him as, “the Lord’s messenger”

Whenever we read of him in the Bible, he’s always bringing good news.

In Daniel 8:15-16, he announces the vision of God for the “end time”.

·         In chapter 9, verse 23, while Daniel is praying, Gabriel reveals the sequence of events at the end time – including the return of Jesus.

In the New Testament book of Luke 1:19 – Gabriel appears to Zachariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist.

In Luke 1:30-31 He appears to Mary to announce the birth of the Messiah, Jesus.

Do angels and archangels have wings?  It’s interesting to note that the Bible doesn’t mention that either Michael or Gabriel has wings.  

·         Commentators speculate that people probably believe they do because it explains in their minds how angels manage to move so quickly from one place to another.  We don’t know about archangel or angel wings, but there are ranks of angels that are described in the Bible as having wings. 

The next rank down in angelic authority – the seraphim.

Seraphim are only mentioned in Isaiah 6:1-6.  In this passage Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord:

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above Him were the seraphim, each with 6 wings:  

·         with two they covered their faces,

·         with two they covered their feet and

·         with two they were flying.  

And they were calling to one another:  ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory’.  At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

The primary ministry of seraphim as we read of it here, is to praise the name and the character of God in heaven.  Their ministry relates directly to God because they are positioned above God’s throne, constantly glorifying Him.

We also see the seraphim cleansing and purifying the prophet Isaiah in this response to the vision he saw. 

 Isaiah 6:7

·         “Woe to me!”, Isaiah cried, “I am ruined.  For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty”.  

·         Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

The final rank of angel mentioned specifically in the Bible are the Cherubim .

Let me ask you a question.  When you hear the word “cherub”, what comes to mind?  Chubby babies with wings, right?  Are YOU in for a surprise!

The first time we read about cherubim is in Genesis 3:24:

·         “After God drove the man out (of the Garden of Eden), he placed on the east side of the garden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” 

Okay, so already cherubim aren’t living up to our image, right?  This doesn't sound like a chubby baby with wings, does it?

In the Old Testament prophetic book of Ezekiel, chapter 10, the prophet Ezekiel describes cherubim flying toward the south side of the temple in Jerusalem.  

Their movement out of God’s temple represents the departure of God’s glory because of the sin of the people of Israel.  

Read the following verses and take a minute to jot down what you learn about cherubim.

·         Ezekiel 10:5 “The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court (of the temple), like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.”

·         Ezekiel 10:8  “Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like the hands of a man” 

·         Ezekiel 10:9-18

o   I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each

o   The four looked alike; like a wheel intersecting a wheel

o   As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced

o   Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels

o   Each of the cherubim had four faces; one face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion and the fourth the face of an eagle.

o   When the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side

Admit it, you’ll never think of cherubim in the same way again!

It’s difficult to understand or even imagine these last two orders of angels, but one thing we can say about them is that their primary task has to do with the worship and glorifying of God – with the seraphim above His throne, and the cherubim beside it.

Another intriguing questions about angels is this: what role do angels play when Christians die?

·         The Apostle Paul calls death the “last enemy” to be destroyed

o   Having been with my mom in the weeks before she died and then walking with my friend Hilda Kohl through some of the last days of her struggle with Lou Gehrig’s disease – I can testify to that.  Death IS an enemy.

Paul says in I Corinthians 15:55-57 that the sting of death has been removed by the work of Jesus on the cross, and by His resurrection – a promise that gives us hope of a resurrection for US as well on the other side of death. We cling to that promise and it’s a great encouragement!

 

It’s the getting there that scares us, doesn't it? It's the process of leaving this life in order to reach the life to come that keeps us up nights!

It will comfort you to know that when the time comes, we don’t make that journey alone – the angels will be there to help us.

In Luke’s gospel, chapter 16, verses 19-26 he contrasts two deaths – that of a beggar named Lazarus with that of a rich man.  The rich man was dressed in regal purple and fine linen and lived in luxury, but apparently had no time for God.  Lazarus, the beggar and a godly man, laid at the rich man’s gate, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.  

When death, the great equalizer came for them, we read this:

·         “the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side”

Did you catch that?  The angels were not just WITH Lazarus, they CARRIED him to Abraham’s side!

Even though Lazarus was a lowly person in this life, it didn’t disqualify him from having an angelic escort into heaven.  But Lazarus wasn't the only one we read of as having been carried to heaven.  So was Jesus!

·         Mark 16:19 (King James Version) reads: “Jesus was carried up into heaven”

·         Luke 24:51 (KJV) “While (Jesus) blessed (his followers), he was parted from them and CARRIED UP into heaven.”

·         Acts 1:9 (KJV) “After He said this, (Jesus) was carried up before their very eyes”

WHY do angels provide this service for us at the time of our death?

Authors and pastors, Dr. David Jeremiah, and Dr. Billy Graham, offer similar explanations.  

• (The idea of an angelic escort into heaven) may be related to fact that Satan is described as, “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).  Maybe we have to cross through the kingdom of the enemy to get from earth to heaven, so the angels provide comfort for us as we make the journey.

Reading this explanation takes me back to the carol I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, leading me to an entirely different look at the verse I quoted earlier.   

“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”

·         Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,

·         As the Light of light descendeth, from the realms of endless day,

·         That the pow’rs of hell may vanish, as the darkness clears away.

Whenever I read that verse before my mind’s eye pictured row on row of angels in dress uniform acting as an honor guard in full salute, as Jesus made his way from the “realms of endless day” down to the earth.  

I no longer think of it that way.  Now I picture the “host of heaven”, archangel, angels, seraphim and cherubim, a vast multitude of angels, not in dress uniform, but in battle gear.  They form a vanguard, which Webster's defines as "the part of an army which goes ahead of the  main body in an advance" to make way and escort the Light of Light, Jesus as He breaks through the darkness of “the ruler of the kingdom of the air”.

One day, the Lord Jesus will completely vanquish Satan and vanish the darkness of this world.  If I don't live to see that day, then one day the angels will carry me into the presence of Jesus!  What a day that will be!

Here's a question to pique your curiosity for blog #9:  What is it WE know that angels NEVER will?