CHAPTER 9
SOULED CREATURES #1: THE ANGELS
The discussions of time and the universe revolve around the souled creatures called angels. Therefore we need to take a step back and look more closely at these created beings for whom time and locations were originally provided. So what and who exactly are the angels?
Angels are just as real as any human person you see around you. And they are not that different than humans, except for that invisible flying around thing. But they have the exact same soul as man does, and I do mean exact. As an illustration, if an angel soul was put into a human body, or vice versa, no one would recognize any differences in actions since the souls are exactly the same. Angels have the same soul as humans but in a more powerful body which gives them superior physical capabilities, but their souls function just the same. This sameness of soul is because humans were created to resolve Satan's appeal regarding the fall of angels, which required a new set of souled creatures with the same immaterial components of thought, free will decision making, memory, conscience, emotion, motivations, desires, need for belonging and love, etc., so these new creatures called humans could make decisions just the same as angels. And yes, they needed to be able to choose to sin just as the angels had done, with free will just like angels to be able to decide for or against God. So the only difference between angels and man is the body. Therefore the inner being of both angels and man needed to be equivalent in order to resolve the appeal trial of Satan and his angels, since the trial is about making decisions for or against God. And since the souls of both angels and man are "made in the likeness of God" there is in fact only one "likeness of God", not multiple likenesses of God, since that would be an absurdity. And if humans had different souls they could not make choices for or against God in the same way Satan and his angels did, therefore the appeal trial of Satan could not be resolved by such a dissimilar being at the soul level since it would not be a fair appeal trial. Therefore to resolve the appeal of Satan, angels and man needed to be exactly the same in the soul, although they would be different in bodies. The difference in the bodies was to keep humans in a relatively confined space for close observation by the angels, somewhat like a stadium where the angels could watch this appeal trial play out, namely, on earth; the very same earth where the angels once lived, only renovated to suit the reduced physical capabilities of humans. To humans it is their life. To the angels it is about their eternal future.
Since angels are created beings just as man, having a soul in a body, their real being is in the soul, and it exists forever once created by God. God created angels long before man, and although the timing is unknown it was probably very long before man was created. Although the angels were created with vastly superior bodies, that will be reversed in the Eternal State when human believers will have bodies superior to elect angels. And fallen angels will be put into bodies with greatly reduced function, the same ones human unbelievers will have forever. But both angels and humans will retain the same soul they had while living out their natural lives on earth. Angels and mankind are rational beings with the same thinking abilities, emotions, memories, problem solving capabilities, competitiveness, and on and on, although the bodies of angels enable superior intellect at this point. But in the Eternal State human believers will be in bodies of greater intellect and capabilities than elect angels. Angels have bodies made of a form of light which is capable of instantaneous space travel, giving them enhanced mental capacity (higher IQ than mankind), and they also do not die. Mankind is in vastly inferior bodies in order to keep them relatively confined to the arena called earth, making the issue all about the decisions made in the soul. The primary focus is whether each one will choose for or against God and His plan during a rather short time while living on the earth.
We have already seen that the universe, heaven and eventually earth were provided by God for the angels. We have also seen that the earth was originally provided as the home of the angels, who occupied the earth and lived in a society much like humans later did on the same planet. There was a hierarchical structure of authority, the angels had assigned tasks and therefore worked, and they had recreation, they ate and drank, they had sex, and they generally lived in harmony with God. Wait, stop....they had sex? I realize you want that covered now, but all in due time.
Well, OK, maybe just a preview.
We know angels are capable of sex and exist in male and female bodies, just as with mankind. God provided sex for the pleasure of His beings, not originally for procreation. Angels apparently never had children angels, so as far as we know they were all created at one point in time a very long time ago, long before man was created. But the sex thing collided with humans at some point when Satan used it as a weapon. We know about the angelic sex issue from Genesis chapter 6 where the Bible says fallen angels procreated with human women in an outrageous attempt by Satan to corrupt the human race. Satan's purpose was to prevent the Messiah from being truly human, which would have stopped God's plan of salvation for mankind. This angelic corruption of the human race resulted in half-human half-angel beings, although the souls were the same as any other human or angel. The souls being the same, these half-beings had human souls in half angel bodies which were very powerful. These beings were all wiped out by the Great Flood which was its purpose, and only eight pure humans survived to continue the human race. This is one of the wildest passages of the Bible and shows the lengths Satan will go to in order to stop God's plan from succeeding. More on that later. I know, I know, you want more sex stuff now. But patience will be rewarded.
