I probably got myself into hot water on another blog hosted by Debunkem. He had shared some personal hurts and I had commented that delving into past hurts is unnecessary and unhelpful for a person in order to make positive life change.

So let me get you upset. The idea that we need to “vent”, express or rehash hurts and hidden feelings before we can get psychologically better or get on with life, is a bunch of Freudian bunk and needs to be debunked. It is just so much useless psychobabble. It is also not Christian. The Christian concept is that we are to demonstrate self-control by the power of the Holy Spirit and NOT give reign to our feelings and hurts. Now let me add fuel to the fire. Rehashing, venting and expressing hurts and ill feelings usually make matters worse. It does not lead to positive solutions. The fact that so many Christians believe in “Oprahized” venting is a perfect example of how much we have swallowed of the world’s failed mentality and not been formed by the mind of Christ. What do you think?

Okay, ready for another question?

I seems that the Bible presents us with both invisible and visible realms where there are grades of being. At the top of the invisible realm, of course, is God, followed by the cherubim and seraphim and archangels, etc. In the visible world (on earth) at the bottom are the elements, followed by compounds, minerals, plant life, animal life and finally mankind. Within each category there are various grades of things that are more and more complex, etc. For example, some insects are very simple while others are very complex with a very delicate relationship between the environment and themselves. If this is true, it leads to the question. If there are grades of being, are there grades of operation? Is there a hierarchy of action? Are some things that we do, better than other things? Are some things worse than other things?

I know you have heard it a zillion times, “All sins are the same to God.” If that is true, then it would imply that all good actions are the same to God—right? Therefore, if all good actions are the same to God, it wouldn’t make any difference to Him if I lived like a saint or a slug—as long as I didn’t do bad things, right? What do you think.

Americans don’t like hierarchies (a series in which each element is graded or ranked). We are radical egalitarians, everything has to be equal and anything that smacks of a hierarchy seems snooty, uppity and wrong. This probably goes back to the Revolutionary War and our resistance to the British class system with its knights, lords and ladies, barons, dukes and kings. There is something good about this egalitarianism in that everybody is, at least in theory, equal before the law and God. In fact, the Bible says God is no respecter of persons. The downside of egalitarianism is that it can blind us to real hierarchies and orders of priority. For instance, there is a real hierarchy of false life-purposes or life-goals. Hang with me as I explain.

First, Christians know that our real life-purpose should be to do exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 and “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” But, what about those other “things”-- If we pursue them, then what is bad, worse and the worst? Is there a hierarchy of bad life pursuits? Yes, there is. What would that be? Well, at the bottom would be the pursuit of fulfillment through wealth and power. That’s the worst! Why, you ask, is that the worst pursuit? The reason for this is because all living things in nature, each in its own way, pursue wealth and power. Wealth is directed to “the sustenance” of life and all creatures seek this. Power has to do with maximizing one’s own well-being and, again, all creatures seek this. Consequently, humans who make wealth or power their life-goal are acting no differently then a moss or mushroom. This is as low as one can go in choosing a life-purpose.

Next up the hierarchy of false purposes is pleasure. At least here a human that chooses the pursuit of pleasure has something in common with the sensing animals. At this level a human is really just acting like a pig or dog. Granted, this is not very flattering but it is up the ladder above a mushroom. Actually by this point we have probably covered Hugh Hefner, The Girls Next Door, and a large majority of the American public.

The next level is honor. This is the pursuit of the recognition of men by doing noble things. Yes, I admit not many people make honor a life-purpose. But, some do, like those people who volunteer for causes and work for charitable organizations. The reason honor is higher then pleasure is because only humans can pursue it—animals do not. Pretty much everybody recognizes intuitively that people giving their lives in pursuit of good causes are nobler than pleasure-seekers.

Finally, the least-worst false purpose is the pursuit of knowledge. Here, as with honor, only humans can pursue knowledge for its own sake—not animals and not mushrooms. I think we all sense that a very small percentage of people pursue knowledge as a life-goal—but some people do. The reason it is above honor is that the pursuit of knowledge uses the highest faculties of what it means to be human—our rational abilities. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all of these pursuits are dead ends because “man’s desire comes to rest in the knowledge of God alone.” Another way of saying the same thing is that nothing is truly a long-term life-pursuit except God Himself—He has the infinite resources to satisfy. (Quotes from Aquinas’s Shorter Summa, A. 129.)

There are probably three (maybe more) major views about how predestination actually works. What I mean is that there are three theological theories on how God can be the Creator of all things, be ultimately in charge and, yet, allow for human free will. I am going to humbly suggest that ultimately how God’s will and man’s free will are joined together is a mystery, and I am going to leave it to those with greater insight to try and unravel that mystery. Rather, in this little piece, I will focus our attention on what I consider to be the big picture. This is a K.I.S.S. approach.

The Big Picture

Perhaps the single most overlooked fact about predestination is its biblical purpose. What I mean by this is not its theological purpose which is the salvation of souls. Rather, what is overlooked is its purpose in regard to why Paul wrote about predestination in the first place. The two places where Paul writes about predestination are in Romans 9-11 and Ephesians 1-2. In both of these sections of Scripture Paul is making a case for the inclusion of Gentiles into the household of God. In both of these sections of Scripture Paul refers to the “mystery” that has been hidden and now revealed (Eph. 1:8-10 and Rom. 11: 25). He explicitly describes what that mystery is in Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3:4-6 "4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus."

