The Untold Truth Of Fallen Angels



Pop culture is filled with depictions of fallen angels, once holy beings that have succumbed to sin. But how and why did the idea of fallen angels even come about in the first place? Here’s the untold truth of fallen angels.

Fallen angels are basically angels that have given up on the good and righteous path and turned to evil, right? Well, not necessarily. It’s true that Jewish and Christian traditions believe that fallen angels were originally just as holy as any of the other angels, but fell when the most beautiful of them – Lucifer

– decided to rebel and enticed others to go with him. But in Hindu traditions, it’s a little different. They believe that the creator god, Brahma, actually made some angelic beings good and some evil from the very beginning. Why? Because it’s meant to illustrate the natural order of things, and balance in the universe.

And fallen angels don’t even exist in Islam, where traditions says that all angels are good, including the ones tasked with overseeing those whose evil souls have landed them in hell. These angels are lording over hell, yes, but they aren’t fallen, as they are still doing divine work.

There’s another explanation for Satan there, too, and it basically says he’s not an angel, he’s a jinn: a creature made from fire and free will. Put a pin in that, because there will be more about this pesky “free will” stuff later.

Historically, those who believe in fallen angels typically have believed them to be responsible for things like tempting mortals into sin. And fallen angels are tricky about it, too, sometimes masquerading as good angels as they torment and tempt. How do believers know all this?

Well, these days, most of it comes from the non-canonical Book of Enoch, which was written about 350 B.C. The text claims to be the revelations of Enoch, who was taken up to heaven and told the universe’s deepest secrets, then shown just what would happen during mankind’s ultimate judgment.

Enoch shows up in other texts as well, which claim he lived to be 365 years old, and eventually told his tales to his son, Methuselah, who lived to be an impressive 969 years old. Strangely, even though the stories of Enoch were influenced by the mythology of places

Like Babylon and, in turn, influenced Judaism and Christianity, the only place that all 100 chapters of the book survived was Ethiopia. And among those chapters was a fascinating explanation on fallen angels. One of the most widely told tales of fallen angels says it was Lucifer who rebelled against

God and brought a bunch of angels down with him, but the story told in the Book of Enoch is very, very different. It tells a story of lust. According to the Book of Enoch, long before the Great Flood, angels and humans met and mingled pretty commonly, and the inevitable happened: children.

Those sons and daughters of angels were a race of 450-foot-tall giants. The angels started teaching their giant offspring evil ways, and God not only imprisoned them, but subjected them to judgment and sent the flood to hit the reset button on his creations.

Enoch, the story says, tried to speak on behalf of the angels and their giant children, but sadly, a lot of the texts are missing. We do know that Enoch was the one God selected to act as an intermediary to the fallen angels,

Instructing him to tell them what their punishment would be for their transgressions. They were to be condemned to the ends of the earth, with an eternity of punishment to follow. Early Jewish writers considered Enoch to be a prophet, but when Christianity started to

Adopt his teachings, he largely fell out of favor with Judaism. Christian writers then took the Book of Enoch with them when they converted isolated areas of Ethiopia in the fourth and fifth centuries. Though the Book of Enoch was lost to the rest of the world, it was preserved in Ethiopia,

And was finally brought back to Europe in 1773. In the meantime, though, with the Book of Enoch to guide them, Christian scholars and writers had centuries to let their imaginations go wild, leading them to the really convoluted origin of Satan as a fallen angel. See, that’s not actually in the Bible.

But theologians turned themselves into pretzels trying to explain how Satan exists in the first place. The reasoning went like this: God created everything in the universe, and therefore, God created Satan. But the only things God creates are good things, so therefore, Satan must have been good at one point.

