Angels/Demons, Anthropology, Moral Issues

Question 1

Angels

Answer 1

Angels are created spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence but without physical bodies (Neh. 9:6)

• ministering spirits (Heb 1:14)
• innumerable (Heb 12:22)
• do not marry (Mt 22:30)
• powerful (“angels… greater in might and power” 2 Pt 2:11)
• created before the 6th day (“In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them” Ex 20:11)
• praise the Lord (“Bless the LORD, O you his angels” Ps 103:20)

Question 2

Demons

Answer 2

Demons are evil angels who sinned against God and who now continually work evil in the world (2 Peter 2:4). Satan is the personal name (Job 1:6) for the head of the demons (Jn 8:44)
- oppose and try to destroy every work of God (John 8:44)

Question 3

Can Christians be demon possessed?

Answer 3

• NT says people can “have a demon” or be influenced by a demon, but never that demons “possess” people (this implies they have no choice or will)
• Christians cannot be “demon possessed” (in the sense that they have no control) because Scripture guarantees that sin shall have no dominion over us since we have been raised with Christ (Rom. 6:14)
• But Christians can experience demonic influence (Luke 4:2, Jesus being tempted in the desert)

Question 4

Origin of demons

Answer 4

Sometime between Gen 1:31 (“it was good”) and Gen 3 there must have been a rebellion in the angelic world with many angels turning against God and becoming evil (2 Pet 2:4 “God did not spare the angels when they sinned”)

Question 5

Cherubim

Answer 5

• tasked with guarding the entrance to Eden (3:24)
• God is said to be enthroned on them or travel with them as his chariot
• Two with their wings stretched out over the ark of the covenant

Question 6

Seraphim

Answer 6

Heavenly beings continually singing the trisagion, only mentioned in Isa 6:2-7

Question 7

Created man (image of God)

Answer 7

• The fact that man is in the image of God means that man is like God and represents God.
• God did not need man, but created us for his glory (Isa 43:7 “whom I created for my glory”)
• The image is distorted but not lost (Gen 9:6 “for God made man in his own image”), will be restored fully at Christ’s return (1 Jn 3:2 “when he appears we shall be like him”)

Question 8

Creation as male and female in God’s image

Answer 8

shows (1) harmonious interpersonal relationships, (2) equality in personhood and importance, and (3) difference in role and authority.

Question 9

Redemption in Christ Reaffirms the Creation Order

Answer 9

• 1 Cor 11:3 “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband and the head of Christ is God”
• Col 3:18 “Wives, submit to your husbands”
• Eph 5:22
• Titus 2:5 “submissive to their own husbands”
• 1 Pet 3:1 “be subject to your own husbands”

Question 10

The Fall distorted existing roles and did not introduce new roles

Answer 10

• Adam first, then Eve (no such two-stage process is mentioned for the animals)
• Eve was made for Adam (helper 2:18)
• Adam named Eve
• God named human race “man”
• Serpent came to Eve first
• God spoke to Adam first after the Fall
• Adam represents the human race (“In Adam all die” 1 Cor 15:22)

Question 11

Mutual submission in Eph 5

Answer 11

• Be subject (ὑποτάσσω) always implies submission to authority (young Jesus submitting to his parents, demons to disciples, citizens to government, etc) and none of these relationships is ever reversed
• To one another does not mean to every other Christian, but to those in authority, because: (1) husbands are not told to submit to wives, and (2) “to your own husbands” (v. 22) (not to all the husbands)

Question 12

Trichotomy

Answer 12

• The soul includes intellect, emotions, and will
• The spirit is the higher faculty that comes alive when a person is regenerated
• Heb 4:12

Question 13

Dichotomy

Answer 13

• “Soul” and “spirit” are interchangeable terms to refer to the immaterial part of a person
• God breathed life into Adam’s body (Gen 2:7)
• “My soul is troubled” Jn 12, “My spirit is troubled” Jn 13
• “Into your hands I commit my spirit” Lk 23:46

Question 14

Monism

Answer 14

• Man cannot exist apart from his body
• Soul and spirit are just other terms for the person himself
• Generally not adopted by evangelicals because of such scriptural support for the soul living after the body dies (Luke 23:43)

Question 15

Traducianism

Answer 15

Body and soul are inherited from parents at conception
• Since we are made in God’s image, we are able to create like him
• Sometimes scripture speaks of descendants being in the loins of their ancestors (Levi, Heb 7:10)
• Explains how the sins of parents can be transferred to the children without God being responsible for making a sinful soul

Question 16

Creationism

Answer 16

God creates a new soul for each person and sends it to that person’s body sometime between conception and birth
• Ps 139:13 “You knit me together”

Question 17

Sin

Answer 17

• any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature (1 Jn 3:4 “sin is lawlessness”)
• God is never morally responsible for sin (Deut. 32:4 “his works are perfect”), but he ordained that sin would come into the world through the voluntary choices of moral creatures (Gen. 3:1–19).

