Tentpegs

I think I’ve sterilized this question so that the congregation can’t be determined. It is a follow up to the last question I answered last week.

I’ll try to update sometime this weekend. I just got back in town and I am snowed under with work, meetings, and a wedding. My computer didn’t want me to connect to Tentpegs when I was in my hotel for some reason so I haven’t updated this page for awhile. Sorry! I’ll get on it as soon as I can…

This is somewhat of a landmark. Fifty questions. I wasn’t aware, when I started this series, that there would be this many questions fired off. I’m enjoying this and hope you are, too. This particular individual — unless I miss my guess — is not a happy person right now.

Why does the church cater to culture instead of challenging it? (i.e. why big buildings, fancy pews, multimedia, praise teams, unchallenged teen clothing, self focused…)

I love this kind of question. Whoever asked it probably did so honestly and unaware of the irony locked into it; how much it reveals a deep problem, a yawning, wide dichotomy, in their own minds. Let’s take this bit by bit.

Why does the church cater to culture instead of challenging it?

The first thing we need to do is to address a serious historical error — a myth — that lives inside of most of us. This myth goes something like this: once upon a time there was a clean and pristine world/church/media. People were better, the rules were followed, and life was good. Then, we allowed the world to get everything dirty and now the only way to save ourselves is to run back to that pristine time.

You find this myth in discussions of religion, politics, the environment, and culture. For example, many hearken back to the days of the Native Americans and call for us to return to their ways; ways that respected the land, lived out in peace and cooperation. When we go back and actually do the work of history and archeology, we find that Native Americans were skilled torturers, often torturing their own or other tribe members for days on end as an entertainment for the tribe (including the women and kiddies). They hunted animals to extinction, routinely killing more than they needed, and left huge trash heaps behind that we are still sorting through. This isn’t mean to be slam against Native Americans; this is a slam against the myth that the old days were wonderful.

You find all kinds of people who want to roll back technology or pile on new laws to take us back to a more environmentally blessed time, but what happens? We get the poor lad in "Into the Wild", and countless others who forget that nature isn’t a Disney movie, you don’t get honey by squeezing bears, and the real world bites back. We get the Unabomber who hates technology and, therefore, ironically, uses it to harm others to prove his point. We get Thoreau who called us back to Walden Pond, all the while receiving frequent food baskets and supplies from others who stayed in town and worked. We end up with Mormons, Nazarenes, the Oneida Community, the New Harmony sect, etc. who believed that we could return to a pristine church or a pristine order of life… only to end up somewhere else.

You want to restore the New Testament church? Which one? I’d vote for Philippi, but I’d advise against Corinth or Thessalonika.

And, besides, who says the 1st- 3rd century church wasn’t affected by its culture? They sang hymns that were loved and shared in that culture. They wore clothes that looked like other peoples’ clothes in that culture (show up at Ephesus while Paul is preaching and even he’d stop, speechless, at one look at your sport coat and tie). They sat in comfortable homes, often on chairs (or else, how could James accuse some of saying "sit here under my footstool"?), and ate together, sometimes lavishly. If they could have had our pews and air conditioning, they would have jumped at the chance! They got as comfortable as their technology and funds allowed. If we do the same, how is that a problem? Should we stand up the whole time like the Orthodox? That is their culture, not ours. Should we sit on the floor? Some peoples do, but that is their culture. See how this works?

Oh, and while they enjoyed those homes, they considered themselves Jews or Gentiles. They worshiped differently according to their culture. Jews were used to sitting quietly and listening but Gentiles were more spontaneous, wild, and enthusiastic. Paul warned both groups, in no uncertain terms, that neither was to criticize the other’s culture (Romans 14:1-15:7, for one example). When the elders in Jerusalem were asked a lot of loaded questions about these things, they made the absolute minimum rules, allowing each group to retain their cultural distinctives.

If this questioner were to be dropped into a first century worship, they would be intensely uncomfortable. Sermons were long and sometimes offered by several people. Songs could break out at any time, sometimes sung by one, sometimes by a group, sometimes by all. Reports and reading of scripture and requests for prayer could come at any time (we get a lot of this info from Roman sources who sent spies into the Christian community and sent back written reports). No one wore dresses, suits, ties, or trousers…but that was the culture of the day.

