10 Commandments, Christ's crucifixion, and fallen angels
Posted : 4 Jan, 2011 04:17 PM
I know we won't ever have the real answer to this but I've been curious about these things since I was little.
Out of all the commandments one of them is internal and the tenth one is pretty much what Lucifer did to get himself kicked out of heaven.
Now, something that struck me is that no one is capable of keeping all these commandments. They are a goal to strive for but it isn't possible for humanity to keep them. Is this done on purpose to show mankind that they are totally reliant upon God for his grace and mercy?
When Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified he paid for all sins past, present, and future yes? Does anyone wonder if this applied to fallen angel too?
10 Commandments, Christ's crucifixion, and fallen angels
Posted : 4 Jan, 2011 07:20 PM
Some good questions.
First, the Ten Commandments served several purposes. They were to teach a people who had been enslaved for 400 years how to love. They also show that the standard for God is perfection, not just being pretty good. And finally, it was to show us that we had no chance of pleasing God by our own power. That realization causes us to fully trust in Christ for our salvation.
The fallen Angels are a tough subject. To understand why they are not included in Jesus' completed work on the cross we have to go all the way back to the garden.
When we chose to know good and evil, it was not all instantaneous. We learn by experiencing things. Without dark, we would not know light, without hot we would not know cold. Without evil, we can not fully understand good. We are a comparative people. When you look at creation, you can see that God knew that and created opposites in pairs during the process.
So, God allowed us to fully experience evil, that we would recognize good when we saw it. When Christ came, everyone who knew Him thought Him to be good. We had thousands of years of evil to use as a comparison. Now, Jesus attributed all the goodness to the Father, and Romans 5:8 would seem to tell us why. But either way, for the first time since the fall of man, we saw good for what it was in all it's fullness.
The fallen Angels already knew good from evil, yet chose evil. They made their choice, now we have to make ours.
10 Commandments, Christ's crucifixion, and fallen angels
Posted : 4 Jan, 2011 08:35 PM
Cheris,
"When Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified he paid for all sins past, present, and future yes? Does anyone wonder if this applied to fallen angel too?"
Although Jesus died for all sins there is one sin He did not die for. It is commonly referred to as the "unpardonable sin" ie : blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This is a stubbornly rebellious refusal to submit and come into the relationship God desires from His creation. Satan with a third of the angels apparently rebelled and there was a war in heaven. Satan has even brought the war to earth and got us involved. He has been a continual blasphemer by working through people to kill the prophets and Godly people of old, killing Jesus and the disciples and is still to this day trying to stop the Holy Spirit from drawing people to Jesus. From the looks of things he pretty well has his mind made up.
In short, I don't believe it is the Nature of God that closes the door of repentance on Satan, rather it is the Nature of Satan that closes the door of repentance on Satan.
10 Commandments, Christ's crucifixion, and fallen angels
Posted : 4 Jan, 2011 10:17 PM
The bible doesn't really say what went on in heaven before the fall. I don't think Satan just had his sin switch flicked on, there was probably a pretty long period of his fall and his deception of the other angels. I would think that God put just as much effort into trying to save His angels(that He created higher than man), as He did to save man(created lower than the angels). Can't tell for sure though, but I don't think God changes His ways of dealing with His creation. He is love after all. In fact, I believe the whole process of creation was not just to save man, but to convince the loyal angels that God was who He said He was. Satan was successful at actually destroying the faith/love of God in 1/3 of the perfect angels in heaven...it wouldn't be much of a leap to say that the other 2/3 had questions placed in their minds because of such a huge rift. The cross answered the questions and showed Satan's true motives to the universe.
