Allow me to tell you a story of a woman. Not just anyone mind you, but an odd and reclusive woman who only ever comes out of her apartment to walk her two medium-sized, brown-furred dogs. If you lived in the same apartment complex as I, you would find that it would hold true that you will see her, day in and day out, being dragged by her two dogs who appear desperate to escape their leash-bearing dictator.
Recently, however, the woman has been seen out and about with two little girls of shockingly similar hair color to that of the fur on the previously mentioned dogs. Additionally, the two girls (as it has been noted by many) have been rather fearful little creatures and seem quite bent on keeping their distance from their overseer. Finally…it all makes sense.
Now that it is known that the woman is not merely odd but is, in fact, a witch, we other tenants are striving to stay away from her as much as possible to avoid offending the transmutilator as best as possible. Sadly, we have not the sufficient evidence to present to the police so as to have her arrested, nor to the Vatican to have her burned…instead we must endure with hideous fear for our beings and watch with curiosity as to whether the two poor girls are turned back into dogs…
Wasn’t that a delightful tale? I know it warmed MY heart! Let’s talk about it…
The moral of the story is…use logic! Think before you speak. Everyone fails at this from time to time (myself doubly included), but some excel at being illogical! There are a whole slew of reasons as to why people do this, including (but not limited to) laziness, ignorance, pride, selfish and/or manipulative intent, fear, boredom, etc.
The logic of the narrator and the “other tenants” was that A) the woman was odd and had two brown-furred dogs and B) the woman suddenly had two little girls with brown hair running around and no dogs, therefore C) the woman is a witch and has transformed her dogs into girls (further speculation might lead one to ask if the origin of the dogs were originally human or if they started as dogs…or perhaps they were 60 ft purple platypus-bears. Who knows?!). The line of logic here is absurd! But isn’t that something we do with theology and scripture all the time?
I recently had a discussion online with a man I used to go to church with quite a few years ago. He and I have not spoken in nearly 7 or 8 years, but it came to my attention (as I was scrolling through Facebook) that he had posted a status of questionable, theological teaching. The statement was that he was woken up that morning by a voice that “sounded as if someone was in [his] house saying ‘GABRIEL’S LIPS ARE ON THE TRUMPET’”.
I shrugged and moved on, figuring it was nothing more than a passing thought and wouldn't be something to concern myself about; just another status about “hearing something in the Spirit” that led one to cry and pray. I believe that the Holy Spirit still speaks to His people and I’m not against crying and praying, but later that day I saw a second status from the same person that pushed the issue further and I felt the need to say something. His second status stated that “it is believed that in the last days the Archangel Gabriel will blow the trumpet” and then he stated the verse from I Thessalonians that refers to Christ’s return. After that he stated that many have falsely interpreted it as Michael the Archangel (the only one in the Bible to actually be entitled as such, by the way) and referenced Jude 9.
Upon reading this I jumped in and asked if there was a scripture verse that stated that Gabriel was the one to blow the trumpet…to which I was met with a load of responses, some I found unpleasant, and a couple even heretical. While it was confirmed that there wasn't a verse stating such a thing as Gabriel being a trumpeter, I was asked “why not?”
Before I answer the “why not”, I will first discuss the reasoning displayed by a couple of the people who responded to my questioning. I’ll condense the conversation a little bit and hit the main points in the line of logic presented to me: A) Gabriel was most common of the angelic beings mentioned in the Bible and B) Gabriel is seen as a messenger. C) Michael is an angel of war. D) There are no other angels whose names are mentioned, therefore E) it must be Gabriel because that’s who God would choose and also F) this random guy from North Georgia woke up to hear the “Holy Spirit” say it so it must be true.
Give me a second. *takes in 3 slow, deep breaths and counts to 10* Ok, hopefully if you are reading this you are understanding a bit of my frustration in this issue. I cannot blame them (not fully at least) for their conclusions. Most of what they believe came from being taught by others that they respect as spiritual leaders and the responsibility falls to the pastors and teachers who did not check their teachings before they led people astray. They are however, responsible for not studying themselves and for not testing what they hear.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail with the “why not” since that would be another post entirely, but I will throw out the points that stand out the most. 1) Scripture is our authority for testing spirits, for doctrine, and for right teaching, 2) the Holy Spirit in all of His divine, infinite wisdom and understanding is going to sync up with the words that He inspired the Biblical authors to write, 3) Gabriel is never…NEVER called an archangel in the entirety of the Bible (this is a teaching that was brought about by the writing of Pseudo-Dionysius who wrote the unbiblical angelical hierarchy commonly recognized throughout much of Christendom today), 4) Michael being of War makes more sense in light of the fact that the event of Christ coming back is as the conquering King, and 5) the verse that was mentioned in the status implies that it is Christ that holds the trumpet and does the shouting.
If you are going to be so bold as to say “Thus saith the Lord…” then you must be ready to give a defense or call down fire, otherwise you might some verbal stoning will be the adequate response. The Christian community has to be ready to hold each other accountable to be held accountable, especially to those whom God have placed in authority over us. Anyone who refuses to be tested or attacks those who lovingly question one's words are worthy of being labeled a "wolf in sheep's' clothing". Especially if they begin calling those questioners divisive and confrontational or accusing them of weaving doubt about one's ability to hear the Holy Spirit. That's a pride-filled answer and only raises more red-flags.
To avoid questioning, I was asked “why does it matter who blows the trumpet?” It doesn't. What matters is that a man publicly stated the God spoke to him, putting him in a place of spiritual authority and that God told him something that was not supportable by scripture. If the Holy Spirit were to take the time to speak audibly to someone, I believe that He would have a lot more to say than one sentence that brings undue attention to angels, but I do believe crying would definitely be the correct response.