Let’s be honest: what the questioner really wants is a return to the culture they liked best. Sorry, that’s not the way the church or God works.

…big buildings, fancy pews…

Are big buildings a sign of our capitulation to culture or are they a nod to reality? Is it reasonable to put money into something like buildings? I don’t care for spending too much on buildings, but I understand their usefulness when they are truly used – daily — to serve others in the Name of Jesus. If the questioner is asking "is it acceptable to spend money on things like this?" let them beware: they are sounding like an echo of the one who questioned the woman who anointed Jesus with spikenard. It looked to be a horrible waste of money, but it wasn’t wasted because it was offered to Jesus. Maybe some of the money we pour into buildings, missionaries, programs, VBS’s, etc. looks like it was wasted, but it wasn’t if it was offered to Jesus.

…multimedia…

Like song books? When Campbell, Scott, Johnson, and Stone made a little song book for their churches, some left because they didn’t like this multi-media nonsense. We use video, drama, PowerPoint, Media Shout, air conditioning, handouts, printed bulletins, etc. because we want to reach people. If we sing a hymn to honor PowerPoint, that would be a problem. If we use PowerPoint to honor Jesus, that can only be good.

A note about singing and multimedia and praise teams. Once upon a time, songs were used by communities as entertainment. If you saw the movie "Amazing Grace" you saw a member of Parliament standing up and singing a verse of that hymn to his contemporaries. That doesn’t happen today… we live in a different culture. Communities gathered to sing and even printed their own songbooks (these were mainly secular, folk, or patriotic songs). There wasn’t much music around, unless you could afford a radio and antenna, so any chance to hear singing was a real treat. People would come out to hear songs in the same way they would come out to see the wares on a traveling merchant’s cart. Now that we have malls and iPods, neither of those gets much of an audience.

In my generation, it was the law: wherever two to four teens gather, there must be one guitar. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the law, but it may as well have been. Hordes of manic depressive minstrels wafted over the plains, sometimes coalescing into horrible incarnations such as Up With People. Kids knew four part harmony and understood their parents’ music (Kingsmen, Four Brothers) because their own music (Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles) also treasured harmo
ny. In today’s culture, four part harmony is no more interesting to people than is a return to Sacred Harp or Shaped Note music. We can be sad about that, but we cannot reverse it unless we want to turn our churches into museums.

So how do people learn to sing today? They learn by watching and imitating… making PowerPoint and praise teams exactly the way to go if you want your congregation to sing (no, it isn’t for everyone, but it works for a lot of us).

…unchallenged teen clothing…

Hard to know what this one means. If you mean the kids that don’t so much put on their clothes as shrink wrap themselves, yes, we need to challenge them. If you mean someone wore a "Bud Lite" T shirt into worship, then maybe you can talk to them…if they are a member. If they are a visitor, ask them to sit with you, thank them for coming, and shut your mouth about the shirt. If it is a ten year member, then you can ask them about their shirt as soon as you allow them to discuss any of your faults that spring to mind.

I was asked to speak at a local high school two weeks ago. I didn’t put on a suit and tie for my visit. That would have been the same as donning ecclesiastical garb to intentionally create distance between them and me. No thanks. I didn’t try to dress like them, but I definitely dressed more like them than like the Pope. If you mean that teens should be challenged to dress more like you did in the heyday of the culture you liked best, I think I’ll pass. God said not to judge his servants. That means you, too, so I’ll assume the question was asked sincerely.

…self focused…

Ah, the irony! Questions such as these are the most self-referencing ones I receive. "Clothes, culture, buildings — everything! — is run through my eyes, my likes, my anger, my history, my dreams"…. in other words, this is a seriously self focused individual. I know what that’s like — I’ve been one, too.

How do we go from self focused to Christ focused? I think one way is to give each other permission to correct each other when we fall into self referential habits such as these.

This one came over the transom at tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com recently and I decided to let it jump the queue.

Is it possible that an evil person (Hitler, etc.) could make it to heaven if they repented on their death bed?

If the questioner will allow, let me reframe this question slightly. You see, I believe that an individual needs to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so let’s say that this evil person — Hitler, etc. — repents and is baptized just before they die. Are they saved?

