Posted on 12/28/2010 9:35:02 AM PST by wmfights
Heaven helped them!
“After experiencing dramatic rescues, medical miracles and other life-changing events, these ordinary people have no doubt that we share our world with heavenly spirits,” reports People magazine. Note 1
There was a time when those who believed in angels were thought of as misguided souls who existed on the fringe of society. Not any more. In just a few years a fad has become what is now called a cultural phenomenon. According to some surveys, nearly 75% of Americans believe in angels. And a good percentage believe that they have had an encounter with one.
Angelic appearances are diverse. One woman says that her celestial visitor came in the form of a “huge golden being” others tell of spirits that come in light, bestowing inner peace or keeping them from harm. Others take on the form of a man to do their good deed and then apparently disappear.
Here are three typical stories.
When Hilary Russel, then age 6, ran into the rolling surf in a deserted area in Miami Beach, the frantic parents thought she would drown. But a dark-haired man of about 30 years of age appeared a few feet beyond her. He just “picked her out of the water and held her in his arms.” He strode through the waves effortlessly. He put the child in her parents arms and he was smiling. When the Russels embraced each other for joy, they looked back and the man was gone. Today they are convinced that their welcome visitor was “Hilary’s angel.”
Gary Forner had set out with three volunteers to save a stranded 15 year old climber. While he was looking for a place to tie the straps for the rescue lines, the cliff edge crumbled beneath him. “There was nothing there to stop me from falling” he says. Then suddenly as he was falling 30 or 40 feet down the 90 foot drop, he felt this tremendous force, pushing him back. He even felt warmth in his heart, “Like when you’re a kid, and you get hurt and your mom or dad pick you up and cuddle you. All I could think was, ‘sweet Jesus, thank you.’” Thankfully, he was able get to a network of tree roots to climb back up. “It was either God or an angel” he says. His partners who saw the cliff the next morning agreed that “divine intervention is really the only explanation.”
Kahn-Langer was healed while having exploratory surgery for a brain tumor. When she was wheeled into the operating room, she remembered that a golden being had come to her, and to the doctor’s surprise, on the day she was scheduled for surgery, the tumor was gone. Not only was she healed, but she now has the ability to see angels. She has even seen winged spirits, one massive angel over her partner, a clinical psychologist. He in turn believes that this angel is the being who healed him many years earlier. This being had come into his hospital room and sang the Hebrew, “Hear O Israel, the Lord my God, the Lord is One.” An out of body experience convinced him that he had been touched by an angel. Note 2
What do we make of all of this? Why do angels appear to some and not to others? Why is Hollywood fascinated with angel accessories, angel ornaments and angel books? Indeed, stores dedicated to angels are springing up all over the country and the profits are, well, “heavenly.” What is going on?
We will examine this phenomenon and answer questions such as:
What does this interest in angels say about our society’s understanding of God? Has such a phenomenon ever happened before? What do we know about angels that will help us interpret these interesting accounts? What are the implications of the Biblical teaching that there are two kinds of angels, and how shall we distinguish between them? Before we discuss angels, we must first discuss God. The reason is quite simple: our view of God will determine our view of angels. Every “angel story” carries with it a “God story;” tell me what you believe about angels and I will tell you what you believe about God.
Approaching God
Humanism simply does not satisfy the human heart. The Bible makes it clear that when people stop worshipping the true God they do not stop worshipping; they just change the object of their worship. Thus, as God has been eclipsed in our society, it is not surprising that people are turning toward spirituality of one kind or another. The desire is to make contact with some “higher power” or a very friendly god who can be accessed by anyone.
This new obsession with spirituality is now combined with the individualism of the West and the result is smorgasbord religion. Little wonder “Everyone believes that his own personal feelings are more important than the collective wisdom of the ages.” Note 3
If it is true, as Tozer has said, that what a man believes about God is the most important thing about him, it follows that the way we approach God reveals the kind of God we worship. In other words, if you tell me how you think God should be approached, I will tell you whether you believe in the Biblical deity or some figment of the human imagination. There are several stories in the Bible that illustrate this principle.
Cain brought an offering to the Lord that was “the fruit of the ground.” He thought that God should be satisfied with something creative, something fashioned from his own experience. Since he was a “tiller of the ground” he came to God in a way that reflected his own private interests.
