Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08128 The question of whether demons can perform miracles touches on something that matters deeply for discernment in the life of the church. If the answer is a straightforward no, then the supernatural becomes a reliable indicator of divine activity. If the answer is more nuanced, as Scripture suggests it is, then believers need…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08140 The New Testament contains a remarkable statement about the future relationship between believers and angels, one that sits uncomfortably with the instinctive assumption that angelic beings are permanently our superiors. Paul tells the Corinthians that the saints will judge angels, and this claim has significant implications for how Christians understand both their present…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08141 Few pastoral situations require more care than the moment a church member approaches their pastor and says, “An angel spoke to me.” The claim touches on deeply held convictions about the supernatural, personal experience, and spiritual authority, and handling it badly can damage the person, the congregation, or both. Getting it right requires…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08138 The New Testament makes several references to angels being involved in the giving of the Law at Sinai, a detail that is not immediately obvious from the Old Testament narrative itself. Stephen mentions it in his speech before the Sanhedrin, Paul refers to it in Galatians, and the writer of Hebrews builds an…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08139 Whether angels experience something analogous to human emotion is a question the Bible does not answer systematically, but it does offer a number of passages that present angelic beings as responding to events with what looks remarkably like genuine feeling. The question matters because it touches on what it means to be a…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08136 Peter’s statement that angels “long to look into” the things of the gospel is one of the most striking and often overlooked remarks in the New Testament. It sits within a passage about the privilege of salvation, and its force depends on grasping what it tells us about the gospel from the perspective…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08137 The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness reveals something deeply instructive about the way Satan operates, and one of its most striking features is that the devil quotes Scripture in the process. This is not a detail to gloss over. It has direct implications for how believers understand the nature of spiritual deception…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08124 The story of Satan does not end in ambiguity. Scripture is remarkably clear about his future, and the trajectory is one of progressive restriction, decisive defeat, and eternal judgement. For a being who has wielded enormous influence across human history, the ending is as definitive as it is irreversible. Understanding what will happen…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08135 Angels are spiritual beings of immense power and long experience, but they are not God. That distinction matters enormously when considering the scope of their knowledge. Scripture presents angelic intelligence as genuinely superior to human understanding in many respects, while also marking clear limits that set their knowledge apart from the omniscience that…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08123 It would be a mistake to think of Satan as a figure confined to the opening chapters of Genesis and the closing chapters of Revelation with nothing much happening in between. Scripture presents him as active, purposeful, and relentlessly engaged in opposition to God’s work in the present age. Understanding what Satan is…