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THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 17, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 3.

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THE BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.

By Uriah Smith

HELD IN OAKLAND, CAL., APRIL 1-17, 1877.

LESSON TWENTY-ONE.

THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS.
JUDE 6: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day."
This text brings to view an order of beings called angels, and also shows that there are two classes of them, one which kept not their first estate and another class which have kept it.
Peter speaks of the same. 2 Pet. 2:4. "For if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto Judgment" &c. Here the angels that sinned are those who, as described by Jude, kept not their first estate. The whole host of angels were therefore originally holy, but a part of them have fallen into sin and are reserved unto the Judgment of the great day.
These angels are not the departed spirits of human beings; for Job speaks of the time when the foundation of this earth was laid and says that the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy. Job 38:7. These were undoubtedly the angelic hosts, antedating the creation of the world and the history of man.
Moreover Peter in the text already quoted speaks first of the angels and then of the old world preceding the flood, evidently making a distinction between the angels and the earliest inhabitants of the earth. Again when Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise before ever a human being had died upon the earth, cherubim were placed at the east garden of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life; and these cherubim are one of the orders of angels. Angels therefore are not the spirits of departed men.
Angels are real beings. They are described in the Bible as possessing face, feet, wings &c. Ezekiel says of the cherubim, "Their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings &c. Eze. 10:12. Angels appeared unto Abraham. Gen. 18:1-8. They talked and ate with him. They went on to Sodom and communed with Lot, who, entering into his house baked unleaven bread for them and they did eat. These persons were called angels. David speaks of the manna as the corn of Heaven and angels' food. Ps. 78:23-25.
The case of Balaam, Num. 22:22-31, is an interesting incident. The angel appeared to Balaam with a sword drawn in his hand. The question is sometimes asked how angels can be material beings since we cannot see them. This case illustrates it. The record says the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel. The angel did not create a body for that occasion. He was just the same as he was before Balaam saw him; but the change took place in Balaam. His eyes were opened, then he beheld the angel. It was the same with the servant of Elisha when he and his master were brought into a straight place, surrounded by the army of the king of Syria. 2 Kings 6:77. Elisha prayed that the eyes of his servant might be opened; and he immediately saw the whole mountain full of horses and chariots round about Elisha.
This may be further illustrated referring to things which we know are material and yet which we cannot see. Air is material, light is material, even thought itself is only the result of material organizations—matter acting upon matter—and yet we can see none of these things. Just so with the angels.
It is further objected to the materiality of the angels that they are called spirits. Heb. 1:13, 14. But this is no objection to their being literal beings. They are simply spiritual beings organized differently from these earthly bodies which we possess. Paul says, 1 Cor. 15:44, "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." The natural body we now have; the spiritual body we shall have in the resurrection. "It is raised a spiritual body." Verse 44. But then we are equal unto the angels, Luke 20:36; then we have bodies like unto Christ's most glorious body. Phil. 3:4 and Christ is no less a spirit than the angels. We read that God is a spirit, that is simply a spiritual being.
They are beings of great exaltation and power. At the resurrection of our Lord the presence of one angel struck the Roman guard to the ground like dead men. Matt. 28:3. Even the prophets themselves frequently fell helpless before the majesty of the angels that came to bring them revelations from the Lord. Dan. 10:8, 17; Rev. 19:10; 22:8. An angel destroyed the army of Sennacherib, 2 Kings 19. It was undoubtedly the angels that threw down the walls of Jericho. Josh. 6:20.
These exalted beings are given as ministers of the saints. Heb. 1:14. It appears from Matt. 18:10 that every child of God has an angel to accompany him. The church in Jerusalem understood this; for when the voice of Peter was heard at the gate, they, supposing Peter was in prison, declared that it was his angel. Acts 12:15.
The history of the church is filled with instances of the ministration of these heavenly beings to the people of God. They protected the three worthies in the fiery furnace, Dan. 3:25. They shut the mouth of lions that they should not touch the servant of God. Dan. 6:22. They unloosed the chains and opened the prison doors before Peter. Acts 12:7. David says, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them." Read also other ministrations to Daniel and John as recorded in their writings throughout.
