|
"For God did
not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of
self-discipline".
2 Timothy 1:7
|
|
|
1 Kings 19:12
january
15, 2004
angels (part 2)
by A. A. Hodge
- Have angels bodies, and how are the apparitions
of angels to be accounted for?
Angels are called in the Scriptures "spirits",
Heb. 1:14 , a word which is also used
to designate the souls of men when separate from the body.-
1 Pet. 3:19 . There is however nothing in
that word, nor in the opinions of the Jews at the time of
Christ, nor in anything which is told us of the nature or
the employments of angels in the Scriptures, which prove
that angels are absolutely destitute of proper material
bodies of any kind. Indeed as the Son of God is to have
"a glorious body," "a spiritual body"
forever, and since all the redeemed are to have bodies like
his, and since the angels are associated with redeemed men
as members of the same infinitely exalted kingdom, it may
appear probable that angels may have been created with physical
organizations not altogether dissimilar to the "spiritual
bodies" of the redeemed. They always appeared and spoke
to men in Bible times in the bodily form of men, and as
such they ate food and lodged in houses like common men.-
Gen. 18: & and 19:3 .
It has hence been supposed by some
that angels have bodies like the present "natural"
or animal bodies of men s?µa ??????? , 1 Cor. 15:44
, of flesh, bones, and blood, of head and features, hands
and feet, and that the apparition of an angel involved no
change in him, but only a coming within the sphere of the
sense perception of the observer, when the angel appeared
just as he habitually is.
Now this is inconsistent with the
facts of the inspired record. In certain situations the
angels "appeared" precisely like common men, and
in other situation) they acted very differently ( Acts 12:7-10
; Num. 22:31 ), in passing through stone walls, appearing
and disappearing at will, etc. Besides, one of the three
men who appeared to Abraham at Mamre, and whose feet he
washed, and who ate the meat he had prepared, was Jehovah,
the second Person of the Trinity, who had no body till he
acquired it many centuries afterwards in the womb of the
Virgin. If the apparent human body of the one angels, was
not a real, permanent human body, there is not ground to
argue from the recorded phenomena that the others were.-
Gen. 18:1-33 .
Besides this, the theory in question
indicates absurd confusion of thought. The animal human
body, as we know it, is a physical organization in equilibrium
with certain definite and nicely adjusted physical conditions,
and it can exist only under those conditions. The vertebrate
type, of which the human body is the highest form, has been
continually changed as the physical conditions of the globe
have changed, and it ceases always to exist whenever those
conditions are changed in any decided degree. If it would
be absurd to conceive of a human body existing in water,
or in fire, how much more absurd is it to conceive of a
warm-blooded, food-consuming animal existing indifferently
on earth and in heaven; traversing at will the interstellar
spaces, and as a true cosmopolite inhabiting alternately
and indifferently all worlds, and all elements, ether, air
and water, and all temperatures, from the molten sun to
the absolute zero of the starless void.
The bodily appearance of angels, therefore,
must have been something new assumed, or something preexistent
and permanent greatly modified for the purpose of enabling
them to hold, upon occasion, profitable interaction with
men.
- What is the Romish doctrine and practice
with regard to the worship of angels?
"Catechismus Romanus," 3.
2, 9, 10.-"For the Holy Spirit who says, Honor and
glory unto the only God ( 1 Tim. 1:17 ), commands us also
to honor our parents and elders ( Lev. 19:32 , etc.); and
the holy men who worshipped one God only are also said in
the sacred Scriptures to have adored ( Gen. 23:7 , 12 ,
etc.), that is, to have suppliantly venerated, kings. If
then kings, by whose agency God governs the world, are treated
with so high an honor, shall we not give to the angelic
spirits an honor greater in proportion as these blessed
minds exceed kings in dignity; [to those angelic spirits]
whom God has been pleased to constitute his ministers; whose
services he makes use of, not only in the government of
the Church, but also of the rest of the universe; by whose
aid, although we see them not, we are daily delivered from
the greatest dangers both of soul and body? Add to this
the charity with which they love us, through which, as Scripture
informs us, they pour out their prayers for those countries
( Dan. 2:13 ) over which they are placed by Providence,
and for those too, no doubt, whose guardians they are, for
they present our prayers and tears before the throne of
God ( Job 3:25 ; 12:12 ; Rev. 8:3 ). Hence our Lord has
taught us in the gospel not to scandalize the little ones,
because in heaven their angels do always behold the face
of his Father which is in heaven."
"Their intercession, therefore,
we must invoke, because they always behold God, and receive
from him the most willing advocacy of our salvation. To
this, their invocation, the sacred Scriptures bear testimony.-
Gen. 48:15 , 16 ."
- What views have been entertained with
respect to "Guardian Angels"?
"It was a favorite opinion of
the Christian Fathers that every individual is under the
care of a particular angel, who is assigned to him as a
guardian. They spoke also of two angels-the one good, the
other evil-whom they conceived to be attendant on each individual:the
good angel prompting to all good, and averting ill; and
the evil angel prompting to all ill, and averting good (Hermas
11. 6). The Jews (excepting the Sadducees) entertained this
belief, as do the Moslems. The heathen held it in a modified
form-the Greeks having their tutelary demon, and the Romans
their genius. There is however nothing to support this notion
in the Bible. The passages usually referred to for its support
( Ps. 34:7 , Matt. 18:10 ), have assuredly no such meaning.