Peace be with you,
Stephen.
Recently, however, the woman has been seen out and about with two little girls of shockingly similar hair color to that of the fur on the previously mentioned dogs. Additionally, the two girls (as it has been noted by many) have been rather fearful little creatures and seem quite bent on keeping their distance from their overseer. Finally…it all makes sense.
Now that it is known that the woman is not merely odd but is, in fact, a witch, we other tenants are striving to stay away from her as much as possible to avoid offending the transmutilator as best as possible. Sadly, we have not the sufficient evidence to present to the police so as to have her arrested, nor to the Vatican to have her burned…instead we must endure with hideous fear for our beings and watch with curiosity as to whether the two poor girls are turned back into dogs…
Wasn’t that a delightful tale? I know it warmed MY heart! Let’s talk about it…
The moral of the story is…use logic! Think before you speak. Everyone fails at this from time to time (myself doubly included), but some excel at being illogical! There are a whole slew of reasons as to why people do this, including (but not limited to) laziness, ignorance, pride, selfish and/or manipulative intent, fear, boredom, etc.
The logic of the narrator and the “other tenants” was that A) the woman was odd and had two brown-furred dogs and B) the woman suddenly had two little girls with brown hair running around and no dogs, therefore C) the woman is a witch and has transformed her dogs into girls (further speculation might lead one to ask if the origin of the dogs were originally human or if they started as dogs…or perhaps they were 60 ft purple platypus-bears. Who knows?!). The line of logic here is absurd! But isn’t that something we do with theology and scripture all the time?
I recently had a discussion online with a man I used to go to church with quite a few years ago. He and I have not spoken in nearly 7 or 8 years, but it came to my attention (as I was scrolling through Facebook) that he had posted a status of questionable, theological teaching. The statement was that he was woken up that morning by a voice that “sounded as if someone was in [his] house saying ‘GABRIEL’S LIPS ARE ON THE TRUMPET’”.
I shrugged and moved on, figuring it was nothing more than a passing thought and wouldn't be something to concern myself about; just another status about “hearing something in the Spirit” that led one to cry and pray. I believe that the Holy Spirit still speaks to His people and I’m not against crying and praying, but later that day I saw a second status from the same person that pushed the issue further and I felt the need to say something. His second status stated that “it is believed that in the last days the Archangel Gabriel will blow the trumpet” and then he stated the verse from I Thessalonians that refers to Christ’s return. After that he stated that many have falsely interpreted it as Michael the Archangel (the only one in the Bible to actually be entitled as such, by the way) and referenced Jude 9.Upon reading this I jumped in and asked if there was a scripture verse that stated that Gabriel was the one to blow the trumpet…to which I was met with a load of responses, some I found unpleasant, and a couple even heretical. While it was confirmed that there wasn't a verse stating such a thing as Gabriel being a trumpeter, I was asked “why not?”
Before I answer the “why not”, I will first discuss the reasoning displayed by a couple of the people who responded to my questioning. I’ll condense the conversation a little bit and hit the main points in the line of logic presented to me: A) Gabriel was most common of the angelic beings mentioned in the Bible and B) Gabriel is seen as a messenger. C) Michael is an angel of war. D) There are no other angels whose names are mentioned, therefore E) it must be Gabriel because that’s who God would choose and also F) this random guy from North Georgia woke up to hear the “Holy Spirit” say it so it must be true.
Give me a second. *takes in 3 slow, deep breaths and counts to 10* Ok, hopefully if you are reading this you are understanding a bit of my frustration in this issue. I cannot blame them (not fully at least) for their conclusions. Most of what they believe came from being taught by others that they respect as spiritual leaders and the responsibility falls to the pastors and teachers who did not check their teachings before they led people astray. They are however, responsible for not studying themselves and for not testing what they hear.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail with the “why not” since that would be another post entirely, but I will throw out the points that stand out the most. 1) Scripture is our authority for testing spirits, for doctrine, and for right teaching, 2) the Holy Spirit in all of His divine, infinite wisdom and understanding is going to sync up with the words that He inspired the Biblical authors to write, 3) Gabriel is never…NEVER called an archangel in the entirety of the Bible (this is a teaching that was brought about by the writing of Pseudo-Dionysius who wrote the unbiblical angelical hierarchy commonly recognized throughout much of Christendom today), 4) Michael being of War makes more sense in light of the fact that the event of Christ coming back is as the conquering King, and 5) the verse that was mentioned in the status implies that it is Christ that holds the trumpet and does the shouting.
If you are going to be so bold as to say “Thus saith the Lord…” then you must be ready to give a defense or call down fire, otherwise you might some verbal stoning will be the adequate response. The Christian community has to be ready to hold each other accountable to be held accountable, especially to those whom God have placed in authority over us. Anyone who refuses to be tested or attacks those who lovingly question one's words are worthy of being labeled a "wolf in sheep's' clothing". Especially if they begin calling those questioners divisive and confrontational or accusing them of weaving doubt about one's ability to hear the Holy Spirit. That's a pride-filled answer and only raises more red-flags.To avoid questioning, I was asked “why does it matter who blows the trumpet?” It doesn't. What matters is that a man publicly stated the God spoke to him, putting him in a place of spiritual authority and that God told him something that was not supportable by scripture. If the Holy Spirit were to take the time to speak audibly to someone, I believe that He would have a lot more to say than one sentence that brings undue attention to angels, but I do believe crying would definitely be the correct response.
Peace be with you,
Stephen.