When God created the angels He put them inside both location and time, both of which He created in preparation for their occupancy of the universe and heaven. The angels required a universe to occupy and relate to, a heaven in which to locate God, and they needed time. So when God determined to create angels He put them into a structure which those creatures could relate to which were the twins location and time, which go together. Location allows sentient creatures to orient to how they fit into the structure called the universe, since they are not omnipresent like God. Time allows for continuation of life for created creatures, sequence of action and subsequent results and consequences of those actions. God did not need such a structure of time and location, so neither existed before He created these first sentient creatures.
Shortly after they were created, the angels watched as God created a home for them called the earth. They were then put into a societal structure on earth, which contained the original set of animal and plant life, including the dinosaurs and over-sized plant life in a perfect environment. The angels had societal order, structure and hierarchy for a very long time just as man now has, and it was much the same and on the same earth. At the top of that angelic hierarchy was Satan, the most gifted and capable of all angels. God gave Satan everything to the highest levels. Satan ruled the angelic order. He was called "the morning star, son of the dawn." He interacted directly with God on a continual basis. Satan was the most favored angel, having the best of everything within that societal order. Satan existed for a very long time in good favor with God. As a Cherub he was the highest of all angels, since at the time of the creation of angels Cherub angels (four wings) were the highest category, and the Seraphs (six wings) came much later as a reward status, not as a new creation of angels. He was the leader, and had the best of the best the earth and universe had to offer. And contrary to popular belief he was the most beautiful and likable of all angels. This harmonious relationship between God and His angels, including Satan, continued for a long time. We do not know how long, possibly even millions of years, or maybe a much shorter time, we simply do not know. Over time Satan became arrogant and decided he wanted to become equal to God, and no longer be subject to Him. He decided to take some of the angels and set up his own kingdom apart from God, which he saw as becoming equal to God. Satan therefore revolted against God taking 1/3 of all the angels with him, intending to set up a separate society without God, essentially taking the earth out from under God's control. His intention was to set up a society with himself as ruler apart from God's oversight. This was a major break-point in the timeline of time. This began the angelic conflict with God. The harmonious relationship God had intended ceased to exist once Satan and his angels revolted against Him.
We know a number of details about angels from the Bible, and although it does not fill in all the details there are quite a few clues. We know that 2/3 of all angels remained elect angels, while 1/3 are fallen angels. We know from Revelation 5:11 that there are at least 100 million elect angels, meaning at least 150 million total angels, but we can surmise that there are many more, possibly billions, from descriptions in other passages from Revelation about the Tribulation and what fallen angels will do during that time. Angels can be visible or invisible to humans, but during the Church Age angels are not allowed to show themselves to humans, which is a rule imposed by God during this Age of time. Angels exist as male or female. Fallen angels can indwell the bodies of human unbelievers if they are sufficiently receptive to them. Elect angels are led by the Archangel Michael, while fallen angels are led by Satan. We only know the names of five angels: two elect angels named Michael and Gabriel, and three fallen angels named Lucifer (aka Satan, etc.), Beelzebul (aka Beelzubub), and Abbadon (aka Apollyon). Beelzebul is Satan's top lieutenant, and Abbadon is a demon Army Commander who is in angelic prison for unspecified misdeeds, but we know that he and his subordinates violated God's rules for the angelic conflict and the appeal trial of Satan. There are also numerous fallen angels currently imprisoned due to violations of God's rules, including some in the Abyss in middle earth and others in a prison called Tartarus.
Fallen Angels & Satan as Their Leader
Satan is the leader of the fallen angels, but how did things get to this point? It started with arrogance, the greatest deceiver in all of history. After what was likely a very, very long time living in harmony with God, Satan began a revolt against God long before man was put on the earth when he said:
"I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars [angels] of God.” (Isaiah 14:13)
Ezekiel also covers the fall of Satan due to arrogance:
Ezekiel 28:12 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘You [Satan] were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.”