This actually came up in a Bible class where I once preached. It was the week that Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous sodomizer, murderer, and cannibalizer of young boys was beaten to death in prison. Just shortly before that incident, Jeffrey had been baptized after expressing his faith in Jesus. The Bible class teacher asked his class if they believed Jeffrey would be saved. Almost no one thought so! When I heard about this, I made sure I was in that class the next week and I posed the question to them again. I asked whoever thought Jeffrey would be saved to raise their hands. I and a few others did so. Then I told them, "The rest of you had better get your hands up in the air, because if Jeffrey isn’t saved, you aren’t either."

Jesus even told us a parable about this to make sure we understood it (in Matthew 20). Any who come to Jesus in faith and baptism — sincerely — will be saved because salvation is a matter of God’s will rather than how much evil we have done. You might consider your sins little or minor and you might consider Hitler’s sin (we always pick him, don’t we? Somebody please pick on Stalin. He killed lots more and is still venerated by some of our academics) to be massive but that isn’t the point. The point is that God is righteous and holy and no one who has sinned can come into His presence without forgiveness. That forgiveness is not meted out in such small quantities that it might not cover all your sins (rather like a birthday check from your aunt that doesn’t quick cover the cost of the iPod you wanted).

Some are offended by Jesus’ willingness to forgive "whosoever will." Not me. I’m counting on it.

Why is God willing to forgive us but not the devil? Could the devil repent?

I asked about the same question when I was a kid. Knowing that I had already needed several presses of the celestial reset button in my life I wondered about the angels who fell and why they weren’t offered a road back. The standard answer is that Jesus didn’t die for them, but that merely shoves the same question back on a different level: "why didn’t he?"

We are in the Land of Speculation here so let me say that my guess is that the angels saw the glory of God. They saw the big picture and they saw God — we see neither. When they turned away, it was a conscious rebellion against God. They knew much more than us and therefore were more culpable than humanity.

And, of course, regardless of the "why", the fact is that Jesus provided no plan of redemption for angels. No one gets to God except through Jesus. The fallen angels knew that, but bet on the wrong guardian cherub to change God’s mind.

God, where is your power? Some day I will need it!

This question came in from an eight year old. I love it! I can remember running around my back yard with a tea towel wrapped around my neck, pretending I was one of a huge variety of superheroes. My first crisis of faith came about the same time when, after a series on God’s promises to answer our prayers, I prayed for massive, boulder sized muscles (yes, I used those exact terms. I didn’t want God to have any loopholes so I bombarded Him with legalese). I tried for weeks and woke up to disappointment. I even did extra chores, was very polite to strangers, read my Bible, and filled out my Sunday school lesson book with complete answers, written neatly thinking that maybe I just had to sweeten the pot a bit for God to answer my prayer and endue me with power.

Sigh.

But I did get power. My body is the duckbilled platypus of bodies. It is made up out of spare parts put together on God’s assembly line at 3PM on Friday. The doctors warned my parents not to have another child. Their health and situation wasn’t up to it, you see. But my momma prayed for a son she could give back to God and I showed up. My DNA is a bit squished and it goes wonky from time to time. My voice isn’t anything you’d want to listen to for any length of time and my brain is an amusement park full of dark rides… but I have power.

When I was baptized, I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Ever since that day, He has been working on me. Sometimes I will give a talk that I know has failed. It stunk. Afterwards, people will come up and tell me how much good my talk did them. As they talk, it hits me that they didn’t hear what I said. God just used me to stand up there and blather. While that was going on, He was talking to those He wanted to reach. Even somebody as messed up as me can serve as a conduit for God’s power.

Just show up. Believe in God, step forward, and show up. You may not notice the power, but it is there.

You can still go to tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com and drop a question into the pile. We have about 30 there already so it might take time for yours to surface. I am humbled by your kind emails and comments. Thank you. I am off to the Church of Christ Tractor Pull (aka Tulsa International Soul Winning Workshop) tomorrow and won’t be back until late Friday night. I may not take my computer with me, so this might be the last post until Saturday. If I take it, I’ll try to be your humble correspondent and post at patrickmead.net. 

