Prayer Remembers the Truth

Prayer Remembers the Truth


Prayer is what you do when you’re done struggling.
When you hear the word "prayer," you may have memories of being bored to sleep as you squirmed next to your parents in church. Or maybe you have images of pleading with a deity to grant your wishes while you wring your hands. Do you call it prayer when you stay up all night obsessing over your finances or the safety of a loved one?
None of these activities are prayer: These are all symptoms of wrestling with problems. Prayer is what you do when you’re done struggling with a problem, and you’re ready to call forth its solution. As Eric Butterworth says again and again in his book, The Universe is Calling, prayer is not about trying to get God to do something to you or give something to you. It’s about allowing God to do something through you.
When something troubles us, we often approach prayer with a sense of urgency and tension. It’s as if we’re an ocean wave facing a continent alone. The first thing we must do, then, is relax into God. We quit acting like a wave that thinks it can pound the shore all by itself. We give up the illusion of separateness and relax into knowing that we are part of the infinite ocean that God is. We envision ourselves drifting out to sea, knowing that the ocean has far more power to shape the shoreline than we have alone. If there’s anything for us to do, anywhere for us to go, the current will carry us there and give us the power to do it.
If you don’t like watery metaphors, Butterworth offers another useful image. See yourself as an archer, and the solution to your problem as a target. To send your arrow home, you don’t start hurling arrows willy-nilly at the bull’s eye. And you certainly don’t start throwing arrows where you don’t want them to go. Similarly, in effective prayer, you don’t spew out a lot of words that focus on the problem – at least, not if you expect to make your mark.
In archery, what you do is center yourself, take one arrow, draw your bow, and LET GO. You remain still and let the arrow do its work. When prayer is your bow, the arrow is your word. It may be a statement of truth, such as "I am grateful for divine wisdom that reveals to me my good," or "I am energized in mind and body through the healing activity of God in me." It may be a familiar scripture that focuses your attention on the target, your solution, such as "Be still and know that I AM God." Then, you let go and send your arrow home. Once you are centered, your word cannot fail to reach its mark.
And what is the mark, or the goal of prayer? Speaking these affirmations doesn’t make them true. They already are true. Whenever you are in distress, it is only because you have forgotten your essential oneness with all that is good and true in the universe. The only thing that ever needs correction is your perception, and your perception is exactly what gets healed in prayer. You’ll know it has happened when a sense of gratitude flutters through your spirit and across your face. And so it is. Amen!

Liberia's Woman President

Liberia's Woman President


Commander in Chief, the new ABC television drama chronicling the fictional presidency of the first woman President of the United States, has not presented us with a pretty picture of politics as usual in Washington, D.C. Suspecting that we are still seeing a less brutal version of what people will do to make their own political will known, I am at once startled by what we have been able to accomplish as a country under such internal adversity, and saddened by the amount of energy and resources wasted on undermining other people's success.
Not so in Liberia.
Ellen Johnson-Sirlenf is Liberia's new president, and the first woman president in African history. Although her opponent, former soccer star George Weah, claimed election fraud and demanded a rerun of the poll, the United Nations mission in Liberia saw the elections as free and fair, as did other international observers. With 97 percent of the vote in as of this past Sunday, Johnson-Sirlenf, a Harvard-educated economist, who served as finance minister and with the World Bank, Citibank and the United Nations, had earned 59.4 percent, Weah, 40.6 percent. The basis for her victory can be traced back to a campaign earlier in the year to get women to register to vote. Johnson-Sirlenf also encouraged women, on her travels through the country, to go to the polls to make history by having a hand in electing a woman leader. Apparently this made sense to a lot of women.
My guess is that this emergent political force had little awareness of its own strength until the right leader wove a thread among its members, gathering them into a unity with a purpose. But they do understand the basic needs of their country, and how they affect day-to-day living. Electricity, water, education and health care cannot be disguised as luxuries when managing a business or a family household. The people who elected Johnson-Sirlenf know she means to help them take action to make these improvements a reality in their own lives.
Liberia's challenges remind me that within many congregations there are a number of threads that can be woven among groups of people, ready to be gathered together by a leader who understands their strength before they realize it themselves. Paul knew this about the church at Corinth. Well-known for its struggles to become the congregation Paul envisioned with the Corinthian membership as they initially came together as a church, Paul continued to hold up that vision to them. Paul visited the congregation whenever he could, and when he couldn't, he wrote the letters that give us a glimpse of who they were and how they came to be. Writings on spiritual gifts and vocational ministries allude to discussions held on who was to do what job in the church structures, and how each effort strengthened the body called Christ's. The verses so often quoted about what love looks like, and doesn't look like, were born of human frustration over imaging God in daily living in extraordinarily harsh times and circumstances. In Paul's words are the threads gathering these emergent manifestations of God's grace together in God's name. Paul's affection for these people was clear. "I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge." (I Corinthians 1:4-5)
The Liberian people have survived civil war and economic hardship, and are now ready to manifest the vision Ellen Johnson-Sirlenf shares with them, a vision of physical security, political inclusion, and the basic conveniences of life we take for granted. This first gathering thread is only the first, and a potent beginning for a new Liberia.

