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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!
Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your known unconfessed sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).
1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND
If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to simply exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life; when you do, you will instantly receive Eternal Life: John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 20:30, 31.
John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]
Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-15, 16, 17, 18, says: "14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV
Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:
Study to show yourself approved to God!
Grace Bible Church
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
STUDY TITLE:
The Angelic Conflict. Part 6. Abaddon/Apollyon. The destroyer and exterminator. Rev 9; 2Th 2:1-12; Mat 24; Isa 2:12-22;, 24:7-23; Jer 30:7; Joel 2:1-11; Zep 1:14-18
We are now on Point 3 in our study of the Angelic conflict: When and How the Angelic Conflict Began.
Eze 28:11-15, Again the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre [one the few individuals in human history who was possessed by Satan] and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. You were the anointed cherub [the highest rank of angelic creatures] who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the Holy mountain of God [third heaven]; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways [not innocent, blameless] From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness was found in you.”
The first sinner of all creatures was Satan. He had everything to make him happy, but he lusted for power! Satan has organized angels against God, and once man was created, Satan had plans for man, which we will note in our study. Satan is the master of conspiracy! In fact, he is the originator of conspiracy!
Eze 28:16-19, “By the abundance of your slander You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God [this is future, Satan still has access into heaven]. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart [right lobe] was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom [distorted it] by reason of your splendor [beauty]. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you [this is future]. By the multitude of your iniquities, In the unrighteousness of your trade [dishonest transactions, conspiracy], You profaned your sanctuaries [Satan’s first fall; his second fall is mentioned next which will come in the Tribulation period].
Therefore, I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you. All who know you among the peoples Are appalled at you; You have become terrified, And you will be no more.”
These verses point out the immediate, future, and the final judgment of God upon this mighty angel, which is more completely described in other parts of the Bible. In this one context however, God records the origin, the estate, the character, and the sin of the greatest of angels. One of the reasons God does this is because He wants us to see the devastating effects of arrogance and pride. God created Satan who was perfect in all his ways, and Satan sinned by opposing the will of God.
Let’s note some principles before moving on in our study:
1) Through the degenerating power of sin, Satan, like Adam, became an entirely different being from that which God created. God originally created angels and man to bless them. However, as a part of divine blessing they must be given a free will or a choice to either accept or reject the offer of God.
2) When God creates a being to fulfill a certain purpose, that being must be a perfect fulfillment of that divine pattern. God always provides whatever is needed for us to fulfill the purpose He has for our lives. This is why we have logistical grace, the problem-solving devices, and divine power if we desire it.
3) The reason why God created Satan as a beautiful intelligent angel is not so he would have enough power to deceive us, but originally Satan was created to be a protector and defender of the throne of God.
4) By his sin, he lost his original holiness and heavenly position, but he retains his wisdom and his beauty, and has turned his surpassing abilities into ways of evil.
5) Satan originally was to protect the Throne of God and to forbid the approach of evil or any unrighteousness. However, like most of God’s creatures, including born again believers, Satan rejected the plan of God for his life and chose his own plans over the plan of God.
6) The unrighteousness found in Satan was the sin of independence and self-exaltation. We tend to think of sin in terms of only immorality; however, sins like the sin of independence from the plan of God are the most destructive.
7). Satan is said to have been upon the Holy Mountain of God as the Anointed Cherub that covereth, and appears to have been the great high priest of his realm.
8) Satan also appears to have been the highest angel and therefore the king over his creation.
9) Satan was perfect in all his ways and apparently continued so for a length of time. The analogy between Satan’s perfection and his office of prophet, priest, and king, and our Lord’s, which He has already taken upon Himself, is very interesting. Satan abused his high office of prophet, priest, and king, so God created Adam to function as a prophet, priest, and king. He was to rule over the creation under the authority of God, Gen 1:26 says, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Adam was to function as a prophet in the sense of teaching the things of God to Ishshah, as well as function as a priest worshipping God. However, he failed and he fell.
10) After the fall of Adam, when no other created being could be found to fulfill this function, the Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the Godhead to become a member of the human race, and to fulfill all three functions: prophet, priest, and king. The offices of prophet and priest He is already exercising, but not that of king. If He had come as a king to set up His kingdom, the result would have been utter destruction to all of us since all have sinned and whatsoever is sinful must be cast out of His kingdom into unquenchable fire. It was therefore necessary to first put away the iniquity of those who should be saved. This He came into the world to do by the sacrifice of Himself. He will come to earth a second time to claim the power from the hands of Satan, and after casting Satan into prison, the Lord will bring back the creation to purity and order. The government which Christ will take upon His shoulders appears to be exactly identical to that which was once committed to Satan, and the original order of things will begin to be restored in Christ’s Millennial kingdom.