Cain’s God was “seeker friendly” and just so long as one approached Him with sincerity and a loving disposition, He would be available for fellowship. This God was not narrow minded, but broad enough for people of all kinds, people with different creative ideas interests.
Cain was wrong, of course.
Abel brought “the firstlings of his flock” and he was accepted by God. Interestingly, it was not that Abel was better than Cain that he was accepted, rather it is because “the Lord had regard for his offering.” The question was not whether one man had sinned more greatly than the other (though that question is important for other reasons), but it was the quality of the offering that determined who was accepted or rejected.
In the New Testament, Jude warns against those who “go the way of Cain” that is, those who fashion their own way to approach God. He describes them as people who do not fear God, but are “caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 12,13).
Cain was rejected by God for the simple reason that the holiness of God makes it impossible for us to come to God on our own creative terms. Abel was accepted because he offered the bloody sacrifice that God commanded. “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4).
The question people should ask today is: Do I approach God with a sacrifice that He will accept? Am I coming to Him in the right way? A God who accepts any sincere person, regardless of what he believes, is not the God Cain and Abel had come to know.
A similar story comes to us from the Tower of Babel. “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).
If Cain represents a customized, individualized approach, Babel represents a societal approach, a belief that if we unite, we can get to God by climbing a ladder of our own making. They thought that if they built a tower, they would be spared from another flood. And, they could get to the heavens, if only their tower was high enough.
Instead of repenting of their sin and turning to God for mercy, they thought that they could overcome the consequences of their own rebellion by technological advancement. With meticulous plans and hard work, they could reach the heavens.
Associated with this project was astrology, an attempt to control one’s own destiny without turning to God. The religion of Babylon represents an alternative religion; it seeks to connect man to God on man’s terms.
God responded by coming down to them in judgment, scattering the people by confusing their language. God did not doubt their sincerity; He did not doubt their ability to build a tower. If they had known the Almighty better they would have understood a basic principle: every tower man builds to God comes infinitely short. Every success man has in building his pathway to God only gives him the false confidence that the goal is attainable.
God’s judgment was also an act of mercy; it forced mankind to realize that God cannot be approached according to man’s liking or design. If man is to be rescued, God must build a “tower” to earth; man cannot build one to God.
The third story takes place at Mount Sinai. God instructed the people that a mediator was needed. In fact, God told the people that they had better stay away from the mountain. The mountain was the scene of fire, thunder and a violent earthquake.
The people were warned to stay away. “Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish” (Exodus 20:19:21). Then a boundary was set up around the mountain to make sure that the people would not come near and be struck dead. If an animal strayed past the boundary, it was to be put to death by an arrow or stoned to death without human hands touching it.
Modern man has no place for fear in approaching God. This is why so many reject the Old Testament; it presents a God who is woefully out of step with these enlightened times. People today want a direct encounter; they have the audacity to approach the mountain directly, just on the strength of their good intentions and personal merit.
The people of Israel were wise enough to say to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Michael Horton asks, “Can we, in our day, even conceive of a God whose presence so frightens worshippers that they beg for a mediator, knowing that if they go to God directly, they will perish?” Note 4
The Ten Commandments had just been given to Moses and Israel was dancing around a golden calf, choosing to fashion Jehovah after the gods that they had come to know in Egypt. They wanted a God with a face; they wanted to approach God in a more relevant way.
Keep in mind that the people were not worshipping a false God, but rather they were worshipping Jehovah in a false way. “We are worshipping Jehovah,” Aaron explained to Moses.
God judged the people severely for one good reason: He wanted them to know that it is not only necessary to worship the right God, but also to worship Him in the right way.
This is the great sin of our time: that anyone can approach God directly in his/her own way, without a mediator, without an acceptable sacrifice and without blood.
What does all this have to do with angels? Much, as we shall see in a moment.
Enter The Angels
In the early centuries there was a movement known as Gnosticism, (from the Greek word gnosis meaning knowledge). This school of thought believed that one could have a direct experience of God and achieve secret knowledge. It was also a movement that believed that one should incorporate angels in worship.
One could indeed be touched by an angel and make contact with beings who were on standby to help mortals. In fact, angels were more accessible than God. This heresy threatened the very existence of the Christian church.