So at some point Satan became arrogant and wished to have more authority than God allowed, and he led a revolt against God, recruiting many angels to follow him. Satan's original coup attempt occurred long before the creation of man when he revolted against God.
Satan and the other fallen angels battled God's elect angels, possibly for a long time, but of course Satan's side lost. After that defeat of Satan and 1/3 of all angels a trial occurred in Heaven. Satan and all the fallen angels were judged guilty by God and sentenced to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. This trial occurred long before mankind ever existed. We can surmise from what the Bible says about associated issues that Satan objected to his punishment by saying an eternity in the Lake of Fire was too harsh and unfair, and not what a loving God would do, calling into question the perfect character of God, especially His justice, fairness and love. This is where the name Satan comes from, since it means "accuser" in Hebrew, and Lucifer (his real name) became Satan (the Accuser) because he accused God of being imperfect. As a result God allowed an appeal trial, and this is where mankind entered the picture. God created one man and one woman and placed them on earth to start the process to resolve the issue of God's fairness. Therefore mankind is on earth to prove that God is a fair and loving God, and therefore Satan’s sentence to the Lake of Fire is justified and consistent with God’s perfect character. We do not know if these fallen angels were offered salvation, but if so none of them accepted, therefore no salvation plan was actually provided for angels.
After some period of time, possibly a very long time or maybe much shorter, God created man and placed them on earth to resolve the issue of God's fairness as a means to resolve this appeal trial. When man eventually sinned, following a similar pattern of Satan's sin, God provided salvation through Jesus Christ, proving God's love and fairness to unworthy mankind. Man's role is to accept the gracious gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ the Savior, showing Satan that God is not only perfect righteousness and justice, but also perfect love and completely fair. These combined traits can legitimately put Satan and all fallen angels into the Lake of Fire as punishment due to the finality of their rejection of God. This sentence will be carried out after human history has ended when Satan and all fallen angels will finally be put into the Lake of Fire, showing how human history is tied directly to the angelic conflict. And unbelieving humans will also be put into the Lake of Fire since they joined Satan's side by rejecting God. In the meantime the ancient angelic conflict continues, with Satan attempting by any means to avoid his ultimate fate in the Lake of Fire which has already been decreed. And contrary to popular belief, Satan has never been to Hell, and he certainly does not rule over it. Hell (Torments) is a temporary holding cell for human unbelievers until they are judged at the end of history, and no angel has ever been in it.
Therefore, Satan’s future is tied to the human race, so all his plans are linked to human history. His plan has had several components to this point in human history, some are ongoing, and some are yet future. God established ground-rules for the appeal trial, so Satan must remain within those rules just like any court of law requires. Let us take a look at the various sub-plans in Satan’s overall plan, which he is using to attempt to avoid his certain doom.
The appeal trial of Satan started the day man was created. Satan’s first plan was to tempt the man and woman to disobey God, which was to sin and therefore “fall” just as Satan had. God established only one way the man and woman could disobey him and sin, which was to eat of a certain prohibited tree. The tree was a simple yes/no test daily for the man and woman. Satan looked at the situation and surmised that if he was able to tempt the two humans to sin, he would win the appeal. Unknown to Satan, God had a surprise in store since God knew Satan could eventually tempt the humans well enough to cause them to sin by eating from the tree. But Satan did not know about God’s planned counter move. Satan lied to the woman and eventually deceived her into eating from the prohibited tree. When Adam saw what she had done, he saw no choice except to join her. When they had both sinned, Satan rejoiced and thought he had won. Then God offered the sinful humans a way of salvation, which they both accepted. That changed everything, requiring significant alterations in Satan's plan, making it much more complicated. The rules from then on were to enable mankind to proliferate, and each human would make choices for or against God, and each would either join God’s side or, by choice or by default, would join Satan’s side. That is the simple summary of human history, namely that each person who is born must make choices. Each must choose to accept or reject salvation, then those who choose salvation must choose to follow God’s requirements or reject them. Satan’s plan has now become focused on countering God on the issues of salvation for unbelievers, and also derailing believers from following God's will for their lives. Both of these are about interfering with human choices in favor of God. Satan's time to prove his appeal will run out as he will ultimately fail. Then his eternal time will be spent in the Lake of Fire along with the angels he convinced to follow him, and also the humans who choose to reject God's offer of salvation.
