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Angels: Their Nature and Ministry

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Angels: Their Nature and Ministry Angels: Their Nature and Ministry REVISED BY J. H. WAGGONER . Are they [the angels] not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?-Heb. 1:14. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.-1 Peter 5:8. PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY, OAKLAND, CAL., SAN FRANCISCO, NEW YORK AND LONDON. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE -- ANGELS: Their Nature and Ministry .............5 ß1. TRUTH AND ERROR ...................................5 ß2. ANGELS ARE NOT THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD ............7 ß3. THE HEAVENLY FAMILY ...............................8 ß4. ANGELS ARE REAL BEINGS ...........................10 ß5. NUMBER OF THE ANGELS .............................17 ß6. THEIR EXALTED CHARACTER AND SURPASSING GLORY .....19 ß7. THE DIFFERENT ORDERS OF ANGELS ...................22 ß8. THEIR WORK IN THE GOSPEL .........................24 ß9. THE ANGELS ARE MINISTERING SPIRITS TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD ...................................................26 ß10. EVERY CHILD OF GOD HAS A GUARDIAN ANGEL .........33 ß11. THE ANGELS EXECUTE GOD'S JUDGMENTS UPON THE WICKED 39 ß12. RECORDING ANGELS ................................40 ß13. THE ANGELS WILL GATHER THE SAINTS ...............44 PART TWO -- SOME HINTS ON THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF SATAN AS GLEANED FROM THE SCRIPTURE ............................47 ß1. THE DEVIL A REAL BEING ...........................47 ß2. ORIGIN OF SATAN ..................................51 ß3. THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS .........................60 ß4. WHY SUFFERED TO EXIST ............................64 ß5. SATAN A WANDERER .................................71 ß6. HE GAINS POSSESSION OF THE EARTH .................75 ß7. POSSESSED WITH DEMONS ............................86 ß8. MAN IN PRISON ....................................89 ß9. THE REDEMPTION OF MAN ............................95 ß10. SATAN BOUND ....................................103 ß11. THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED .....................122 ß12. THE DESTRUCTION OF SATAN .......................125 ß13. REDEMPTION OF THE EARTH ........................131 DESCRIPTIVE Catalogue of Publications ...................137 BOUND BOOKS. TRADE EDITION ..........................137 THE BIBLE STUDENTS' LIBRARY. A MONTHLY PUBLICATION ..141 PART ONE -- ANGELS: Their Nature and Ministry ß1. TRUTH AND ERROR The enemy of God and the human family has left no means untried by which he could pervert the truth, and draw away men from a knowledge of the true God and of His law. It seems to be his invariable plan to lead men first to forget or disbelieve what God has taught them concerning any truth, and then, as a substitute, to instill into their minds some error which, in its main features, closely resembles the truth, but which is, nevertheless, opposed to it. Thus when he had led men to forget God, Satan turned their minds to worship the sun and the host of heaven. When they had forgotten the word of God, given through His prophets, he introduced in its stead the pagan oracles and priests. So it is with the truth in regard to the ministration of angels. They are the divinely- commissioned messengers sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. But this glorious Bible truth has 6 been so far lost from sight that many, even of those who call themselves Christians, have no clear ideas concerning it, and little practical faith in it. Yet the need of some ministering spirit, some heavenly visitant from the world of light, to instruct us in the things of God, is widely felt. Satan sees that this necessity must be met. A substitute must be invented. What shall it be? To answer this we have only to look at the history of those nations who have forgotten God. Ps. 9:17. From the Egyptian priests to the modern spirit mediums, we find them teaching that the spirits of the dead return to minister to their friends in this world. But while the Bible often speaks of the visits of holy angels to our world, to minister to the children of God, it is entirely silent concerning the return of the spirits of the dead for that purpose. Go to the heathen who know nothing about God and His word, and we find them extolling the souls of their dead friends as gods, demi-gods, and protecting spirits. Come down to the last generation, even in so-called Christian lands, and we find an extensive unbelief in the existence of either good or bad angels, or but vague and indefinite ideas of their character and office. Thus far Satan has well succeeded. A vacuum has been formed, which, as both reason and revelation teach, must be filled. As a substitute, he has introduced the supposed souls of the dead, as ministering spirits from the other world. To uphold 7 his counterfeit work he cunningly uses all the arguments, both from the Scriptures and from nature, which prove that there are, or ought to be, messengers to communicate between this and the other world. If he can convince men that they are spirits that communicate, he has gained his point, inasmuch as the people in general have no definite faith in the existence of either good or evil angels, except as they learn it from this source. ß2. ANGELS ARE NOT THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD We cannot admit that the spirits of dead men ever come back to communicate with the living. And we affirm, upon the authority of the Holy Bible, that they know nothing concerning their friends here or of what is done in this world. Thus Job says: "Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth [i. e., dies]; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Chap. 14:1-21. This testimony shows that after a man dies he has no knowledge of what befalls his friends here. It plainly contradicts the idea that our dead friends become our guardian angels, watching over us, sympathizing with us in our sorrows, and rejoicing with us in our prosperity. It plainly declares that after a man is dead he knows nothing of what befalls his children in this world. Here is another 8 testimony still more decisive; "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6. This text declares positively that the dead know nothing concerning things in this life. They have no part in anything that takes place under the sun. So says the word of the Lord, and so we believe. Indeed, it would be the source of the keenest anguish to a mother, after death, to see her children left destitute, abused, and led into crime and to degradation, as orphan children frequently are. How much of a heaven would this be to her? What good could result from consciousness in heaven under such circumstances? But there is neither reason nor revelation to support such a theory. Spiritualism is one of the greatest schemes that Satan ever devised for the deception and destruction of the human family. It is based upon the supposition that all the spirits who communicate are the spirits of the dead. We propose, therefore, to enter into a Bible investigation of this subject. ß3. THE HEAVENLY FAMILY "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph . 3:14, 15. By this we learn that there is a family in heaven. 9 Who compose that family? Not the spirits of our dead friends, but the holy angels who were created in heaven before man was made upon the earth. We read in many places of the angels in heaven. Thus in Rev. 5:11: "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." Spiritualists claim that these angels are the souls of the departed ones who once lived on this earth. As a man cannot die till he is created, of course if angels are only the souls of dead men, there could have been no angels until after the sixth day of creation; no, not even then until one or more men had died. But angels did exist before man was created, or even the foundations of the world were laid. If this be proved, the theory above named, that angels are the spirits of dead men, must fall to the ground. In Gen. 3:24 we read that God placed cherubim to guard the way of the tree of life when Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. Cherubim are a high order of angels. This was before any man had died; therefore they were not the souls of dead men. The word of the Lord to Job was: "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath 10 laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:3-7. By this we see that when God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
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