The former simply denotes that God employs the ministry
of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger;
and the celebrated passage in Matthew means that the infant
children of believers, or the least among the disciples
of Christ, whom the ministers of the church might be disposed
to neglect, are in such estimation elsewhere, that angels
do not think it below their dignity to minister unto them."
Nothing is said of the personal assignment of angels to
individual men.-Kitto's "Bib. Encyclo."
- What are the names by which Satan is distinguished,
a what is their import?
Satan, which signifies adversary,
Luke 10:18 . The Devil (always occurs in the singular) signifying
slanderer, Rev. 20:2 ; Apollyon, which means destroyer,
and Abaddon, Rev. 9:11 ; Beelzebub, the prince of devils,
from the god of the Ekronites, chief among the heathen divinities
all of which the Jews regarded as devils, 2 Kings 1:2 ;
Matt 12:24 ; Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Rev. 9:11 Prince
of the World, John 12:31 ; Prince of Darkness, Eph. 6:12
; A Roaring Lion, 1 Pet. 5:8 ; a Sinner from the Beginning,
1 John 3:8 ; Accuser, Rev. 12:10 ; Belial, 2 Cor. 6:15 ;
Deceiver, Rev. 20:10 ; Dragon, Rev. 12:7 ; Liar and Murderer,
John 8:44 ; Leviathan, Isa. 27:1 ; Lucifer, Is. 14:12 ;
Serpent, Is. 27:1 ; Tormentor; Matt. 18:34 ; God of this
World, 2 Cor. 4:4 ; he that hath the Power of Death, Heb.
2:14 .-See Cruden's "Concordance."
- How may it be proved that Satan is a personal
being, and not a mere personification of evil?
Throughout all the various books of
Scripture Satan is always consistently spoken of as a person,
and personal attributes are predicated of him. Such passages
as Matt. 4: I- 11 , and John 8:44 , are decisive.
- What do the Scriptures teach concerning
the relation of Satan to other evil spirits and to our world?
Other evil spirits are called "his
angels," Matt. 25:41 ; and he is called "Prince
of Devils," Matt. 9:34 ; and "Prince of the powers
of the Air," and "Prince of Darkness," Eph.
6:12 . This indicates that he is the master spirit of evil.
His relation to this world is indicated
by the history of the Fall, 2 Cor. 11:3 ; Rev. 12:9 , and
by such expressions as "God of this World," 2
Cor. 4:4 ; and "Spirit that worketh in the children
of disobedience," Eph. 2:2 ; wicked men are said to
be his children, 1 John 3:10 ; he blinds the minds of those
that believe not and leads them captive at his will, 2 Tim.
2:26 ; he also pains, harasses, and tempts God's true people
as far as is permitted for their ultimate good.- Luke 22:31
; 2Cor. 12:7 ; 1 Thess. 2:18 .
- What are the terms by which fallen spirits
are designated?
The Greek word the devil is in the
original applied only to Beelzebub. Other evil spirits are
called demons, Mark 5:12 (translated devils); unclean spirits,
Mark 5:13 ; angels of the devil, Matt. 25:41 ; principalities,
powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. 6:12
; angels that sinned, 2 Pet. 2:4 ; angels that kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, Jude
6: ; lying spirits, 2 Chron. 18:22 .
- What power or agency over the bodies and
souls of men is ascribed to them?
Satan, like all other finite beings,
can only be in one place at a time; yet all that is done
by his agents being attributed to him, he appears to be
practically ubiquitous.
It is certain that at times at least
they have exercised an inexplicable influence over the bodies
of men, yet that influence is entirely subject to God's
control.- Job 2:1 ; Luke 13:16 ; Acts 10:38 . They have
caused and aggravated diseases, and excited appetites and
passions.- 1 Cor. 5:5 . Satan, in some sense, has the power
of death.- Heb. 2:14 .
With respect to the souls of men,
Satan and his angels are utterly destitute of any power
either to change the heart or to coerce the will, their
influence being simply moral, and exercised in the way of
deception, suggestion, and persuasion. The descriptive phrases
applied by the Scriptures to their working are such as-"the
deceivableness of unrighteousness," "power, signs,
lying wonders," 2 Thess. 2:9 , 10 ; he "transforms
himself into an angel of light."- 2 Cor. 11:14 . If
he can deceive or persuade he uses "wiles," Eph.
6:11 ; "snares," 1 Tim. 3:7 ; "depths,"
Rev. 2:24 ; he "blinds the mind," 2 Cor. 4:4 ;
"leads captive the will," 2 Tim. 2:26 ; and so
"deceives the whole world."- Rev. 12:9 . If he
cannot persuade he uses "fiery darts," Eph. 6:16
; and "buffetings."- 2 Cor. 12:7 .
As examples of his influence in tempting
men to sin the Scriptures cite the case of Adam, Gen. 3:
; of David, 1 Chron. 21:1 ; of Judas, Luke 22:3 ; Ananias
and Sapphira, Acts 5:3 , and the temptation of our blessed
Lord, Matt. 4.
|
 |
by date
by topic
|
|
|
soli deo gloria
|
|