He also needed to have the free will to turn bad. But since he clearly wasn’t human, he must therefore have been a fallen angel. Clearly, these scholars went to the Princess Bride school of logic and reasoning. “You must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you

Would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me!” Oh, and once more, there’s that free will thing. Don’t worry, it’ll come up again! According to the Book of Enoch, the first batch of fallen angels was each responsible

For teaching humanity about a specific sin. Asbeel, for example, was repsonsible for teaching humanity about sex, so thanks very much for that. Tamiel, on the other hand, taught humanity about demons and spirits. And then there’s Shernihaza, who is apparently responsible for that race of giant half-angels.

Those giants, if you remember, led to the imprisonment and punishment of the fallen, as well as the Great Flood, which was brought to cleanse Earth of their gigantic sins. Perhaps the strangest fallen angel of all, though, was Penemue, who was credited with

Giving mankind something that led to all kinds of evil: the written language. With writing came knowledge, and that, of course, is really really bad, because it might lead to…free will. The big lesson you’re apparently supposed to learn from fallen angels?

That knowledge and free will are bad and will get you killed, so the only way to remain safe is to choose ignorance and obedience. Funny how that works. Maybe the biggest diversion The Book of Enoch takes from the regular Bible is its depiction of the Garden of Eden and the fall of mankind.

Everyone knows the traditional story from the Bible: a serpent, usually associated with Satan, tempts Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (there’s that whole knowledge is bad thing again) and then, boom, goodbye, paradise!

In the Book of Enoch, though, it’s not Satan who tempts Eve, it’s a fallen angel named Gadreel. And then this jerk also went on to give humanity weapons and armor and teach us all how to kill each other. Sounds like Gadreel has a lot to answer for! Quick, describe a fallen angel!

There are probably some scowly faces, bat-like wings, maybe even some horns or cloven hooves, right? Maybe a double chin…who knows. But it wasn’t always like that. In early Christian art, fallen angels looked pretty much the same as their holier counterparts.

One of the earliest representations of the idea that there were angels and fallen angels opposing each other in an otherworldly battle is featured in an ancient mosaic in Italy. Jesus is in the middle, and on one side is an angel in red with some sheep, representing the home team.

On the other side are the bad guys, a figure thought to be Lucifer or Satan, standing with some goats. He’s wearing blue, which is the color of the damned, plus he has goats, so we know he’s the bad guy, but otherwise he doesn’t seem all that bad.

The mosaic even suggests fallen angels kept their iconic halos, which at the time were a symbol of power, not holiness. It wasn’t until the middle ages that images of fallen angels started turning more grotesque. During that time, something weird happened: Creatures from ancient Babylonian texts, called

Lilitu, began to be associated with Adam’s non-canonical first wife, Lilith. At the same time, parallels were drawn between Satan and the ancient Canaanite deity Beelzebub, and the ancient Roman half-goat, half-man god of nature, Pan. In the 14th Century, these pop culture influences led Dante to describe Satan as lording over

The depths of hell while sporting bat wings. And that in turn influenced the 17th century author John Milton to describe fallen angels in his work Paradise Lost as the sort of grody monsters we think of today. Remember those theologians who turned themselves inside out trying to explain how Satan existed?

Well, they faced the same issue with the rest of the fallen angels, and came up with some typically convoluted explanations. Until the 12th century, “pride” was the typical answer as to why fallen angels fell. But that meant God would have had to create something with a crippling, all-powerful amount

Of pride, and that didn’t fly. So scholars came up with the idea that angels had been created with a natural love that allowed them to love God, themselves, and each other. It’s the last part that scholars in the Middle Ages believe caused the fall of the angels.