In Isa 14, Isaiah presents the same material that Ezekiel presents in chapter 28 but with a little different information. Isa 14:12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!” The fall here refers to the second fall of Satan; it is a reference to Satan being cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. Satan has three falls: the first took place in eternity past, perhaps billions of years before man existed, that’s Eze 28:15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness was found in you.” In the middle of the Tribulation Satan has his second fall and is cast out of heaven, Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Satan has access to heaven right now. The Lord is going to throw Satan out of Heaven and drop him to the earth, and Satan will never be allowed back to Heaven again. At the end of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ we have the third fall of Satan, Rev 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
So, in Isa 14:12, the time of this fall is in the middle of the Tribulation, “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning,” The word star is actually the word heylel, translated Lucifer in other passages, and it means the shining one or the star. Lucifer actually comes from the Latin and means light bearer. It means the shining one, the translucent one, the simulating one. There are two Hebrew words for shining or light being thrown-out. The word used here for Satan is heylel, and the other Hebrew word is nachash, used in Gen 3 for the serpent. Satan is a shining one and the serpent was a shining one, and both were attractive. Satan was attractive to at least one third of all the angels; the serpent was attractive to one half of all mankind, albeit there were only two at the time.
Isa 14:12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one of the morning [an angel of light], son of the dawn!” Satan can transform himself into an angel of light (2Co 11:14), and he transforms his ministers into angels of light, 2Co 11:14-15, And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; Satan has ministers and evangelists among the members of the human race, and they don’t teach about the occult. They teach about Jesus, but it’s another Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible. They teach about the spirit, but not the Holy Spirit from God. They talk about the gospel, but it’s not the Gospel of the Bible. Paul said in 2Co 11:3-4 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
Isa 14:12-14 “How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Here is the original sin among creatures perhaps billions of years before man sinned. I will ascend into heaven is a reference to the third heaven where God is; Satan wanted the highest heavenly position. “I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north” refers to rulership over the government of the earth. Clouds are used to represent the divine presence of God or His glory. Jehovah appeared in cloud, Exo 16:10. Jehovah rides upon clouds, Psa 104:3.
Satan wants the glory which belongs to God alone. Remember that in spite of the universal impressions that Satan is unlike God, he is much like God, outwardly! As a part of Satan’s strategy to become like the Most High, those under the influence of his false doctrine teach others how to improve human nature while ignoring the new creature created by God. Most believers are too busy cleaning up the old man in order to make him presentable to the Lord, which is impossible. One question that needs to be answered is: why did a holy and righteous God who is all powerful and all knowing allow the fall of Satan and his angels to occur? From the Bible we may presume some possible reasons:
1) God is perfect, His plan is perfect, and He allowed evil to come into being. So we trust in the character and nature of God and believe that He knows exactly what He’s doing and what’s best for His creation.
2) Perhaps He allowed angels to sin in order that He might give an explicit example of the wretchedness and degeneration of sin and rebellion. Rom 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
3) He used the test to gain a group of angels to serve Him from their own free will and personal love.
4) It may have been necessary to allow the fall of angels to finally show the grace of God in the preserving of some angels, and in the redemption of unworthy, sinful man who also fell because of Satan. In man, God will magnify His grace forever before angels. Eph 2:4-9, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
Point 4. Two Categories of Fallen Angels.
Category 1, the non-operational angels. Under this category there are two groups of angels who are in prison at this time and will be let out at some time in the future. First, the angels of Gen 6 who were involved in the angelic attack to infiltrate the human race, now incarcerated underneath the ground in a place called Tartarus, a compartment in Hades. These are the angels who cohabited with the women and brought forth super-creatures who were half-angel and half-human. Gen 6:4 tells us about them, The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God [angels] had sex with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown [like Hercules, Zeus and Casper].
Back in Gen 6:1-2 Now it came about, when humanity began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, Now the sons of the gods [demon pantheons or the gods on Mount Olympus at the time] saw the women of mankind, that they were beautiful, so they seized [raped] for themselves women from all they had selected [whomever they chose].
The Hebrew verb laqach means to seize violently, to take by sheer strength, to overpower and seize these women, in many cases against their will, and to have sex with them. Gen 6:3 Then the Lord [God the Father] said, “My spirit [Holy Spirit] shall not strive or plead the cause of God in man’s soul forever, for in his going astray, he is flesh [mortal]. Therefore, his days will be one hundred and twenty years.”