Question 18

Inherited guilt

Answer 18

• We are counted guilty because of Adam’s sin. God righty imputed Adam’s guilt to us (Rom. 5:12–21).
• To impute means “to think of as belonging to someone, and therefore to cause it to belong to that person.” (Adam is our representative.) God counted Adam’s guilt as belonging to us, and since God is the ultimate judge of all things in the universe, and since his thoughts are always true, Adam’s guilt does in fact belong to us. God rightly imputed Adam’s guilt to us.

Question 19

Responses to protests against inherited guilt

Answer 19

(1) Everyone who protests has also voluntarily committed many actual sins for which God also holds us guilty.
(2) Moreover, some have argued, “If any one of us were in Adam’s place, we also would have sinned as he did, and our subsequent rebellion against God demonstrates that.” (probably true but not that convincing)
(3) The most persuasive answer: if this is unfair, then we should also think it is unfair for us to be represented by Christ and to have his righteousness imputed to us by God. (Rom 5:19 “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous”)

Question 20

Original sin

Answer 20

(inherited corruption)

We have a sinful nature because of Adam’s sin (Ps. 51:1–5).

Question 21

Common grace

Answer 21

Undeserved favor that is given to all humans (Mt 5:44 rain to fall)

Question 22

Actual sin in our lives

Answer 22

• All people are sinful before God and our ability does not limit our responsibility (Eph. 2:1 “you were dead in the trespasses and sins”).
• All people are equally guilty before God, in terms of legal guilt (Gal. 3:10), yet some sins have more harmful consequences in life and our relationship with God (John 19:11).
• When Christians sin, our legal standing before God is unchanged (Rom 8:1) but our fellowship with God is disrupted and our Christian life is damaged (Eph. 4:30 “grieve the Holy Spirit”).
• God punishes sin primarily because his righteousness demands it so that he might be glorified in the universe (Rom. 3:26).

Question 23

Are there degrees of guilt?

Answer 23

• Legal guilt (Rom 5:16 “the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation”)
• Results in life and relationship with God (Matt 5:19 “Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven”)
*It is much better simply to recognize that sins can vary in terms of their results and in terms of the degree to which they disrupt our relationship with God and incur his displeasure, and leave it at that.

Question 24

Unpardonable sin

Answer 24

Matt 12:31
The context indicates that Jesus is speaking about a sin that is not simply unbelief or rejection of Christ, but one that includes (1) a clear knowledge of who Christ is and of the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, (2) a willful rejection of the facts about Christ that his opponents knew to be true, and (3) slanderously attributing the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ to the power of Satan.

Question 25

Personhood of unborn children

Answer 25

The Bible teaches that unborn children are persons from conception, and therefore we should give them at least equal rights to others in society.
• Luke 1:44 John the Baptist leaping for joy in the womb
• Ps 51:5 (attributing sinfulness to him as a person before birth)
• (from the moment of conception, the baby has fully unique and distinct genetic identity)
• (Pretty much all the arguments in favor of abortion can then be solved by responding, “Would we do that after the baby is born?”)

Question 26

Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)

Answer 26

• Ex 20:13 “You shall not murder”
• 2 Sam 1 (the death of Saul)
-Saul appeared to be terminally injured, begged someone to kill him (and he was still the king), and the man obliged. David declared the man to be a murderer.

Question 27

Letting die

Answer 27

“Killing” is actively doing something to a patient that causes or hastens death. “Letting die” passively allows someone to die of other causes.
• We should intervene when (1) there is reasonable hope of recovery and (2) we are able to help. (Luke 10:30 Good Samaritan)
• It’s ok to let someone die when (1) no reasonable hope of recovery and (2) we are unable to help/they don’t want help. (Paul, Phil 1:20)

Question 28

Total depravity (total inability)

Answer 28

Man’s lack of spiritual good, inability to do good before God, and inability to come to God in our own strength
- Rom 7:18 “I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh”
- Heb 11:6 “without faith it is impossible to please him”
• (Every part of our being is affected by sin—our intellects, our emotions and desires, our hearts (the center of our desires and decision-making processes), our goals and motives, and even our physical bodies)
• Scripture is not denying that unbelievers can do good in human society in some senses. But it is denying that they can do any spiritual good or be good in terms of a relationship with God