What are Angels?
or: “Mama, who is the big guy swinging the sword over there?”

You are sitting at a desk, touching it. Knock on it and you can hear your fist rapping the solid wood.  Your hand will not pass through it without breaking it or your hand.  Yet a physicist will tell you it is made up of tiny particles with a great deal of space between them.  It is NOT solid but made up of mostly empty space.

We live in a world that has been created by a being so powerful, that He has to do is speak to create an entire universe of billions of stars like our sun and even greater.  So vast that a beam of light would take untold eons to travel across.  A being SO powerful and mighty as that we would be literally smaller than the smallest of sub-atomic particles in your desk comparatively.  Yet as far as we know, humankind is the sole purpose for that creation.

I won’t limit God to my understanding, there might well be billions of worlds such as ours.  The bible doesn’t say either way.  But conscious little beings like us, with eternal souls are the reason why the entire universe was made.

Genisis 1:1 says “In the beginning, God…” we can assume by that there was a whole other mode of existence BEFORE the beginning. Since God Himself is eternal and the “beginning” talked about in Genisis is the beginning of our universe and not the beginning of God.  A more solid, eternal realm.

Angels are inhabitants of that more solid realm.  Created at the same time we were.  When we were purposefully created, God knew that we would create an uncrossable gulf between Him and us.  Uncrossable for us only, of course, but the very sight of the Holy God would destroy us utterly, so he created these beings we call “Angels” to cross it and communicate with us.

Angels are extremely powerful beings of high intelligence.  Capable of independent thought and action and with free will.  Their true form, as spiritual beings, is indescribable for us as flesh and blood humans, and attempts to describe them by Prophets such as Ezekiel and John who saw them are vague at best.  However, they can and do appear to humans in any form, including that of a human being.  Most often the form they choose is that of a large strong young man, sometimes armed with a sword and armored like a warrior.

Angels are servants and messengers of God.  They are “Holy”, but only because of and contingent on their service to the Most High.  They are “solid” beings, not disembodied spirits, in that they have a body, a mind and free will.  Their bodies were created for the more solid spiritual realm, and do not pass into corruption like ours.  They are eternal, cannot be killed, and do not die naturally.  They do not breed, there was a set number of them created for the specific purpose they have been given, and since they never die, they don’t need to be replaced.

Angels cannot interbreed with humans.  There are no and have never been any “angel/human hybrids”.  Angels do not have sex.  There are no male and female Angels.  They are fundamentally different to human beings.  They are made of a different “substance” altogether and the idea of an Angel breeding with a human being makes about as much sense as a ROCK breeding with a HORSE.  

Less, actually, since a rock has an actual “physical” substance in the world of mankind, and an Angel is more solid than a rock could ever be.

Continue reading Angels, Demons, Nephilim, Visions, Dreams and Prophecy: The way God Talks to Mankind →

“Hey, don’t tell ME how to run my life!”
or: The Caring or the Karen

Before I go any further with that, you need to realize that “prophet” and “prophecy” cannot be used to excuse bad behavior.  Telling someone off because they annoy you, is NOT a prophetic word.

The Office of “Prophet” is a very uncomfortable place to be in a modern church, or anywhere else for that matter.

Most of the time prophecy will get them in trouble.
Also “prophet” is as much a personality type as it is a ministerial office, if you are a “prophet” you cannot help but to “prophesy”, rightly or wrongly.  It takes some wisdom to know WHEN it is the right time to prophesy, and The Holy Spirit to prophesy truly.  The bad part of that is you don’t have to have the Holy Spirit to have that personality.  You don’t even have to be Christian.

Balaam was an actual prophet (Numbers 24:2-9) and was very well regarded as a seer and a wiseman by the Moabites.  He had the inclination to prophesy, and he drew from the “spiritual realm” (divination) to make accurate (mostly) predictions.  It wasn’t from the spirit of God, however, and when God actually spoke to him, he failed even though he saw the results (Numbers 20:26-34).

Many people can be recognized as a “prophetic” personality by the fact that they just cannot shut up about a perceived wrong or danger to the point of obsessiveness.  Sometimes a prophet can predict enough right to gain some respect from their peers, but without the Spirit of God to guide them they fall into the same trap as Balaam.  Blinded by materialism and the love of wealth or using false spiritualism.
Even FALSE prophets ARE prophets.  
Like any of the many gifts God has given to mankind, the gift of being a “prophet” can be turned by Satan into something unholy and false.