After Lucifer fell because his love was a selfish love of power, the other angels who fell did so because they loved Lucifer. God was largely an absent, distant figure, after all, and Lucifer was their friend. Rather than condemning themselves to struggle for the acceptance of an unreachable father,

Perhaps they followed their brother into exile. It’s kind of heartbreaking, when you think about it, especially once you add love to free will and knowledge as things too dangerous for mortals to contemplate. According to the Mirabilia Journal, one of the most convoluted bits of theology that

Grew up around the legend of fallen angels is the way Christian writers used it to excuse and promote the persecution of the LGBTQ community. Scholars have long debated about whether fallen angels and demons are capable of love, with many believing that instead, fallen angels are consumed with lust, a desire to use others

For their own ends. Indeed, Christian writers as far back as the apostle Paul himself warned women about the danger of attracting the attention of a lusty fallen angel. But since they didn’t write anything about fallen angels having lust for members of their

Own gender, early scholars decided that meant that there was something so fundamentally wrong about the idea that even fallen angels wouldn’t do it. This kind of self-satisfied circular logic was used as an excuse for centuries of persecution, which still continues today.

Our contemporary view of fallen angels might suggest that they kind of got off easy. After all, though they might be in hell, they aren’t exactly at the mercy of the demons there, because they…kind of are those demons, right? Well, not exactly.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the seven archangels (those are the leaders of the good angels who stayed loyal to God) count the punishing of the fallen angels among their heavenly duties. Each one of the archangels was in charge of particular facets of the otherworldly life:

Jeremiel, for example, keeps watch over the souls in the underworld, while Michael protects Israel, Gabriel is the overseer of Paradise, and Uriel leads the host. They’re the ones with direct access to God, and they’re also in charge of punishing the fallen. Punish how?

Take Azazel, who according to some sources was the one who taught mankind how to make weapons rather than Gadreel. According to the Watkins Dictionary of Angels, Azazel was punished by Raphael, who put him in chains, threw him in a pit full of sharp rocks in the middle of the desert, and brought

The darkness down on him while he waited for his condemnation after the final judgment. That doesn’t sound so great after all. And it’s a pretty steep price to pay for expressing love and free will! Better luck next time, fallen angels. Check out one of our newest videos right here!

Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don’t miss a single one.

#Untold #Truth #Fallen #Angels

Understanding the Theology of the Immaculate Conception



Hey happy feast of the immaculate conception if you happen to be watching this on december 8th i think that’s when we’re probably going to drop drop try to do That hi my name’s father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents the feast of the immaculate conception i made a video about this a couple years ago and i sang in it and played the guitar in it and sang mary did you know i don’t know

If you remember that i’m not gonna sing but to recap every marian doctrine is actually about jesus so that’s very important to understand right off the bat but the marian doctrine of the doctrine of the immaculate conception states that mary from the first moment of her conception was preserved from all

State of original sin by the merits of her son’s future life death and resurrection i say that again people just rewinded it’s that mary from the first moment of her conception was preserved from all state of original sin by the merits of her son’s future life death and resurrection and so basically

What that means is yes here’s jesus who um has saved all of us and whether we accept that redemption or not is a whole other story so after we had gotten original sins this wound this separation of humanity from divinity the lord jesus healed us he saved us he

Brought us back from the dead well the doctrine of the immaculate conception is that before mary was even at the moment of her conception before she ever experienced that separation from god that because of the merits of her son’s future life death and resurrection she was preserved from all that that she

Actually was conceived and was re lived in union with god not on her own but through the merits of her son’s future life death and resurrection now no that’s what we established before what i wanted to share today is the next step and i’ll also share this at on the

Virtual front view if you already kind of tuned in and streamed that you might have already heard this but i wanted to share it on this essential presence platform because i think it’s really important because a lot of times we hear the story and we hear the doctrine and

We think wait a second wait a second so jesus preserved mary from all state of original sin he can do that i didn’t know he could do that if god can do that then um uh i volunteer can i have that too how come he doesn’t do it for me

Like how come he didn’t do it for the rest of us if god can actually preserve mary from all state of original sin at the moment of her conception so that she didn’t live life with the results of the fall why wouldn’t he just do that with everybody that’s a really good question

And the answer is tied into mary’s role it’s tied into the call that god had placed on mary’s heart uh not calling place on her heart but put on her life so let’s go back to the beginning why is it really fitting that mary would be preserved from all state of original sin

