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Angels - Introduction
buildontherock
2021-03-242021-10-16

The Bible actually gives us lots of useful information on angels but many superstitious people have distorted it into lore. I want to share what I have investigated about angels and my source is the Bible. For me it has often been a case of distinguishing between reality and imagery. I hope that this approach is beneficial to the reader.

Angels - Introduction

I am going to use this article as a base for linking to the subject of angels. My first topic (the one that I cover here is Angels vs. Doctrines of demons. These are the other articles that I have written on the subject:

Angels vs. Doctrines of demons

People do not stop to think. This is the doctrine that I hear when people say that the universe started 6,000 years ago and angels are inferior to human beings. This is what you are saying:

Satan was right to rebel against that evil liar. He had us living nowhere and treated us like animals. He is only now pretending to have all of this love but He did not have it all of the time. Even now He has them that He calls angels living like horses and dogs. All of this goody goody stuff started with the creation of man. He was not always perfect love and probably is not even now. When He tells you about living forever that is only until He thinks up another hairbrained scheme and when you resist He will do the same thing to you as He did with the demons.

This doctrine is not true and it only favours demons.

Is God a lazy bum

If God has been around for eternity past and created nothing at all then He would be the most lazy creature imaginable. We know that He creates by speaking and He would not even put forward the effort for that.

We know that He likes wine.

Matthew 26:29 [KJV] But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

Christ looks forward to drinking wine with other spirit beings.

He appreciates a sweet savour.

Genesis 8:21 [KJV] And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done

He sees the goodness in things

Genesis 1:10 [KJV] And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

He appreciates beauty

Matthew 6:28-29 [KJV]And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

He appreciates music

Ezekiel 28:12-13 [KJV]Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

But He is supposed to have been too lazy for eternity past to create anything to satisfy those inner feelings. Of course that is foolishness. God shows that in the age before there was another Eden and there were beautiful things around Him.

Ezekiel 28:13-14 [KJV]Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

We only see angels represented in white robes because that is to picture righteousness, but Satan lived in a beautiful place called Eden and wore beautiful clothes and used the beautiful voice that God gave him for music. He had access to the mountain that God lives on where there are stones of fire, something that we do not have here on this earth. These stones probably represent angelic ranks but they are represented as beautiful jewels indicating that God has an appreciation for that type of beauty. Notice that God repeats it to show that it is something that really exists.

Ezekiel 28:16 [KJV] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire

There is something beautiful called stones of fire in heaven and it appears to be in proximity to God's home and it predated man. If it is indeed the ranks of angels then it goes back to the beautiful jeweled coverings that Satan had. He seems to have had all of the jewels in his official uniform or covering.

Is it true that God does not care about anybody

There is no question that the angels were around before the creation of the earth. They rejoiced at its creation. This leaves us with the possibility that they are only days older than mankind except for the fact that God said that

Psalms 33:9 [KJV] For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Isaiah 55:11 [KJV] So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

So the things that were created were the things that He spake. He spake nothing about angels. This means that the creation of angels preceded what we see in Genesis 1. There is also the issue that God said that the blob of water was called the Earth before He spake anything but I will let that pass. So we have these two scenarios:

    #1. Angels and all that was done to cause Satan to be and to sin, happened in the lifetime of Adam
    #2. Angels existed before.

For #1.: God says that He is perfect but people say that He created an evil being and now tries to give the impression that everything was done to make him (Satan) perfect.

Ezekiel 28:15 [KJV] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

So God would obviously be the one to introduce sin into the world, not Satan, because He created him to be evil and lied about it.

I am expected to believe that Satan had no Satan to contend with but before you could look around twice he corrupted himself and a third of the billions of angels (which I suppose God intended to become demons all along) and did all of the other things to cause himself to become Satan (God's was a bit over 60% right, so perfect for Him is about 60%). God is therefore so weak minded that when He intends for something to be perfect it just falls apart in the blink of an eye, not even 1,000 years, and furthermore He deliberately caused the evils of this age and now is talking about placing them on Satan.

For #2. We have angels around for close to eternity past and God did nothing for them. Some go so far as to claim (in direct contradiction to Job) that they are like animals, but even animals have people seek to provide for them. So I am to believe that nowadays He talks about always being love and caring for the sparrows but that is mere pretence. For all that time before the creation of man, He cared nothing for the angels and literally gave them nothing. I think that this next part is really laughable: If I tell you that I rode or came on the wings of a dove do I jump on a dove and ride it around? Anyhow they claim that God rides around on angels or that they pull his chariot or some strange stuff. The long and short of it is that God is only pretending to be always love but He treated the angels worse than dogs and when Satan approached Him about it (because Satan I suppose saw how sweetly He was treating man and how He treated them) He kicked out Satan and demonised his friends. This version purports that the angels are fools and that God is a liar and an abuser.

the "Angelic Doctor"

Much of the current perception of angels came from Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic theologian known as the Angelic Doctor for his extensive writings on angels in his Summa Theologica. He named 9 orders of angels in 3 groups: the highest hierarchy being next to God, Seraphim (Isaiah 6:2), Cherubim (Genesis 3:24, Ezekiel 10:1-22), and Thrones (Colossians 1:16); the middle hierarchy involved in government, Dominations (Colossians 1:16), Virtues (1 Peter 3:22), and Powers (Colossians 1:16); and the third hierarchy involved in work, Principalities (Colossians 1:16), Archangels (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and Angels.

Much of this is held by Christians up to today without knowing where it came from. It has no History in the life of Hebrews or Christianity. These, in my opinion are doctrines of demons that are spread by the Church.  It is based largely on scripture that the people do not understand and have made up explanations for. I do not plan to devote any more space to it here because there is no end to the scriptures that people seem to think up in support of this but when you ask them what the scriptures mean in context they usually do not know.

Now what about the truth?

It is possible for angels to sin. They have free moral agency.

II Peter 2:4 [KJV] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Sin entered the world through a man not an angel and not God.

Romans 5:12 [KJV]Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for th at all have sinned:

But Satan approached Adam and Eve by deception and dishonoured His father by contradicting Him, hence he sinned.

Genesis 3:1-6 [KJV] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

This means that if Satan was created in the same age as Adam then He would have been the one to cause Sin to enter the world/age! In Job it says that he roams the earth. In Luke it says that he was cast out of heaven. In Revelation it shows that he was cast to earth along with the demons.

It is Satan that changed

Ezekiel 28:15 [KJV] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

The other angels remain just as they were from the beginning, holy.

Luke 9:26 [KJV] For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

God is perfect (Matthew 5:48) and always has been.

Numbers 23:19 [KJV] God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Hebrews 13:8 [KJV] Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever
James 1:17 [KJV] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

God has never had a hint of evil in Him. He has never planned any evil or done any evil and never will. He has always had perfect love.

I John 4:8 [KJV] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love

We learned love from Him.

I John 4:19 [KJV] We love him, because he first loved us.

Lucifer was created perfect in all of his ways (Ezekiel 28:15). God did not create a Satan. God did not know or intend that he would be anything other than perfect. The environment that Lucifer lived in was wonderful and there was nothing deliberately put there to turn him but, just like us, he had free moral agency.

Conclusion

In spite of how we speak about them angels continue to look after mankind dutifully. Angels are examples that should motivate us to serve without seeking our own interest; to be willing to endure abuse and denigration for the sake of God's purpose; to find joy in serving Him rather than expecting anything from human beings.