Continue reading The difference between the Holy Spirit Gift of Prophecy, and the Office of Prophet →

What the Five-Fold Ministry is:
or “just how do I fit in this mess?”

OK first of all, I don’t want to bump into people’s egos or preconceptions.
This is something that can scrape against a lot of denominational doctrines, but it is NOT meant to raise hackles.  Just as a definition of terms.

“Five-Fold Ministry” is a term coined by modern evangelical ministries.  It comes from Ephesians 4:11-16
^” And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

The phrase itself does not occur in the bible, but is a simplification of basic church hierarchy:
Apostles go out and establish individual churches and ministries, raise up and anoint pastors and teachers, organize everything, then leave to the next place.
Prophets are guides, agents of correction, leaders in times of trouble, speakers of God’s voice for warning or comfort or both.  They often go from church to church where needed and are not always welcomed.  Because if a prophet comes, it usually means some kind of change and upheaval.

These two ministries usually follow behind:
Evangelists who go from place to place preaching the gospel of repentance.  They make converts, baptize them, teach them some basics, then move on.  It is a ministry that all Christians are called to at some level, but some are called to specialize in it.  An example, and highest modern standard would be Billy Graham.

Which comes to the basic pillars of the church:
Pastors who are the shepherds of individual churches and
Teachers who are the ones teaching sound doctrine and the Bible.
These two ministries go hand in hand for a strong well-balanced church.  Where apostles, prophets and evangelists come and go, a pastor is there for your lifetime, ideally.  He is there for births, deaths, marriages, counseling, exhorting, preaching to and aiding the individuals in his church.  The teacher is there in Sunday School, sometimes K-12 school and beyond as well depending on the church, passing on knowledge to children and adults.  You may have a teacher teaching your grandchildren who taught you as a child.

These five are specifically JOBS, that are LEADERSHIP POSITIONS in the church and are distinct from “spiritual gifts”.  For example: a prophet will prophesy, but you may prophesy but not hold the “office” of “prophet”.

All 5 are also analogues of leadership positions in the secular world.
An Apostle is an entrepreneur of churches.
A Prophet is an innovator or provocateur.
An Evangelist is a recruiter and a salesman.
A Pastor is a shepherd, or a business owner, or a father, or all of them.
A Teacher is…well, a teacher, an integrator, or an editor.
Continue reading Of Prophets, Prophesies, Heresies and what the Five-Fold Ministry is →

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”  – Matthew 24: 37-39

Did you know there were 9 generations between Adam and Noah?
People who lived for 800-1000 years.

I used to see the depictions in Sunday school like we all have, and old bearded man, a rickety wooden boat being filled with animals two by two (like how’d he keep the lions from eating all the cows?), and a rural, farmer setting with bronze age tools, etc.

Let’s say God made math and logic for a reason:
(Please check my math)
Adam and Eve were perfect when they were created.
Women can produce 400 or more eggs in their lifetime. That is the imperfect, degenerated, modern stock, not the ones a couple of generations from the beginning perfection.
Let’s say 1 couple makes 100 kids (after Seth, Eve probably made plenty of sons and daughters, not to mention Cain as he was only banished, not killed). That’s 50 couples give or take.
First generation, if every couple had 100 kids: 5000
Second generation: 250,000
Third generation: 12,500,000 the city of LA
Fourth generation: 625,000,000 that’s Russia and the USA
Fifth generation: 32 billion
Sixth generation: 1.5 trillion
Seventh generation: close to 80 trillion people born.
Eighth generation: 3 quadrillion people born.

Yikes.

Of course, this is only counting people born, and not how many died, or if people didn’t just stop at 20 or 30 kids each. But the population of the earth before the flood had to have been in the BILLIONS at least.

Consider that all of those people are not like the people you know now. They were only a few generations away from being perfect like Adam was.
Think of the most intelligent, healthy, vigorous and motivated people you know.
Now think that those people you just visualized would be pitiful, unhealthy, diseased and very, very stupid compared to pre-flood humanity. All with the same language, lineage and motivations, and all tainted and deceived by a Satan that was visible, tangible and powerful.
All except for a very few that is.

I am sure that by the fourth generation, they had a “great” civilization, and by Noah’s time they probably surpassed us in science and industry. We may have already found their dead decaying remains on the Moon and Mars, who knows?

Noah was not some old bronze age farmer that built a boat.