The Bride of Christ

The Bride of Christ


Every person longs to be noticed, pursued, appreciated, chosen and special. Every person longs to know that they are valuable, attractive, and worth being "known" just for who they are and not for what they can "do".
God designed us with these longings and desires. It is no mistake that we desire to feel loved. It is not weird to want to feel wanted. It is God's devine design. It is a right and good thing. God designed several means to accomplish these things. In marriage, we ahve the relationship between a husband and wife. We ahve the relationships between a mother and father and their children. In the church, we have the relationships among the community of saints (the family of God). The Bible also describes that the church makes up the body of Christ. God will use other types of relationships in our lives ... those between: teachers and students; friend and friend; boss and worker.
We know that all of these relationsihips are strategic. One way we can discern this is by the degree of effort that goes into the success of each category of relationship. Another way to weigh the value of a relationship is the degree that the relationship is attacked by the enemy ... satan. Since we know statistically that over 50% of all marriages in the United States fail, we can conclude that marriage is a primary object of attack and therefore, it must be a very important relationship in our spiritual lives.
One reason why marriage is considered holy and sacrimental is because it is a physical expression of a spiritual reality. It is also considered to be a means by which we experience the grace of God. God speaks consistently in the Old Testament that "His people" represent His bride and He is their Bridegroom. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is described as the Bridegroom and the church is His Bride.
Today, as the living Bride of Christ, are we ready for our Bridegroom to return? I believer our choices, our everyday moment by moment choices, reveal our level of readiness. Our choices and our heart attitudes show much about where we actually are in our spiritual journey with the Lord. Are you wearing your garment of fine linen (which is symbolic of purity)? Is your garment presentable? Is your farment soiled?
By asking these questions, I am not asserting that we should pretend to be "perfect". If you are walking around pretending to be a perfect Christian, I fear that you are being pulled into a common deception ... you are living more as a "Stepford Christian" than an authentic, born-again Christian. So, I am not talking about just external behaviors. I am talking about the condition of your heart. Are you eagerly waiting for the return of the Bridegroom? Are you sober and alert while you wait? Just think about the devotion of your "Bridegroom". Think about the following:
* His love is unending * His commitment is unwavering and true * His character is impeccable * His wisdom is untainted and sound * His ways are tender, right and responsive * His motives are pure * His heart is warm and full of love and affection * His affection is unrivaled
I encourage you to live your life in a way that is worthy of your calling. You are the Bride of Christ. Make choices ... live your life in such a way that reflects this high calling.

