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HE BIBLE TEACHES US about two kinds of angels - chosen angels, and fallen angels (I Tim. 5:21, Luke. 10:18, Matt. 25:41, Rev. 12:7-9). But thereby it also must exist, or at least once have existed, angels in an earlier stage, before they were either "chosen" or "fallen".
The angels we encounter in the Bible apparently have lived
an earlier life, when they, in a manner like us humans, were confronted
with a choice, between good and evil, between righteousness and
unrighteousness.
The Bible furthermore rather closely describes such an angel's
"preliminary stage", namely that of Lucifer himself,
upon the holy mountain of God, where he apparantly lived as a
physical being in a paradisiac existence (Ez. 28:11-19).
This his early life reminds very much of Adam's early life.
Both were created as perfect and harmonic creatures, in a perfect
and harmonious world. Both were confronted with a choice between
good and evil, between obedience and disobedience. Both "fell",
and both "died", and both were banished out of the paradisiac
existense.
Adam later was given an opportunity to repentance and rehabilitation,
through the anticipative sacrifice of the animals by which he
could cover his nakedness, a sacrifice by which he introactively
got part of Jesus' atonement, which he also received.
If God is absolutely fair-minded, which he as the true God
of course is, then also the angels have been given the same opportunity
(to fall and raise) in an earlier stage. I.e they have been offered
the possibility not just to fall, but also to raise from the fall.
Lucifer apparently has rejected that possibility, and today he
is a devil, yes, the devil himself.
When humans once becomes partakers of the resurrection and becomes equal to the angels, Jesus says, we are "God's sons" (Luke. 20:36). Not God's sons and daughters, but God's SONS. Thus we are "un-sexed", and will enter into an eternal state where the ability for reproduction ceases and the differences between sexes loses importance.
We will become "equal to angels", Jesus says. How literally shall this be interpreted? Have the angels also been of male and female sexes, physical creatures like us, who once populated earth-like planets?
Were they an earlier human race, created by God? Or were there perhaps several different humanoid races? The Cherubs, of which Lucifer was one, have six wings and doesn't directly resemble humans, while other angels seems to look just like humans.
THE ONE ANGEL in the Word of God which
we get most aquainted with, is Gabriel, the arch-angel. He is
far from a chilly, robot-like, mechanicly working creature, which
he would have been if he never was allowed to chose whom he wanted
to serve, belong to and adore.
We meet him several times, in both the Old and New testaments
(Dan. 8:16, Dan. 9:21, Luke. 1:19, Luke. 1:26), and all
along he shows the same typically "human" emotional
life, although on a higher plane. He expresses sympathy, displays
traces of restrained self-pity and pride, but also humility and
deep piety.
He acts as you would expect a very sanctified christian personality
to act.
Can he do this if he never experienced contrasts in his soul?
Can a real living personality develope in a created being, if
it haven't experienced both light and darkness, both fall and
raising again?
Even Jesus himself became covered in sinful flesh's figure, and
was tempted in all like we, however without sin. This in order
to atone our sin in first hand, but also to become our compassionate
arch-priest (Hebr. 4:15).
It's hard to imagine that a really free and sovereign personality
could be brought forth, without it first having to undergo and
accounter both darkness and light, so that it by free will chooses
to turn from darkness, and then being saved into the light.
Even animals demands that you treat them with compassion and respect,
if they are to develope into healthy and intelligent beings. Love
cannot be created, not even by God, but it can be won through
personal sacrifices.
If so, this is a long ago passed stage in the life of angels, both of the chosen ones and of the fallen ones. For the devil and his angels there are no return, they are through their own deeds and decisions heading straight into the burning Gehenna, as are the humans who have chosen to follow the same way as them.
But there still might exist, as been established above, "prime-angels",
who are in their physical state, and just as we, now are experiencing
the trial stage of their lives.
...
THE HEAVENLY WORLD
Over all, the heavenly world must be much more substancial than
the usual conception of it. In the Bible the residence of God
and the angels is described not like a diffuse cloudy existence,
but as a city where there are sanctuaries, rivers, vegetation,
streets, and so on.
Such a city can scarcely hover about freely in space, it must
be built on a firm ground (this ground is called the holy mountain
of God), which in turn must be more than a lonely mountain in
space.
Mountains are found on planets, rivers flow where there are water,
and plants grow where oxygen exists. Creatures with wings have
no use of wings other than in an atmosphere where they can fly
with them.
And why would spirit beings look just like humans, if not because
they too are created to live and dwell on planets?
Ears, noses, eyes, arms, and legs, are body parts that become
natural in a location where there is air, scents, light and gravitation,
and so on.
A completely non-material spirit-being have no need for such things.
And yet God's angels are most often described as human-like beings,
not only when they come and visit humans, but also when they stand
before God's throne in heaven.
AND NOW, if angels from heaven, as it is actually said in Genesis
6, have been able to obtain CHILDREN together with earthly women
- then the case is completely clear.
Angels must be very near "aquainted" with us humans,
they are simply humans from other star systems!
Created as the image of God like us, placed under the same conditions
as us, but being a bit before us, in the spiritual "development".
(However, we have a precedence compared to them. - See the coming
article "The Fall from the Mountain of God").
