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 Exploring Christianity > Angels
| God created an innumerable
company of sinless, spiritual beings, known as angels; that one,
"Lucifer, son of the morning" - the highest in rank, sinned
through pride, thereby becoming Satan; that a great company of
the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became
demons and are active as his agents and associates in the
prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are
"reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day". |
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| How you have fallen from
heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! 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; 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." But you are brought
down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. |
| Those who see you stare at
you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the
earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world
a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his
captives go home?" Isaiah 14:12-17(NIV) |
| The word of the LORD came
to me: "Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of
Tyre and say to him: `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: |
"You were the
model of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and
emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise
and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.
All the nations who knew you
are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end
and will be no more." - Ezekiel 28:11-19(NIV) |
| He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited
and fall under the same judgment as the devil. I Timothy 3:6(NIV) |
| For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent
them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held
for judgment; II Peter 2:47(NIV) |
| 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.
Jude 1:6(NIV) |
| Satan is the originator of sin
and under the permission of God, subtly let Adam and Eve into
transgression resulting in their moral fall. This fall
subjected them and all mankind to his own power. Satan is the
enemy of God and God's own people. Satan exalts himself above
all that is called God or is worshiped. He appears as an angel
of light even counterfeiting the works of God by fostering
religious movements and systems of doctrine. In every case,
these systems deny the effectiveness of the blood of Christ and
of salvation by grace alone. |
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Now the serpent was
more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had
made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must
not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from
the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat
fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and
you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the
woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining
wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of
both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for
themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD
God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the
garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are
you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you
eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave
me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
Then the LORD God said to
the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 1
So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have
done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate
from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat
of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life. It will produce thorns
and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field. By the
sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return." - II Thessalonians 2:4(NIV) |
| The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical
liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot
iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to
abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received
with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the
truth. I Timothy 4:1-3(NIV) |
| Satan was judged at the (with
the execution of this judgment deferred) and that he, a usurper,
now rules as the "god of this world"; that, at the second coming
of Christ, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a
thousand years after which he will be loosed for a little season
and then "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone", where he
"shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." |
| And having disarmed the
powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15(NIV) |
| And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key
to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He
seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil,
or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him
into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep
him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand
years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a
short time. Revelation 20:1-3(NIV) |
| And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake
of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had
been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever
and ever. Revelation 20:20(NIV) |
| A great company of angels kept
their holy estate and are before the throne of God, from whence
they are sent forth as "ministering spirits to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation". |
| The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, |
| Man was made lower than the
angels; and that, in His incarnation, Christ took for a time,
this lower place that He might lift the believer to His own
sphere above the angels. |
You made him a
little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor
and put everything under his feet." |
| In putting everything
under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet
at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now
crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:7-9 |
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