NT Framework - Angelic Judgement

Do angels need salvation, can they be redeemed from sin if they have committed sin? The answer to that question is no, Christ only died for humans and not angels, and yet what happens to those angels who did sin? Yes, there is judgement for them. And in learning about this we learn more about our Almighty God. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.

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You know, Proverbs says, you know, as you're pulling those weeds, it's just like pulling sin out of your life. You know, it just constantly keeps coming up and finding a way to work into your life. And so it's a picture of that. But that's why when God judges man and nature, both are judged.

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Was Adam the first to sin? Or did sin exist before he was created and placed in the garden? What is the original sin? And to what extent is nature subject to that original sin and to our sin? We're not talking today about humans. We're talking about angels, those other created beings of God that are ever present. We think of our guardian angels who are around here to look after us and to support us, to minister to us. They ministered to Christ in his lifetime. We think about the fallen angels who are here to thwart us, who are working against us and against God's plan. There's a lot to be said about the angelic realm, lessons to be learned about us, about them, but most importantly, about the Creator God. Let's dive into this fascinating topic on angels and how judgment and salvation apply to them.

Ascension And Judgment Salvation Doctrine

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Okay, we've been working on the doctrinal outworking or ramifications of the ascension and session. The ascension, of course, is Acts chapter 1, after the death and resurrection, he makes appearances for over 40 days, and then he lifts off, right? He ascends and he makes his way through the heavenlies and sits down at the right hand of the Father, where he is currently our high priest, awaiting his return when the nation of Israel calls on him, and he will then return and set up his kingdom on earth. And then we will have peace, then we will have righteousness on this earth, and we will reign with him. So some of the one of the major doctrine that is an outworking of this great event is the doctrine of judgment-salvation, which we've seen before in two major events in the Old Testament. So these two major events are first of all the flood, the flood of Noah. You always want to connect that with the doctrine of judgment salvation, because this doctrine basically means whenever God is judging, he's also saving. So these two are twin truths. They're tandem truths, they go together. Whenever God is judging, he's also saving. The second great event after the flood is the Exodus. So the plagues in Egypt, including the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, these all indicate both judgment and salvation. Judgment on those, for example, who didn't put the blood over the door, salvation for those who did. So these go hand in hand, and that sets us up, of course, for the cross, but also for the uh resurrection and the ascension, and this is the outworking of the ascension. That basically the clock is ticking, and we don't know when our time is up. And so we're in a day of grace, and then there's going to be a day of judgment that immediately follows on the world. And we're watching everything ramp up for that, right? I mean, maybe we'll live out our days, but hopefully we won't. Hopefully the Lord will come for us before this. But under the doctrine of judgment salvation, then we've got five truths.

Five Truths Grace Before Judgment

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I've got it organized where you can say, go Pam, you know, and then that means you can remember. There's your little acrostic, G-O-P-A-M, right? Go Pam, okay. Or you can change it to go map or whatever. There's other ones that people have suggested to me. But this is the way I wanted to do it today because on the we just really want to focus on letter E, man and nature being judged. But remember, always grace before judgment. God never just lowers the boom. He gives grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. And then, okay, you've had enough grace. Grace has been spurned. Now there's going to be judgment. Illustrated by the flood, 120 years, illustrated in the Exodus, as Moses would go to the Pharaoh and say, hey, let my people go, and he'd say, No. And then, okay, grace was over. Now it's time for a judgment. So over and over, this is always the case. We now live in a day of grace, right? I mean, God's been delaying judgment for over 2,000 years. And so, or up to 2,000 years. So we're in a period of grace now, but judgment's going to come. Always one way of salvation. I mean, how many arcs were there? You know, this isn't that complicated, right? How many, you know, different ways would the angel of death pass over? Just one, okay? It's always just one way of salvation. There's not multiple ways of salvation. And these Old Testament are Old Testament images in the flood and in the Exodus, these are pictures that set us up to understand that there's one way of salvation, of course. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done for us on the cross. Then, of course, perfect discrimination. This just means that when God judges, there's a perfect discrimination or perfect line between those who are the saved and those who are the unsaved. This was true in the flood. I mean, it was just those eight people who got on the ark. And at the Exodus, it was just those who put blood over the door. There was a perfect discrimination. There was no mistakes. Nobody who was saved got caught up, you know, in the judgment at the flood, or vice versa. Nobody got on the ark that wasn't saved. Okay. So, now that by the way, that doesn't mean that after the flood water started and people were searching for high ground, that people couldn't say, okay, I know it's too late to get on the ark, but I now believe. We're not saying that. A person has an opportunity until the day they die, right? Breathe their life. But as far as the picture, to maintain the picture that we're intended to understand from the Bible, obviously one way of salvation, uh, and perfect discrimination. Then appropriation by faith, it's always by faith. I mean, Noah built an ark because he believed God, that God was going to send a flood, right? And he built it according to the dimensions that God gave him so it could withstand the catastrophic waters of the judgment. So it's always appropriation by faith. I mean, when you put the blood over the door, what were you saying? You're saying, well, God's word is right. I believe God's word. I'm appropriating his promise by faith. So I put the blood over the door. And I do it just as he said. You know, I take a lamb, one year old, unblemished male, and I take that, I cut the throat, I take the blood, we roast the rest, we eat that at Passover, we put the blood over the door. Okay, this is appropriation by faith. It's not by works, it's never by works, right? It's always by faith. And then lastly, and this is the point we want to focus on today, and that's man and nature are judged.

