Cleaning Up Angelic Feathers

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the Birmingham News.Before the first feather appeared November 16^th, Pastor Sam said he had been preaching that his interdenominational congregation was on the verge of something big.“God’s fixing to do something that we’ve never seen, he told his flock, and it’s going to blow our mind.”But even the pastor said he got uneasy when the unusual events began.While his church is openly Pentecostal, Sam said he had never veered into “wild, loony stuff.”“When you say you are receiving manifestations of angels, people think you’re crazy,” Sam said.To the natural ear, it sounds foolish.The pastor said he may have the feathers tested, but no matter what the findings, he’ll always believe they came from God.“I’ve had around 15 feathers appear before my eyes,” he said.The evidence is just overwhelming.Sam said, “Miracles shouldn’t seem out of the realm of possibility for a God given credit for such things as parting the Red Sea, crumbling the Walls of Jericho, and raising Jesus from the dead.It’s just amazing how close we walk to the supernatural realm,” he said.“The only thing hindering us from it is our own faith.”

Tom:

Dave, feathers—we’ve had gold dust, we’ve had gold teeth and feathers.That’s interesting.

Dave:

Well Tom, you’re trying to be kind.It’s—oh, I shouldn’t use the word, it is a bit ludicrous.I don’t think angels have feathers on their wings.The Bible very clearly says, “He maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” Hebrews 1.So the idea that angels would have physical form and that they would have physical feathers— I mean you are going to fly to Heaven with wings made out of feathers?It doesn’t compute Tom, it doesn’t make sense.

Tom:

Well Dave, years ago, Pastor Buck, remember Pastor Buck?

Dave:

Sure.

Tom:

Pastor Buck was taken up into the 3^rd heaven and he was right there in the throne room of God and when asked how he knew it was the throne room of God he said well there are feathers on the floor.You know and he was quoting what is it—Psalm 91?“He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge and his truth shall be your shield and buckler.”

Dave:

Yes, well Tom right there in the portion that you quoted, you have the refutation of—God is some kind of big bird with feathers.“His truth shall be your shield and buckler.”How do you make a shield out of—shield and buckler, that’s what it means, you know the buckler is what you hold on to that shield with.How do you make a shield out of truth?And Paul writes “…taking the shield of faith where with you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”Now if demons are shooting fiery arrows at us, then I guess angels have wings with feathers, but that’s not what it is talking about and one of the basic errors that man has fallen into is exchanging the spiritual for the physical.We become earthly minded; we become materialistic and we think something isn’t real unless it is physical.So, it doesn’t make sense.I mean what is the point?

Tom:

Dave before you address the point, in the Old Testament we have angels described with feathers, whether it be the cherubim or the seraphim.But it is interesting—

Dave:

Where does it say feathers?It says wings—

Tom:

I’m sorry—wings—I’m sorry.Wings—you’re right, but there they are with wings.All right?Now, what’s interesting is that in the New Testament with all the manifestations of angels, you never hear about wings, you never hear about feathers and we have many manifestations.So now what is the point of this?A man has a church, there are feathers flying down every which way—what does that mean?

Dave:

Tom, as I said, we are trying to have some physical evidence for a spiritual reality.That an angel would leave a feather—what does that mean?Is that going to be the basis of my faith now?And the man says that even though an analysis may show these are chicken feathers—he didn’t use those terms but how are you going to find out whether it was really an angelic feather?Well they will show that those feathers, I can guarantee you, belong to some fowl that lives on this earth.The Bible says that He makes His angels spirits.Flames of fire, ministering spirits to minister to those that shall be heirs of salvation.It tells us to not even try to look into who the angels are, what they may be doing and so forth.That is not our job.Our trust is in God and our faith is not in some feathers.Our faith is in the Word.That is why we call this Search the Scriptures Daily.Our faith is in the Word of God not in some physical manifestation.When Jesus said “I am the Bread of Life,” is He a loaf of bread?You know when He said I am the True Vine you are the branches, is He a grape vine and we are branches?No—so you have this sort of thing all through the Bible.So when it says He will cover you with His feathers and under His wing shalt thou trust, Jesus said, “how often would I have covered you—gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you would not.”Jesus doesn’t have wings.This is an allegorical statement.

Tom:

These are metaphors that people could relate to and identify.Dave the sad thing about this is that the very things that we’ve been talking about, evidence and faith—this man has, wittingly or unwittingly, has undermined.

Dave:

This is not the kind of evidence the Bible gives us.This is not the evidence upon which I would hang my eternal destiny and whether an angel appeared or not—what does that have to do with Jesus Christ being the Savior of sinners and man’s eternal destiny?So it is a way of side tracking people from what is really important.