Tag: revelation

  • Fallen Angels have chosen the path of evil

    The fallen angels have chosen the path of rebellion and evil. From the context of Revelation, we infer that before the creation of the visible world there was a creation of the purely spiritual world, that is, of the angels. What was then created are not just forces or relationships, but beings, people endowed with intelligence, freedom, and responsibility. So even in their existence, there is a moral choice.

    The angels were tested, regarding God’s holy sovereignty, which they may or may not recognize. This was the first choice between good and evil. For the first time, the will of God was done. That this will be done is the Kingdom of God, thus the Kingdom of God began.

    But at the same time, opposition to God’s will also begins. Beings endowed with the greatest strength of knowledge, will, freedom and the capacity for responsibility have rebelled against God’s dominion. Therefore they have chosen evil, they have become fallen angels.

    Their whole being was at stake, the angels are in fact pure spirits and therefore simple, in each of their acts the totality of their being is expressed. So it was already in their first moment of life, which was, therefore, a moment of very clear awareness, of tremendous freedom, of full self-realization, without residue. Terrible act, from which only the real Angel came out – and the devil who is the truly lost being, the enemy of God and not just a demon.

    The Fallen Angels in the Old Testament

    The existence of evil would therefore derive from the rebellion, which took place in the mists of time, by a crowd of angels, who refused to obey God and the cosmic order he built. The leader of the rebel angels is Lucifer, – the bearer of light -, – the son of the morning – is also referred to as Satan. The prophet Isaiah (14, 12-15) speaks of Lucifer in the Old Testament:

    How come you fell from the sky, o morning star, son of the dawn? How is it that you have landed, you who trampled the nations? You said in your heart – I will ascend into heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will be frozen on the assembly mountain, in the extreme north. I will climb to the top of the clouds, I will be similar to the Highest. Instead, they made you descend into the grave, into the depths of the pit.

    The Fallen Angels in the Bible

    In the Bible there are scattered hints of this rebellion, according to the book of Genesis, evil would pre-exist man since Adam and Eve were seduced by the tempter in the form of a serpent. Lucifer, the first, the most beautiful, the most resplendent of the angels created by God, performed an act of rebellion against his Creator.

    Because, driven by pride and jealousy, as well as pride, he wanted to replace Him, that is, he wanted to become God. Other angels followed him in the rebellion, and all, after a terrible heavenly battle, were defeated by the angels faithful to the Almighty and then plunge into hell. The New Testament, in the book of Revelation, makes an extremely concise but precise reference to this battle (12, 7-9):

    And there was a battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought but did not win, and their place was no longer found in heaven. And the great dragon, the ancient serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, the seducer of the whole world. He was cast down, he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.

    The same book of Revelation, a few verses earlier, in revealing the prophecies about the end of the world and the final struggle between good and evil, underlines the great demonic power when it affirms.

    And another sign appeared in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, which had seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on its heads. And his tail drew a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the earth.

  • Hierarchy of Angels in the New Testament

    Hierarchy of Angels, although there have been various evolutions in the cultural and religious sphere, on one point the different sources are often in agreement. Their number, so huge as to define them as armies or legions. In the Bible, Daniel 7:11, Revelation 5:11, speak of thousands of thousands.

    Given the large number and the organization – military – it is not surprising that hierarchies were soon thought of ordering them by importance or by diversity. Both Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome proposed their own, but it was not until the 5th century AD. The author called Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, to see the birth of the hierarchy that is at the base of the angelic organization that has reached the present day.

    The author is called pseudo, because the real Dionysius the Areopagite was a Greek philosopher of the 1st century AD. converted to Christianity. As can be read in Acts of the Apostles 17:34, and his name was used as a pseudonym by the anonymous 5th-century author. The pseudo-Dionysius described in his book is dedicated to Angel’s 9 angelic orders, in three choirs of three orders each.

    The division into hierarchies not only reflects a military vision of the angels but has evolved in the medieval context, it was a normal expression of the feudal social order, where a supreme Lord (God) had a large number of subordinates (angels) who dealt with the government and direct relations with men.

    The acceptance by St. Thomas Aquinas of the order hypothesized by the pseudo-Dionysius entailed the addition of all the authority to the division thus indicated.

    Angels Hierarchy

    Seraphim

    They are the angels closest to God, as they surround his throne. They are first mentioned in the Bible at Isaiah 6: 2, where they are described like this – each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Seraphs are often referred to as love angels and are characterized by light and fire. There is no mention of them in the New Testament.