Paul the apostle sometimes referred to these people as “super apostles,” not because they were unspiritual, but because they were too spiritual, too tuned into the spirit world, and too brazen in their assertion that they had experienced God. These were the teachers with the “higher knowledge,” the ones who talked convincingly of spiritual realities. These were the people who claimed to know God and angels better than Paul did!
Many writers believe that American religion has revived this old ancient heresy called Gnosticism. If this is the case, we had better know what the Gnostics believed. Here are a few details of their ever-changing creed.
1. Religious beliefs must be brought together, with no one belief dominating over the rest. Gnosticism was a big house, with room for many different religious viewpoints. They willingly incorporated bits and pieces of Christianity with popular culture and mystical theories. Could you find a better description of where we are today?
2. Personal experience was always superior to a doctrinal creed or objective belief. “Gnostic syncretism” says Philip Lee, “believes everything in general for the purpose of avoiding a belief in something particular. In the case of Christian Gnosticism, what is being avoided is the particularity of the Gospel, that which is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles.” Note 5
Spirituality, yes, specific beliefs, no. Religion should be all encompassing, all embracing. Christ is popular as a way to God, but not as the only way.
3. God is near and can be directly assessed. God could be found in the “inner man” available to all who would take the time to look deeply within their own selves.
4. Matter was evil and spirit was good. The self is imprisoned in the body and longs for freedom from it. Thus, Gnostics believed in “mind over matter.” Armed with the notion that matter was evil, Gnosticism attacked Christianity at its central point: The Word (Christ) could not have “become flesh.” If so, Gnostics argued, God would have become evil. Thus, the belief arose that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body.
And now for the angels!
5. This dualism, between matter and spirit led some Gnostics to the idea that strictly speaking, God could not have any contact with matter at all.
This notion that the incarnation could not have happened because God could not even have contact with matter, was combatted by John the Apostle when he wrote, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (1 John 4:2,3).
Gnostics were faced with the question: how did God create the world, and how can we have contact with Him? Thus one school of thought said this: God is accessible but He can best be contacted by association with angels.
The Veneration of Angels
A movie which I did not see, but read about titled: Angels In The Outfield, tells the story of an eleven year old boy Roger, whose mother has just died and whose father has now rejected him. Longing for the family he once had, he seizes on his father’s cynical remark that they will all be together again when the L.A. Angel baseball team (hopelessly inept) wins the World Series.
So Roger prays to a god he does not know, and a god of whose existence he is unconvinced, and asks him/her for help to aid the L.A Angels so that his wish becomes true. It happens, of course, and God is to be thanked for sending “heavenly angels” to help the baseball team.
Welcome to the first century!
Paul had a word for people who called on angels to help them! “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind” (Colossians 2:18).
What was the great danger of the church in the city of Colossae? There were those who invoked angels for protection, help and assistance. The phrase “worship of angels” could be translated, “veneration of angels” that is, calling on angels in magical invocations.
People called on angels as intermediaries of God to protect them from evil, to give them “inner light” and help them with daily affairs of daily life. Angels were called to help heal diseases and enlisted for success in business affairs.
These people did not speak ill of Christ. They just did not consider Him as the only mediator between God and man.
Devotees preferred angels to Christ because they could be more easily manipulated. Guardian angels were thought of as “good luck charms” for protection and getting things done. They were perceived to be more accessible than Christ and even more friendly.
Yes, history does repeat itself! If Gnosticism is the religion of America today, we should not be surprised that angels have made a remarkable comeback.
Anyone can be touched by an angel. Anyone can benefit from trying to make contact with heavenly beings. All this rests on a basic premise: God can be contacted without a mediator, without a sacrifice and without blood.
What are the dangers of this philosophy? What do angels know and do? What do angels think of the attention they are receiving? How do we interpret the miracle stories associated with them? To these matters we now turn.
Notes 1. People magazine, Dec. 22, 1997. 2. Ibid. 3. Michael Horton, In The Face of God (Dallas: Word, Pub. 1996), p.26. 4. Ibid., p.12. 5. Ibid., p.52.