Why Judgment Includes Nature

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Now, this is very important because what we're typically told in our culture today is, well, oh, you're a Christian? Oh, well, that's true for you. Um, that's your belief system. I I tolerate that, I respect that. You know, that's what's true for you. When we talk about salvation and judgment, what we have to understand as Christians and convey to our fellow uh community is that our salvation is not just what I believe. It's not just something that's psychological that goes on within me. It has real effects in history. Okay, so it's not just psychological, it also is related to the physical world around us. When God judges and saves, both man and nature are judged. It's the judgment on nature which is the obvious thing that everybody in the world can see. So again, you go back to the flood, it's very obvious, right? At the flood, what did God judge? He judged man and nature. Um, it wasn't just man, it certainly wasn't a psychological phenomena. It was a judgment on the entire earth, which is now captured in the rocks of the earth, in the geology of the earth. We see the fossils spread throughout the various strata in the sedimentary rock that was laid down by the flood, right? So it's very clear that the judgment was on man and nature. Uh, and uh we see the effects of it. And salvation was also for man and nature because it wasn't just the eight people that got on the ark, it was also two of every kind that had the breath of life, right? Got on the ark to preserve the animal kind. Uh some consider have considered God to be the greatest environmentalist because he's the one that saved the environment and he saved all the animals. And if it wasn't for him, there wouldn't be any animals with the life, the breath of life in them on earth today. They would have all been destroyed. So every animal that you see on earth is descended from the animal and animal pair that was on the ark, right? So God did this. Without him, we wouldn't have them. But that's the point we're trying to indicate. What does the rainbow mean? When we see the rainbow in the sky and they're so beautiful, maybe we could possibly see one today. We get rain in August. What's going on? Um but what does the rainbow mean? It means God will never judge the whole earth again. That's including nature, right? The whole earth again by a global flood, by a global water catastrophe. He'll never do that again. So when we see that, we're reminded of the doctrine of judgment salvation, and then it affects man and nature. Uh, in the Exodus, again, what was judged? Just to quickly cover this. See, it wasn't just man. I mean, what we tend to think of when we come to, let's say, the tenth plague, which is death of the firstborn, we tend to think of, yeah, the firstborn son in that family. The angel of death would pass over and that firstborn son would be saved. But it doesn't just say that, does it? It says firstborn son and cattle. And cattle. And we skip over that because we think, oh, that's not important. Uh, but it is important. Remember the end of Jonah, got brought up this earlier, the last hour, someone was talking about Jonah. But remember in the book of Jonah, the last two verses got Jonah. Jonah's all frustrated that God hasn't destroyed the Ninevehes, right? And he says, Jonah, do you not realize that there's 120,000 people in Nineveh that don't know their right hand from their left? And he says, and many animals. God says, and many animals. I mean, do you just I mean, they have val do that do animals have value in God's eyes? Well, yeah, apparently He He does. He cares a lot about animals. And this is just indicative, again, that the doctrine of judgment and salvation always includes man and nature. Um, when the church is raptured, which, Lord willing, that's today, right? Meaning he'll come for us and we'll be caught up in the air and translated. We won't have to face uh physical death. We just get translated into our resurrection bodies. When that happens, the wrath of God is then going to be poured out on the earth during the day of the Lord. So it's not just poured out on man, it's poured out on man and nature, right? And we look at the book of Revelation, and what do we see described in Revelation 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19? I mean, my goodness, so many chapters, right? And they're talking about the judgments on mankind, but also on nature. Remember, I mean, you've got you've got judgments like the whole, the sea turns to blood, the earth is burned up, everything in the sea, virtually everything, dies. So these are judgments that happen not just on man, but on the creation that man was first placed over. And I think that's the key to understanding why when God judges man and nature, nature is involved too. Because when God made us, he made us to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, you know, to develop the garden and make it fruitful and cultivate it, make it productive, cover the earth in this wonderful garden of Eden, which was just in one region when God first made us. He wanted us to spread that dominion over the whole earth. And when we sinned against God, what happened is God cursed nature so that now nature is rebelling against us. That's why we get the thorns and the thistles, right? It's not just all flowers and you know, great herbs and tomatoes. We get the thorns and the thistles mixed in there with it. And this is God, this is a result of God cursing the earth. And he cursed the earth because he had placed us over the earth. We were to be good stewards of it, and now that we've not been good stewards of it, what he's done is he's cursed nature to remind us that we're rebels against him. Just as nature rebels against us, so what is God saying? He's saying, You rebel against me. I have this real problem in my yard right now. It just drives me absolutely crazy. It's this stuff called spotted spurge that grows everywhere. I hate this stuff. I I I'm like on a I'm like on a bounty to kill this stuff. Uh I even I even got my torch out. I was like, that's it. I already bought this stuff at Ace Hardware and it didn't do anything. I took it back. I said, I want my money back. And I got my torch and I went around and burned this stuff everywhere I saw in the rocks. And then one of my poor wife's little, what's that stuff called, babe? I don't know. One of these things that didn't come back from last year, it just looks like a bunch of twigs now. And I actually I got too close to it, and the whole thing went, it just torched up. It was like this tall, and I was like, water, you know, hose. Okay, I hope my neighbors didn't see that. The thing's just like black, so I just pulled it out of the ground. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to tell this story. But you know, nature rebels against us. This spotted spurge is just like the vein of my existence, right? I figured it out. Now I'm killing that stuff. I've got I've got it down. Um, so you know, we're trying to suppress it. Okay, and you know, uh the proverbs talk about this. So this is just some wisdom from the proverb. When you go out in your garden and everything's growing except the stuff you want to grow, and you have to pull all those weeds out. You know, Proverbs says, you know, as you're pulling those weeds, it's just like pulling sin out of your life. You know, it just constantly keeps coming up and finding a way to work into your life. And so it's a picture of that. But that's why when God judges man and nature, both are judged. It's um all this is is working together. Now, uh let's look at the the the cross. Let's think about this judgment, salvation, right? When was what was God judging in Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension? Well, in his death, of course, he's judging man's sin. He's putting our sin on Christ, right? And he's making the penalty, he's paying the penalty for our sin. But guess what? Nature was also judged, right? Isn't it so interesting that there were three hours on the cross when it was what? Darkness dark. Darkness. Well, isn't that