Purpose

Purpose

In the Bible, angels are a medium of God's power; they exist to execute God's will. Angels reveal themselves to individuals as well as to the whole nation, in order to announce events, either good or bad, affecting humans. Angels foretold to Abraham the birth of Isaac, to Manoah the birth of Samson, and to Abraham the destruction of Sodom. Guardian angels were mentioned, but not, as was later the case, as guardian spirits of individuals and nations. God sent an angel to protect the Hebrew people after their exodus from Egypt, to lead them to the promised land, and to destroy the hostile tribes in their way (Ex. xxiii. 20, Num. xx. 16).
In Judges (ii. 1) an angel of the Lord—unless here and in the preceding instances (compare Isa. xlii. 19, Ḥag. i. 13, Mal. iii. 1), a human messenger of God is meant—addressed the whole people, swearing to bring them to the promised land. An angel brought Elijah meat and drink (I Kings, xix. 5); and as God watched over Jacob, so is every pious person protected by an angel, who cares for him in all his ways (Ps. xxxiv. 7, xci. 11). There are angels militant, one of whom smites in one night the whole Assyrian army of 185,000 men (II Kings, xix. 35); messengers go forth from God "in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid" (Ezek. xxx. 9); the enemy is scattered before the angel like chaff (Ps. xxxv. 5, 6).
Avenging angels are mentioned, such as the one in II Sam. xxiv. 15, who annihilates thousands. It would seem that the pestilence was personified, and that the "evil angels" mentioned in Ps. lxxviii. 49 are to be regarded as personifications of this kind. "Evil" is here to be taken in the causative sense, as "producing evil"; for, as stated above, angels are generally considered to be by nature beneficent to man. They glorify God, whence the term "glorifying angels" comes (Ps. xxix. 1, ciii. 20, cxlviii. 2; compare Isa. vi. 2 et seq.).
They constitute God's court, sitting in council with Him (I Kings, xxii. 19; Job, i. 6, ii. 1); hence they are called His "council of the holy ones" (Ps. lxxxix. 7, R. V.; A. V. "assembly of the saints"). They accompany God as His attendants, when He appears to man (Deut. xxxiii. 2; Job, xxxviii. 7). This conception was developed after the Exile; and in the Zechariah, angels of various shapes are delegated "to walk to and fro through the earth" in order to find out and report what happens (Zech. vi. 7).
In the prophetic books, angels appear as representatives of the prophetic spirit, and bring to the prophets God's word. Thus the prophet Haggai was called God's messenger (angel); and it is known that "Malachi" is not a real name, but means "messenger" or "angel". It is noteworthy that in I Kings, xiii. 18, an angel brought the divine word to the prophet.
In some places, it is implied that angels existed before the Creation (Gen. i. 26; Job, xxxviii. 7). The earlier Biblical writings did not speculate about them; simply regarding them, in their relations to man, as God's agents. Consequently, they did not individualize or denominate them; and in Judges, xiii. 18, and Gen. xxxii. 30, the angels, when questioned, refuse to give their names. In Daniel, however, there occur the names Michael and Gabriel. Michael is Israel's representative in Heaven, where other nations—the Persians, for instance—were also represented by angelic princes. More than three hundred years before the Book of Daniel was written, Zechariah graded the angels according to their rank, but did not name them. The notion of the seven eyes (Zech. iii. 9, iv. 10) may have been affected by the representation of the seven archangels and also possibly by the seven amesha spentas of Zoroastrianism (compare Ezek. ix. 2).
Jewish viewsAngels appear in several Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) stories, in addition to the ones previously mentioned above. These include the warning to Lot of the imminent destruction of Sodom. Many Bible chapters mention an "angry God" who sends His angel to smite the enemies of the Israelites. Traditional Jewish biblical commentators have a variety of ways of explaining what an angel is. The earliest Biblical books present angels as heavenly beings created by God, some of whom apparently are endowed with free will. Later biblical books in the Tanakh present a stunningly different view of angels, as the Jewish beliefs about such things developed over the many years covered in the Bible. Such a differing perspective on angels is discovered in the Book of Ezekiel, where these angels bear no relation whatsoever to the former understanding of what an angel was.
The archangels named in post-exile Judaism are Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel. Gabriel and Michael are mentioned in the book of Daniel, Raphael in the book of Tobit (from the Protestant Apocrypha or Catholic and Orthodox Deuterocanon) and the remaining four in the book of Enoch from the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox).

