 | The Reverend Doctor Cathy Northrup was born in Ft. Meade, MD, and was raised in a variety of places in the United State and Germany, as her father was in Counter Intelligence with the Army. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, with a double major in English and Religion. She graduated from Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and practiced law with the Federal Reserve Board for a number of years before attending Union Theological Seminaryin Richmond, VA. She graduated from Union, and served several churches in North and South Carolina, at the same time obtaining her Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Northrup is currently the Pastor/Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church, Wichita, KS. She is married and has two black Labrador dogs who were rescued from abusive situations. You can contact Dr. Northrup at cnorthrup@firstpresbywichita.org or by phone at (316) 263-0248, ext. 26. |
Religion
2008-01-01 14:23:00
Fallen angels
What do we know about the fall of the angels prior to the beginning of man? Where in the Bible does it tell us about this?
The Bible does indeed speak about angels, but, fortunately or unfortunately, there is not simply one section of scripture that cohesively and exhaustively explains all about angels; rather, there are many references to angels throughout scripture. Further, as Susan Garrett (Professor of New Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) has written, “Biblical authors depict angels in a remarkable wide variety of ways,” and this diversity “makes it hard to generalize about ‘the Biblical view of angels.’” Presbyterians do not thus worry too much about this issue; this is consistent with our Reformed heritage. Garrett notes that our Presbyterian forebear John Calvin admonished Biblical “readers not to concern themselves with details about the creation, nature and functioning of angels that Scripture has not given us to know.”
Presbyterians do believe generally, however, based on what the Bible says, that angels are spiritual beings who are messengers of God, and they are subordinate to God and different from human beings. Angels were created by God before humanity. Angels did have free will, and there was a time when a group of angels, led by Lucifer, chose to sin by rebelling against God and thus were driven from heaven. The Westminster Catechism in our Book of Confessions speaks to this in “Question 19,” and, with regard to your specific question, it cites the Biblical verses Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4.
It might be interesting for you to take a Biblical concordance and look up the word “angel.” See how many citations you find! Then take the time, slowly, to look up all of those passages and see what you find out about angels.