This verse refers to the antediluvian ministry of the Holy Spirit before the flood, one of the greatest periods of evangelism in all of history, which resulted in millions of people hearing the Gospel. From the time of Gen 6:3 to the time of the flood = 120 years. At that point, God the Holy Spirit would no longer plead the cause of God in salvation, because the flood would wipe them out. Only eight human beings believed in Jesus Christ: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives. The half-human, half-angelic creatures heard the gospel as well, and could have believed in Christ, and saved their human side.
We know this because of two reasons:
1) God is just and the justice of God would never send any creature to the eternal Lake of Fire without ample chance to believe on TLJC [The Lord Jesus Christ].
2) God gave them 120 years to repent; He wouldn’t have done that unless there was some way for them to be saved. However, none of them did. The grace policy of God never executes judgment on mankind before every grace opportunity has been given to believe. So, from the time of the angelic infiltration, and the genetic attack on true humanity, there would be 120 years of Gospel preaching, during which time, the entire human race would be corrupted by half-human, half-demonic people. One thing we know about those half-human and half-angelic creatures; they can drown and they did, the principle of water being used for judgment.
In Gen 6:4, the antediluvian super-race is mentioned, The Nephilim [fallen ones, half-angel, half-human] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of the gods came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. The phrase The Nephilim is Ha nephalim and refers to the fallen ones, half-human half-demon creatures. So, three categories of creatures are mentioned:
1) In verse 1, the phrase ha adam is true humanity, Now it came about, when men [ha adam] began to multiply on the face of the land.
2) In verses 2 and 4, the phrase beni ha elohim are angels with bodies.
3) In verse 4, the phrase ha nephalim are the progeny of the first two combined: half-human, half-angelic creatures.
If you have a body and you have certain genes, and you copulate with someone else who has a body of the opposite sex, there is every possibility that there will be a creature from the womb of the female. The problem is that many people think of angels having a halo around their head or as spirits without bodies. However, when you talk about spirits without bodies, you’re talking about demons as they are now, after the flood! But here we are talking about the antediluvian civilization, before the flood, when angelic creatures did have bodies. They were super creatures biologically, and it was a totally different civilization than what we have today! Similarly, there will be a totally different civilization in the Millennial reign of Christ. We know that from Gen 6:4 The Nephilim [fallen ones] were on the earth in those days [they were on the earth in those days, meaning that they are not on the earth in these days], and also afterward, when the sons of the gods [the fallen angels like Zeus and Apollos] came in to the daughters of men, The phrase came in to is the kal future of the verb bo which is used for sexual relationships, as in Gen 39:13-17. The Bible says that the beni ha elohim have sex.
There is another viewpoint which states that the sons of God were children of Seth and were godly, and the daughters of men were sinful women from the line of Cain. This theory really has a lot of problems. First of all, we would have to say that all of Seth’s sons were godly and saved and going to heaven, and all the daughters of men were not. Secondly, unlike humanity, the half-angelic, half-human creatures possessed super intellect and super-strength, so much so, that violence and arrogance had to be restrained. They possessed high I.Q.’s in very strong bodies. Due to the influence of these creatures, the genetic destruction of true humanity was spreading throughout the entire world. This was a part of Satan’s scheme to stop the virgin birth to hinder our Lord from becoming true humanity (Isa 7:14;Isa 9:6, Heb 2:14; Heb 10:5).
So, in Gen 6:4 The Nephilim [fallen ones, half-human half-demon creatures] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of the gods [demons] had sex with females of the human race, and had children by them, these children were the heroes who, from ancient history, were famous men. As a result of this demon attack, these fallen angels were confined to Tartarus, the third compartment of Sheol or Hades. These angels, like Sodom and Gomorrah, got involved with bestiality and homosexuality, with both humans and angels, and sexual immorality.
This is why we will study the parallel passage Jud 1:5-8, Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
As well as 2Pe 2:4-11 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
Gen 6:4 The Nephilim [fallen ones, half-angel, half-human] were on the earth in those days [in those days, not these days], and also afterward, when the sons of the gods [the fallen angels like Zeus and Apollos] had sex with females of the human race, and had children by them, these children were the heroes who, from ancient history, were famous men.” The demons who function in the postdiluvian civilization under the command of Satan no longer have sexual capabilities; they are classified as disembodied spirits. In the antediluvian civilization, the demons who invaded the earth had angelic bodies and sexual capabilities. With their bodies, these demons were able to have sex with human females, resulting in the satanic attempt to destroy true humanity on the earth. And it almost succeeded except for the grace of God in the cataclysmic universal flood.
The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life: Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.
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