That story was written by a bronze age prophet with no point of reference to the heavily armored, high-tech vessel built to survive the complete and utter destruction of all living things and the total reshaping of the earth that was “The Flood”. My guess is that Noah was a scientist/industrialist and the “two by two” were embryos gestating in test tubes and cryogenics for several years while he worked to heal the earth, plant food and get things started again.  But that is just my guess.

Genesis was written to record the fact that God made the earth and all life, that He already destroyed it once, so now He is giving the children of Isaac the chance to do it right. The rest of the “Old Testament” is the story of how miserable a failure that was, but with the hope of redemption that came from Jesus.

What’s the point of this? It is just speculation, isn’t it?
Noah could well have been a farmer who built a wooden boat and shoved a buncha stinking animals into it (with no room for enough food for 40 hours let alone 40 days), and God could have used His power to keep them alive and safe.
But I know, through the Word and through history that God seldom uses His direct power over the earth. He prefers for us to listen, believe and act on that belief. To work, labor and learn His will. We are His children, in that very real sense, and the earth and universe are His classroom/nursery/apprenticeship for us to learn in.
…and the fact that God had no problem with wiping out a greater and vaster, more prolific and powerful civilization than our own, for merely being as evil as we are now.
There were probably many more people that followed God than just Noah and his family, but they didn’t make it to the boat. Think about that and be ready, eh?

An explanation from a Christian perspective

John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Men have been debating and looking for the historical Jesus for centuries.  He is confoundingly hard to find.  There were no such thing as “birth certificates” or written records of most ordinary things.  The Jewish Priests and scribes kept very detailed records of genealogies of families and tribes in the temple at Jerusalem, but they were destroyed when the temple was burnt and pillaged by the Romans in 70AD.  Records kept by the Romans themselves lack mention of the comings and goings of ordinary people.  A wandering rabbi ministering to the Jews was of little interest to them.  Even his death at their hands would hold little reason for more than a cursory mention.  Pontis Pilate was quite proficient in crucifying the Jews for almost any reason.

Yet the actions and activities of the horrible Pilates, Herods and Caesars of his time are all too well documented.  Annas and Ciaphas along with many of the scholars, scribes and priests of the time are very well documented.  But the ordinary Josephs and Marys and Simons and Andrews who lived their lives and fished, farmed, built and bought and sold were just not worth the paper and ink.

Jesus was very much in many ways one of the “ordinary” people.  The son of a carpenter and an ordinary Jewish girl, both from very large families of ordinary folk.  He lived most of his life laboring and fellowshipping with the people in a very small village far to the north of the “big city” Jerusalem.  Very few people saw him as “special”, and those people generally kept that knowledge to themselves until after his death.  Even during the 3 years of his ministry, with all of the miracles and teachings, his cousin John the Baptist was better known than he was.  He seldom strayed far from Galilee, Samaria and Judah in all of his travels.  Jesus didn’t “found a religion” like Buddha or Mohammad.  He wasn’t a “great leader” like Moses.  He didn’t fight great battles like David or Joshua (who he was named after FYI).

Continue reading Who is Jesus Christ? →

Life, the Universe, and Everything from the perspective of a silly little puny human being…

When you look around yourself and start to realize mortality, and the seeming insignificance of life, it’s hard to maintain a healthy “get up and go” attitude.  Especially when you have a lot of time on your hands.
But if you look at things with a Christian perspective, you realize that the reason God gives you “time on your hands” is that He expects you to do something with it, and then share it with other equally fallible and insignificant people.  This is my attempt at that.

After knocking around the religious “churchian” world for a while, you come in contact with many different ministries. most of which start out, at least, with a very good hearted, God centered ideology/doctrine.  That of helping people in crisis, and spreading the Gospel.  But we all suffer from a very human condition: we only see things through our eyes and hear with our ears, and only understand things vaguely through a filter of our own understanding.  Even if God himself sends an angel to sit on our head, and deliver a message with thunder, straight to our heart, we will often stray off with our own ego to fulfill our fleshly yearnings and desires.  At least He gives us grace, thank you God.

But there is one thing I have noticed, both in Christians, and seekers who don’t know him: A fundamental lack of understanding about who and what God really is.  Not that there is some special thing about my perspective, there is just as much lack on my part as anyone’s.
But there is this:
People tend to take doctrines and scriptures as fundamental truths, but they don’t ask themselves, or think about the very concept of “God Almighty”, what does it mean exactly, and how does it effect your relationship to that person?
Because that is the fundamental thing about God, He is a PERSON. Continue reading What is God? →