Pastoral Pings: Angels and Saints; Fallen Angels and Sinners

          In my journey through Revelation, I have been confronted with the role that angels play in the service of God. I have ended up in Ezekiel where the prophet focuses on the Cherubim and their distinctive place in God’s heavenly kingdom. My conclusion is that these are incredibly mighty, powerful creatures that live to do God’s will.[1]

          One of the things that has helped me appreciate what God’s angels are able to do is this: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him…”[2]

          Here on earth, we see Satan as a roaring looking for people to devour.[3] In heaven, we see the angels of God who are stronger and mightier than he is. How much they do for God’s people is beyond description, and needs nothing added of man’s wild imaginations. However, God has shown us enough of them and their work for us to know that those angels that stand with God are greater than those angels that have fallen.

          And so it will be in the end, that Jesus will come with his mighty, holy angels.[4] They will gather God’s children from all over the earth,[5] bring us into the eternal home Jesus has prepared for us,[6] and cast the devil, his emissaries, and his followers, into the lake of fire forever.[7]

          Let us neither worship nor degrade God’s angels. They clearly did not receive worship from anyone who felt the awe and fear of their appearance.[8] However, neither do they fit the contemporary images of cute little cherubs hanging from Christmas trees, or angel-figurines like magic-charms decorating our houses. They are ministering spirits that lead us to worship God, in contradiction to the fallen angels that seek to steal, kill and destroy humanity.

          I cringe when I hear any kind of reference to a loved one passing away and now blessing the angels with his/her presence in heaven; or people consoling themselves at the death of a little one by thinking that the child has now become an angel. Fact is that angels are angels, and humans are humans. Angels are either the mighty, holy, blessed ones who are with God, or the fallen, sinful, doomed ones that have followed Satan to their demise.

          At the same time, humans are either the holy ones of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, or they are the fallen ones, awaiting the same end as the devil and his angels. Human beings are either those who have believed in Jesus and so received eternal life, or those who have not believed in Jesus, and so are still under the condemnation of their sin.[9]        

          What we can bring together is the heart of human beings who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and consider the angels revealed to us in the Scriptures as those who stand with us to the glory of our Great God and Savior. We can stand in wonder at the place of angels in the paradise of God, while they long to look into the things to do with the salvation that has made us the sons of God.[10] Let us simply join them in worshiping, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”[11]

          From my heart,

          Monte

 

© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

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[1] “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!” (Psalm 103:20)

[2] Revelation 20:1-3

[3] I Peter 5:8

[4] “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:26)

[5] “³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24)

[6] “¹Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14)

[7] Revelation 20

[8] “Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.’” (Revelation 19:10)

[9] “¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3)

[10] “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (I Peter 1)

[11] Revelation 4:8