Dr Paul Allen

The most popular belief about Satan’s fall is based on the Bible in Isaiah 14:12 (KJV): “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning!” The passage goes on to say that Lucifer tried to raise his throne above the stars and become like the Most High, but God cast him down to the depths of the pit (Is 14:13-15). This passage is often compared with Ezekiel 28:11-19, which allegedly speaks of Lucifer as the king of Tyre living in the Garden of Eden. He was a beautiful cherub angel, but God said to him, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings” (28:17). Some even claim that Lucifer was the choir director of heaven based on the names of instruments listed in the King James translation of Ezekiel 28:13. Hence popular theory has it that Satan, as Lucifer, fell at the beginning of creation. The Bible, however, never directly affirms anywhere that...

The fall of Satan and his angels are shrouded behind a veil and cloaked in mystery.1 Throughout the history of the church, Christian orthodoxy has regarded the devil and his minions as angels who were created by God but fell into sin and misery. William Gouge (1575–1653) wrote, “The devils by creation were good angels, as powerful, wise, quick, speedy, invisible, and immortal as any other angels.”2  The Puritans believed that demons shared the same nature as angels, but through rebellion against God, they became subject to divine judgment. When these angels fell, Gouge said, “They lost not their natural substance, and essential properties thereof, no more than what man lost when he fell. . . . Only the quality of his nature and properties is altered from good to evil.”3  Accordingly, the Westminster Larger Catechism aptly states, “God by his providence permitted some of the angels, willfully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting and ordering that, and all...

  Judges 13:8–21 Here we witness God answering prayer and giving the promise of a son to a childless couple from the tribe of Dan. Manoah’s wife had been visited by an angel of the Lord and been told that she would have a son; she had also been given instructions concerning that child.  When she informed her husband of the visitation he entered into prayer and entreated the Lord for a further visit so that they could be given advice on the upbringing of that son. We notice that Manoah was a man of faith. He had total confidence in the word of his wife and never doubted that the child would be born. He knew that God had given her the message and that God’s word would soon be fulfilled. He no doubt felt the enormous responsibility of impending parenthood and so wisely sought the help of God. It is always true that no parents can adequately discharge their responsibilities without the help of the Lord. God answered his prayer and the angel visited the woman a second time. This ti...

1. Gabriel is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. He’s known for bearing good news of Jesus’ coming birth, but his first biblical appearance is in Daniel 8:16, when he is told to explain a vision to the prophet. 2. Gabriel stands in the presence of God. This is how he describes himself to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:19). The Greek word for “stands” is  paristánō , which means “to wait before a superior.” The  Septuagint  uses this word to describe how Joshua served Moses and how David assisted King Saul. 3. Gabriel is one of only two angels explicitly named in the Protestant Bible. The other is Michael, a warrior archangel. 4. The Bible doesn’t call Gabriel the “archangel.” The Book of Tobit (of Catholic and Orthodox canon) identifies the angels who stand in the presence of God as archangels, and so Gabriel has been called an archangel by tradition. 5. Gabriel looks like a man (but see #6). The name Gabriel means “man of God” or “strength of God...

Most of us have read John 5:1–9—the story of the blind, paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda—many times. But I’ll bet there’s something that escaped your attention. Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” (John 5:1–9 NIV) If you read close...

A. The Two Types of Diseases     1)      Functional disease A functional disease is one in which there is a change in the function of an organ or tissue yet without structural or substantive damage being done. Examples would be high blood pressure , lower back pain, and most headaches. Whereas there are symptoms involved, such would not appear under X-ray because there is no demonstrable tissue damage.     2)       Organic disease An organic disease is one in which there is a demonstrable change in a bodily organ or tissue. Examples would be broken bones, paralysis due to a severed spinal cord, congenital malformations , coronary artery disease, etc. Evidence for an organic disease often shows up on an X-ray.  Someone has illustrated the difference between these two types of disease in this way: If a computer showed that two plus two equals five, the problem is probably functional. Someone most likely programmed it in...

Icon Apocalypse (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Revelation 4 “Around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind” (v. 6b). Centuries after Isaiah saw the angels in God ’s heavenly throne room (6:1–3), John was given a vision of the divine throne room as well. Revelation 4 records the first part of this vision, which is remarkably similar to Isaiah 6. The angels John witnesses praising the Lord declare the Creator’s holiness three times (Rev. 4:8), which suggests that these are the same creatures Isaiah witnessed (6:3). That the two prophets are granted the same or similar view of the angels is also seen in the fact that the angels in each vision have six wings (Rev. 4:8; Isa. 6:2). However, unlike Isaiah’s vision, the angels whom John sees are covered with eyes (Rev. 4:6b, 8), and no attempt is made to shield their eyes in the presence of God (see Isa. 6:2). The reason why the angelic cr...

An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Daniel 12:1 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people” ( v. 1a ). Central to the biblical description of God is the doctrine of divine providence . Scripture is clear that the Lord did not make the world and then leave it alone to run its course. Rather, He continues to uphold and sustain His creation ( Heb. 1:1–4 ). God’s continuing involvement with creation is according to His design as He works out “all things according to the counsel of his will” ( Eph. 1:11 ). What is often forgotten when considering divine providence is that the angels are some of the many secondary agents through which the primary agent — God Himself — works out His plan. Angels themselves are not divine; they are creatures who, along with everything else the Almighty has made ( Rev.4:11 ), have an origin in space and time. That the Lord uses angels to govern His creat...

Song of the Angels by William Bouguereau, 1881. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Isaiah 6:1–3 “Above him stood the seraphim . …And one called to another and said: ‘ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” ( vv. 2–3 ). It would be hard to discount the role of angels in the history of redemption. As an indication of their importance, note that the Greek word for angel, angelos, occurs more frequently in the New Testament than hamartia, the term for sin, and agape, one of the words we translate as “love.” Although angels are frequently mentioned, we must also admit that there is not as much information about them as there is on other topics like salvation and ethics. Angels are mentioned frequently, but the focus is often more on the messages they bring than the nature of the angels themselves. Nevertheless, we can learn much from the descriptions of angelic activity found in Scripture. Isaiah 6 illustrates that at least some of the angels are t...