FURTHERMORE: The angels of God today serve
by attending and protecting humans that are in their physical
stage. This is what we will do, too, when we have "trodden
up" unto them. We shall govern the earth from above, i.e
take the same function that the angels now have - govern in our
resurrection bodies, over the humans who then are living on Earth
in their physical bodies - govern until death is expelled, and
the Earth fully restored, in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then the planet shall shine like a jewel in space, which it already
does, but then also by the glory of God.
And what happens after that? At least one thing is clear: God
hasn't created billions and upon billions of star worlds and galaxies,
if there isn't a plan that they also shall be populated by the
creatures he "feeds" and fosters, by His Spirit and
His love.
Let's live in such a way, that we not lose all this undescribably
glorious, which the Creator has prepared for us.
___
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THESE ARE the biblical names of the location where Jesus and his angels are living:
The holy mountain of God (Ez.
28:14)
Mount of the congregation (Isa. 14:13)
Eden the garden of God (Ez. 28:13)
The paradise of God (Rev. 2:7)
Paradise (Luke. 23:43)
Third heaven (II Cor. 12:2-4)
Mount Sion (Hebr. 12:22)
The city of the living God (Hebr. 12:22)
The heavenly Jerusalem (Hebr. 12:22)
Were is this location?
Above the heights of the clouds
(Isa. 14:14)
Above the stars of God (Isa. 14:13)
In the sides of the north (Isa. 14:13)
On a great and high mountain (Rev. 21:10)
In the high and holy place (Isa. 57:15)
Present with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8)
What do we find at this location?
A great and high mountain (Rev.
21:10)
A city (Rev. 21:10)
Sanctuaries (Ez. 28:18)
A street of pure, transparent gold (Rev. 21:21)
Walls of jasper (Rev. 21:18)
Stones of fire (Ez. 28:14)
A river (Rev. 22:1)
Trees (Rev. 22:2)
Creatures of wisdom and perfect beauty (Ez. 28:12)
An innumerably company of angels (Hebr. 12:22)
The general assembly of the firstborn (Hebr. 12:23)
The spirits of just men made perfect (Hebr. 12:23)
Four and twenty elders (Rev. 4:4)
The throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1)
THERE
ARE MANY REASONS to believe that this describes a planet somewhere
outside our solar system, perhaps also outside the "Milky
Way" galaxy - depending on how the phrase "third heaven"
shall be interpreted.
It's a very pronounced denunciation Paul
is using for this location. It's almost like a street address.
He seems to know what he's speaking about. The question is what
he really means. Probably he's thinking of the "topography"
of the heavens, which could be observed with the naked eye.
If so, the sky of clouds is the first heaven, the planet sky (i.e
our solar system) the second heaven, and the starry sky (i.e the
Milky Way) the third heaven.
Individual stars other than those in the Milky Way are not visible
for the eye. Only three near-laying galaxies can be seen, but
only as blurry stains.
IF
THIS interpretation is correct, then it was to that location Paul
was caught up - i.e to a star outside the solar system, somewhere
in the great Milky Way galaxy.
Then the phrase "stars of God" depicts the (then 5 known)
planets of our solar system, which from the earth looks like unusually
light stars, so called "wandering stars", which moves
in individually different courses, unlike the distant "fixed
stars", which all seems to move together (because of their
distance and the earth rotation).
These things weren't unfamiliar for the
people of ancient times. Astronomy was a great science at that
time. Paul reminded for example, in I Cor. 15:41, his friends
that "the one star isn't like the second in glory",
something he thus took for granted that they knew. Constellations
like Orion with its belt and the Pleiades were well known, as
were the Arcturus and others (Job 38:31, Amos 5:8).
He may, therefore, have referred to an "address" they
all knew, when he spoke about being caught up into the third heaven
- i.e to a location beyond the wandering stars.
____
When I
consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful
of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Ps. 8:3-4)
Who hath hardened himself against him... Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. (Job 9:4, 9)
He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. (Job 26:7, 10)
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? (Job 38:31-32)
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COSMOLOGY |
- is a series of articles about the past, the present and the future, considering our Earth and the Universe.
THE ORIGIN OF ANGELS
What happened in the Beginning? Before
the First Day. Time and Gravitation
GIANTS
Mighty Men of Old. The Flying
Saucer Mystery
THE ORIGIN OF ANGELS, part 2
Biblical Cosmology. Third Heaven - Paradise
THE HOSTS OF THE LORD
A Heavenly Parade. Strange Facts about
Mars. The Lord's Clouds
ANGELS, GIANTS & DINOSAURS
Evidence of the Giants
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUTER SPACE?
What are Flying Saucers? A Commentary
on the Book of Enoch
BEHEMOTH & LEVIATHAN
The Ancient World
THE SONS OF GOD
Visitors from Cosmos. Faith's Science.
The Heavenly Gardener. Gabriel and the Son of Man
THE FALL FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD
The Origin of Angels, part 3. A Universal
Atonement. Funeral Speach over Lucifer
A VISIT TO THE PARADISE-PLANET
Does the Bible say anything about
life on other planets? Heaven and Hell - Cosmic Realities. Angelic
starships - Fire-Wagons. At a Higher Frequenze. Angelic food-practices
THE HEAVENLY CITY
The New Earth: A closer look.
Medieval inpacts on Bible-interpretation
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