Weeds Sin And Earth’s Curse

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part of nature? Of course it is. So that's very interesting. But it it shouldn't be a surprise because in the past at the flood, in the past at the Exodus, the judgment salvations involve nature. So what would we expect when we get to the cross? We would expect some judgment on nature as well. And that's what's happening. You've got this darkness for three hours. And then another thing happens during that three hours, and that's the earthquake. Remember, there's an earthquake. And remember, the the centurion looks up and he says, Surely this is this was the Son of God, this is him. Um these things were indicative of God's judgment, salvation. Sorry, I turned off my computer. So the same thing is true here. However, okay, and here's where we get into angels, there's more about God's judgment and salvation than mankind and what we will classify as physical nature. Physical nature, things that are material, composed of atoms and so forth. There are also non-physical aspects of nature. Most people don't we don't think we don't tend to think that way. We tend to think of nature as exclusively material, physical. But there are non-physical aspects of nature. Now this should already be known by all Christians by virtue of the fact that animals have nefesh.

The Cross Judges Nature Too

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This is stated in the Bible. We usually think only man has Nefesh, a soul.

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Okay. Technically, man is a soul, uh what's called a living being. That's what the word nephesh essentially means. But animals also have or are living souls or living beings. Um I've got some passages to look at in a minute, but for example, Genesis 2.19. So that's in the creation account. Genesis 9.10 and Genesis 9 16. Okay. Well, we would all say animals are a part of nature, but what if animals are living beings, that is, their souls? Is that an immaterial component to animals? And we know animals have different personalities. Uh, well, you might call it a dog analogy or a giraffeity or whatever. It's maybe not a personality since they're not persons. But uh but we all know that you know all dogs don't have the exact same, what we might call, personality, right? What where is that coming from? I mean, is is this just material? Is it just physical, or is there an immaterial component to animals? Well, the Bible seems to indicate that there's an immaterial component to them, just as there's an immaterial component to us. The difference, of course, is we're made in God's image and animals are not. We know that. So that's not that's not uh an issue. But so we shouldn't be too surprised to think that there are in fact non-physical aspects of nature. Because there's really only three categories of things. There's God, and we know he's not physical, God is spirit, right? Uh but then we've also got man, and we're a combination of physical and non-physical, and then we have nature. And some things in nature like rocks, they're just physical. But then there are things like animals,

Non Physical Nature And Animal Souls

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and these are physical and non-physical, have different aspects to them. So we shouldn't be too surprised as I go on now to include angels in the non-physical uh aspect of nature. Okay? Now, and and this is super interesting, so there's a lot more to say about that, but I want to give some background on angels, things about their creation, and so forth. So let's do a little background on angels. We're probably gonna take two weeks on this because there's so much about angels.

