Front matter
THE ANGELS
THE ANGELS
BY
Preface
T HAVE been assured by some, in whose judgment I confide, that the following work might be mistakenly regarded as advancing a claim on the part of its author' to communication with spirits in the spiritual world. In order to prevent such a misconception, I beg to explain, at the outset, that the narrative is intended simply as an allegory; and that the utterances of Sophos and Dokeos are authoritative, only so far as the weight and variety of scriptural and rational argument which is put into their mouths may bring conviction to the mind of the reader.
THE AUTHOR.
Manchester, 1874*
Contents
INTRODUCTION,
PAGE
Questions as to the Angels, I
The Dream : Dokeos, my first teacher, 4
Are such inquiries frivolous, unlawful, dangerous ? . . .6
CHAPTER I.— WHAT ARE ANGELS? Definition of the term, . . . . . . . .9
Applied to men, 9
Applied to departed spirits, ....... 10
Applied to evil spirits, 1 1
Specific meaning of the term, 12
Sophos, my second teacher, . 12
CHAPTER II.— THE ORIGIN OF ANGELS. All angels from the human race, ...... 14
Law and order of creation, 15
Similarities and distinctions between men and angels, . .18
Angels' wings, and little cherubs, 19
Origen's belief as to angels and men, 21
Popular theories concerning the Devil, . . . . .22 The angels who sinned, . . . . . .23 x CONTENTS.
Peter, Jude : the Book of Enoch,
PAGE
. 24
The war in Heaven : Michael and the dragon,
. 27
The sons of God and the daughters of men, .
. 28
The Devil "a murderer from the beginning, 99
• 30
No personal Devil, .......
Devil (singular) not in Old Testament,
Sgnirim and Sheedim, . . . . .
• 32
Devil and devils in New Testament,
• 33
Diabolos, diaboloi, . . .
• 33
"Your adversary, the devil,"
• 34
The tempter in the wilderness, ....
• 35
The demons,
• 36
Beelzebub,
• 37
Jupiter " the god of flies,"
The daemons of paganism,
• 39
Satan not the name of one great special fiend,
. 40
Satan, an adversary : Satans, adversaries,
Satan in the Book of Job, .
. 42
Peter a Satan,
. 42
Paul's "messenger of Satan," .
. 42
4 ' Satan falling as lightning from heaven," .
• 43
The great red dragon, the Devil, and Satan, . .
• 45
Personifications used in Scripture,
. 46
The " Morning Stars and Sons of God,"
• 47
Lucifer, the Son of the morning, .....
. 48
Joy in heaven over the penitent,
. 49
The Temptation and Fall of Man,
. 49
The serpent that beguiled Eve, .
• 50
The story an allegory, ......
• 51
The woman — the man — the serpent,
. 52
Eden — the two trees,
. 53
The sin — the shame — the penalty,
• 55
The deluge, .
. 56
The allegory repeated in experience,
. 56
CONTENTS.
xi
PAGE
• 57
The genesis, and regenesis of man,
. 58
Death the gate of life, . ...
• 58
The Lord took not the nature of angels,
. 58
The cherubims, as seen by Ezekiel, ....
• 59
The "four living creatures of the Apocalypse,
. 60
. 61
CHAPTER III.— SEERSHIP. The wise, the intelligent, the learned
• 63
Natural vision — intellectual perception — spiritual sight, .
. 64
Organs of sight — objects of vision — light,
. 66
The eyes of the spirit,
. 67
The opening of those eyes, — Seership, ....
. 67
Seership in the past and future,
. 68
Prophets and seers, —
Some prophets not seers,
. 68
Some seers not prophets,
. 69
Seers not necessarily good men, ....
. 69
Elisha's servant,
. 69
Gradations of seership, . .
. 70
Heavenly spiritualism,
The moral dangers of mediumship,
Conviction not persuasion, . . . . .
. 72
The miraculous as evidence, ....
. 73
Subjective and objective seership, .
• 73
Visions according to state,
• 74
Intellectual sight and spiritual sight,
• 74
Why different inspired writers, ....
• 75
Bible dreams — visions — " Thus saith the Lord," .
. 76
Instruction concerning the Spiritual World, .
• 77
The universal law of representatives, . .
• 77 xii
CONTENTS.