Appearance of angels

Appearance of angels

In the Hebrew Bible, angels often appear to people in the shape of humans of extraordinary beauty, and often are not immediately recognized as angels (Gen. xviii. 2, xix. 5; Judges, vi. 17, xiii. 6; II Sam. xxix. 9); some fly through the air; some become invisible; sacrifices touched by them are consumed by fire; and they may disappear in sacrificial fire, like Elijah, who rode to heaven in a fiery chariot. Angels, or the Angel, appeared in the flames of the thorn bush (Gen. xvi. 13; Judges, vi. 21, 22; II Kings, ii. 11; Ex. iii. 2). They are described as pure and bright as Heaven; consequently, they are said to be formed of fire, and encompassed by light (Job, xv. 15), as the Psalmist said (Ps. civ. 4, R. V.): "Who makes winds his messengers; his ministers a flaming fire."
Though superhuman, angels can assume human form; this is the earliest conception. Gradually, and especially in post-Biblical times, angels came to be bodied forth in a form corresponding to the nature of the mission to be fulfilled—generally, however, the human form. Angels bear drawn swords or other destroying weapons in their hands—one carries an ink-horn by his side—and ride on horses (Num. xxii. 23, Josh. v. 13, Ezek. ix. 2, Zech. i. 8 et seq.). It is worth noting that these angels carry items that are contempory to the time in which they visit (perhaps angels are bound by the technology which humans have achieved). A terrible angel is the one mentioned in I Chron. xxi. 16, 30, as standing "between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand". In the Book of Daniel, reference is made to an angel "clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude" (Dan. x. 5, 6). This imagery is very similar to the description of Jesus in the book of Revelation. Angels are thought to possess wings (Dan. ix. 21), as they are described in the Bible, and depicted in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian art. They are commonly depicted with halos.
Images of angels in Christian art are identical to prior depictions of gods such as Zeus, Eos, Eros, Thanatos and Nike, in pre-Christian classical art, and some divine beings in Mesopotamian art. The use of wings suggests an original artistic convention merely intended to denote the figure as a spirit.
Angels are portrayed as powerful and dreadful, endowed with wisdom and with knowledge of all earthly events, correct in their judgment, holy, but not infallible: they strive against each other, and God has to make peace between them. When their duties are not punitive, angels are beneficent to man (Ps. ciii. 20, lxxviii. 25; II Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 28; Zech. xiv. 5; Job, iv. 18, xxv. 2).
The number of angels is enormous. Jacob meets a host of angels; Joshua sees the "captain of the host of the Lord"; God sits on His throne, "all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on his left"; the sons of God come "to present themselves before the Lord" (Gen. xxxii. 2; Josh. v. 14, 15; I Kings, xxii. 19; Job, i. 6, ii. 1; Ps. lxxxix. 6; Job, xxxiii. 23). The general conception is the one of Job (xxv. 3): "Is there any number of his armies?" In the book of Revelation, the number is "a thousand thousands, and many tens of thousands".
Though the older writings usually mention one angel of the Lord, embassies to men as a rule comprised several messengers. The inference, however, is not to be drawn that God Himself or one particular angel was designated: the expression was given simply to God's power to accomplish through but one angel any deed, however wonderful.
Angels are referred to in connection with their special missions as, for instance, the "angel which hath redeemed," "an interpreter," "the angel that destroyed," "messenger of the covenant," "angel of his presence," and "a band of angels of evil" (Gen. xlviii. 16; Job, xxxiii. 23; II Sam. xxiv. 16; Mal. iii. 1; Isa. lxiii. 9; Ps. lxxviii. 49, R. V.). When, however, the heavenly host is regarded in its most comprehensive aspect, a distinction may be made between cherubim, seraphim, ḥayyot ("living creatures"), ofanim ("wheels"), and arelim (another name for Thrones). God is described as riding on the cherubim and as "the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth between the cherubim"; while the latter guard the way of the Tree of Life (I Sam. iv. 4, Ps. lxxx. 2, Gen. iii. 24). The seraphim are described by Isaiah (vi. 2) as having six wings; and Ezekiel describes the ḥayyot (Ezek. i. 5 et seq.) and ofanim as heavenly beings who carry God's throne.
In post-Biblical times, the heavenly hosts became more highly organized (possibly as early as Zechariah [iii. 9, iv. 10]; certainly in Daniel), and there came to be various kinds of angels; some even being provided with names, as will be shown below.

Angel

Angel
The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575)An angel is an ethereal being found in many religions, whose duties are to assist and serve God or the gods.