Well it’s fitting because at the very beginning of the story in genesis chapter 2 god made them male and female and both the man and the woman adam and eve they were without sin and what happens in genesis 3 there’s an angel of light aka lucifer light bearer

Right who comes to the woman speaks words of deception to her that causes her to disbelieve and disobey and she then hands on that disobedience and disbelief to the man who then hands it on to the world that’s the fall team then in the new testament in luke’s

Gospel you have this woman and to her an angel of light comes and he speaks words to her that causes her to trust and to believe she conceives in a room then and that’s mary by the way and she hands on that trust and belief obedience to her

Son who conceived in her womb and he hands on because he trusts all the way to the end he hands on redemption to the whole human race so the fall team and the redeemed team you have the fall team angel to the woman to the man to all of us

Redeem team angel to the woman to the man to all of us so it’s fitting that if the woman and the man in the first story in genesis 2 and 3 are without sin and in the second story the redeemed team the man is without sin it would

Make sense it just again it’s not necessary the church says it’s not necessary but it’s fitting that the woman also would be without sin okay and this is why in answer to the question well if god can do that with mary why didn’t he do that with me

And it comes to the heart of vocation it comes to the heart of the call of god god always equips us for the tasks that he’s called us to god always gives us what we need in order to accomplish the task that he’s calling us to

And so for mary’s task then was to do what her task was to be the new eve right if jesus is the new adam her task was to be the new eve was to say yes where the old eve said no was to trust where the old eve disbelieved was to

Obey or the old eve disobeyed and to hand that on to her son again is it necessary no but it is fitting that that’s the case and in order for that to be accomplished in its fullness you have her preserved from all state of original sin

So that she could say yes in complete freedom just like eve said no in complete freedom does that make sense and what what that means for us of course is that you can trust the lord that whatever he’s called you to he will equip you for whatever god has

Called you to he will equip you for if he’s called you to do something he will give you everything that you need in order to accomplish that task that’s the trust that’s the confidence that we have we say god why didn’t god do that for me well because that wasn’t

Your job that wasn’t your role but your role is something different and i’ll tell you this i promise you this whatever that role is whatever that call is whatever that task is whatever that vocation is god will give you absolutely everything that you need to accomplish it to his glory and for the

Salvation of the world because just like he trusted mary he trusts you so let him give you the gifts that you need let him call you to the task that he’s calling you to and then do what mary did say yes from all of us citizenship presents

Happy feast of the mecca conception and god bless You

#Understanding #Theology #Immaculate #Conception

The Immaculate Conception Explained



Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents So, the feast of the Immaculate Conception happens every December 8th Which always causes people to say: “Wait a second December 8th, the conception of Jesus, he was born on the 25th? Like that’s only 17 days

You guys do not understand human biology.” But you don’t understand Catholic theology. ‘Cause it’s not about the Immaculate Conception of Jesus. It’s about the conception of Mary….What? Yeah, it’s totally true. The Immaculate Conception declares that Mary, from the very first moment of her conception was preserved from all stain of original sin

By the merits of her son’s future life, death, and resurrection. What? One of the things that means is that Jesus is Mary’s savior. People will say well how can … what do you mean Mary was without sin? She even calls God “my Savior.”

Well, yeah. Because Jesus saved her before before she got sick from original sin. I remember hearing this explanation years and years ago. They said: “Imagine this. Imagine there’s this worldwide epidemic, this virus that was rampant, and you were gonna get it And if you got it, you were gonna die.

And then along came Dr. Joe Johnson, and he comes up with this cure. Everyone who gets injected with this cure will get healed of the disease and will live. But then Dr. Joe also comes up with a vaccine. And if you get this vaccine, before you get the disease,

You’ll also … you won’t get the disease and you’ll live. So, imagine: you get the disease and you get the cure. Dr. Joe is your savior. He saved you from this virus. From this death You don’t get the disease, but Dr. Joe vaccinates you. Therefore, you are preserved from getting the disease.