Most people assume Satan’s plan is simply to create all the evil, hardship, and pain on earth that he can. That is not accurate. Satan’s plan focuses on opposing God in order to keep himself out of the Lake of Fire, a sentence which was handed down from God long ago. Because those souled creatures called angels had true free will to make choices for or against God, and many chose against God, the timeline of time became distorted and took a new direction under the appeal trial as agreed to by God. Although God could have proceeded immediately with the sentence, He decided to allow Satan and his angels to plead their case for leniency. This trial required a test scenario, not just words from Satan. Therefore God created the second category of souled creatures for the purpose of resolving Satan's appeal of his sentence to the Lake of Fire, which as we have noted is where mankind came into the picture. Satan's appeal is now intensely focused on the single goal of proving why he and his fallen angels should not be sent to the Lake of Fire, and he will do anything to achieve that goal. That is where evil and chaos come into play, but Satan has a broader goal, which is to bring about a pseudo perfect environment where man is under his complete control. Additionally, Satan wants desperately to show that God lied about certain prophesies of the Bible, which is God’s Word, and thereby prove that God is not really God. Satan wants to win at any cost, and he will try anything. Therefore Satan is using mankind to try to stay out of the Lake of Fire, and he does not care how many of them are harmed in the process. He despises humans, but he uses them when he can. We are here because Satan and his angels revolted against God. Not exactly how we would like to think of ourselves as getting started, but God gets to decide, and God takes care of His believers no matter what Satan does.
The history of the universe therefore has a dual track, humans and angels, and their histories are intertwined. In fact, humans are here because of angels, and now angels both help and hinder humans. Before man existed there were only angels as created souled beings. Now there are two types of souled created beings. Mankind was put into inferior bodies for a purpose, mainly to live in a confined area where the angelic conflict, a conflict between God and Satan, can play out in an arena type setting in a single location. Man is on the earth to demonstrate the love and fairness of God under various conditions during time. It is not a sport, it is the plan of God to resolve the ancient conflict started by Satan and joined by millions of other angels in a revolt against God. Man was created by God to resolve this conflict between God and angels, referred to as the angelic conflict, by allowing Satan to attempt to prove his appeal that he should be released from his sentence to the eternal Lake of Fire.
Many fallen angels are in prison during the Church Age in the three locations in the heart of the earth, one called Tartarus, one called the Abyss, and one referred to as being under the Euphrates River. This is because those demons violated God’s rules for the appeal trial of the angelic conflict. If demons violate the rules in an egregious manner, they are thrown into prison and must remain there until the Tribulation when they will be released to cause havoc on the earth for a short time. When Jesus threw the demons out of the demon possessed man at Gerasene near the Sea of Galilee, the demons who said they were “a legion” asked Jesus to put them into the herd of pigs and not be thrown into prison in the Abyss. Apparently they realized they had put too many demons in one person, and violated a rule of the angelic appeal trial, since they begged Jesus to not send them into the Abyss prison. But when they went into the pigs the animals were spooked and ran into the sea. More about demon possession later.
We will discuss the appeal trial of Satan as it relates to humans when we get to the chapter about humans on the earth. But this discussion about angels fits into the timeline of time at this point in the book since it is relevant to the original creation of time, the universe and also heaven, since those creations were for the angels, so we need to understand who and what the angels are as souled creatures. When we get to the restoration of the earth and universe, we will discuss how the angels became involved and now interfere with the humans put on earth to resolve the appeal trial of Satan and his angels.
Elect Angels
Elect angels are the only creatures God ever created who never lost their status of righteousness and harmony with God. Fallen angels lost their status, and all mankind lost their status, but the elect angels remained loyal to God and therefore never lost their status of faithfulness to God.
We only know the names of two elect angels, Michael and Gabriel. These two are among the highest level angels, called Seraphs, having six wings. They were not created as Seraphs, they earned it. At one time the highest order of angelic hierarchy was the Cherub with four wings, of which Satan was one. Later, Seraphs became the highest level of angelic hierarchy.