How does God respond to demons that claim they are gods? Is there any balancing force against evil beings? What about cherubs and seraphs? What are they? What does "living creatures" mean? Who are the "sons of God" and "friends of God" in Revelation?

God can do all things by Himself, but He seems to be a God who relishes community and relationship. He didn’t have to create us, but He did. He didn’t have to leave his treasures in us "earthen vessels" but He did. He earnestly desires a working, loving, relationship with us; one that transforms us and makes us ready for eternity with Him.

Even in heaven, He doesn’t work alone. Again, it must be stressed that God could work alone. We don’t want to fall into Zoroasterianism or any other kind of dualism. Simply put, dualism says that there is a great cosmic war between good and evil and those two forces are roughly equal in power and influence. Humans are urged to choose good and work hard to tip the scales, even if ever so slightly, in the favor of goodness. This is not a Biblical way to view the cosmos. God is Lord, Victor, and All in All. The only reason the battle with evil has gone on this long is because God loves us and wants to work with us to make us more like Him and He wants to give people more time to come to Him, do He delays the End.

In heaven, there are many who work with God. We have mentioned evil angels, but there are many, many righteous angels, too. The Watchers — and one commenter made a brilliant comment about how that word can mean "sifter" — are one form of specialized angel. There are others. When Michael shows up it is always in the context of battle. When Gabriel shows up, God has good news to share with us. Some angels, such as those in Genesis 17ff, seem specialized for judgment, combat, and rescue. Some angels were involved in bringing the plagues on Egypt or going in before the army to weaken the enemy so that victory was certain (Exodus 23:23; 33:2). One of those is named "the hornet."

While angels may or may not have wings (see the female spirits with wings in Zechariah we referenced a few blogs ago), two types of supernatural beings are always described as winged. Ezekiel gives us our first terrifying look at these creatures. Standing on the banks of a sewage drainage ditch that was given the optimistic name River Chebar, Ezekiel saw an approaching storm that wasn’t a storm but the arrival of something that normally masks its presence.

Four creatures formed this mass of boiling cloud, smoke, thunder, lightning, glowing metal, faces, eyes, wheels, and such fast motion that Ezekiel — in a brilliant attempt to explain something outside of physics — kept talking about how it moved so fast that it didn’t really move — it was already there. No matter where you were, it was looking at you. No matter where you stood, their swords were pointed at you. It wasn’t as if their eyes or swords followed you… when you moved, they were already there. ( see Ezekiel 1:8-14) Ezekiel was reduced to using words such as "like" to describe this thing that was not of this world.

He names these creatures "cherubs" in chapter 10. After he names them, we find them appearing another 90 times in scripture. Some Bibles call them cherubim and here’s the reason: in Hebrew, the plural is formed by adding "-im" to the end of the word. Most modern versions drop that convention and use the English style of making a word plural. How these terrifying, incredibly powerful beings were reduced to red cheeked babies on Valentines is something you’ll have to ask an art historian. These were no comic babies, no symbols of innocence. They were the ones tasked to guard the Garden of Eden. Their figures were on top of the Ark of the Covenant to symbolize God’s power to protect and forgive His people. They stand — rather like a personal bodyguard — on both sides of God’s throne (Isaiah 37:16) and they always accompany God when He comes to us (for example, 2 Samuel 22:7-14). When they show up, there are earthquakes, fire, smoke, and flashes of light.

Another kind of creature found in the council of God’s Holy Ones are seraphs, found first in Isaiah 6:1-7. Some believe they are the same as cherubs and that may be true, but there are descriptive differences between the two. How can they be the same if they are described differently? First of all — they might not be the same, but it is easy to understand how several people trying to describe the same unearthly event can use different terms in their reports. Regardless, for many years we were told that "seraph" meant "singer" and that these creatures sang continually about the glory of God. Better understanding of the word now leads us to jettison that definition and replace it with "burning." These are creatures who burn with light and power. They are referred to as "Living Creatures" in Revelation 4:6-11 and elsewhere. They, too, thunder and shake the ground when they move, stepping forward to ensure that the will of God is done (see Isaiah). They also lead the worship in heaven.

There are some known only as the Holy Ones (kedoshim) in Psalm 89:6-8. We know from Job and Revelation that God has a court in heaven where great matters are discussed and decided. God is in complete control of this group, but He chooses to work with them. We believe the Holy Ones are part of that council.