People holding this view believe everything is relative to something else, ...... there can be no actual reality. Because of that, there are ultimately no moral absolutes,.... no authority for deciding if an action is positive or negative, right or wrong...... This view leads to “situational ethics,” the belief that what is right or wrong is relative to the situation. There is no right or wrong; therefore, whatever feels or seems right at the time and in that situation is right.
Of course, situational ethics leads to, “whatever feels good” mentality and lifestyle, which has a devastating effect on society and individuals. This is postmodernism..... creating a society that regards all values, beliefs, lifestyles, and truth claims as equally valid.
A person cannot logically say, “There is no God” (even though many do so), because, in order to make such a statement, he would need to have absolute knowledge of the entire universe from beginning to end. Since that is impossible, the most anyone can logically say is “With the limited knowledge I have, I do not believe there is a God.”
OK, I’ll take back the absolutely part. Why did you even put it your question? Just to play a game?
Let’s get back to the original question. Have you been able to come up with an answer?
Yes, exactly because man has difficulty believing in the full and complete sufficiency of Christ. He is not enough for them without themselves climbing up their own Babylon ladder. That's why so many counterfeit churches have ladders of attainment to somehow find "enlightenment". These are attractive to those who have a need to 'climb' the mountain of success with their own efforts..... It diverts them from the scripture and from Christ as means of being 'acceptable' because they have scaled thru these with or with out 'passing grades'....Mormonism is ripe with them as are many false religions and cults..
Hebrews 13:2" Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."
My friend thought I was off. I said by giving we recieve from Christ too. Well guess what happen?
A stranger comes to his door asking for food or milk or sandwich just anything to eat. We let him in gave him to eat. What a lesson that was from scripture. He was astonished. He never had that happen before.
I also have given money to a stranger at times on my old route. I gave to a woman who was low on gas. She was standing next to me far away from the car. When my scanner beeped I looked down then up within seconds the car and the person was gone. I was asking Jesus for an answer to pray. Boy did I get the answer!
Praise Jesus!
AMEN! AMEN!
pingalingaling
Yes, exactly because man has difficulty believing in the full and complete sufficiency of Christ. He is not enough for them without themselves climbing up their own Babylon ladder. That's why so many counterfeit churches have ladders of attainment. and their honored prophets or leadership figures..... to somehow find "enlightenment".
These are attractive to those who have a need to 'climb' the mountain of success with their own efforts..... It diverts them from the scripture and from Christ as means of being 'acceptable' because they have scaled thru these with or with out 'passing grades'....Mormonism is ripe with them as are many false religions and cults..
If they are one could easily question if they are His in the first place. I have seen those who are convinced they are His and yet fallen prey to false religions of deception. The enemy of men's souls is cunning. But I have also seen those deceived who one day recognize that deception and come back to the Lord without that baggage. But it is a long and difficult journey for the most part.
Exactly.....He is our only mediator...all communication is directed thru Him.
The bible tells us to test the spirits to see whether they are from GOD or not.... if they do not confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, then, they are not from GOD.
Well that would be better answered by those who do believe in moral relativism and or situational ethics...which I do not.
But most religions hijack something in one form or another from the Jewish Faith, or Christianity, or both. They do so because Christianity is attractive and has proved time and again that Christianity changes the heart and soul of men... is a matter of the heart and soul of an individual and His relationship with Christ Jesus.
Most religions otherwise are a matter of "climbing" up their ladder of successfully reaching some form of enlightenment...and efforts of their own to win approval from their leadership.
In Christianity it is all about the man Christ Jesus...and BTW the only religion who serves a risen Savior...all other religions serve or honor dead people. Although the Jewish people are holding out for their Messiah...but will, recognize one day as Jesus Christ.
Isn’t that what I asked earlier?
Although this is quite true..it is here that the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes in. It is indeed Gods work when He convicts us. And we must remember each has their appointed time. God knows when this is and if or not they will be receptive. Often it does take more than one encounter of truth to the heart and mind. Even His disciples did not get the truth right away.
You can’t answer my questions, and I can’t answer yours the way each of us wants, because each of our beliefs are relative to something different. That’s the way it’s always been and probably will be.
I think the belief that a man has risen from the dead, is what trumps all other religious beliefs. Everyone knows death, and to have a figurehead that can beat death, that’s a biggy. Can’t be topped so far.
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