Angels are undoubtedly the ones that make the books of record from which we are all to be judged. Rev. 20:12. Angels assist in the Judgment. Dan. 7:9, 10; Rev. 5:11. The angels will gather the saints at the coming of Christ. Matt. 24:31; 25:31; 1 Thes. 4:16, 17.
Such is the work ascribed to the holy angels. Those who have sinned have also their work to do. Their object is to thwart the efforts of the holy angels who are working in our behalf and to lead mankind to sin and finally to ruin. Much speculation has been indulged in regard to the origin of Satan. In the light of the Scriptures this question is involved in no difficulty. God could not consistently constitute creatures other than free moral agents. Being such they had the power of sinning and of falling. The Bible assures us that some angels have so fallen. The leader in this work of rebellion is called Satan. God created him pure and upright. He has by his own action brought himself into this condition of evil. Christ says of him, John 8:44, that he was a murderer from the beginning, that he abode not in the truth, and that he is the father of lies. This shows that all these evils had their origin with him. Isa. 14:12-14; and Eze. 28:13-17 show the exalted position he occupied before his fall, and the cause of his overthrow. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty and he aspired to a higher position than that assigned him by his Creator. Thus pride is shown to be the source of all the evil that has come into the universe.
These evil angels are just as real beings as the good. If men can explain away Satan, the devil and demon, by calling them figures of speech, by the same rule we can explain away the good angels, Christ and God himself, leaving the universe without an author or a ruler.
It is asked why God permits these fallen beings to exist. We answer by asking why he permits wicked men to exist. The same principle is involved in each question. The same answer will apply to both. We cannot indeed account for sin. Charles Beecher, in his work entitled "Redeemer and Redeemed" page 82, says: "Sin is, in its own nature, anomalous, and therefore mysterious; it is in its own nature an unaccountable thing; for the moment that it is properly accounted for, i. e., the moment we have assigned a good and sufficient cause for it, that moment it ceases to be sin. A good and sufficient cause, is a good and sufficient excuse; and that which has a good and sufficient excuse is not sin. To account for sin, therefore, is to defend it; and to defend it, is to certify that it does not exist. Therefore the objection that it is inconceivable and unaccountable, that sin should enter into such a perfect universe amounts to nothing but saying that sin is exceedingly sinful, inexcusable and destitute of the least defence for justification."
God doubtless permits sin to run its career that its exceeding sinfulness may be seen, and his justice vindicated in finally destroying sin and all its agents forever.
When Satan sinned he was cast out of Heaven. 2 Pet. 2:4; cast down to Tartarus. This is defined to mean the dark and fathomless void that surrounds the material work of the universe.
Being thus cast out, he, by the temptation and fall of man gained possession of the earth. Gen. 3. By this means he has become the god and prince of this world. The fair inheritance given to Adam has passed over into the possession of Satan, until it shall be redeemed by Christ.
Sinful man is Satan's lawful captive. Rom. 5:13; Eccl. 3:20. In this condition he is represented as a prisoner. Job 3:17, 18; Isa. 24:22. Of Satan it is said in Isaiah 14:17 that he opened not the house of his prisoners. The grave is called the land of the enemy. Jer. 31:16, 17. Death is called the last enemy of the righteous. 1 Cor. 15:26.
The mission of Jesus is to destroy this work of the enemy. 1 John 3:8; and not only does he destroy the works of the devil, but he is also to destroy the devil himself. Heb. 2:14. This is accomplished by the great plan of salvation. Christ gives himself first to die for man then acts as intercessor in their behalf, pardoning the sins of the penitent. Having finished his work as priest he returns in the cloud of heaven, his second advent; raises the righteous dead and translates the righteous living. Satan is then bound for a thousand years. Rev. 20:1-3. At the end of that period the wicked dead are raised, and, with Satan at their head, they come up around the camp of the saints the beloved city; fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them all. This is the fire of the great day spoken of by Mal. 4:1 which shall burn as an oven and consume all that do wickedly root and branch. Satan and all his followers, evil angels and evil men. This is the day and this the fire of which Peter speaks, 2 Peter 3:7, when he says that the Heavens and the earth are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men. From this fiery ordeal there comes forth new heavens and new earth to be the everlasting abode of the righteous. Verse 13.
U. S.