A question about angels and demons

[Mr Floyd]

braderjoe originally said:

Interesting points from the Christian angle...How about Jewish views on this matter?
In Islam - Satan was not an angel. Angles are totally loyal to God and will never rebel. They are created from light. Satan was from the race of jinns (forget that Aladdin Genie in a bottle fable!) The jinns are a race created from fire long before Man's creation. Man was of course created from earth. Satan held quite a high post in heaven prior to his downfall. His only fault was that he refused to bow down to Adam when ordered to by the Creator. Thus he was cast out and some of the jinns followed him into exile. He of course led Adam and Eve astray. Satan was a handsome being but of course, once cast out, he was cursed with ugliness. He made one final plea to God to allow him to live on and not die until the day of judgement arrives. His agenda now is of course to lead as many of Adam's children astray from the straight path until the End arrives. Those of the jinns that follow him do his biddings. [End Quote]

I was raised Catholic, attended many other Christian churches after that and currently go to an Episcopal church in my hood. The beliefs of religions different than mine all sound like fairy tales. Like the story of Santa Claus with some mystical / magical explanations for the supernatural aspects (Flying sleigh etc.). I imagine that's how devout Muslims feel about the Christian faith and how many of us feel about Mormon beliefs. Doesn't answer the angel question though...

[wilvan]

Originally Posted by Nikk

If you look at the OP the writter is confussed by the language. It says "Chains of Darkness" in the scripture, yet he is thinking "Chains of metal" or something binding the angels in place. The demons can still roam around the earth, because they were cast out of heaven, but they are in darkness, because they rejected God from the beginning.

I think the poster is just confused with the wording.

I think the Bottomless Pit is literally a prison for most of the fallen angels/demons. I suspect they are the more vicious ones who will only be released at the start of the Great Tribulation. The prophecy also tells us Satan will eventually be chained and thrown into the Bottomless Pit during the 1000-yr rule of JC on earth. At the end of the Millennium he will be released to again tempt the humans to rebel.

[wilvan]

Originally Posted by Nikk

This is an error in reasoning. God is all-powerful, that is why he can come back at anytime. But he chose at the beginning to return after certain events take place. Can he come earlier? Yes. Will he come earlier? No. Does this affect his all powerfulness? No.

This is the same error when someone says: If God can do anything, can he lie. The answer is that God can do anything and he chose truth as his identity. God will not chose to lie. You might say that he is not all powerful because he can't lie. The answer is that he is all powerful but he WILL not lie, because he will not.

Yes, God is indeed all powerful and he can do whatever he chose to do. However, he will to stay true to his promise. He gave us the prophecy, the events to watch for... to know when the end is near. We are commanded to keep the Sabbath to be reminded of the Gospel every single week. The Gospel is the soon coming 1000-yr rule of JC after 6000-yr rule of man under the sway of Satan. Therefore he will keep his word and we must watch for the signs to know when we are already near the end of 6000 years. However, God said he will cut short the time for the sake of the elect and JC will come earlier.

Here is my calculation:
6000 yrs divided by 7 = 857 Sabbath Cycles + 1 year.

Daniel's 70th Week, the last 7 yrs of man's rule, is called a "Week" ... which I believe is the last Sabbath Cycle. On the last Sabbath Year JC will come back and possibly that will be the 5999th year. Therefore we know JC will return 1 year ahead of the 6000th year!