Etymology
Angels in the Tanakh Statue of an angel at a cemetery in Metairie, Louisiana.The Biblical name for angel, (melekh, "king"), obtained the further signification of "angel" only through the addition of God's name, as "angel of the Lord," or "angel of God" (Zech. xii. 8). Other appellations are "Sons of God", (Genesis vi. 4; Job, i. 6 [R. V. v. 1]) and "the Holy Ones" (Psalms lxxxix. 6, 8).
According to Jewish interpretation, 'Elohim is almost entirely reserved for the one true God; but at times 'Elohim (powers), bnē 'Elohim, bnē Elim (sons of gods)(i.e. members of the class of divine beings) were general terms for beings with great power (i.e. judges or alternately, some kind of super powerful human beings). Hence they came to be used collectively of super-human beings, distinct from Yahweh and, therefore, inferior and ultimately subordinate (e.g. Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6; Psalms 8:5). See also: Names of God in Judaism
Angels are referred to as "holy ones" (Zechariah 14:5) and "watchers" (Daniel 4:13). They are spoken of as the "host of heaven" (Deuteronomy 17:3) or of "Yahweh" (Joshua 5:14). The "hosts," צבאות Sebaoth in the title Yahweh Sebaoth, Lord of Hosts, were probably at one time identified with the angels. The identification of the "hosts" with the stars comes to the same thing; the stars were thought of as being closely connected with angels. However, YHWH is very jealous of the distinction between Himself and angels, and consequently, the Hebrews were forbidden by Moses to worship the "host of heaven". It is probable that the "hosts" were also identified with the armies of Israel, whether this army is human, or angelic. The New Testament often speaks of "spirits," πνεύματα (Revelation 1:4).
Prior to the emergence of monotheism in Israel the idea of an angel was the Mal'akh Yahweh, Angel of the Lord, or Mal'akh Elohim, Angel of God. The Mal'akh Yahweh is an appearance or manifestation of Yahweh in the form of a man, and the term Mal'akh Yahweh is used interchangeably with Yahweh (cf. Exodus 3:2, with 3:4; 13:21 with 14:19). Those who see the Mal'akh Yahweh say they have seen God (Genesis 32:30; Judges 13:22). The Mal'akh Yahweh (or Elohim) appears to Abraham, Hagar, Moses, Gideon, &c., and leads the Israelites in the Pillar of Cloud (Exodus 3:2). The phrase Mal'akh Yahweh may have been originally a courtly circumlocution for the Divine King; but it readily became a means of avoiding anthropomorphism, and later on, when angels were classified, the Mal'akh Yahweh meant an angel of distinguished rank. The identification of the Mal'akh Yahweh with the Logos, or Second Person of the Trinity, is not indicated by the references in the Hebrew scriptures; but the idea of a Being partly identified with God, and yet in some sense distinct from him, illustrates a tendency of Jewish religious thought to distinguish persons within the unity of the deity. Christians think that this foreshadows the doctrine of the Trinity, whereas Kabbalist Jews would show how it developed into kabbalistic theological thought and imagery.
In earlier literature the Mal'akh Yahweh or Elohim is almost the only angel mentioned. However, there are a few passages which speak of subordinate superhuman beings other than the Mal'akh Yahweh or Elohim. There are the cherubim who guard Garden of Eden. In Genesis 18, 19. (J) the appearance of Yahweh to Abraham and Lot is connected with three, afterwards two, men or messengers; but possibly in the original form of the story Yahweh appeared alone (Cf. 18:1 with 18:2, and note change of number in 19:17). At Bethel, Jacob sees the angels of God on the ladder (Genesis 28:12), and later on they appear to him at Mahanaim (Genesis 32:1). In all these cases the angels, like the Mal'akh Yahweh, are connected with or represent a theophany. Similarly the "man" who wrestles with Jacob at Peniel is identified with God (Genesis 32:24, 30). In Isaiah 6 the seraphim, superhuman beings with six wings, appear as the attendants of Yahweh. Thus, the pre-exilic literature rarely mentions angels, or other superhuman beings other than Yahweh and manifestations of Yahweh; the pre-exilic prophets hardly mention angels. An angel of I Kings 13:18 might be the Mal'akh Yahweh, as in 19:5, cf. 7, or the passage, at any rate in its present form, may be exilic or post-exilic. Nevertheless we may well suppose that polytheists in ancient Israel believed in superhuman beings other than Yahweh, but that the inspired writers have mostly suppressed references to them as unedifying.