There are also the Sons of God (bene elohim). Jewish tradition (and most scholars) believe they are the rulers over certain sections of the earth or peoples of the earth (Deuteronomy 4:19). They are mentioned throughout Job and the Psalms.

We know next to nothing about the 24 elders in Revelation 4. Most believe it is a symbolic number representing the apostles and patriarchs, but they may be a separate class of supernatural beings. They are also surrounded by thunder and lightning and wear crowns of gold. (I often warn our elders that only 24 are going to make it so they’d better behave or they’ll miss the cut!)

Others are there as well, but this will suffice for now. They don’t want you to seek them out or stare out in the night sky looking for them. They don’t want you to make the fatal mistake of making them — or anything else — more interesting than Jesus. For now, just be aware that God has always desired community and relationship; fellowship with others, including you. Let’s end with a visualization.

You die. You close your eyes in pain and fear and suddenly you find yourself being carried by angels across a vast expanse that is no expanse at all… you have left the land of physics. You arrive at a shining city whose gates are guarded by fearsome angels. When the angel sees you, he/she sees the mark on you. You belong to Jesus. He smiles and steps aside, waving you in. As you enter you hear a great noise and see an incredible number of people and beings arranged in circles around a great light. As you continue to walk through those circles toward the center you see all the faithful who have
gone before. There are your family members, clapping, cheering you on, rejoicing to see you again. There is Peter, with whom you shared some unfortunate personality traits, smiling at you, giving you a thumbs up. You see Zipporah, Deborah, Mary (one or all of them), Paul, Solomon… and they are all shouting with excitement that you have made it home at last.

Eventually, you enter a circle with beings that would have caused your old human heart to stop if you’d seen them back on earth. Wings and fire and light and thunder… but it doesn’t frighten you. You know they are on your side.

And as you approach the center, you see Jesus… standing. (in the Bible, watch for this. When one of Jesus’ faithful one dies, he is pictured as standing. The rest of the time, he is pictured as sitting. Chew on that for awhile and let the chills run up your spine at the fact that Jesus stands as a sign of respect, love, and welcome for each of us when we get home) Beside him is the Father and all you can feel is love. You are finally home.

Don’t miss that journey. Live now so that you get to take that walk.

The 44th question is really a series of questions, summarized in these:

Is there anything wrong in playing with tarot cards or reading your horoscope? Where the demons and gods in the Old Testament real or just stories? Are there really false gods or are demons pretending to be gods? 

While I answer these and a few more questions, a word of warning is called for. The study of demons and dark things is a very seductive one. The more you study, the more you want to know and the more special you feel (and are sometimes treated by others). However, this study comes with real dangers. To put it bluntly, when you look into the dark, it looks back at you. I have seen several Christian leaders become experts in this field only to have their lives fall apart with hidden sin, sexual sin, ethical lapses, financial mistakes, etc. Keep your eyes on Jesus, even as you gather intelligence on your enemy, and never let your enemy become more interesting than your Lord.

Here is the general law of Scripture concerning the occult:

First Corinthians 10:14-22 — "Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry…Consider the people of Israel: do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, too: you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 — "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord, your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so."

This handing over of our children to demons — sacrificing them in the fire — refers to two different actions. Some nations required human sacrifice but others had you hold your baby and pass it over a flame dedicated to a god. That was their "baptism" and "confirmation" into that pagan culture. When we hand our kids over to the political, consumerist, etc. culture, we could be said to be passing our children through the fire on their way to destruction. They are still walking around, but they have been sacrificed; dedicated to false gods.

Note also that divination and reading omens is strictly forbidden. That would include tarot cards and horoscopes. Horoscopes have long been an absolute fraud. One famous illustration is a true one: a professor handed out papers to each student on their first day of class. He explained that the computers and psychology staff had been at work long before the students had arrived. Their grades, their dates of birth, their birthplaces, etc. had been studied scientifically and they were now being presented with a full horoscope and personality profile based on those findings. When the students read their profiles, their mouths dropped open. It was amazing! The profiles were absolutely spot on. After giving them ten minutes or so to express their amazement, he told them to pass their profile to the person sitting behind them. The last person in each row brought his or her profile to the person in the front. As they read their profiles, they went red in the face. Every student had exactly the same thing on their profile. They had just learned a lesson in gullibility and the way that horoscopes are prepared.

