Angels
The Bible says even less about angels than it does about heaven. This is not a fault in Scripture. All that we need to know for salvation is given (II Tim. 3:15-17). What would only satisfy our curiosity is not told us. In speaking of angels therefore we must avoid speculation and be content with what the Bible teaches and learn from it.
We know that angels are spirits and that heaven is their home. We also know from Scripture the names of two angels, Gabriel and Michael. There are different kinds of angels—archangels, cherubim and seraphim for example—and different ranks of angels, as the word archangel suggests (cf. also Col. 1:16: “thrones … dominions … principalities … powers”).
Scripture also implies that different angels have different tasks. Michael is a captain, warrior and prince (Dan. 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7). Gabriel always appears as a messenger (Luke 1:19, 26). Seraphim are angels who praise in God’s presence (Isa. 6:1-6) and cherubim are guardians of God’s glory and honour (Gen. 3:24; Ex. 25:18-22; Eze. 10).
Scripture also tells us that there are many angels, though many of them fell with Satan. Hebrews 12:22 speaks of an “innumerable company.” Hebrews 12:22 also teaches, as do other passages, that angels will have a part in the glory of the new heavens and the new earth.
Beyond these things we know very little. What we do know however is deeply comforting. All that the Bible says about angels can be summed up in the words of Hebrews 1:14: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” What a wonderful truth.
The chief function of the angels therefore is to be God’s servants in helping God’s people and bringing them salvation. That is why angels were present at all the great events of our redemption: Christ’s birth (Luke 2;13-14), His temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:11), His agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43), His resurrection (Matt. 28:2-6) and His ascension (Acts 1:10-11). They will be present too when He comes again to take His people to Himself (Matt. 25:31).
Their deep interest in our salvation and final glory is also described in I Peter 1:12. There the word says that they “desire to look into” the things spoken by the prophets concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. What a beautiful testimony to their concern for our salvation.
Nor do we need our eyes opened like Elisha’s servant to “see” these ministering spirits and their horses and chariots of fire all around us (II Kings 6:17). Though we cannot see them, we know they are there. God tells us that in His word. Rev. Ron Hanko
Corporate and Personal Responsibility (4)
“In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge” (Jer. 31:29-30).
“I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Ex. 20:5).
In the last article on this subject we noticed that the truth of Exodus 20:5 (God’s “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children”) is not only taught elsewhere in Scripture but is also a truth that applies to nations, realms and families.
This truth is not hard to see in life itself.
An alcoholic father brings great grief upon his family. They suffer for his sin even though they themselves are not drunkards and may in fact abhor drunkenness.
When the leaders of a nation declare war, many may oppose it and disagree with the decision to go to war; yet we are responsible nonetheless for the government’s decision. Our sons have to go to battle, our homes are bombed and our lives are endangered.
When the broader ecclesiastical bodies of a denomination make decisions contrary to the word of God every member of that denomination bears responsibility for what those broader assemblies decide. He may not like it, he may disagree with the decision, but he is responsible for it and must share in the judgment of God upon that denomination.
This can be shown beyond any doubt.
When a church makes decisions contrary to the word of God, that church begins on the road to apostasy. Unless there is repentance and a return to orthodoxy, the church drifts farther and farther from the ways of righteousness and truth.
The members of that church drift along with it. Parents may be fiercely opposed to the decisions that are made, but if they remain in the church they bear responsibility for what the church has done and they will find that God visits their iniquity upon their children. Their children will depart along with the denomination. The parents themselves may be saved but unless there is repentance their generations are lost.
This truth has often been called corporate responsibility.
Most people do not like to hear it, but it is true whether we like it or not.
We are responsible for the decisions and actions of the corporate bodies to which we belong, whether families, nations or churches. When the decisions are wrong, we also share in the guilt of that wrongness.
The only way to be freed from that corporate guilt is to dissociate ourselves from the corporation as far as that is possible. If it is a church, we must leave. If it is a nation we cannot leave, we can dissociate ourselves by condemning the evils that are present and by praying for repentance. God will not punish us if we dissociate ourselves from evil.
It is easy to see that these principles are important, especially in church life.
I have personally known parents whose hearts were broken by the apostasy of their children, yet a large share of their sorrow was that they stayed in churches where the truth was no longer taught and where apostasy had eaten like a cancer into the vitals of the church. They saw the consequences of their deeds in their children and came to understand what it means that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Prof. Herman Hanko
Does the Bible Teach Soul Sleep?
One of our readers has asked about “soul-sleep” in connection with such passages as Ecclesiastes 9:5 (“the dead know not any thing”), I Thessalonians 4:14-17 (“them which are asleep”) and John 3:13 (“no man hath ascended up to heaven”). Soul-sleep is the teaching that the dead do not experience conscious glory or torment immediately after death but pass into a state of unconsciousness until the final resurrection.
This teaching has often been condemned by the church as heretical and even today is more characteristic of the cults (e.g.. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists) than of Christianity.
The passages listed above fall into three categories: those that speak of death as “sleep” (I Thess. 4:14-17; cf. Matt. 9:24; 27:52; John 11:11; Acts 13:36), those that seem to teach we are unconscious after death (Eccl. 9:5; cf. Ps. 6:5; Job 3:11-18) and those that seem to give no hope of glory immediately after death (John 3:13, cf. John 8:21-22; Ps. 88:10-12).
All these passages, taken together, might seem persuasive except that the Bible so clearly teaches that we shall have conscious glory with Christ immediately after death.
One of the clearest passages is Luke 23:43: “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” These are Jesus’ words to the penitent thief. Jesus also spoke to him of “paradise,” a name for heaven that emphasizes its bliss. This shows that Jesus did not teach soul-sleep. Earlier in Luke, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) also contradicts soul-sleep.
Other passages also speak of conscious fellowship with Christ immediately after death: Philippians 1:21-24 and II Corinthians 5:6-8. Philippians 1:21-24 is especially important. Paul says that death is “gain” and that being with Christ is “far better” than this life, neither of which would be true if we were unconscious after death.
Revelation 6:9 speaks of the “souls” of the martyrs crying to God for vengeance, Revelation 7:15 of their serving God “day and night in his temple” and Revelation 14:13 of their resting from their labours. Hebrews 12:22-23 speaks of our coming to an “innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn … and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” All of these leave no room for soul-sleep.
Finally, II Corinthians 5:1-4 tells us that when we leave this life we will not be left “unclothed.” Having given up our earthly tabernacle, “we [shall] have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” If nothing else, this passage teaches that we continue to “live” in heaven as truly as we lived on earth.
The passages that speak of death as “sleep” therefore reassure believers that the dissolution of their bodies is not the end, nor even something fearful, but like a brief night’s sleep for the body before the dawning of a new day.
The difficult passages that seem to teach forgetfulness and unconsciousness after death may be teaching one of several things: 1) that there is no remembrance of this life after death, 2) that in death the trials of this present life are left behind and “forgotten” or 3) (cf. Ps. 6:5) that after death there is no more hope of salvation.
Soul-sleep therefore is not only unbiblical and heretical but also a teaching that takes away from believers much of the comfort they need in dying. Rev. Ron Hanko