    Baroque art and to a lesser extent Rococo contributed to the deformation of the modern view of cherubim as naked, plump children with small wings. However, their original representation, of Assyrian or Akkadian derivation, was very different and decidedly more frightening. Resembling fantastic creatures such as the griffin or the sphinx, the cherubim of the origins had the bodies of lions or winged bulls with human faces.

    Precisely with this bestial conformation, they entered the Canaanite tradition. Fearsome cherubs with swords of fire were placed at the entrance to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:22. While the angels sculpted in gold are also cherubs who were placed on the Ark of the Covenant mentioned in the Exodus. Ezekiel 10:14 describes them this way – Each cherub had four features, the first that of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

    In the Jewish rabbinical tradition, the cherubs are considered the coachmen of God, as they carry his throne. While in the first Muslim tradition, the cherubs would have been born from the tears of the archangel Michael shed for the sins of men.

    Thrones

    They are among the least known and most enigmatic angels. They would find themselves before the throne of God and in Ezekiel 1: 5-9 they are described in a vision with the following characteristics – they were human in appearance and each had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight and the hooves of their feet were like the hooves of a calf’s feet, shining like polished bronze. Under the wings, on the four sides, they had human hands, all four had the same appearance and their own wings, and these wings were joined to each other. As they advanced, they did not look back, but each went straight ahead.

    According to tradition, the Thrones are characterized by absolute firmness that would serve them to bring divine justice to Earth.

    Dominions

    These angels have a fundamental and supreme task, to regulate the activity of other angels, making sure that the Glory of God manifests itself. In the Christian religion, the angel Zachariel would be at the head of the Dominions. He, like the other Dominations, would be the bearer of a scepter, a symbol of their power. One can match this hierarchy of angels to the Hebrews hashmallim, led by Hashmal.

    Virtues

    They are the equivalent of the Jewish malakhim, divine messengers. They are angels who can perform miracles on Earth and are represented as bearers of grace and valor. In Matthew 18:10 there is mention of one of their functions as guardian angels – Beware of despising just one of these little ones, because I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. In the Christian tradition two of the angels of the Ascension are believed to belong to this order.

    Powers

    They are the forces that protect the world from the invasion of demons. According to another thesis, the Powers are in charge of watching over the demons until the Day of Judgment, so that they cannot harm Man. For St. Paul, in his letter to Ephesians 6:12, these angels are themselves wicked. – In fact, our battle is not against creatures made of blood and flesh, but against the Principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits who live in the celestial regions.

    For this reason, the greatest number of angels rebelling against God is believed to have come from their ranks.

    Principalities

    In the beginning, they were the protector angels of nations and cities, but this order has then lost its precise connotations and has become very vague. In the current tradition, they are believed to be protectors of Christian doctrine.

    Archangels

    Archangels are divine messengers, but their placement in the lower orders of the angelic hierarchy is rather misleading. As the best known and most powerful angels have precisely defined Archangels, although this term occurs only twice in the Bible. In Revelation 8: 2, seven angels with seven trumpets are mentioned, generally believed to be Archangels. Also based on the apocryphal book of Enoch which lists just seven names of Archangels – Uriel, Raguel, Michael, Seraqael, Gabriel, Haniel, and Raphael.

    Other apocryphal books increase the number up to twelve to make them correspond with the signs of the zodiac. We also find Archangels in the Muslim religion, although only two are indicated – Jibril (Gabriel), the Archangel who brought the Revelation to Muhammad, and Mika’il (Michael), the warrior Archangel for Faith.

    Angels

    Angels belong to the lowest ranks of the hierarchy and are closest to men and their activities. In popular tradition, the primordial angels, created before man, are often confused with the dead taken into Heaven and now in the presence of the Creator, in a Christian reinterpretation of the cult of the dead and ancestors.

  • Thrones Angels burn with love and divine intelligence

    Thrones Angels burn with love and divine intelligence

    Thrones Angels burn with the love of God and divine intelligence. as Daniel writes: His throne was flames and fire. Around the throne there were twenty-four thrones on which twenty-four elders dressed in white robes and with golden crowns on their heads sat (Ap 4,4) because the Lord of armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, shining with glory in the presence of his elders (Isaiah 24.23).

    The twenty-four thrones are certainly the thrones mentioned by Saint Paul in Colossians 1.16. Twenty-four Elders sitting on the thrones arranged around the throne are part of the highest heavenly hierarchies. God the high Shepherd-Elder of the universe (cf. Dan 7,9), and the twenty-four Elders form the Celestial College of Elders or Heavenly Presbyter.