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And really, as we get into it, what you're gonna realize is that you cannot write a history book without including angels. How many of you ever took some history classes in the public school system? I did.

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Did any of you ever have any discussion in any of those history courses on angels?

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But yet you cannot write a history of the world without the inclusion of angels. Otherwise, it's an inept history. So let's go into angels.

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Now, angels are created by the end of creation week. We know this, Job 38.7. We look at Job 38.7, a famous passage. Job comes right before Psalms, so uh the Psalms. So pick up your Bible and go to Job chapter 38, verse 7, where it's in indicating that they were created before the end of creation week. This is this is just a general statement that they were in existence during creation week.

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Job 38, verse 7.

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He's talking in verse, you know, about the creation there in verse 4. Where were you, God asked Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you know so much, Mr. Job, Mr. Smarty Pants. You know so much? Where were you there? Tell me if you understand it, right? Who set its measurements, the earth's measure measurements? Since you know, Smarty Pants. Who stretched the line on it? Who who measured it? See, like sometimes we can get arrogant and think we know so much. Oh, because I have a PhD. Oh, really? What does that stand for? I'm sure we could come up with another meaning than Doctor of Philosophy or whatever. We don't really know that

Angels Background And Creation Timing

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much. We think we know a lot. We can get arrogant and think we know, but this is saying, hey, hey, were you there? Do you know? Verse 6, on what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone? I mean, who did this? When the and then we have when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. So there's kind of Hebrew parallelism there. You've got the morning stars singing, you've got the sons of God shouting for joy, they're the same group. Sons of God, the Benei Elohim, is the concept of angels in the Old Testament. So they're also referred to as stars, and you're going to see angels are often connected with the stars in the universe and things like that. It's it's very interesting, which is another part of nature. So they're often connected and associated with nature. Super interesting, these creatures that we rarely think about, but are highly involved in what is taking place as we speak. So when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, they were there during creation week and they sung for joy. Now, as far as their creation the exact time, it's difficult. If you look at Genesis 1 and 2, what's interesting about Genesis 1 1 and 1 2 is that in 1 2 the focus turns to the earth. I mean, 1 1, we all should have that verse memorized, right? I think most Christians probably have it memorized, just never even never even tried to memorize it. You just know. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? I mean, but then it says something, and there's dispute on the grammar here, the the wa plus noun, but anyway. The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. You notice at the beginning of verse 2, it shifted to just talk about the earth. Right? I mean, in verse 1, created the heavens and the earth. Now, I would, there's a lot of discussion about this. Obviously, this is not a class on Hebrew grammar of Genesis 1, 2, but it's a wa plus noun, which is a disjunctive clause, which basically means it's circumstantial. This is, in other words, it's describing the circumstances that were there. I would say after verse 1. In other words, what's happening in verse 1 is God is creating the whole thing at one moment in time. And then in verse 2, the focus becomes the earth. And most of Genesis 1 is about the earth. I mean, right? Not everything. I mean, he stretches out, you know, the waters above, separates from the waters below. So there, and there's atmosphere and the birds, there's like galaxies and things are placed in the heavens. So, but most of the focus is on the earth. And so, for this reason, in view one of the creation of the angels, well, there's this view that says basically they were created somewhere here during creation week. The problem is, of course, is that where? Because if you read Genesis 1 and go into chapter 2, you're like, well, I didn't see angels anywhere. You never read about angels or cherubs or seraphim or none of the spirits. You never read of anything that's related to angels being discussed directly. So for a long time I basically held the idea that, well, they've got to be in there somehow. And I just don't know where. And I solicited day one as the most probable day. Because in Job 38, 7, they're singing for joy. It's when he laid the foundations of the earth. That's day three. So I said, well, they've got to be there by day three. And I think day one is the best day. I would just say, well, when he created the heavens and the earth in verse one, he created the angels too. And I went to chapter 2, verse 1, and I said, This could be used to prove that, because 2.1 says, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their what? Hosts. And I said, Well, maybe the angels are included in the host because sometimes they're called the hosts of heaven. Also, though, that's not sureproof because sometimes stars and things like that are referred to as the hosts of heaven. So it's not a sureproof proof. And then, of course, uh I would turn to Exodus 20, the giving of the law, the Ten Commandments. And there, when he gives the Sabbath, he says, to keep the Sabbath, because in six days God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. And what? All. So I said, Well, I mean, he must have created the angels because they dwell in the heavens, right? And so I guess they were created during Creation Week, maybe on day one. That's my best guess. Now, another view that came to my attention, actually only about five years ago, five or six years ago, and I'm surprised I'd never seen this, but one of my good friends in Kansas City, a pastor, he was teaching this, and he's discussing the creation of the angels, and he says, I think they it's possible they were created prior to creation week. And yet his view is not like a gap view. You know, everybody may be familiar that some people think a big gap of time or a short gap of time are between Genesis 1.1 and 1-2. Okay. But he it wasn't that idea. He wasn't trying to get that idea across at all. He's just saying that that God had already created the angels prior to creation week, and then he began to create. Okay, this is what we call the seven days. And his point was basically: look, there's nothing in here about angels. And there's not. There's just not. Nothing explicit about angels in the six days of creation and one day of rest. But we know they're there because of Job 38, 7. So he postulated that, and others have too, that they were created before, and the focus in verse 2 is on the earth and everything relative to the earth. And the angels just aren't included in that. And so they're there, but you know, you don't see them in Genesis 1. And I think this is an interesting uh story because if you do go through Genesis 1, you find out that there are two heavens. You don't know about the third heaven, you don't know about it because it's not discussed. You read about the first heaven, that's where the birds fly on day five, and you read about the starry heavens, that's where the stars are on day four. But you don't read anything about a third heaven. Uh so, but if that's where the angels dwell, then that would make sense. He didn't talk about them in Genesis 1. So maybe this view is true. Okay? Possible. Possible. I'm open to either one of these. Um they're both possible in my viewpoint, but I think the second one has more evidence. Now, uh, we know angels are not made in God's image because only one being was ever crafted in the image of God, and that's the human being, right? We are the only things in God's creation made in his image, and so they are not. But they're they're not God. We know God is not an angel.

