War in Heaven

W. Carl Ketcherside

[Page 12]

     There are two kinds of angels--the holy angels (Matt. 25:31), and the angels of the devil (Matt. 25:41). It was for these last that eternal fire was prepared. Angels are created beings. They came into existence by the power of God (Col. 1:16). He did not make some of them good and others wicked. He made them all good and some of them sinned (2 Peter 2:4). Their sin consisted in a revolt against God's authority. They were not willing to stay where he placed them so he willed a place where they have to stay. "Some of them were not content to keep the dominion given to them but abandoned their proper home; and God has reserved them for judgment on the great Day, bound beneath the darkness in everlasting chains" (Jude 6).

     The writer of Revelation (12: 7-9) describes an unearthly conflict which took place in heaven. I shall not speculate as to when this occurred nor gratify your curiosity about my exposition by spinning an opinion as to the degree of literality involved. I have no inclination to engage in a theoretical wrangle about things of which I prefer to confess that I know all too little. Instead I shall merely quote what the recorder writes. "Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels waged war upon the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought, but they had not the strength to win, and no foothold was left for them in heaven. So the great dragon was thrown down, that serpent of old that led the world astray, whose name is Satan, or the Devil--thrown down to the earth and his angels with him."

     I am sure the holy angels were associated with the Prince of peace and must have been pacifists. They were not conscientious objectors or non-combatants. War is an evil, whether it occurs in heaven or on earth. It is not necessarily a sin, but it is the result of sin. What evil is not? War is one of the resultant consequences accruing from a refusal to bring all other wills into subjection to the divine will. All battles first exist as a clash of wills and terminate in a clash of arms, if surrender is not made first. Hell is the final abode of the untamed will. That is one thing which makes it hell.

     I doubt that it was ever the intention of heaven to crush the human will. When man loses his power to will he can no longer exercise the right of choice. He becomes a mere automaton or a robot directed wholly by external force. Instead of depriving man of this principle of creativity, God seeks only to direct it. This necessitates the presentation of motives sufficiently strong to engage his undistracted attention and to induce him to act voluntarily and deliberately. The new covenant revelation is adapted to the fulfillment of God's purpose in this respect. It is designated to free man from the slavery of sin, to relieve his conscience of a sense of guilt, and to offer him a field of service commensurate with his relationship to the Creator.

     It is unfortunate that there are always those who will exploit their fellows in

[Page 13]

order to gratify pride and gain prestige. We should not be surprised at this. It is exactly what took place in heaven when the angels were led to follow one who had the ambition to replace God as ruler of the universe. We are not informed as to the political promises made to these celestial beings but they were appealing enough to cause them to engage in insurrection. The battle culminated as it always must. The revolutionaries were flung over the battlements because "there was no foothold left for them in heaven."

     Every appeal to sectarian pride and arrogance in an attempt to get man to be "religious" originates with Satan and is designed to defeat the purpose of God. The Arch-foe has invaded the sacred precincts and infiltrated the camp of the saints. He is directing his assault from inside the breastworks. The lure of social recognition, the temptation to be regarded as belonging to the "right set," the tug of vanity and pretentiousness--all of these are subtle weapons to destroy the real self-crucifixion and lowliness which are a part of true sainthood.

     What are the appeals of "our church"? Are we proud to exhibit a beautiful structure designed by an architect of fame? Do we talk about "our location" on the right side of the tracks, in an area of such economic status that it will be free from an invasion of Negroes and lower income groups? Do we mention casually that all of the elders are presidents or vice-presidents of large corporations? Do we engage in "name-dropping" by referring to politicians, ballplayers, movie actors, and others in the public eye, who are affiliated with us? Do we regard with condescension and disdain those other congregations where brethren meet in less pretentious surroundings and tell of "how much more we have to offer" the person who really wants to be somebody?

     All of these things speak of the unconquered will. They betoken our intention of trying to storm the portals of heaven by our own worth. It is unthinkable that we will not make it in the next world because we have certainly made it in this world. We do not know exactly what heaven will be like but it will not be much if we are not there to help manage it and show the other folks around and point out glories they would probably miss--not having been accustomed to such things. Undoubtedly the place will be immense because it will contain a lot of the people whom we encouraged by sending them a fruit basket every Christmas. It will be nice to meet them so they will have an opportunity to thank us personally for the generosity, seeing that both cars were in use at the time of the distribution of the commodities, so we had to send them by the "church janitor."

     In the last great Day a lot of pretty important folks are going to accuse God of being unfair. They will be past the place where they are afraid to blaspheme and it will not make any difference anyhow. But the idea of allowing a group of dirty, half-starved, ignorant people, to swarm in through the gates of pearl, while they are turned away after all they have done for God--it just simply cannot be. "Here, you can't do this to me! Who do these angels think they are? Stand aside, please, and let me up to the front. There's been a mistake here somewhere. I've got my credentials with me. Here they are. I've kept a complete list of the wonderful works done in His name. There wasn't anyone in our church who kicked in more on charity drives. I've got my receipts to prove it. What do you mean, these don't count?"

     The religion of our Lord is not one of a crushed will but it is one of a broken heart. It is the religion of "the cross purpose" in life which keeps us from being at cross purposes with God and with each other. It is not just the religion of Calvary's cross but the religion of the daily cross. It is a religion of free men who are slaves--men who are at liberty to serve. "Now if your experience of Christ's encouragement and love means anything to you, if you have known something of the fellowship of his Spirit, and all that it means in kindness and sympathy, do make my best hopes for you come true! Live together in harmony, live together in love, as though you had only one mind and

[Page 14]

spirit between you. Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but should learn to see things from other people's point of view."

     The very next verse asserts, "Let Christ Jesus be your example of what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man." Motivated by a love that was universal Jesus divested himself of all his prerogatives and stripped himself of all privilege. Hell will be full of people who insist on getting their rights, and what a hell it will be with everyone engaging in such insistence. The interesting thing is they will all have received their rights--that is why hell was created.

     The degree of submission shown in the contrast between the two expressions, "God by nature" and "slave by nature," sets for us an ideal, always unattainable in this fleshly existence, but always worth the striving. Christ can only be an example of what our attitude should he. Only one who was God by nature can truly become a slave by nature, for only God can appreciate in its fullest what constitutes the nature of a slave.

     Jesus said, "I do not live to please myself but to do the will of the Father who sent me." One of our greatest temptations in this day is to believe that we do the will of God when we live to please self. We have figured out how it is possible to do both so that we are no longer faced with a choice or an alternative. We have merged our own pleasure and God's will until we can no longer distinguish one from the other. Black fades into white and white into black and our lives become a gray expanse. By such a merger we have become relieved of the need of submerging ourselves in the divine will. God's will becomes our will because we project our will as His will. Thus Satan has held out to us the age-old lure that we can become as gods through knowledge! But in the final day there will be but two classes of people those who have said to God "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done." Heaven will be full of the first and hell will be full of the second.