Dr. Joe is still your savior. In a similar way, how you and I have been saved by Jesus if we’ve been baptized, and hopefully continue to be saved by saying yes to his grace is after the fact. We got sick. Original sin. But the way that God saved Mary is he preserved her.

He gave her basically the vaccine before she even got sick. Again, it’s by what? By the merits of her Son’s future life, death, and resurrection. People say “What? The future life, death, and resurrection? Like, how is that possible? ‘Cause that would have happened like 47 years

Before Jesus died and rose from the dead, right? So if Mary was roughly 14 when she conceived Jesus, and then Jesus died when he was roughly 33 Forty-seven years earlier, um that seems likely that it would be retroactive. How would it go through time like that? God’s merits go through time like that?”

Well, I would say that’s a great question. How do God’s merits go through time two thousand years into the future and affect us? ‘Cause that’s what we believe. By the power of the Holy Spirit That’s what we think. That’s what we say. Because God’s outside of time.

He can go to any moment in time if he wants. OK, so that’s one thing. But here’s the question: it’s like: “Well, why would that happen?” Well let’s look at these two stories. Let’s look at the story of the fall, right? In Genesis chapter three. You have one man and one woman.

And they are both without original sin. So, Jesus isn’t the first person without original sin, and Mary isn’t the first person without original sin. Adam and Eve were made without original sin. Now, Jesus is called the New Adam, right, by St. Paul? So there’s old Adam, Genesis chapter three.

Jesus is called the New Adam. Question: If there’s an old Adam and and old Eve And there’s a New Adam, doesn’t it also make sense that there would be a New Eve? Let’s look at the story. Genesis chapter three: Here’s the woman without a sin, and an angel of light appears to her.

You know, one of the shiny ones, the “hosh” is the Hebrew word, the glistening ones, or the bright ones— Lucifer the light bearer— an angel of light appeared to this woman without original sin, Eve and he speaks words to her that cause her to disbelieve and disobey. she says, “no”

To God and yes to the words that called her to disbelieve and disobey. She takes that disobedience, hands it on to the husband— the man— who then hands that disobedience and death to the whole world. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve; we all inherit that original sin; we all inherit

The disobedience and death. Now that’s the fall team, those two. There was also a redeem team. In Luke’s gospel, what do you have? You have this woman without original sin, Mary and the angel of light Gabriel, appears to her and he speaks words to her that cause her to obey and believe,

To believe and obey. When she says, “yes” to God’s message in that and trusts him she then hands on that obedience to the one conceived in her womb, the man, who then when he says, “yes” to the Father, he hands on life to the whole world so just like the woman

To the man, man to the world of the fall, in the New Testament, the new creation, the redeem team, from the woman to the man, from the man to the world. That’s why Eve is called the mother of all the living; Mary is called the mother of all the redeemed.

Well, why would God have to do that? Why couldn’t he just do it on his own? He could totally do it on his own. God could save the entire world on his own. That’s why St. Augustine had said the God who willed to create you without you is not willing to redeem you

Without you. The God who created you without your permission does not want to redeem you without your consent. This is like the mystery. This is like the way God does things, right? He could do it on his own, but he wants us to work with him.

You think, what was the work that God asked Mary to do? This is remarkable ’cause we believe Mary is like the greatest saint who ever lived. What was the work God asked her to do? Did he ask her to like start a movement, to start an orphanage, to start hospitals, to start schools

To start whatever? No … he just … this is the crazy thing. Some people think that we think Mary is amazing because on her own strength, her own goodness, her own beauty, her own whatever. False, not at all. We believe that all of Mary’s goodness comes from what God did in her life.

