於2017-03-11發佈


聖經中的屬靈活物─啟示錄

在啟示錄四章談到神的寶座,還有一些我們應當思想的重點。正如我們先前曾談過,在聖經中我們看見天上或屬靈領域有許多不同的活物。其中一個要思想的重點,就是撒旦是唯一可以吸引三分之一天使跟隨牠背叛的活物。有些人認為因為有三分之一天使墮落,還有三分之二沒有墮落,所以好天使與壞天使的比例是二對一,但這完全不是真實情況。

天使是我們最熟悉的屬靈活物,因為他們是與我們互動的主要使者,但還有許多其他種類的屬靈活物。其他的屬靈活物並沒有墮落,所以在屬靈領域的好天使遠多過壞天使,而且多到無法計算。然而,這真的跟數量沒有關係,倘若除了神之外都墮落了,祂的良善仍超越所有墮落的受造物。

有些先人相信當主教導祂是好牧人,以致於祂會離開99隻羊只為了尋找一隻迷失的羊,祂指的是祂離開所有祂創造的其他世界,只為了尋找一個悖逆的世界─地球。當撒旦墮落後,牠被趕到地上,所有邪惡與悖逆的受造物,包括靈界與自然界,都在這個地球。所以其他的受造物持守順服,與神和諧共處,除了宇宙中這稱為地球的一粒灰塵。

神並沒有摧毀這墮落的微小灰塵,反而是差派祂的兒子來救贖、和好與重建,這將永遠是祂本性的一個最大彰顯,這也將永遠被自然界和屬靈界的受造物慶祝。此外,這也顯明一個重要真理─大小與重要性毫無關係。

甚至在自然界的受造物中,地球與宇宙相比不過是一粒灰塵,卻因著神兒子道成肉身住在地上,用祂的犧牲拯救地球,現在它成為無價之寶。倘若這還不夠讓地球成為神創造中最重要的地點,父神竟自己來到地上住在人的中間。為此緣故,我們絕不要因為任何人或任何事微小或軟弱,而認為他們無足輕重。

雖然思想著世上還有其他生物可能很有趣,但聖經上並沒有清楚記載,我們不能從中變成教義。但許多人認為那要如何解釋外星人或幽浮造訪地球的『證據』呢?我認為他們並非來自其他星球的訪客,不過是屬靈活物,例如『以西結書一章的輪中套輪』的確有時彰顯在自然界。我提到此是因為這可能帶來主要的分歧。

我曾在七零年代做了一個研究,當時出現許多目擊幽浮的事件。值得注意的是,他們多半出現在地上重大事件發生之時,例如復興的開始,還有其他神重大的運行,或者是以色列重大事件時期。這些不是來自其他星球的外星人,而是來自好壞兩方的屬靈活物,在地上重大事件期間被許多人看見。有些經歷是有人說自己被外星人綁架,似乎是真的,但他們可能多半是面對魔鬼的實體,而非外星人。

在越來越接近末日時,這種事情會變得越來越頻繁。啟示錄的確記載一些事情可以與人們宣稱所看見的外星人相比,但我們不要失焦。倘若任何像這樣的事發生在你身上,要奉耶穌的名得著在其上的權柄。

這一章關於『神的七靈』的另一個重點:啟示錄最有支配性的數字是七,我們已經讀到七個教會,未來會繼續看見此異象其他與七有關的事物。在聖經中七這個數字代表『完全』,從一週有七天開始。瞭解啟示錄的一個關鍵是所有事物都與七有關,它們必須彼此相合才能得著完全的信息,正如我們未來將會讀到的。 

 (摘自喬納 word for the week,Week8, 2017)

 
Spiritual Beings in Scripture—The Book of Revelation
Week 8, 2017
Rick Joyner

         There are a couple of additional points about the throne of God in Revelation 4 that we should consider. As we touched on before, we see many different beings in the heavenly or spiritual realm in Scripture. One point to consider is that Satan was only able to draw a third of the angels to follow him in rebellion. Some think that because a third of the angels fell and two-thirds did not that the good outnumbers the bad two to one. This is far from the case.

         Angels are the spiritual beings we are most familiar with because they are the primary messenger beings we interact with, but there are many other types of spiritual beings. None of the other spiritual beings fell, and so the good in the spiritual realm outnumber the bad by an incalculable number. But it is not really about numbers. If all but God had fallen, His goodness would still far outweigh all of the fallen.

         Some ancients believed that when the Lord taught that He was the Good Shepherd that would leave the ninety-nine to go after the one, He was speaking of how He left the other worlds He created to go after the one in rebellion—the earth. When Satan fell he was cast down to the earth, and all of the evil and rebellion in creation, both natural and spiritual, are here on the earth. So the rest of creation remains obedient and in harmony with God, except this speck of dust in the universe called earth.

         That God did not destroy this tiny speck that had fallen, but rather sent His Son for our redemption, reconciliation, and restoration will forever be one of the greatest manifestations of His nature. This will be celebrated forever throughout the natural and spiritual creation. This also reveals an important truth—size may have little to do with importance.

         Even in the natural creation, the earth is hardly a speck of dust in comparison to the universe. Yet it now has infinite value because the Son came to live on earth as a man and redeemed it with His sacrifice. If that were not enough to make the earth possibly the most important location in the creation, God the Father Himself will come to the earth to live among men. For this reason, we should never consider anyone or anything insignificant because it is small or weak.

         Although it may be interesting to consider if there are other occupied worlds, this is not clear in Scripture and we cannot make a doctrine out of it. But what about what many consider to be “proof” of alien visitations or UFOs? I submit that they are not visitors from other planets but are spiritual beings, such as “Ezekiel’s wheels” that do manifest in the natural from time to time. I bring this up because this can be a major diversion from our course.

         I did a study in the1970s to track when most of the UFO sightings took place. It was noteworthy that most of them happened around significant events on earth, such as the beginning of revivals, other significant moves of God, or important events with the nation of Israel. These are not aliens from other planets. These are spiritual beings from both the good and bad side that for some reason tend to become visible to more people during times of important events on earth. Some experiences that people claim to have had about being kidnapped by aliens may seem to be real, and they may have been to a degree, but they were dealing with demonic entities, not aliens.

         This kind of thing will increase in frequency as this age comes to a close. There are some things in Revelation that might be considered comparable to the aliens people claim to see, but we must not be distracted by this. If anything like this happens to you, take authority over it in the name of Jesus.

         Another point about the “seven spirits of God” in this chapter: The most dominant number in Revelation is seven. We’ve studied the Seven Churches, and we will see several other sevens in this vision. Seven is well established as the number of “completeness” in Scripture, beginning with the seven days of the week. A key to understanding this book is that all of the sevens are related. They speak of the same events and/or periods of time, but from different perspectives. They must be fitted together to get the complete message, as we will see.