Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 1 - introduction; John 16:7-15; Matt 25:41; Eze 28:11-19.

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 1 - introduction; John 16:7-15; Matt 25:41; EZE 28:11-19.

 

 

John 16:5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'

 

John 16:6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow [grief] has filled your heart.

 

John 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

 

Jesus is under more pressure than any man in human history and He is still communicating doctrine to them. No matter what happens - think doctrine!

 

He is trying to give them hope so that their wrongly placed sorrow will be turned to the joy they should have over His ascension in victory. He’s not talking about the cross here, He is talking about the ascension of victory - operation footstool.

 

“Helper” - para,klhtoj[para`kletos] =  one who assists, one who provides beneficial assistance, one who stands by to help.

 

When we are done with the AC we will study the doctrine of the ministries of God the Holy Spirit, with emphasis on His ministry in the Church-age.

 

If Christ is not victorious from the cross then He will not ascend to the right hand of God and the conflict wouldn’t shift gears and the HS wouldn’t come to indwell the RFOG.

 

However, since He is victorious everything has changed. A mystery dispensation has been given to interrupt the age of Israel, an age of surpassing grace and riches, an age of the ordinary believer, and an age of incredible intensity that the world has never seen, hence the need for a second Advocate.

 

In the intensified stage of the AC we have two Advocates; the humanity of Christ seated at the right hand of God and God the HS within our bodies.

 

1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [parakletos] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

 

The indwelling of the deity of JC is a badge of eternal royalty gained by Christ’s victory and given to every believer in order to guarantee blessing and give confidence in future victory.

 

COL 1:26-27

the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

If Christ doesn’t ascend to His throne then the Helper cannot be sent and so Christ is telling a truth - His victory is a benefit or profit to us. And if He is victorious, on this night His volition is still a factor, then He will send Him to us, to indwell us forever.

 

John 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

 

This verse along with chapter 17 reveals to us that what we have as assets and benefits and profits in the CA are the direct result of the humanity of Christ asking for them. Not only does this show the power of prayer, but it also reveals an underlying truth. It would seem that God the Father gave the humanity of God the Son this unique plan to live in and after He had accomplished it the Father then granted to the Son whatever request He may have concerning His Church that would come after Him and the Son asked - give them everything You have given to Me and I will be in them and they in Me and in You Father and give them provision for their sins and failures so that they may not fear Your perfect plan. Let them have their own cross and let follow Me exactly as I have done and leave nothing out.

 

1 Cor 6:19

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

 

When the Spirit comes He will find unbeliever and believer on the earth. His ministry to the unbeliever (vs. 8-11); to the believer (vs. 12-15).

 

John 16:8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment;

 

John 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

 

John 16:10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me;

 

John 16:11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

 

John 16:12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now [wrong perspective and there is time].

 

No doubt this is part of the reason or maybe even the whole reason why Christ remained on the earth for 40 days in resurrection body before He ascended to heaven.

 

Whenever He appears to the disciples He is teaching them and readying them for what is to come. We see Him appearing to a grief stricken Mary; talking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus as He opened up the OT teachings concerning Himself; appearing to a guilt ridden Peter; appearing to 10 of the apostles with comfort and breathing upon them the Holy Spirit; making another appearance for the sake of Thomas who doubted; and then off to Galilee where He appeared to 7 of the 11 on the beach with yet another net bursting with fish reminding Peter of one of the first things Jesus ever said to him, “I will make you a fisher of men,” and admonishing Peter and them all to feed His sheep after He was gone, and then Christ appears on top of one of the hills of Galilee to all of the 11 and even more, continuing to teach His victory.

 

The preparation for them and us was for the work of the body of Christ in representing His living gospel and word to a dark world, and not resting in heaven.

 

Yet not to do it alone, for without the Spirit of God as our source of divine power the word of Christ would become twisted into legalism, religion, and lose all its power.

 

John 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

 

John 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine [the full realm of doctrine], and shall disclose it to you.

 

John 16:15 "All things that the Father has [think of all that the Father has that can be disclosed to you] are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

 

We will take each of these verses in turn as we have done with the entire Gospel. What we see here is the new ministry of God the HS to the unbeliever and the believer in the Church-age. He has a ministry in the entire world in communicating the gospel through prepared ambassadors for Christ as well as a ministry to each individual believer through the filling of the HS.

 

Why now?

 

The Church-age becomes the most intensified time of the Angelic Conflict, but not overtly as the Tribulation will be as the worst time in human history, but covertly in the form of deception and religious persecution.

 

The CA is the dispensation of the ordinary believer and as such satan and the KOD have more people to attack and deceive. In the OT it was only a few and in the Tribulation the KOD has a handle on the world through the one world government and economic system. But the CA is a time of freedom where a peasant can become an invisible hero in any part of the world. This causes a lot of headaches for satan who can only be at one place at one time. As such, worldwide deception and persecution became standard practice in satan’s organization.

 

Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict: Introduction - setting the stage.

 

The anointed cherub committed the first sin of arrogance and fell, EZE 28:17, and subsequently all angels fell in some form of sin or impurity as inferred by the sole holiness of Christ in heaven, REV 15:4.

 

Jesus Christ is the creator of all things which quite obviously includes angels, therefore, He is forever over them in authority. The scripture intimates that the heavens are teaming with thousands of millions of them.

 

Ezek 28:11 Again the word of the Lord came to me saying,

 

Ezek 28:12 "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God,

"You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

 

Ezek 28:13 "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared.

 

Ezek 28:14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

 

Ezek 28:15 "You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness was found in you.

 

Ezek 28:16 "By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.

 

Ezek 28:17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.

 

Refer again: The anointed cherub committed the first sin of arrogance and fell, EZE 28:17, and subsequently all angels fell in some form of sin or impurity as inferred by the sole holiness of Christ in heaven, REV 15:4.

 

REV 15:4

"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?

For Thou alone art holy;

 

Reconciliation of some kind was offered to all angels, COL 1:20.

 

COL 1:20

and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

 

Satan and one third of God’s angels, REV 12:4, rejected God’s offer of reconciliation and as such they were condemned to eternal fire, MAT 25:41.

 

REV 12:4

And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to the earth.

 

Matt 25:41"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

 

“has been prepared” - e`toima,zw[hetoima`zo; perfect passive participle] = to prepare or to make ready. Perfect - prepared in the past and it will always remain.

 

However the execution of this judgment will not occur until the end of human history, REV 20:10.

 

REV 20:10

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

 

Therefore, if the sentence was given before human history and the execution after human history and added to this is the fact that quite often human beings are referred to as witnesses; it must be true that human history is a part of this conflict and trial.

 

Backed up by several scriptures we conclude that satan appealed his sentence and God allowed the appeal. Witnesses would be created in the form of Homo sapiens, created in God’s image, but inferior mentally and physically to angels, and God knew that out of mankind He would bring many of them to His glory by Himself becoming one of them.

 

Reasons for appeal:

In appeals on the record, the decision of the prior decision maker is challenged by arguing that he, she or they misapplied the law, came to an incorrect factual finding, acted in excess of his jurisdiction, abused discretionary powers, was biased, considered evidence which should not have been considered, or failed to consider evidence that should have been considered.