Therefore there is an elect angelic hierarchy, with structure, order, leadership, and discipline. These constraints are required to ensure God is glorified and worshiped. God is surrounded by elect angels who worship Him at all times. These are the highest ranking of all angels and represent all elect angels to God.
Revelation chapter 4 provides great insight into the elect angel structure, order, and hierarchy, and how they interact with God. We will take a look at the angels which interact directly with God in the throne-room of heaven:
Revelation. 4:4 “Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.”
Surrounding the throne of God are twenty-four Elders who are high ranking angels wearing golden crowns of victory. These crowns and high rank were earned before man was created, during an ancient time when only God and angels existed. This was when the Seraph rank was instituted among angels, and was an honor gained for extreme valor in the angelic conflict. The twenty-four elect angels seen in this verse distinguished themselves long ago during the ancient angelic war against Satan and were given high rank (close proximity to the Throne of God) and rewards (wings, golden crowns and special clothing). Elect angels are in their eternal status now. At the point of this vision just after the Rapture when no human has yet received any rewards such as crowns. So these are twenty-four angels, and the honors were earned during the early part of the angelic conflict which arose from Satan's revolt against God, when all angels chose sides, and 1/3 of them chose for Satan.
Revelation. 4:6b “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.”
The “four living creatures” are four powerful elect angels surrounding the Throne of God. These are very high ranking angels known as Seraphs (Seraphim in the plural). They have six wings, denoting highest rank among the angels. Most angels do not have any wings, only Seraphs (six wings) and Cherubs (four wings). There are very few such winged angels, and the vast majority, probably many millions of them, are wingless. This hierarchy and order in Heaven, with angels organized by rank and function, shows that Heaven is not a place where everyone is equal and all have wings and play harps and float around in a haze doing nothing in particular. Heaven has structure and order based on levels of rewards. It is also a place of general happiness, because there is no arrogance or other mental sins to impede such happiness.
The book of Revelation emphasizes the role of elect angels during the future times since this will be the climax of the ancient angelic conflict which began when Satan revolted against God before man was even created. It discusses the Tribulation when the earth will be caught up in great devastation as Satan makes his final attempt to gain some level of advantage because he knows he is doomed. As the time for his final disposition in the Lake of Fire draws near, he will use the earth as his final battleground. Of course, he does not succeed. However, many people will suffer as a result of this conflict, and also as a result of their own rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior.
Judging & Avenging Elect Angels
It may come as a surprise that these lovely creatures known as elect angels have multiple roles, one of which includes wiping out sectors of the human population. Sometimes it has been to deliver God's believers, and other times it has been to eliminate certain sectors of degenerate people who threaten to corrupt the human race in ways that would interfere with God's plan. This has happened a number of times in human history, and the most extensive use of these angels will be in the future Great Tribulation, a time of extreme hardness of soul among humans. These angels are not used during the current Church Age which my other book "Exploring Deep Concepts & Mysteries of the Bible" discusses in greater detail.
In Old Testament times these avenging angels were used to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 18:15 "With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
During a time when Israel and David the King ignored God's will in a grievous way the Lord sent an angel to punish them:
2 Samuel 24:16 "When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong." Then the punishment stopped and the angel departed.
When the Southern Kingdom of Israel was besieged by the Assyrian army in 701 BC, an angel was sent to destroy that invading army of 185,000, except the Assyrian King Sennacherib was spared to be sent back in disgrace to Assyria:
2 Chronicles 32:20 "King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. 21 And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace."
During the Great Tribulation of the future, several angels will engage in judgments on a grand scale against a very hardened world of unbelievers.
Revelation 8:7 “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”
The Trumpet Judgment is wind shear velocity (“hurled”) fiery hail mixed with blood rain. This is literal, not an allegory. The angels are given authority to destroy 100% of all grasses and a third of all non-grass vegetation on the earth. God takes away the majority of the world's food supply by killing off all grasses, including wheat, rice, and other grains which are the world's chief sources of food. And since the world's livestock depends on what has been destroyed in the judgment, the meat supply will also be