Posted on 03/25/2011 4:02:17 PM PDT by americanophile
After a burst appendix nearly cost 4-year-old Colton Burpo his life in 2003, his parents were thankful just to have him alive and well. But when he opened up about his brush with death a few months later, they were shocked when he described a very vivid trip to heaven, and spoke of matters about which he had no apparent way of knowing.
During an automobile trip, when Sonja Burpo asked him about his memories of being in the hospital, little Colton replied: “Yes, Mommy, I remember — that’s where the angels sang to me.” A sweet answer, to be sure — but then Colton made his parents’ jaws drop when he told them about sitting in Jesus’ lap, watching his parents while he lay seemingly near death, and meeting his great-grandfather.
But most poignantly, Colton described meeting a sibling in heaven — even though he had no way of knowing that his mother had miscarried two years before he was born, since his parents had never told him.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
Yes, I knew someone would note that cherubim and seraphim have wings. So forgive me for not including this in my post:
My simple view is that there is nothing to indicate that they are in the same class as, or described as angels. They are wholly unique beings created by God for His glory and of a wholly different group than angels (’messengers’), IMHO.
Pls. see my post to NavyCanDo......
“Something’s fishy about this heaven thing. Is it a totalitarian dictatorship, from which there is no escape and no contact with other realities?”
Check out the story of Lazarus & the Rich Man if you wonder about that, here is the ending, where Abraham tells the Rich Man why he won’t send Lazarus back to Earth to testify to his family:
“27Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
Also, in a way, heaven is totalitarian of course. Who can contest with an almighty God? Who would want to escape paradise either?
The resurrected Lord Jesus clearly didn’t have wings - or it would have been so noted by Mary, Peter, and the other 498 who saw Him.
And our resurrection bodies will be as his: “when we see Him, we shall be like Him....”
Wings are not needed in a body that can be instantly transported from one place to another and that can walk through walls....... :-)
Actually the concept of angels with wings comes from pagan religions, not the scripture......IMHO.
2 Corinthians 11 tells us that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. We have been warned.
The story about Lazarus and the Rich man is a parable talking about the religious leaders of Israel (the rich man) and the jewish people (Lazarus) with Gentiles referenced as ‘dogs’.
While parables have their basis in reality (hell is real and probably meets the parables physical discription minus the side for the righteous (because after Jesus death the righteous are in Heaven with him)) this is not to be taken literally on all levels.
http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/Lazarus-byHuie.htm
That illustration is remarkably similar in some ways to what was presented in a complex crop circle in the UK pictured below (of pi to the 10th significant figure, click the pic for the article)...
BTW, I am not drawing any conclusions here...just pointing out the connection.
Okay, it's round and has dots on it. The Lucifer shape has no indents or any of the detail on the crop circle. If I'm not mistaken, it is a map of Dante's vision of hell, with the dots indicating particular locations that the author visited or noted during his trip with Virgil.
What do you mean by the 10th significant figure? Do you mean decimal place? The Lucifer figure has 14 dots on it (in the half of the figure that is visible which might mean that the whole figure could have 28 dots on it - hardly an indication of 10 decimal places). I'm not sure that the figures really show any significant resemblance at all.
I doubt that there is any connection, any more than these gears have a connection with crop circles:
Don’t you think the response of Abraham is to be taken literally? That’s the informative part I was trying to share.
Just show me where the bible says angels sing ....and as for saints not having wings. . men and angels are 2 different creations.. men were not created with wings.
Did Peter testify that moses or elijah had wings on the mount of transfiguration?
Instead of people wanting to know what heaven is like, they had best be concerned if they will be going there..
Read the scriptures not the musing of a child
Exactly... Satan is the great deceiver ...
Not sang hey SHOUTED
Revelation 5:11-13 declares, “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels . . . They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”
I would like to know your source for this
KJV... Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
NIV
Rev 5:11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
Vs 5:11 says the angels SAID
Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
The greek word is the same in both verses..
lego
) to say, to speak a) affirm over, maintain
b) to teach
c) to exhort, advise, to command, direct
d) to point out with words, intend, mean, mean to say
e) to call by name, to call, name
Here is the LITERAL Greek translation
Rev 5:11 And I saw, and I heard the voice of many messengers round the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders -- and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands --
Rev 5:12 saying with a great voice, `Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing!'
Rev 5:13 and every creature that is in the heaven, and in the earth, and under the earth, and the things that are upon the sea, and the all things in them, heard I saying, `To Him who is sitting upon the throne, and to the Lamb, [is] the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the might -- to the ages of the ages!' f) to speak out, speak of, mention
The greek word for sing is ado
not lego ...
In Revelations the Saints sing..but not the angels
Luke 2:13-14 informs us, "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.'
Your own scripture say they were saying not singing
It would seem logical that God would have created the angels with that same "propensity" for singing. Whatever the case, whether singing or speaking, we know the angels are all about worshipping and praising God. May we follow their example!
Maybe to you.. but angels are not men.. they do not have a body ..they are spirits.. they were created to be messengers..they were NOT created in the image of God
They are a different creation They were not given the ability to repent or be saved.. they actually learn about God and His mercy and grace by watching men
1Pet. 1:12 ...these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look.
1Cor. 4:9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
It might be a stretch to assume that our new incorruptable bodies have a physical appearance like angels. Then again it might not be. Apparently angels can appear to be like men, without wings. Perhaps we will have the power to appear with wings like angels.Did Moses look like an angel on the mount of transfiguration ?
This is about sexual desire/ activity ..not taking the form of angels
Context Context context
I think it is more benefit to read the word of God than the musings of a child
I was responding to someone who said, perhaps a bit facetiously, that they’d made a deal with their friends, that if they died, they would come back and visit the others from the other side. I was using Abraham’s response to the Rich Man to explain why, according to Scripture, that’s not something that would be allowed of the dead.
Oh. Ok. Thanks for explaining.
Kind of associated with that....I’ve often pondered the fact that not everyone that witnessed Jesus’s death and resurrection believed on Him.
“I’ve often pondered the fact that not everyone that witnessed Jesus’s death and resurrection believed on Him.”
God hardened their hearts, for what purpose, we can only speculate.
” 37But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
39Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
40He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”
John 12:37-40
I guess it just goes to prove that ultimately salvation comes down to faith and not ‘seeing’ or something else physical.
“I guess it just goes to prove that ultimately salvation comes down to faith and not ‘seeing’ or something else physical.”
Could be, or it could be that God just didn’t want certain people, who He knew would not be faithful to the end, to get mixed up in the beginning of His church. Enough of them would creep in soon enough, but that might have been too destructive if it happened then.
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