ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 2

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

THE ANGEL SAID TO THE WOMEN, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, FOR I KNOW THAT YOU SEEK JESUS WHO WAS CRUCIFIED. HE IS NOT HERE, FOR HE IS RISEN…” (Matthew 28:5, 6)

            I had never known such despair as Vida and I watched the Son of God cry out as he hung upon the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

            We wanted more than anything to take Him down from the cross and minister to Him. Just like we did after His forty days and nights in the wilderness. After this extreme trial, the devil fled and we strengthened and encouraged Him. (Matthew 4:11)

            “Querida, we have to do something!” my companion said as we watched the Savior on the cross.

            I understood his desperation, but there was a clear message from on High. “I know how you feel, Vida, but we must let Him be.”

            “I can’t stand this, Querida!”

            I turned to speak to my dear friend, but a demonic roar interrupted me. I saw Vermillion and his companion, Adbeel with a company of about two dozen demons celebrating. The gaze between my one time close friend and I connected. The ugliness in his vindictive grin made witnessing the scenes of Calvary all the worse. It was hard to believe he and I had been so tight before the cosmic conflict had begun. Now he was a major nemesis.

            Ironically, Vida and Adbeel were once as tight as Vermillion and I had been. After the fallen angels were cast out of heaven, Vida and I had discussed our similar situations with our former friends. He, like me with Vermillion, had tried to council Adbeel against siding with the Luciferians. However, Vermillion had a more persuasive effect in Adbeel’s ear than Vida. So the four of us had inadvertently switched roles as best of friends.

            Have you ever thought certain sporting participants looked crazed and even evil as they lorded over their opponents? The shouting, flexing, and pounding of chest. Well, that had nothing on the fallen angels as they celebrated the violent, cruel death of the Son of God.

            There’s no point in me trying to describe the demonic seen. Both good and evil angels are invisible to humans unless we purposely manifest to the physical. The best I can suggest is to imagine what I said about poor sportsmen and multiply it tenfold.

            I really loathed the phrase ‘lesser of two evils.’ But that was exactly the position Vida and I were in. Either witness the bloody, beaten form of the Son of Man dying on the cross, or watch a demonic host gloat over it. Something occurred to me as I painfully watched the Prince of Peace in torture. “Jesus can’t see through the portals of the tomb, Vida.”

            “What do you mean?” Vida asked.

            “He’s tasting, not just physical death, but eternal death for humankind. He’s thinking His separation from God the Father will be permanent. Yet He’s submitting to it anyway. What wondrous love!”

            “We must have misunderstood Jesus when He said the third day He will rise again,” Vida replied.

            “It’s not the third day,” I told my companion as I also felt the first glimmer of hope. “He just can’t see it right now. What amazing love!”

            “Absolutely amazing!” Vida agreed.

            The diabolical roar intensified and Vermillion, Adbeel and their fiendish host charged Vida and me. Like the rush of a powerful storm, they came at us. Had things changed with the death of the Son of God? So far we had been untouchable to the fallen angels. Our warfare had been spiritual. We fought over the souls of human beings.

            Vida and I held our position, trusting in God’s protection. It wasn’t in vain. Several of our angelic colleagues rushed up to us like a mighty wall, and the evil forces reeled back. They retreated as if a great tsunami were about to crash down upon them.

            Gabriel, a superior of ours, approached Vida and me with a greeting humans would consider a hug. Then he said, “Vida, Querida, come with me.”

            In a flash we were at the temple, a dozen of us in total. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then Gabriel gave the command, “Tear the curtain in two, from the top to the bottom!” (See Matthew 27:50 and 51)

            One of us could have completed this task, despite the veil of the temple being about five inches thick. But it was assigned to several of us so the great honor could be felt by more than one. For the gesture signified an end to sacrifices. For Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, accomplished an end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new covenant. The beginning of righteousness by faith.

            The earth quaked and a centurion that had been guarding Jesus declared, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54)

            “Vida,” Gabriel petitioned. “Go to the Roman guard that just acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. His heart has opened to truth. Do what you can, Adbeel is trying to close in on him.”

            “Aye, aye,” Vida replied enthusiastically, and my partner in righteousness was off.

            Gabriel then assigned some more angels to the women who had been ministering to Jesus. (Matthew 27:55, 56)

            Then he sent another to Joseph of Arimathea to inspire him to ask for the Savior’s body. I was starting to feel left out, yet I knew I wasn’t. I was simply anxious to serve the Son of God however was seen fit. Gabriel’s gaze turned to me. “Querida, I need you to return to heaven briefly.”

            I would have been disappointed if it hadn’t been for the word briefly. This told me I was to be assigned an important task and was going there for a special blessing. When I came back to earth, I did it with such gusto that the earth quaked. I rolled away the large stone that blocked the entrance to Jesus’s tomb. He had risen from the dead!

            I caught a glimpse of Vermillion, Adbeel, and a few of their cohorts. They were singing a different tune now. It was a song of silence, confusion, even despair. I didn’t gloat as they had done. But my heart, if you please, rejoiced over the Son of God’s victory over death! Imagine that, the only human being in history that raised Himself from the dead!

            I was sitting on the large stone when two women close to the Savior’s heart arrived. They looked beyond stunned to see me. I couldn’t help grinning as I reassured them. “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen as He said He would. Come see the place where the Lord lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Behold I have told you.”

            Trembling with excitement, they ran from the tomb to tell the disciples.

            (Matthew 28:2-8)

            Different perspectives on the resurrection are given at the end of all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At the end of Matthew, Jesus gives The Great Commission, to take the Good News into all the world.

            John sums up his Gospel by expressing a thought about the amazing existence of Jesus.  ‘There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.’ (John 21:25)

            Forty days after Jesus’s resurrection, He ascended up to heaven in a cloud. (Acts 1:9) Just before He parted ways with His disciples, He gave them some words of encouragement. Mainly He promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit with power.

            As Jesus arose from the earth, Vida and I stood by not far away and watched a couple of our colleagues. They assured these followers of Jesus of His eventual return, which was to be recorded for posterity in the Word of God.

            “Men of Galilee,” the two men in white apparel said. “Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

            It’s been more than two thousand years since God became a man. As a ministering spirit (Hebrew 1:14), I have experienced many victories. Unfortunately, working in a fallen world, with sinful humans, thereby competing with demons, I have also experienced numerous defeats.

            One of earth’s gifted writers said this quote. Actually he wrote a lot of brilliant things under the inspiration of God. But this particular quotation pertains to the battle human beings faced with sin. His name is C. S. Lewis, and I quote, ‘There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God, and counter claimed by Satan.’

            I could use up your whole lifetime telling stories spanning several thousand years. So where do I begin? I’ll start off with a young woman close to the present time who gave in to a few too many of Satan’s counter claims.

            Using the hope of love, Vermillion led her to a state of despair. I in turn led her to something that ultimately gave her hope in Christ. You could say we angels lead a person to the water, while the Holy Spirit motivates them to drink. But it is up to the person to say yes. For God is a gentleman. He doesn’t barge in unwanted; He stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20).

            Words are powerful. That’s one reason why Jesus is called the Word (John 1:1). What I put in front of the young woman’s eyeballs was another quote from C.S Lewis. It came at a time when I knew she was despairing of crossing some spiritual line into eternal ruin. She felt her sins were too grievous to go on. She thought to solve her problems by breaking the sixth commandment. (Exodus 20:13)

            The quotation I put in front of her was just the spark needed to light a fire in her soul. The quote said, ‘You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.’