God forbade angel worship. Immediately following the First Commandment[1]
in Exodus 20, God stated, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:4-5); “ The act of worshiping angels is so horrendous
in God’s sight that He repeats His warning almost verbatim in Deuteronomy 5:8-9
and, once again, it proceeds the giving of the First Commandment. Throughout the Bible, God established the
fact that angels are not to be worshipped.
When John the Beloved forcefully
resided on the Isle of Patmos, an angel appeared unto him and John attempted to
worship the angel. Revelation 22:8-9 states,
“And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am
thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the
sayings of this book: worship God.” Even angels realize that God designed worship
to be direct towards Him and Him ALONE.
However, some men failed to obey the words of the Lord.
Certain men revived the worship of
angels during the time of the apostles.
Paul warned the church of Colossi about angel worship. In Colossians 2:18, Paul wrote, “Let no man
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his
fleshly mind,” Paul wrote to the church
of Colossi, in part, to correct false teachings, especially those of the
Gnostics. The Gnostics practiced angel
worship and the book of Colossians heralds Paul’s warning against this ungodly
practice, but that never placed an end to angel worship in the world.
Angel worship revived during the
Apostolic age but became heightened as time progressed, especially during the
time of the second century AD. Michael
was a prominent angel of worship throughout history and there existed a cult
dedicated to the archangel. In the
second century AD, Constantine commissioned for the erection of a temple to
Michael. He also instituted a festival
known as Michaelmas to be celebrated on September 29. The practice of the worship of Michael led to
a cult known as the Cult of the Archangel, thus angel worship is dangerous.
The danger of angel worship not only
can lead to a cult or the occult but it is also dangerous because it can lead
to either oppression or possession. The
devil and his minions desire worship.[2] They desire the worship that is due to God
for the devil said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”[3]He
attempted to bribe Jesus into worshipping him.[4]
But, the epitome of devil worship will arrive when the image of the antichrist
is set up in the Holy of Holies in the new Temple.[5] However, until the Middle of the Tribulation
period arrives, the devil and his demons will do anything to receive worship.
Since the devil and his angels
desire worship, anything that mankind worship, such as a stone, tree, or
man-made idol, can become inhabited by a demon from time to time. In pagan nations, if natives worship a tree,
a demon will inhabit that tree that is worship.
The demon never permanently remains in the tree. It only manifests itself when the natives
worship the tree and present offerings to it.
The same is true of rocks and idols.
Somewhere the United States, a boy placed a black light in his bedroom
to enhance a poster of a white tiger that hung on his wall. His attention became so fixed on the poster
that he claimed it began talking to him and telling him to do immoral
things. This poster of the white tiger
became the temporary habitation of a demon due to the worship and attention
that the boy gave to it. How does this
relate to angel worship?
Angel worship is not worship if not
directed towards an angel. Look
throughout your home…how many statues of angels do you have? Some are in the form of little nude baby boys
who SUPPOSEDLY represent cherubim. As
mentioned in chapter 3: “Angelic Bodies,”
these little baby cherubim are derived from Cupid. Therefore, they are really little idols of
the love god, Cupid. Perhaps you do not
have any of these figures of cherubim in your house but, if you own any other
angel figures, they probably were created in the image of a woman. Artists probably painted angels with female
bodies to lust after them.[6]
[2]
Note: The devil is the most prominent
angel, even though he is in a fallen state, who is worshipped today.
[4]
Matthew 4:8-10 “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,
and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And
saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto
him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
[5]
Revelation 13:14-15 “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of
those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast,
which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of
the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed.”
[6] Note:
For more information on the use of the female body to depict the body of
an angel, see chapter 3: “Angelic Bodies.”
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