Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13 v2
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Angels - good and bad
 |
With the New Age movement has come a considerable interest in Angels, which can be unhealthy.
The angels of God always seek to avoid interest in themselves, seeking that all honour and worship should go to God. Satan, however, craves attention since he rebelled against God in order to attempt to become like God. Satan was created as a beautiful angel but since his fall has become "the father of lies", so an ill informed seeking after experiences of angels can be very dangerous. |
 |
In order to be sufficiently informed we will look at what the Bible actually tells us about angels, as opposed to all the fiction that has been created around them. The Bible actually tells us a surprising amount, as expounded by Terry Law in his book, "The Truth About Angels".
Here we will look at a few key facts.
There is a hierarchy in Heaven
God
The Creator - in three persons
Father Yeshua The Holy Spirit
Archangels
| Gabriel | Michael | Lucifer | ||||
| God's messenger | Head of God's armies | Angel of Light who fell | ||||
| Stands before God | The great prince who champions your people (the Israelites) | known as Satan, the Devil, the Serpent, etc |
K'ruvim Cherubs
Beyond human comprehension - Guarded Eden with flaming swords - depicted on the Mercy Seat
(not chubby little angels depicted like cupid)
Serafim
"The burning ones" - concerned with the Glory of God
Angels
Malakhim (Hebrew) - Angelos (Greek) - messengers
"I am thy fellowservant" said the angel to John in his revelation experience. (Rev 22 v8)
| Fallen angels
It is not stated directly, how many angels rebelled with Lucifer and are now engaged in his purposes of resisting the will of God and His angels and perverting the faith and walk of God's people.
|
 |
Angels of Light
However, Revelation 12 v4 speaks of one third of the stars being swept down from heaven to earth by the tail of the great red dragon.
|
Demons
Satan's forces include Demons who are disembodied evil spirits
(notice their desire to inhabit people - or even a herd of pigs)
With the exception of those who are involved in the occult, Satan appears to be happy that people remain unaware of him or believe that he is one of his fictional appearance.
The pantomime devil in a red suit with horns, cloven hooves and a tail, carrying a trident working as proprietor of Hell. This Hell is the place to which bad people go to suffer various amusing torments, according to your taste in humour.
Apart from the error of seeing only other people as bad and destined for Hell, this picture overlooks the fact that Satan is among the first to be hurled into the "lake of fire and sulphur"; he is not its proprietor.
Mephistopheles, the suave tempter who gives Faust back his youth in exchange for his soul.
This fiction overlooks that our souls are not for us to sell. Satan will see them condemned anyway as long as he can keep us from receiving salvation through Jesus. Satan has no need to give us anything.
Having got that out of the way, let us remember that, when his eyes were opened, Elisha's servant saw that "Those that are with us are more than those that are against us" and look at what we are told about angels.
The K'ruvim and Serafim have wings and brilliant a appearance like fire, which has been beyond the ability of those who saw them to describe.
The messenger angels sometimes appear in the winged, white robed form, but at other times they appear as ordinary men (normal to the country and context in which they appear. They are only ever male - God created a fixed (large) number and they do not procreate and they do not die. They were created perfect (God could not do otherwise), having a free will, intelligence and emotions. They are entrusted with strength and authority.
Angels can ......
Reveal, guide, provide, protect, deliver, strengthen, encourage, assist, answer prayer and attend the righteous dead.
Angels can not .....
Call God father, preach the Gospel, be redeemed, indwell man, act in their own power, become human, judge men, receive worship, reveal anything contradictory to God's word. Angels are not omnipresent.
Many have testified to seeing angels when they have been in great need (not in response to curiosity) and have been rescued, protected, healed or encouraged.
Satan and his angels can not .....
Create anything (they can only pervert God's creation), indwell a man in the way the Holy Spirit can, force you to take a course of action you are not willing to take, they are not omnipresent, are not able to read your mind (They are able to use thousands of years of experience of fallen human nature to predict your thoughts - unless you are living a Holy Spirit filled life, which Satan just cannot comprehend), they do not have power over people (they act mostly by influencing people to act on their evil desires).
Satan and his angels of light can .....
Appear to people, appear glorious and benign, influence us by dropping in ideas and feelings which are a perversion of God's creation, sow seeds of doubt ( "Hath God said . . . . ? in Genesis 2) and sickness (these are his "fiery darts" against which we are to use the shield of faith of Ephesians 1 v6)
Those who have met with an "Angel of Light", whilst outside the will of God and without checking the experience against God's revealed word have been led into error. Major religions and deviant sects have come into being through revelations from angels. The New Age fad for spirit guides and having ones own angel guide lays people open to being led into possession by an evil spirit. Genuine angels would never override an individual's free will. (New Age belief and liturgy also includes "Christ in you - the hope of glory", perverted from scripture but not meaning Jesus the Messiah, but a spirit which dwells in you)
Satan (the name means Adversary) is given over forty names in Scripture, depicting different aspects of his nature. Satan is mentioned in seven books of the Tanakh and all the books of the New Testament.
Satan is also referred to as, "the ruler of this world", "prince of the powers of the air" and "the god of this age" so he is obviously the one who controls worldly power and understanding. Thus the media war against God's chosen people is hardly surprising, and we should not rely on the world's news media in forming our world view.
Terry Law's book lists thirteen characteristics of demons, but their main interest is in preventing people trusting in Christ, and causing those who have trusted to slide back into unbelief. They will encourage anything that harms the Church - self righteousness, legalism, political correctness, zeal for works etc.
Spiritual Warfare
This may be controversial, but victory over the devil is not a matter of constantly casting out demons or extravagant prayers against Satan, but is a matter of keeping in tune with the Holy Spirit and continually dying to our old sinful nature so that our adversaries can not understand us and their lies will find nothing to stick to in our souls.
We are not destroying Satan's armies - they were defeated at the cross, and their destruction is scheduled for a time yet to come.
We do not fight Satan - Jesus defeated him - we just have to resist him.
Spiritual warfare is to keep praying about something until God's angels do the fighting; as Daniel did. (Daniel 10 v9-21)
Before ascribing sickness to satanic attack, we should be certain our problems are of our own making through abusing our bodies. Let us not credit Satan with power he does not possess.
Terry Law's book goes on to discuss authority in the spiritual realms and the fact that it is only we humans that appear to have a problem with authority. He explores the problems which arise from this, and how the Holy Spirit works with angels. He also draws out lessons for our walk. There are also appendices on other questions you may have about angels.
Click the banner below to go to the site map and choose another page