So, they are just harmless nonsense? No. Reading them and paying attention to them are acts of disloyalty to God — as if stars had more to do with your life than your Maker! They are forbidden to us. So is any attempt to communicate with the dead. Jonathan Edwards and "Crossing Over" is not an acceptable form of entertainment or enlightenment.

A quick look at the gods of the Old Testament might be interesting to you. Molech was the god of the Ammonites (Lev.20:2-5; 1 Kings 11:5). Worship of Molech involved actual child sacrifice, often burning them to death. King Manasseh evidently sacrificed his children in this way (2 Chronicles 33:6; 2 Kings 23:10) earning him the wrath of God. Jeremiah spoke out against Molech (Jeremiah 32:35).

Perhaps the best known god of the pagans was Baal. He shows up throughout the Old Testament, competing with God for the affection and loyalty of His people. "Baal" means "lord" and he was the main god of the Canaanites and Philistines. He was also known as Hadad or Adad. He was a fertility god (most false gods have a lot to do with sexual license and debauchery) and is pictured as standing on the back of a bull. Storms were his calling card as he was said to ride on the thunder and lightning. Ritual prostitution and child sacrifice were part of the worship of Baal (Jeremiah 19:5). If you want to read more about the conflicts between Jehovah and Baal, you can start with reading 1 Kings 17 all the way through to 2 Kings 13. Hosea 2 mentions him several times and you can find him in the Psalms (specifically 29, 68, 93, 97) and in Jeremiah 10:12-16; 14:22.

Baal had a sweetie pie (okay — consort) named Astoreth. Note, this isn’t Asherah who was the consort of El, the chief god of the Canaanites. Astoreth was a goddess of war and fertility. She was called Istar in Babylon, Aphrodite in Greece, and Venus in Rome. Her worship was as immoral as you could get ( 1 Kings 14:24; 2 Kings 23:7).

One of my favorite stories is the brief and funny duel between Dagon and the True God in First Samuel 5. While not mentioned by name, Dagon is also the god referred to in Judges 10:6.

Other gods mentioned prominently in scripture or referred to without being mentioned by name are Mot, Anath, Rimmon, and what was probably a chief demon — Baal-Zebul.

Remember: God does not tolerate ANY demonic involvement. When you are married to Jesus, you don’t flirt with anyone else. In Ephesus, the preaching of the gospel ran into a brick wall. Riots broke out, the authorities had to be called out to establish order, and the church didn’t grow… until… they burned their occult books and broke away from all demonic practices. Then, all of a sudden, they grew and prospered mightily. It might be time to do some house cleaning, you think? Let’s get rid of the dream catchers, idols like the Native American Kokopelli that I’ve seen in dozens of homes, and some of our dark fantasy/horror books.

How serious is God about this? I’ll let Him speak for Himself in Ezekiel 13. Read the whole chapter, but here are verses 17-23: "Now, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them and say, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on all their wrists and make veils of various lengths for their heads in order to ensnare the people. Will you ensnare the lives of my people but preserve your own? You have profaned me among my people for a f
ew handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to my people, who listen to lies, you have killed those who should not have died and have spared those who should not live. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them from your arms. I will set free the people that you ensnare like birds. I will tear off your veils and save my people from your hands, and they will no longer fall prey to your power. Then you will know that I am the Lord…you will no longer see false visions or practice divination…"

Yes, we have snow on the ground for Easter. Yes, I ache all over after yesterday’s marathon storm-drive. Yes, that face in the mirror isn’t getting any better looking even as my vision blurs a bit…

But I have glad tidings of great joy…

The tomb is empty. Jesus is risen. Death is disarmed.

Fear not.

This means that the angels weren’t kidding when they arrived on the scene of the crime (earth) and declared that, instead of incinerating us, God wanted to declare Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards Men.

Wow. Who could have seen that coming? Not us, that’s for sure.

And there was that time God promised to forget all our sins. How can you do that? I wondered, secretly, if I could trust Him to do that.