Once the doctrine of monotheism was formally expressed, in the period immediately before and during the Exile (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Isaiah 43:10), we find angels prominent in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel, as a prophet of the Exile, may have been influenced by the hierarchy of supernatural beings in the Babylonian religion, and perhaps even by the angelology of Zoroastrianism (it is not, however, certain that these doctrines of Zoroastrianism were developed at so early a date). Ezekiel 9 gives elaborate descriptions of cherubim (a class, or type of angels); and in one of his visions, he sees seven angels execute the judgment of God upon Jerusalem. As in Genesis, they are styled "men"; mal'akh, for "angel", does not occur in Ezekiel. Somewhat later, in the visions of Zechariah, angels play a great part; they are sometimes spoken of as "men", sometimes as mal'akh, and the Mal'akh Yahweh seems to hold a certain primacy among them (Zecharias 1:11). The Satan also appears to prosecute (so to speak) the High Priest before the divine tribunal (Zecharias 3:1). Similarly in the Job the bne Elohim, sons of God, appear as attendants of God, and amongst them, Satan (Hebrew ha satan), again in the role of public prosecutor, the defendant being Job (Job 1, 2. Cf. I Chronicles 21:1). Occasional references to "angels" occur in the Psalter (Pss. 91:11, 103:20 &c.); they appear as ministers of God.
In Psalms 78:49 the "evil angels" of the Authorized Version conveys a false impression; it should be "angels of evil", i.e. angels who inflict chastisement as ministers of God.
The seven angels of Ezekiel may be compared with the seven eyes of Yahweh in Zecharias 3:9, 4:10. The latter have been connected by Ewald and others with the later doctrine of seven chief angels (Tobit 12:15; Revelations 8:2), parallel to and influenced by the Ameshaspentas (Amesha Spenta), or seven great spirits of the Persian mythology.
In the Priestly Code, c. 400 BC, there is no reference to angels, apart from the possible suggestion in the plural in Genesis 1:26.
During the Persian and Greek periods, the doctrine of angels underwent a great development, partly, at any rate, under foreign influences. In Daniel, c. 160 BC, 71 angels, usually spoken of as "men" or "Angel-princes", appear as guardians or champions of the individual nations, defending them as God sits in council with them over the world; grades are implied, there are "princes" and "chief" or "great princes"; and the names of some angels are known, Gabriel, Michael; the latter is pre-eminent (Dan. 8:16; 10:13, 20-21), he is the guardian of Israel's leading Kingdom of Judah. Again in Tobit a leading part is played by Raphael, "one of the seven holy angels". (Tob. 12:15.)
In Tobit, too, we find the idea of the demon or evil angel. In the canonical Hebrew/Aramaic scriptures, angels may inflict suffering as ministers of God, and Satan may act as accuser or tempter; but they appear as subordinates to God, fulfilling His will, and not as independent, morally evil agents. The statement (Job 4:18) that God "charged his angels with folly" applies to all angels. In Daniel, the princes, or guardian angels, of the heathen nations oppose Michael, the guardian angel of Judah. But in Tobit, we find Asmodeus the evil demon, τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον, who strangles Sarah's husbands, and also a general reference to "a devil or evil spirit", πνεῦμα (Tobit 3:8, 17; 6:7).
The Fall of the Angels is not properly a scriptural doctrine, though it is based on Gen. 6:2, as interpreted by the Book of Enoch. It is true that the bnē Elohim of that chapter are subordinate superhuman beings (cf. above), but they belong to a different order of thought from the angels of Judaism and of Christian doctrine; and the passage in no way suggests that the bne Elohim suffered any loss of status through their act.
The guardian angels of the nations in Daniel probably represent the gods of the heathen, and we have there the first step of the process by which these gods became evil angels, an idea expanded by Milton in Paradise Lost. The development of the doctrine of an organized hierarchy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200 BC to A.D. 100. In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels; and such works as the various books of Enoch and the Ascension of Isaiah supply much information on this subject.