It didn’t come from her power or her strength. That all of Mary’s goodness, just like the goodness of any of the saints did not come from her; it came from God had done in her life, and she simply said, “Yes.” Consider this: You will never be asked to do anything more than Mary,

And all she was asked to do was say, “Yes.” So here we are on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. My invitation is this: Say “yes” to God, Regardless of whether you’ve been living like a rockstar, in a good way like a rockstar saint, or like a rockstar not in the best way,

Say “yes” to God today. You cannot go wrong when we say “yes” to God. From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless. Dude, I’m just gonna try this. OK so I’ll be able to hold it up like this Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day walk on water. Mary, did you know? that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters. DId you know that your baby boy had come to make you new? This child that you delivered would soon deliver you. False. Heresy. Not heresy, technically heresy is the obstinate in public

Opposition to be corrected. It’s just an error and the error is only in one line of the song. It’s a great song, it’s a beautiful song. But, it’s wrong in that sense. Why? Because it says this child that you will deliver will soon deliver you. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception states

That from the very first moment of her conception Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin by the merits of her son’s future life death, and resurrection. So, when the song says, “he will deliver you,” it’s like actually, dude, um that happened like I don’t know fourteen years ago.

Go ahead, and like the song. It’s just the one thing that’s not good. My sister, she’s always like “Why can’t I like that song?” “I love that song.” It’s great. It’s great. It’s fine. It’s just the one line, that’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying.

That’s all I’m saying.

#Immaculate #Conception #Explained

Since Jesus was born of “the substance” of the Virgin Mary, how was He without original sin?



SPROUL: Now, when we talk about Jesus receiving what you call “the substance” from His mother, the Virgin Mary, of course we’re talking about His human nature. And because we’re talking about His deriving His human nature from His mother, you would

Think that that human nature would pass along, as it is the case with every other human being, all of the ramifications of original sin. Now, that raises all kinds of theological questions that touch upon it. One of the oldest theological questions is the question of how the soul, for example,

Is transmitted from parents to their children. And the two schools of thought of that are called “creationism” and “traducianism.” Traducianism says that the whole person, body and soul, is transmitted from the parents to their progeny through the natural process of birth.

Others argue, which is called “creationism,” that every time a human being is born, that person is a brand new creation by the immediate and direct power of God’s creativity. And so it’s not a matter of transmitting human nature by natural processes.

Now the reason I say that this question you’ve raised touches on the dispute over creationism and traducianism is that if you’re a creationist, you have no problem with having a human nature coming from the mother of Jesus, yet at the same time being born without original sin

If it’s a direct and immediate act of divine creation. If you’re a traducianist, on the other hand, where you see the body and soul being transmitted through the natural process, then the question that you raise becomes a more difficult problem. However, others have argued, and particularly historically in the Roman Catholic Church

That the reason for the virgin birth and to bypass the male was not because they believe that original sin was transmitted by the male rather than the female, but rather that the miraculous dimension of Jesus’ birth being a virgin birth was partly designed by God

To interrupt the normal transmission of human nature from parents to their children in order to make it possible for a human being post-Adam to be born without original sin. Now in the mystery of the incarnation, we don’t know exactly what process God used to make that so in the birth of Jesus.

We do know, as the Scriptures teach us, that He was made like us in every respect except one, namely without sin and without original sin. Some have argued against that saying if Jesus didn’t have original sin, He wasn’t truly human.

But of course, the problem with that is this, that Adam before the fall was truly human, and we in our glorified state in heaven without sin then will still be human. So that original sin is not an inherent necessity for humanness.

So we know theologically that God could have this child born through the virgin birth from His mother and bypassing the normal process of original sin. WEBB: R.C., I’m just curious, did some of the earliest church councils wrestle with that question? SPROUL: Well yes, they did.

And of course, early on there was a debate and a dispute over from whence Jesus’ divine nature came? And Mary was called “theotokos”, the mother of God, but not in the sense that Jesus derived His divine nature from His mother, but only to point out that the One that she bore and

That she nurtured as His mother was God incarnate.

#Jesus #born #substance #Virgin #Mary #original #sin