ANGELS OF PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE
Revelation 1:1 “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
So, John was enabled to write in great detail a history in advance, of world events from his day until the completion of God’s purpose.
We find more references to angels in this last book (Revelations) of the bible than in any of the other 65 books. The ministry of angels still continues from the old testament times into our own era and beyond.
God’s angels convey God’s instructions, we have already seen in Sodom and Gomorrah that sometimes these instructions are not always benign, that does not mean that angels can be ‘good or bad’ as some try to describe them (rebellious or fallen angels). If there were such a thing as that then that would make the Lord’s prayer a lie; “Matthew 6:9-13. NIV. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,10 your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”. So, no fallen angels, no Satan, no devil, no lucifer, old nick or other names. The devil was once described to me thus: “if you want to see the devil, look in the mirror”! I was around ten years of age and of course, while no one was looking I stared into the mirror for ages as defiant young boy would. I remember, I was both puzzled that I didn’t see one and yet secretly relieved one didn’t turn materialise!
Some think there is a god of good and a god of evil. The scriptures are quite clear on that; Isaiah 45:7 “I (God) form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things”. In the Hebrew old testament, the word Malak is translated both as messenger and as angel in order to show whether a human or divine messenger is meant. The prophet Malachi’s name means my messenger, because he was a human messenger for God. In the new testament the Greek word is aggelos (pronounced angelos) and this is sometimes used for human messengers. In the following verses human messengers were clearly intended” Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, Luke 7:24, 27, Luke 9:52, 2 Corinthians 12:7 and James 2:25 and so the word angel is not used.