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God is not created, he's self-existent. Angels are created, they're dependent on God.

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So what I've done is lump them in with nature, and that's because of their close association with nature in so many uh descriptions. So, as I mentioned, there can be non-physical aspects of nature animals themselves have souls. Um they may be the archetype, angels may be the archetypes of animals, because when you see some angels, aren't they described as angel parts? Like if you look at Isaiah 6, Isaiah in the days of Uzziah, Isaiah chapter 6 describes these seraphim, which is one of the classes of angels. So they have various ranks and rules, rules, uh, rulers within the angelic realm. In Isaiah 6, 1, in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his feet, with two he flew, and one called out to another, and it goes on and on, right? And you have these strange descriptions of them being having wings. Okay, then you go over to places like Revelation 4, and they've got like eyes, like all these eyes, hundreds of eyes. And one has the face of a lion, you know, and things like that. And you go, Why are angels so closely connected to the animal realm? There seems to be something here. Perhaps angels were created first, and they became the archetypes for the animals that God created during Creation Week. And I think I mentioned my mentor, Charlie Clough, his son, one of his sons, actually did become a veterinarian, and he wanted to become a veterinarian when he was a little boy because he wanted to study angel parts. He thought that would be interesting, and so he did that. But that's that's a possibility. They also have a close connection with the wind and fire, and they're spirit beings. You know, you have wind, you have spirit, um, you have fire, which, you know, that's what's going on there. They're flaming messengers of fire, we're told in Psalm 104, verse 4. And of course, wind and fire are both aspects of nature. So there seems to be some connection between nature and angels. So I've lumped them in with uh nature.

Satan’s Fall And The First Sin

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Now, of course, there's a fall of Satan. We have them in Genesis. They were there, they were singing at creation, Job 38. But you have a fall of the angels. So we're going to turn over to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28.

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Of course, the third of those, it's all described over in Revelation 12.

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But Ezekiel 28 does something, another very interesting linkage. Not only are they linked with nature, but somehow they're closely associated with political powers, with political administrations, with the governments of nations. Ezekiel 28, verse 11 is a lament, right? A lament over the king of Tyre. But as you read it, you think, well, this can't be referring simply to the king of Tyre. This has to be referring to someone behind the king of Tyre, the real energizing force behind the king. We read in verse 11, again, the word of the Lord came to me, that's Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre 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. And you start to think, what? That can't just be the normal king of Tyre. This has to be someone before him, because obviously this king was not in Eden, in the Garden of Eden, as we know it. But someone else was, right? And so we think this is Satan, right? A description of Satan, who was the energizing uh force behind the king of Tyre and his administration. You know, Tyre is basically where Lebanon is today, where they're evacuating people now because they're afraid of all these repercussions that are going to result from Iran's uh proxy, Hezbollah, and their war against Israel. So, I mean, these are hot pockets in the world, and they're still there. And yet at this time, who was behind the king there was Satan, the one who originally was perfect. See? In verse 13, he's describing him, every precious stone was your covering, the ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, the jasper, the lapis lazuli. I mean, he Satan was the crown of God's angelic creation. He was the most beautiful angel ever created. And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and the sockets was in you on the day that you were created. They were prepared. You were the anointed cherub. Do you know what that word anointed means?

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Messiah. You were the messianic cherub. I mean, talk about a high position. He held the highest position of all the angels.

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And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until and there it is.

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Until unrighteousness was found in you.