Chapter IV. — The Intermediate State. Page
Summary of conclusions, 78
The three divisions of the Spiritual World, .... 79
The middle state inter??iediate, . .... 80
Its existence inevitable, 81
Purgatory and Protestantism, ..... 82
The testimony of "The Fathers," .... 82
" Sheol" the place of the departed, .... 83
"Hades" the Greek equivalent for Sheol, ... 83
"■Gehenna" — " Tartardsas" ..... 84
Jesus preached to the "spirits in prison," ... 84 Where were these spirits ? . . . . . .85
"David not yet ascended," 86
"The spirits under the altar," 86
The scene of the Apocalypse, ..... 87 The Spirits in prison —
Scripture statements, 88
The Lord's work of judgment, 91
"The Lord descended into the lower parts of the earth," 92
" Shout, ye lower parts of the earth," 93
" Comforted in the nether parts of the earth," . . 94
The "other'sheep not of this fold," .... 94
The " dead" hearing. Jesus' "voice," . ... 94
The scene of judgment, 95
The phrase "the last day," 96
Prophecy and fulfilment, 97
Reason and faith, . . . . . . .97
"The forty days"— Pentecost, 98
Divine patience, ....... 99
The spiritual significance of numbers — Forty, . . .100
The Word in heaven, 102
The Second Coming of the Lord, 104
What it will effect, 105
CONTENTS, xiii
Chapter V.— Will The Natural Body Rise? Page
The two positions stated, . . . . . . .107
The psychical and fineumatical bodies, . . . 108 The natural sown — the spiritual raised, „ . .109 The spiritual not material, . . . . . .110
The difference not moral, . . . . . .110
" Flesh and blood" not to be raised, . . . .111
Heaven and hell not natural places, . . . .112
Spirits have bodies, 113
Only two kinds of bodies, 114
Resurrection of spiritual body into the spiritual world, 115
The Saviour and the Sadducees, 115
The Anastasis taught by Jesus, 116
Resurrection * ' from out of the dead, " . . 1 1 7
Paul and the resurrection —
Does Paul contradict Jesus ? . . . . .118 "Absent from the body, present with the Lord," . 1 18 "To live is Christ, to die is gain," . . . .119 "Dust return to earth, spirit to God," . .119
The Lord's resurrection —
" A spirit hath not flesh and bones, " .... 120 " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, . . .120 The Lord not as other men, . . . . .120
"We shall be like Him," 121
Not as to substance, or glory, . . . . .121
Moral resemblance, . . . . . . .121
Have the disciples seen their Lord ? . . . .122
Christ the first-fruits —
Only resurrection of believers taught in 1 Cor. xv., . 123
Paul's argument, 123
Death of curse not natural death, . . . .123 Death in the world before man, . . . . .124 Redeemed from death by Jesus, . . . . .125 xiv
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Two meanings of death, 126
Two meanings of resurrection, 126
Paul's argument enforced, 127
"Those that slept," . . . . " . . .128
Ap-arche, 128
Precedence in dignity — "own order," . . .129 The prophetic Afiarche in time, . . . . .129
Why the Lord's resurrection different from others, . .130
"Our vile body," Phil. iii. 21, 130
The body of this death — the body of the sins of the
flesh — the old man with his deeds — the body of sin, 131 Conformable unto Christ's death, . . . . 132 The resurrection and perfection, . . . .132 The body of vileness " our vile body, " . . . 133 The Lord's life repeated in Christian experience, . 134 Scripture testimonies that the body will not rise, . 134
" I know that my Redeemer liveth," Job xix. 25-27, . 135 The Septuagint — the Vulgate, . . . . 135
Vindicator, not Redeemer, 136
"In my flesh n before I die, 136
Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel and Mr. Barnes on this passage, 137
"Thy dead men shall live," Isa. xxvi. 19, . . . .137
Lowth's better translation, .138
Jesus and Martha, . . . . . . .139
The vision of dry bones, Ezek. xxvii. 1-14, .... 139
Many that sleep in the dust shall awake, Dan. xii. 2, . .140 The ancient commentators on Dan. xi., . . 141
The return of the Jews to Canaan, . . . , 142 The symbolic meaning of " dust," . . . 143
"We shall not all sleep," 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52 ; I Thess. iv. 13-17, 143
"Those which sleep," 144
"Those which remain alive," ..... 145 The translation of Elijah, 146
CONTENTS.
xv
PAGE
" The dead in Christ," 147
Not 6 'dead bodies" shall rise, 148
The resurrection successive, . . . . .148 Paul's "by the word of the Lord," . 149
The gathering of the elect in the heavens, . . .150
The A.postles' idea of the time of the Second Coming, . '150 The inspiration of the Apostles, 152
Resurrection in the light of reason —
No need for the natural body, . . 4 . .153
No natural analogies, 153
Which body? . 153
To which body the particles? . . . , -153
What the basis of identity? 154
Reason and faith, 154
Further arguments from reason, 155
Not necessary for recognition, 155
Not necessary for rewards, . . . . 155 If material, heaven and hell material, . . . .156
Why such incorrect views have been permitted, . . .156 Christianity and its interpreters, . . . 157
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