ANGELS, ALIENS AND
ARMAGEDDON:
"For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Ephesians 6:12
Excerpts and Briefs:
ANGELS
Angels are personal spiritual
beings, having aspects of intelligence, emotions, and will.
This is true of both the good and evil angels. Angels
possess intelligence (Matthew 8:29; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1
Peter 1:12), show emotions (Luke 2:13; James 2:19;
Revelation 12:17), and demonstrate that they have wills
(Luke 8:28-31: 2 Timothy 2:26; Jude 6). Angels are spirit
beings (Hebrews 1:14), with no true physical body. The fact
that they do not have bodies does not affect their being
personalities (any more than it does with God).
The knowledge angels possess is limited by their being
created beings. This means they do not know all things as
God does (Matthew 24:36). They do seem to have greater
knowledge than humans, however. This may be due to three
causes. (1) Angels were created as a higher order of
creatures in the universe than humans are. Therefore,
innately they possess greater knowledge. (2) Angels study
the Bible and the world more thoroughly than humans do and
gain knowledge from it (James 2:19; Revelation 12:12). (3)
Angels gain knowledge through long observation of human
activities. Unlike humans, angels do not have to study the
past; they have experienced it. Therefore, they know how
others have acted and reacted in situations and can predict
with a greater degree of accuracy how we may act in similar
circumstances.
Though they have wills, the angels are, like all creatures,
subject to the will of God. Good angels are sent by God to
help believers (Hebrews 1:14).
ALIENS
The question of UFO's and
intelligent life on other planets has become very popular.
Many fashionable scientists speculate about the
possibilities, insisting that we cannot be alone in the
universe. Alien life is the subject of hit television shows
and movies, and is also a common belief of many New Age
religions. Many people have asked what the Bible has to say
about this subject.
The
Scriptures do not directly address the question of alien
beings. The Bible does not explicitly confirm or deny the
existence of intelligent life from other planets. Although
the subject is not addressed explicitly, the Bible teaches
implicitly that the only things He created with intelligence
are the angels, man, and the animals.
What happened to the Nephilim? The
Nephilim were one of the primary reasons for the great Flood
in Noah's time. Immediately after the Nephilim are
mentioned, God's Word tells us this, "The LORD saw how great
man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every
inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all
the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the
earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said,
"I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of
the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along
the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I
have made them" (Genesis 6:5-7). So, God proceeded to flood
the entire earth, killing everyone and everything (including
the Nephilim) other than Noah and his family and the animals
on the ark (Genesis 6:11-22).
Where there Nephilim after the
Flood? Genesis 6:4 tells us, "The Nephilim were on the earth
in those days — and also afterward." It seems that the
demons repeated their sin sometime after the Flood as well.
However, it likely took place to a much lesser extent than
it did prior to the Flood. When the Israelites spied out the
land of Canaan, they reported back to Moses - "We saw the
Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the
Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and
we looked the same to them" (Numbers 13:33). Now, this
passage does not specifically say that the Nephilim were
genuinely there, only that the spies thought they saw the
Nephilim. It is more likely that the spies witnessed very
large people in Canaan and mistakenly believed them to be
the Nephilim. Or, it is possible that after the Flood the
demons again mated with human females, producing more
Nephilim. Whatever the case, these "giants" were destroyed
by the Israelites during their invasion of Canaan (Joshua
11:21-22) and later in their history (Deuteronomy 3:11; 1
Samuel chapter 17).
ARMAGEDDON
The word Armageddon comes from a
Hebrew word Har-Magedone which means “Mount Megiddo” and has
become synonymous with the future battle in which God will
intervene and destroy the armies of the Antichrist as
predicted in biblical prophecy (Revelation 16:16; 20:1-3,
7-10). There will be millions of people engaged in the
Battle of Armageddon, as all the nations gather together to
fight against Christ.
The exact location of the valley of Armageddon is unclear
because there is no mountain called “Meggido.” However,
since Har can also mean “hill,” the most likely location is
the hill country surrounding the Plain of Meggido, some
sixty miles north of Jerusalem. More than two hundred
battles have been fought in that region. The Plain of
Megiddo and the nearby Plain of Esdraelon will be the focal
point for the Battle of Armageddon, which will rage the
entire length of Israel as far south as the Edomite city of
Bozrah (Isaiah 63:1). The valley of Armageddon was famous
for two great victories in Israel’s history: Barak’s victory
over the Canaanites (Judges 4:15) and Gideon’s victory over
the Midianites (Judges chapter 7). Armageddon was also the
site for two great tragedies: the death of Saul and his sons
(1 Samuel 31:8) and the death of King Josiah (2 Kings
23:29-30; 2 Chronicles 35:22).
Because of this history, the valley of Armageddon became a
symbol of the final conflict between God and the forces of
evil. The word Armageddon only occurs in Revelation 16:16,
“Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in
Hebrew is called Armageddon.” This speaks of the kings who
are loyal to the Antichrist gathering together for a final
assault on Israel. At Armageddon "the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of God’s wrath" (Revelation 16:19) will be
delivered, and the Antichrist and his followers will be
overthrown and defeated. Armageddon has become a general
term that refers to the end of the world, not exclusively
the battle that takes place in the Plain of Megiddo.