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By the abundance of your trade, you were internally filled with violence and you sinned. This is the origin of sin.

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The origin of sin wasn't in the you know Adam, right? The origin of sin took place before Adam.

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Some people say, Well, uh if you ask them, well, how did you know the human race became sinful? Satan did it. That's what they'll say, Satan did it.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

It's Satan's fault. Well, here's the problem with that answer. Whose fault was it that Satan sinned before that? There was nobody there to do anything to tempt him or anything. See, it's not Satan's fault that sin entered the human race. It was Adam's fault. Adam should have detected the deception and said no.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

And he had every capacity to do so. Sin began it begins within, okay, it begins inside. And yeah, Adam had as someone who was there tempting him. But Satan didn't. Satan didn't have anyone outside of him tempting him. He just internally, as we'll see in Isaiah 14, was filled with pride. So this is a description of him as he was originally created, and then of course, he was found to have unrighteousness within him. Internally, it says, he was filled with violence. Let's turn to Isaiah because Isaiah turned to the left. Isaiah 14, Isaiah tells us more about this original sin, not the original sin of man. It started in the angelic realm.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Isaiah chapter 14.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

This is a similar type of uh taunt where you have a king involved, but it's really someone behind the king who's who's holding all the cards and making all the plays. You know, the the political powers that be, they're not neutral. They're not spiritually neutral. Ephesians chapter 2 tells us tells us that Satan is at work in the sons of disobedience. It doesn't say he's at work on them, it says he's at work in them. Imagine how much power angels, fallen angels, are exerting through the political rulers of our day. And it's not it shouldn't be a surprise. I'll talk about some things that are unique, strange things in our world that kind of evidence this when we get to first kings.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

But here in Isaiah 14, verse 2. No, not verse 2. What's that? Verse 12, sorry. Yeah, 10 verses off.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Um you have fallen from heaven, O Star of the Morning, Son of the Dawn. This is one of the titles that ironically, this was a title for Satan, Star of the Morning, but if you look in your little footnotes, you'll see that's used again over in Revelation 2 or 3, as a title of the Messiah. He's the star of the morning. And remember, this is talking about the messianic cherub. So he originally held this title. He doesn't hold it anymore. It's now only held by the Messiah. So how you have fallen, O star of the morning, son of the dawn, you have been cut down to the earth. You who have weakened the nations. See, can you write a history of the nations without including Satan in it? Not according to this verse. You could never write that history, because the weakness of the nations is attributed to Satan. But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the north, recesses of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and here it is. This is it. This is the epitome of sin. The epitome of sin is not theft.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

The epitome of sin is not sexual immorality. The epitome of sin is I will become God. I am God. I am ultimate. I can transgress my limited creature boundaries, and I can become the creator. The creature can become the creator, I will be God. I will set the terms, I will determine my future. No, you won't.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

We don't do anything like that. Satan tried that. He's the one who first believed that lie. I will make myself like the Most High. Okay, this is the heart of all sin. And you you you do this. Okay, whenever you sin, what you're trying to do is you're trying to create something by means of your sin, and you're also trying to be free from the consequences of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

That's what you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

You're trying to create your own little playground where you don't, you're not subject to any of the rules that God has set in place.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

I mean, if you could do one thing, if you could do one sin that, and the the main thing that you would want to accomplish with that sin is to get away with it. Where there's no repercussion. You're in the free and clear. But if you're if you're in the free and clear, there's nobody there who's over you to judge you.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

To whom you're ultimately responsible, are you? See, that's what's really going on in the heart of us in our sinful disposition toward God. It's that we want to be God. That's what we want. And so this was what happened in Satan. And that's this is where sin started. And of course, he brings along a third of the angels with him, according to Revelation 12. But we still hear this lie in other forms today. When people say, just believe in yourself. Well, what's that saying? It's saying, well, you're the highest creature to believe in. There's nobody above you that's worth believing in. So you're the highest creature.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Believe in yourself. Uh trust your heart. This is another lie from the pit of hell. Trust your heart.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Which means what? There's no higher object that's worthy of your trust. So you are the highest object, therefore, trust in yourself. And these lies are there every single day.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Believe in yourself. Trust in your heart.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

That's the last thing you want to do. Once you've come to understand by the grace of God that that's not a good place to put your trust in. So that's the fall of Satan and a third of the angels, and now we have them behind the political powers and nations of the world manipulating, coercing. And it's much more complicated than just looking out and seeing what we typically see in the news. There's a lot more going on. Let's go to, you know, I'm going to do a whole lesson on this one point, so I'm just going to read it, and next week we're going to delve into this one. From that day forward, that's the fall of Satan. From that day forward, Satan and the fallen angels have been in an organized war against God, men, and fallen angels. Or good angels, sorry. They attempt to stop evangelism, destroy believers, accuse believers in heaven, and manipulate political rulers in order to control the culture and the spirit of civilization. The basic strategy of Satan is to deceive the world into thinking God is an unjust liar. So we'll just spend next week on that. How about that? Let's go

