Freedom In Christ Church - Garden's Guest

Free Will Agents: Angels

By George Pogue, Jr.
(Excerpts from Dr. Greg Boyd – Is God To Blame?)

In last month’s article we began taking a new perspective on how we examine our world, through a viewpoint known as, the Warfare Worldview. Understanding that, as believers, we are to receive God’s love and replicate that love in the world around us. In doing so there is freedom, and therefore there is risk on God’s part. The Bible clearly states that we are partners (co-labors) with God in this work, not God’s robots.
We concluded then, that whatever does not reflect the unsurpassable love of God, may be the result of choices that are not in line with God’s will. We determined that the world looks like a war zone, because it is a war zone. How can we be certain of this? We will now probe into how and when the war started. Acknowledging that humans have free will explains much, but not all, of the evil in the world today. God also created angels as free will agents.
Although the Bible does not give us many details regarding the creation of angels, we do know that certain angels rebelled against God in the past, and continue in this rebellion even now. This is evidence alone that angels have and continue to have free will, because it would be impossible for an angel to reject the desires of its Creator if it lacked the capacity to choose.
From the Scriptures we understand that this rebellion of the angels was lead by the head angel of worship himself, known as Lucifer, later called Satan, meaning “the adversary”. Jesus referred to Satan’s power by calling him “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). In ancient times, the term “ruler” denoted the highest official in a city or region. Jesus acknowledged Satan as the highest power of this “fallen world”, at this time.
When Satan tempted Jesus offering him all “authority” over “all the kingdoms of this world”, Jesus knew that Satan made a legitimate offer (Luke 4:5-6). He was the ruler over this world and Jesus did not dispute this claim. He did however; refuse to give in to the demand that he worship Satan to get these kingdoms.
Throughout the Bible, references to Satan acclaim him as “the god of this world”(II Corinthians 4:4), “the ruler of the power of the air”(Ephesians 2:2) and teach that the whole world is “under the power of the evil one” (I John 5:19). These claims would then explain why it is that God’s creation appears in its present state, as a war zone, because it is a war zone! It is far from being a perfect, meticulous, divine blueprint of God’s will, for it is currently governed by an evil, powerful being who resists God’s will and purposes.
The Bible further depicts Satan as “the ruler of demons” (Matthew 9:34), and “fallen angels” (Matthew 25:41) which are called “his angels”. Satan is not merely a Lone Ranger in his efforts to thwart the plans of God, but rather he is the leader of a unified and pervasive army of spiritual powers. Jesus, as well as, other New Testament writers attests that these forces are indeed the authors of many forms of physical oppression, including physical ailments.
In fact there are numerous examples throughout God’s Word citing the vast influence of the devil or his cohorts, influence in such instances as: spiritual blindness (II Corinthians 4:4), hindrances in ministry and evangelism (I Thessalonians 2:18), delays in prayer (Daniel 10:1-13), the behavior of evil people (John 13:2), temptations and discouragement (I Timothy 3:7 & II Timothy 2:25-26), false and legalistic religious teachings (I Timothy 4:1-4), persecutions (Revelations 2:10), life threatening “natural” phenomenon (Mark 4:39) and even death (Hebrews 2:14).
In many religious realms today there is no acknowledgement of Satan or other rebel spirits as existing, let alone, having any independent influence apart from God. Some may even conjure that God divinely purposed for Satan to stray from the beginning of time. If you have been following along with us in the journey of truth, I hope that you can take the time to search out the scriptures cited above and see just how deeply Satan’s web of deceit has veiled the truth and how it continues to provide him with many opportunities to spin the focus of believers who inadvertently blame God for today’s tragedies, accidents and other painful events.
Satan has illegitimately penetrated the Christian trenches and continues to operate behind a cloak of darkness shrouded as the “mysterious Hand of God”. He contently sits back and muses as he watches believers struggle in their efforts to understand the purpose behind these events. Oh, with joy, he celebrates his triumph over the religious minds as he sees them shifting blame for these horrific events from their true source of origin, “The Father of Lies” over to an unsuspecting and always loving Heavenly Father, as if they were some distorted behind the scenes lesson to be learned from the whole ordeal.
Oh, but do not be discouraged, my friends, we are not without hope. We too have something to celebrate. For God said that He knows the plans that He has for us, plans to prosper us and bring us to an expected end. For Jesus did come to end the “enemy occupation” of the earth and to take back the property of “His kingdom”. Next month we will delve deeper into warfare and the ministry of Jesus. We will continue to explore our role as coregents with him and how the church, with unveiled eyes, will be used as the vehicle for finishing off the work that Jesus began.