    I personally believe that these Elders, in addition to worshiping God and presenting the prayers of the saints to him (cf. Rev 4:10; 5,8; 11,16), govern with him over angels and the universe. According to some scholars, they are the representatives of the glorified Church. According to others, of the raptured Church and according to others they are twelve prophets of the Old Testament and the twelve apostles of the Lamb. I believe these conclusions are based on the following reasons.

    a) The twenty-four Elders have never experienced redemption. In Revelation 4 they sing a hymn to God the Creator. in chapter 5, although they sing the song of redemption, they do not sing it for themselves, but for the men who have been redeemed by the Lamb (And you have made them a kingdom of priests and will reign on earth) (v.10).

    In the oldest manuscripts the pronoun they are used (And you made them), which here refers to the Church. If the Elders were the Church, why would they refer to it by telling them? They should use the pronoun us (And you made us or And you made us kings and priests), but it is not so because they are not the Church nor are they represented in it.

    b) Revelation 7.14 (I replied: My Lord, you know it. The apostle John calls one of the elderly my Lord, recognizing that he is in a position of lower authority than he is. It is logical to assume that he would not express this way if it had simply been men of God, even if raised to such a degree of glory, since …

    c) If the twenty-four Elders represented the Church, then John, who is among the most authoritative exponents of it, should be one of the Elders, while instead, he is not. He does not recognize even one of the eleven apostles among the 24, who at that time must have already been with the Lord. Who better than them could represent the glorified Church?

    Furthermore, John does not recognize even one of the prophets of the Old Testament. The twenty-four Elders sit on their thrones in what we might call the button room, where God’s throne is also located, where all decisions are made. That they are part of the highest angelic hierarchies would justify the expression my Lord, which John used when addressing one of them.

    Bringing God this is the role of the Thrones Angels

    Take him not only to heaven but bring him to those to whom he wants to communicate. They are executors of the decrees of his justice and announcers of his mercy. The theological virtue that is usually associated with them is hope. Saint Bonaventure also attributed humility to them.

    Strength and stability are the thrones, forever inseparable. This is what the Pseudo-Dionysius expresses (They move away without compromise from any baseness. They are stretched towards the heights with an intensity unknown from our world. And they maintain themselves with all their strength, in an inseparable and well-ordered way around the One who is, in the full sense of this term, the Highest).

    In conclusion, Sacred Scripture gives us no clue about the nature and tasks of this angelic choir, in addition to revealing his name at the head of a partial list: in it, there were all the things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers.

    Being the last choir of the first and highest hierarchy, the Thrones Angels share with the Seraphs and Cherubins the great dignity and glory of being closer to the throne of God than all the others. Thanks to their closeness to God, the light of divine mysteries reaches them before others.

  • Aleph Kaf Aleph 7th Name of God Meaning


    Aleph 
    Kaf Aleph’s name is very difficult to understand if Jewish traditions are not known because it is linked to a typically cabalistic concept. The 22 consonants that make up the Hebrew alphabet are not just letters, but also numbers, signs, sounds. Consequently, the Bible is the set of books where, starting from Genesis, the works of God are revealed through these 22 elements.

    The people of Israel first and the whole humanity then, normally do not welcome what God proposes, but operate according to their own will. But God is merciful and his patience and great kindness are demonstrated precisely through revelation … the sacred books, written through these 22 symbols. Aleph Kaf Aleph is linked to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are the tools of creation.

    The creation is based on the words spoken, those of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet: when these 22 agents manifest themselves through someone’s mouth they become forces of creation, while when they are written they become a revelation, that is, a testimony, a reminder of the past and a prophecy of the future. Furthermore, the 22 letters were encoded in our DNA.

    This important scientific discovery further reveals the importance of the Name Aleph Kaf Aleph, which gives the ability to go back from the written word to the word that generated it: the soul that is inside us. Not only in created things but also in the people who stand before us. Feel the words of a person who is in front of us, but actually have the ability to retrace these words, to go back to his soul to his DNA. Even returning to his past.

    For example: take the book of a writer who wrote 500 years ago and be able to read it like no one else reads it, going beyond words and arriving at what the writer had inside, what he was thinking as he was writing. The God of Clemency is the chains that hold life together. If you use the name Aleph Kaf Aleph for your ego you can destroy life.

    It means becoming a person of tremendous perfidy with words, which are not simply the expressions of a concept, but a mortal wound to the soul of those who is in front, making a disaster inside. This means using this tool for our own interests, which is written inside us if we are associated with this Name because this ability is there anyway and it can be used in one way or another. Aleph Kaf Aleph Psalm 102: 8