And then the tomb was emptied. Jesus showed us his scars — scars we helped put there.

But he wasn’t angry! He acted like this was all part of the plan. He told us he wouldn’t get tired of us; he would never leave us.

And he hasn’t.

Amazing.
 

Do angels really have wings? Are all angels male? 

These two questions were very easy to answer when I was a kid. If we had a few minutes to play Bible Trivia, some teacher was certain to ask us if angels had wings or if there were any women angels. The answer to both was a loud, emphatic "NO!"

Except that it isn’t correct.

There are supernatural beings with wings — notably the cherubs and seraphs — and it is true that, in most places, angels are not described as having wings. It is also true that all named angels in Scripture have male names… but that isn’t the end of the story. I’m not going to play an end run around this and say "because they are supernatural beings there is no male or female" because God did, in fact, use sexual terms to describe Himself and His creatures, including the named angels.

Yet, one stunning exception to the norm exists. In the little known, little read book of Zechariah, we come across a very interesting passage that should make us hit the reset button on our angelic assumptions. In chapter 5:5-11 Zechariah sees two women working between heaven and earth. They are heavenly beings, serving God, and they have wings like those of storks. The wings of the stork in Zechariah’s region and time were large and beautiful, often reaching seven feet from tip to tip. These women had the "wind in their wings"  and were "between heaven and earth."

They are described as very, very strong. They are carrying a basket between them that contains a creature of great evil. They are removing evil from the earth by the express command of our God. They made a place for that evil far from the people of God.

Let’s review: winged creatures, female, working at God’s command, flying here and there between heaven and earth and all over the earth, powerful enough to trap and remove an evil spirit, and thus ministering to the people of God. No, they aren’t called angels in this passage, but the weight of evidence is very, very hard to ignore.

What are the "watchers" in Daniel 4?

Daniel Four is one of the most amazing chapters in all of the Old Testament. We get to peer quickly behind the curtain of the universe, catching glimpses at the vast and terrible spiritual war that is constantly going on all around us. Most versions of the Bible don’t know what to do with the individuals who show up in this chapter and so the word "watchers" has been dropped from some versions and replaced with "man" or "angel."

These watchers, according to Jewish tradition, are special angels that act as out-riders. For those unfamiliar with the term, an out-rider is something like a scout. They ride on the edges of the conflict, looking for weak points, protecting the main body of warriors, drawing off enemies. In Daniel, they are standing on both sides of the river, protecting Daniel and the angel as they have their conversation. in fact, they even move it along with a warning that they don’t have a great deal of time.

Similar beings are called angels in the New Testament. When Jesus was raised from the dead, his apostles, followers, and friends were still in danger from the crowd, the Jewish leaders, and the Romans. It was dangerous for them to move around. They could be spotted, arrested, or become victims of mob violence. For quite a long time, they moved quietly and spent their days in a locked room. It amazes me to read the various accounts in scripture and see how one person goes here and then two go there and always, always, do so in a way guaranteed not to draw undue attention. As they visit the tomb they sometimes see an angel, sometimes see two, and sometimes see none. What is going on? Trace the travels of the people of Jesus and you see that it appears that as a mourning woman travels, one of the angels must have gone with her, acting as a protector, an out-rider.

Even at the ascension of Jesus, we see angels acting as out-riders, telling the men they need to stop staring up at heaven and get moving. God will meet them in Jerusalem, but they need to get there soonest.

When Peter is woken up by angels who are directing a jailbreak on his behalf, they do what he cannot. He can’t open the doors of the prison, so they do that. He can’t unlock his chains, so they do that. However, once he is outside of the prison, he has to make his own way through the town (where he is now a wanted person) to the house where other believers are huddled. Why did the angels desert him? I’ve heard it said that they left because he was able, on his own, to make the perilous journey. I am not so sure. I think they were still there, moving a block or two away from him, checking the approaches and angles, making sure the way was safe; free of law enforcement or those who would raise the alarm. Perhaps they caused people to be distracted. Perhaps they moved people along, reminding them of someplace else they needed to be. (a fun, dramatic, and hilarious example of this is in 2 Kings 6)

Regardless, I think Peter had Watchers protecting him, even when he didn’t know they were there. In that way, we are all like Peter.