Angels Behind Nations And Culture

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on. Let's look at angels in the pre-flood world. We looked at angels at creation and then their fall. What about angels in the pre-flood world? Very interesting story. They're there, right? Look at Genesis 3.24. They show up very quickly after the fall.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

This will be the first reference after the serpent. Genesis 3.24.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

After Adam had sinned, his wife was there, she ate the fruit, and she said, Hey, honey, you want some of this? And he said, Oh, yeah, you didn't die when you ate it, so let me try it. Let's see what happens. It was a bad idea. They were there together, by the way. It wasn't like he was on the other side of the garden or something. Genesis 3.24. So he drove the man out, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, east comes to mean in the Bible, like uh the direction that goes away from God. Like the tabernacle was always situated a particular way on earth. Every time they broke camp and then set up camp, right? They'd have to set up the tabernacle again.

Cherubim Guard Eden With The Sword

SPEAKER_02 42:52

And they set it up in a particular orientation wherever they went. And the way that went away from God, like out the one entry, was out the east. Okay? Same thing for the temple when the Solomonic temple was built. It was built in a specific orientation so that when you went out, you were going east. You can go there today and still see that that's what it was like up on the Temple Mount. So she goes, verse 24, drives the man out east of the garden. By the way, that means there was only one way in and one way out, right? Just like a tabernacle temple. I'll call this a garden temple. There's a lot of garden temple imagery here. It was a real garden, but there's really only one way in and one way out. So they're driven out the east, and he stationed, there it is, the cherry beam, right? And they were given the flaming sword. Now, eem in Hebrew, like cherry beam, em means plural. So it's more than one. We don't know how many. I mean, it could be two, it could be 200, it could be two million. I mean, I have no idea. But I know that it's plural, and I know. That they're giving the flaming sword. What's the significance of the sword in the Bible? We see it in Romans 13 when it talks about our governing rulers that they have the sword. It signifies the right to capitally punish. Because I mean, what's a sword for?

SPEAKER_01 44:16

I mean, is that there just to play around with? Or is that to execute?

SPEAKER_02 44:23

It's a weapon of execution. And they had the power of capital punishment. There was no human government at this time. Human government doesn't begin till after the flood. So in the time from the fall of man up through the flood, those who had the power of the sword were angels. So you may say, well, this is a really weird uh world. I mean, you had angels there, and they're guarding this gate, this way to the tree of life, right? And there's no way in, and if you try to get in, I mean, obviously what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 44:59

You're not gonna make it. Um these cherubs are not the little things you see in Hallmark. Um I mean if you read some actual descriptions of them, they're quite fierce and remarkable beings.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

And in many cases seem to be extremely large, such as those who guard the gates to the New Jerusalem. But they have the power of the sword. So during this time, they're again linked closely to governing, ruling, they have this function, they have this desire for power. And of course, they're when then God created them, they were created in ranks. So they had they have this whole concept of authority structure within their ranks. They have the concept of rule governing, and you can then begin to imagine the types of impacts they will have on human government later as things develop in history. And that's why you can't write a history without writing about angels. They're deeply involved in this. Um their whole role of governing during this period leading up to the flood may have been what set the stage for the strange intermarriage in Genesis 6. So let's turn over to Genesis 6.