You may be aware that the Apostle Paul had a ministry-long battle with both Jews and Jewish-Christians in regard to the salvation of the Gentiles. Many Jewish-Christians believed that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. Paul, based on a revelation from Jesus, resisted this idea and proclaimed salvation to the Gentiles by faith. Predestination was one of Paul’s key arguments for the inclusion of Gentiles into God’s family. Put in the vernacular, predestination was Paul’s “battering ram” doctrine against Jewish-Christians who wanted to restrict the salvation message to God’s Old Testament chosen people. In simple terms, Paul was saying that God will have compassion on whom He will have compassion and nobody can argue with God. Your arms are to short to box with God.

The problem arises with predestination when people turn its purpose on its head. To Paul predestination meant that God has sovereignly thrown open the gates of heaven to all of humanity and wants His (as Jesus said in Luke 14:23) “house full.” Unfortunately, some people now want to re-define predestination as a restrictive doctrine. The impression one gets from this redefinition of predestination is that God is a miser in heaven choosing a few special “elect” out of humanity and consigning the rest of the world to hell. According to this view God does this because it proves He is in charge and that He is a glorious God. However, such a view of God violates the love-drenched spirit of the New Testament and would likely horrify the Apostle Paul. Paul gloried in predestination because it validated extreme evangelism. A proper understanding of predestination puts it in its biblical context as connected to the mystery of Jew and Gentile being saved. It is a generous and wonderfully outrageous doctrine of God’s love for all of humanity. All humans are now invited to come to God’s salvation banquet--the blind, the lame, the rich and poor, all are welcome.

1 Tim 2:3-6 "3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men"

Well, gang, here is my take on how the angels could have been in heaven, having free will and, yet, some of them could be disobedient to God. REMEMBER, we are looking at a subject that is highly speculative and mostly OPINION. The best I can do regarding this subject is to refer to some Scripture and some medieval theology. I refer to the medieval stuff because medieval Christians wrote a lot about the angels and their fall. However, even with the medieval theologians, there were a number of opinions on this matter.

If you want to skip all the background information, just go to the last paragraph for my summary.

Generally speaking, the Christian-consensus-view would run along the following lines. FIRST, Satan and the other fallen angels were all part of the angelic creation, and their natural powers did not and do not differ from those of the angels who remained faithful. Like the other angels, they are pure spiritual beings without material bodies, and in their original state they were created and placed in a condition of so-called “probation.” St. Jude may be referring to this: Jude 6 "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day." The condition of probation was believed to be that state between their creation and full beatitude--meaning having received the full vision of the Godhead.

The SECOND point would be the manner and purpose of this period of probation. Thomas refers to it this way:

“The angel is above the time of corporeal things; hence the various instants regarding the angels are not to be taken except as reckoning the succession of their acts. Now their act which merited beatitude could not be in them simultaneously with the act of beatitude, which is fruition; since the one belongs to imperfect grace, and the other to consummate grace. Consequently, it remains for different instants to be conceived, in one of which the angel merited beatitude, and in another was beatified.” -- Thomas, Summa I, 62, 5

I think what he was saying is that, even though the angels exist in a realm above time; there was still a logical progression in the succession of their acts. The succession went from their 1) creation by God to a point of; 2) their own willful turning to God’s fullness or a willful turning away from God’s fullness to, finally 3) the beatification of most of the angels and the fall of some of the angels. The progression from their creation to their willful response to God is what Thomas considered the “probation” period, so to speak. This leads to the next question, why would Satan and the other fallen angels turn away from God’s fullness?

Why Satan turned away from Beatitude…

If we are comfortable with understanding Isaiah 14 as a picture of what happened to Satan, then we do know that the key issue in Satan’s fall was his pride (also, 1 Tim 3:6). Beyond that, we are speculating. That being said, here we go again with Thomas:

“But he desired resemblance with God in this respect--by desiring, as his last end of beatitude, something which he could attain by the virtue of his own nature, turning his appetite away from supernatural beatitude, which is attained by God's grace. Or, if he desired as his last end that likeness of God which is bestowed by grace, he sought to have it by the power of his own nature; and not from Divine assistance according to God's ordering. This harmonizes with Anselm's opinion, who says [De casu diaboli, iv.] that "he sought that to which he would have come had he stood fast.”-- Thomas, Summa I, 63, 3

In common language, Thomas seems to be saying that Satan desired to reach his own fullness of being without the assistance of God. This, of course, is the very epitome of pride. This, then, leads to another question. Was there a specific reason why Satan and the fallen angels decided to do it their way? Here is where we may have a little more Scripture to under-gird our thinking.

The reason for the turning away…

Although nothing definite can be known as to the precise nature of the probation of the angels and the manner in which many of them fell, Christians have postulated that the mystery of the Incarnation was revealed to them during their probation. In other words, they saw that a nature lower than their own (a human nature) was to be joined to the Person of the Son, and that all the host of heaven must bow before the majesty of Christ; and this, it is believed, was the reason for the pride of Satan. There are passages of Scripture, specifically in the Psalms that are cited within Hebrews that may indicate this revelation of the Incarnation: “But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” (Hebrews 1:6; Psalm 96:7). Additionally, the twelfth chapter of Revelation may refer, at least in a secondary sense, to the original fall of the angels.

Finally, the Fathers agreed in understanding that Isaiah 14:12-15 applied (beyond its historical significance) to a deeper significance of the fall of Satan and generally consider that this interpretation is confirmed by the words of Jesus to his disciples: "I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven" Luke 10:18. The Lord’s words were regarded as a rebuke to the disciples warning them against the danger of pride that was found in Satan.

In summary, the progression goes as follows: 1) creation of the angels; 2) probation with revealing of the Incarnation followed by willful response; ending with 3) elevation of the blessed angels to full beatitude and the casting down of Satan and the fallen angels. There you have it, what do you think?