3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
3. As to their moral character.(a) They were all created holy.Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.(b) They had a probation.This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”(c) Some preserved their integrity.Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”(e) The good are confirmed in good.Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
(a) They were all created holy.
Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.
Gen. 1:31—“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”;Jude 6—“angels that kept not their own beginning”—ἀρχήν seems here to mean their beginning in holy character, rather than their original lordship and dominion.
(b) They had a probation.
This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”
This we infer from1 Tim. 5:21—“the elect angels”;cf.1 Pet. 1:1, 2—“elect ... unto obedience.”If certain angels, like certain men, are“elect ... unto obedience,”it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on1 Tim. 5:21. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“Gen. 3:14—‘Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan's day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man's body or soul, to tempt from the good.”
(c) Some preserved their integrity.
Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”
Ps. 89:7—“the council of the holy ones”—a designation of angels;Mark 8:38—“the holy angels.”Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.”
(d) Some fell from their state of innocence.
John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”
John 8:44—“He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him”;2 Pet. 2:4—“angels when they sinned”;Jude 6—“angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation.”Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.”
(e) The good are confirmed in good.
Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”
Mat. 6:10—“Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”;18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”;2 Cor. 11:14—“an angel of light.”
(f) The evil are confirmed in evil.
Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”;1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”;cf.John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”;Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”
From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”;Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”;Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”;Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.
It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at[pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”