Genesis 6 And The Nephilim Puzzle

SPEAKER_02 46:16

We've got this strange passage that everybody discusses, and some people are satisfied, and like some like myself are not totally satisfied with how this should be understood because it's just such a weird thing. I mean, I was a biologist. Um, that's what I did, my background biologist and chemistry. I did chemistry study. This is what I did. So I was deeply involved in deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid and translation and all these things into proteins, and I was involved in you know, the genetics and you know, the chromosomes and your nucleus, you know, all that stuff. So, so interesting. I still love all this stuff. But so, what is it that exactly happens here in Genesis 6? You read in verse 1, it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land. So we have tremendous population growth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God, which is typically a word used for angels. Okay, the Beni I Elohim. Ben, meaning son, I Elohim, sons of God. Uh, we saw them in Job 38, 7, right? At creation, the sons of God shouted for joy. So is this, is are these angels here? It says that they saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose. Is this a, let's just call it, a strange intermarriage between angels and human women? And you know, obviously that, as I said, as a biologist and just as a normal person, you say, well, this is this would be really weird. Um, obviously, because the angels would would have to take on a physical form to the extent they would they would have physical DNA that had the 23 chromosomes that humans have, so that they could actually, you know, have male and female chromosomes link up and produce a viable offspring. So all that is is saying uh uh an extraordinary amount because the DNA is extremely complicated. It's basically a language, right? That God built into us that's a program for how to make things, how to build things, that to build us and to keep building every day, right? The healing, everything that's going on. So it's very complicated. And you say, well, is this angels that saw these beautiful women and took some of them for themselves? That's a word of force, by the way. They took for themselves wives. And then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he's also flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be 120 years. That's the grace, right, before the judgment. In other words, God's going to judge the world because of these strange intermarriages. Verse 4 says, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards. So we suppose this is the offspring of those marriages, the Nephilim, called the fallen ones. That's just a Hebrew word for the fallen ones. There's Eam again, right? Plural. So the fallen ones, which we think, well, this could be the result of this strange intermarriage. And it says, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown, which is the Hebrew word Giberim. David had his mighty men who went and fought with him when he was trying to escape Saul, right? And these um Nephilim were known as the Giberim in that day. And it seems like they were the results perhaps of this strange intermarriage, and that they were became very powerful in the world before the flood. And then it's as a result of this that God decided, okay, I'm that it's become so evil and so wicked that I'm going to send a flood and I'm going to do away with these results of this intermarriage and and start over with Noah and his family. This yeah, that's one approach to this passage, but um and that's highly possible. If so, then what what what would be the purpose of this intermarriage, right? Uh why would uh these angels want to intermarry with these daughters of men to corrupt the human gene pool? This is basically the the normal argument that's made. That this was the first experiment of genetic engineering and that it was carried out by fallen angels and they attempted to destroy the seed line of the woman, which was to bring about the Messiah. Because if you can destroy and corrupt the the human gene pool, then the Messiah can't be a true human. And that's the idea. And if he's not a true human, then he can't die for you, and he can't die for me, because he's not a real human. And so this is one explanation of this, and it's an interesting exploration to go into this because God did set them up as the governing authorities in the world before the flood. And so they had this these relationships with human beings. You know, we we we don't think of that. We think, what are you talking about? I mean, where where is a world in which you have immortal angels living with mortal men? Well, here's the world before the flood. Then you've also got in the future, this is actually gonna happen again in a similar way. In the millennial kingdom, you and I are gonna be in resurrection bodies. We're gonna be immortal, and yet we're gonna be dwelling among mortals. So something like this has already happened in the days before the flood, and of course, it's gonna happen again. So, this is an interesting story on angels and their interactions with people in history prior to the flood, which was the main cause of God's sending a flood. Let's talk a little bit about angels and Israel. Actually, we're kind of out of time. So let's just stop here. Then we're gonna get into angels and Israel, and I'm gonna take you to some very interesting, interesting things that angels can do. But um because they're not just like limited like we are. So their ability to do certain things that are far beyond our imagination are described in the Old

Cross And Ascension Judge Fallen Angels

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Testament. But this is all a setup because what we have to do in this course is, of course, we have to have a doctrine of angels. So this is where I'm inserting it, right? And the reason is because when Jesus goes to the cross, remember, this is all about the doctrine of judgment, salvation. These fallen angels have to be judged, right? What goes on at the cross? What does the New Testament describe when Jesus died on the cross? Of course, he judged our sin. Of course, nature was judged too. Remember, it got dark and there were earthquakes. There was an earthquake. But something also happened with that non-metaphysical part of nature that we call angels. And Colossians 2 talks about it, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:04

Where he disarms them.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

So there was a judgment also on angels that was taking place on the cross. And then, of course, at his ascension, he passes through the heavenlies where these demonic beings dwell, and he takes his seat high above all of them, in the highest position of authority at the right hand of the Father. He now sits at the helm of the universe. But it's interesting because they're still roaming around. This is what we'll get to eventually, right? They're still roaming around seeking to devour 1 Peter 5.8. I mean, they're they're involved deeply in history right now. And so this is very important, I think, information for the upcoming election. You know, there's way more going on than meets the eye, to steal a phrase from you know whatever those comic books and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

More than meets the eye, or Transformers, or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Um there's so much more going on. And you know, yet we don't know this as Christians unless it's the grace of God that He's revealed these things to us. I mean, this isn't something we figure out on our own, like I came to this conclusion. Um, it's not that way at all. We we don't know anything about that unless God has revealed us these things. And so we have to approach this whole topic humbly. But we have to say, thank you, God, that you are opening our eyes to see wonderful things.

Prayer For Leaders And Closing

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I mean, do we need to be praying for people in authority? Kings and rulers and presidents and people in the cabinet and people in Congress and people in the Supreme Court and in the House of Representatives? Do we need to be praying for the people? Oh, yeah, we we desperately need to be praying for these people. This is this is part of the major battle that's being fought behind the scenes right now. And does it impact us? We all know it impacts us. We all sense that, how powerfully it impacts our daily life. So, you know, what kind of world are our kids going to grow up in? What kind of world are our grandkids gonna grow up in, you know? And, you know, how do we enter into this battle? Well, we do so with prayer, right? That's how we enter in.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spoke and Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.