Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Tall tales & shady portrayals (Pt2)

So, what is a biblical view of potential supernatural encounters? I am no expert on these things, but here is the basic breakdown of what's real and not when it comes to supernatural encounters.

Things that do not exist:
-Ghosts are non-existent if one defines ghost as dead persons roaming the earth for any reasons. This is unscriptural and based on ancient mythology in non-Jewish or Christ-following cultures. These are demons not dead people as dead people do not "stick around" afterwards (Job 7:9-10) and they are adept at lying (2 Cor 11:14, 1 John 4:1).
-Aliens are non-existent as explained in three different ways in the post "Ufo-ology vs. Reality"; two of which are scriptural and one is naturalistic.

-Monsters are non-existent from a scripture standpoint as they can only be a part of creation because God never loosed supernatural monsters on us aside from the allowance of demons and "dark spirits". Then, being limited to natural creatures, they would have been created in the beginning at which point creation stopped and if they had been made then their would be a decent populace to behold by now. It could be said that creatures remain unfound in remote locations, but the concepts of vampires, werewolves, undead, the boogieman, and other urban legends/myths are all null and void when compared to scripture. Natural creatures (animals) are real, supernatural creatures ("monsters") are not.
-Dimensional beings are non-existent to any rational understanding. Primarily routed from scriptures and logic combined; the only one who created was God and He stopped at one point. This means if He created He did so in the 6 day period of creation. All of scripture shows how the focus is about the struggle of all creation (man and angel) to glorify God over itself. God does not give even a slight evidence of other dimensions OR creatures within. Consequently their is no scientific or scriptural basis for a rational conclusion that other dimensional creatures exist beyond what God has plainly created in those 6 days.


Things that do exist:
-"God" is both the creator and the keystone of our very existence (Genesis 1:1). He is the definition of supernatural (He exists beyond all natural understanding) though He defines (He has the authority to define what is real and true) and sustains the natural world as well (Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:3). He interacts with us in different ways (Romans 1:20, Romans 8:26, 1 Kings 19:12, etc), but His interactions can be defined as both natural and supernatural as He works in any way He chooses.
-"Angels" are messengers of God and an entirely separate creation from humans. (Hebrews 12:22-23) Angels do seem to have different classes as described in scripture. They can take different forms (Isaiah 6:2, Matthew 28:2-3) and while they are defined as messengers (Greek "aggelos", Hebrew "mal'ak") the message does vary depending on the way God intends to use them (Acts 7:53, Acts 8:23, Genesis 21:17, 1 Kings 19:7-8, Acts 27:23). The idea of a guardian angle is not scripturally sound and instead stems from new-age or so-called "Christian" mystic practices.
-"Demons" (plural) are the lesser creatures within the ranks of the Devils army and are also called "evil spirits" (Matthew 8:16, Luke 4:33-35). These hold no one physical form or method of maliciousness, but being as they stem from the father of lies (John 8:44) it is only fair to conclude that they too are exquisite liars, taking forms and approaches that suit the situation and best furthers their efforts. These, to my understanding, consist of the scores of angels that followed Satan’s lead and were cast down because of it. They, again to my understanding, are not bound to another realm (hell) and are so able to affect the world (Luke 8:2, Matthew 8:31-32).
-"Devil" (singular) is the original rebel (also known as Satan which means adversary or Lucifer which roughly means light-bearer or dawn-bearer) and leader of the rebellion against God. He is the angel that decided not to toe-the-line and chose to glorify himself over God. Because of this he was cast down and rules over hell with some power in the earthly realm as well. I do not know that he visits earth himself, only God would know that I think, but he doesn't need to with all the little helpers he has as mentioned above. (Ezekiel 28:12, Genesis 3:1, Revelation 12:9-10, Revelation 20:2)

This is the limit to what can be in that this is all that God claims to have created for us, with us, or concerning us. Again, if we are Christians then let us not believe the tall tales the world has come up with. (e.g. ghosts, aliens, monsters, dimensional creatures, etc) If we claim the bible is truth and that God is absolute in His determinations of reality, then let us not accept extra-biblical information when it conflicts.

No comments: