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To: Albion Wilde

“Another popular but incorrect belief is that people become angels as soon as they die. The faithful may become small-”s” saints, but angels are a higher order, with extraordinary powers.”

Thank you Albion, but if this is true what do we make of 1 Corinthians 6:3?

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels?


10 posted on 06/12/2023 4:36:27 AM PDT by Wiz-Nerd
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To: Wiz-Nerd

Heb 2:1 - We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Heb 2:2 - For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,

Heb 2:3 - how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

Heb 2:4 - God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Heb 2:5 - It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
Tools

Heb 2:6 - But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him.

Heb 2:7 - You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor

Heb 2:8 - and put everything under their feet.

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.

Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

/\

In this life we are lower,

in the next life , we aren’t.


11 posted on 06/12/2023 6:47:08 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: Wiz-Nerd
Good question! Scripture reveals that Angels have rankings, from the Archangels Michael and Gabriel on down. Heaven is the government of the universe, so it has an organization chart! There are chief angels, and there are 24 elders around the throne (Revelation 5). We read in scripture that heaven has messenger angels and armies of angels, and choirs worshipping God at His throne.

I do not have a theology degree; but can only speculate that heavenly saints would have orders or ranks, also, since scripture refers to "many mansions" (John 14:2-6), "binding and loosing" (Matthew 16:19), and the select saints who are with God around his throne—there seems to be a hierarchical structure to heavenly society. It's not communist!

Revelation 20:4-5 describes beings who are

...those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Specifically to your question, this article from Zondervan Academic says
During our earthly lives, we’re “lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7). But as powerful as angels are, when Jesus returns, followers of Christ will be raised higher than them (1 Corinthians 6:3).
The above quote implies that the judging of angels by saints would take place after the Tribulation, the destruction of the earth and the Final Judgement, when all believers will have been raised.
13 posted on 06/12/2023 8:36:19 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (“There is no good government at all & none possible.”--Mark Twain)
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