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A cloud of witnesses stands to testify of a Holy God. This testimony looms over all of creation yet those under the spell of Satan's curse walk blindly by as though it doesn't exist. Recognizing this colossal dilemma makes me ever so thankful for so great a salvation. Isn't it glorious to have the answers for all of life's problems? Isn't it marvelous to understand the plan of salvation? Isn't it phenomenally beneficial that we can know the wiles of the Devil and dominate his high ground by the all-powerful confession of our Lord Jesus Christ? This knowledge is too great for carnal minds. Only the new mind in Christ Jesus can perceive what the Spirit sayeth to the church. Now for today's subject.
GOD SAID, angels. There are over 300 references to angels in the word of God. Angels are mighty servants & power-brokers of the Lord Jehovah. The first occurrence of angels in the Bible is found in Genesis 3:24:
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Man's first encounter with angelic beings was not a good one. Their labors here on the earth are multifaceted. They serve as holy watchers and messengers (Daniel 4:13-14). They serve as protectors of God's children (Psalms 34:7). They also serve as ministers of support to children of God (Hebrews 1:13-14). They battle against the enemies of the Cross of Christ in a multitude of ways. Adam believed in angels. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob believed in angels and so did Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel and entirety of New Testament apostles and disciples. Jesus Christ believes in angels and so does God.
MAN SAID: it's absurd. We evolved from nothing with no outside support or wisdom. There is no God.
Now THE RECORD. Angels have been sighted hundreds of thousands of times and that is not an exaggeration. Angels have been sighted by many people of great notoriety, and there have been occurances where more than one individual has experienced the same angelic event. Many stories of angels happen in times of war. This should come as no surprise. James, Chapter 5, Verse 16 reads:
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The effectual fervent prayer is truly prayed in times of danger and trouble. Men in battle and their families draw close to God and seek his face diligently, so it should come as no surprise that angels are well documented in such times.
It's well known in history that our founding fathers were Christian men. The stories of George Washington on his knees in Valley forge are also well known. Osterhus Publishing House recounted a story titled, "George Washington's Vision," which was left us by a 99-year-old man named Anthony Sherman on July fourth, 1859, shortly before the Civil War. Sherman served under George Washington. He recounts the following statement from Washington:
Washington, gazing upon his companion with that strange look of dignity that he alone could command, said to the latter: "I do not know whether it is due to the anxiety of my mind, or what, but this afternoon, as I was preparing a dispatch, something seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld, standing opposite me, a singularly beautiful being. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed, that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the cause of the visit. A second, third, and even a fourth time did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my mysterious visitor, except a slight raising of the eyes. By the time I felt strange sensations spreading through me, and I would have risen, but the riveted gaze of the being before me rendered volition impossible. I assayed once more to speak, but my tongue had become useless, as though it had become paralyzed. A new influence, mysterious, potent, irresistible, took possession. All I could do was to gaze steadily, vacantly, at my unknown visitor. Gradually the surrounding atmosphere seemed to become filled with sensations, and grew luminous. Everything about me seemed to rarefy, including the mysterious visitor."
"I began to feel as one dying, or rather to experience the sensations which I have sometimes imagined accompany disillusion. I did not think, I did not reason, I did not move; all were alike impossible. I was only conscious of gazing fixedly, vacantly at my companion."
"Presently I heard a voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn."
General Washington looked and listened as the angel of God laid out the future of America, which was at the time a fledgling, vulnerable republic.
In the Evening Courier of Portland, Maine on March 8, 1862, a detailed report of General George McClellan's encounter with an angel was reported. The story that was repeated in a book titled Hear the Rush of Angel Wings follows:
General McClellan had gone to Washington, DC, to take over the command of the United States Army. This being the third day of his arrival, he was working until two o'clock in the night checking the reports of scouts and studying his maps. Being overcome with exhaustion and work, he leaned his head on his arms on the table and fell asleep.
About ten minutes later, the locked door was opened suddenly and someone entered and walked right up to him, and in a voice of authority said, "General McClellan, do you sleep at your post? Rouse you, or ere it can be prevented, the foe will be in Washington!"
The general then gave some details of his strange experience which followed. He told how he felt himself suspended in infinite space. Above him he heard a voice which startled him. He could not tell whether he was awake or asleep. The walls of the room, with its furniture and other objects, were no longer visible; but the maps covering the table were still before him. Then he found himself gazing upon a "living map" of America which extended from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. The General was unable to identify the being standing next to him, except that it had the appearance of a man.
Then he looked at the mysterious map before him and was amazed to see the movements of the various troops; and as he watched, he realized he was seeing the complete picture of the enemy's lines and distribution of their forces. Being greatly elated, he felt he now knew what strategy to use to end the war speedily and victoriously.
But then his elation gave way to great apprehension because, on this moving map, he saw the enemy's soldiers moving to the very position he had intended to occupy in a few days. He knew that the enemy was aware of his plan of attack.
Then the voice spoke again, "General McClellan, you have been betrayed. And had God not willed otherwise, ere the sun of tomorrow had set, the Confederate flag would have flown above the Capital and your own grave. But note what you see. Your time is short!"
Noting the movement of the troops on the "living map," he took his pencil and transferred their position to the paper map on his desk. Then McClellan was aware of the figure next to him becoming luminous with light and glory. Raising his view, he looked into the face of George Washington!
Sublime and dignified, our first president looked upon the bewildered general and spoke the following. "General McClellan, while yet in the flesh I beheld the birth of the American Republic. It was indeed a hard and bloody one, but God's blessing was upon the nation and, therefore, through this, her first great struggle for existence, He sustained her and brought her out triumphantly with His mighty hand. A century has not passed since then, and yet the child Republic has taken her position as peer with nations whose pages of history extend for ages into the past. She has since those dark days, by the favor of God, greatly prospered. But now, by very reason of this prosperity, she has been brought to her second great struggle. This is by far the most perilous ordeal she has had to endure, passing as she is from childhood to open maturity. She is now being called upon to accomplish that vast result, self-conquest: to learn that important lesson of self-control, self-rule, which in the future will place her in the van of power and civilization.
"But her vision will not then be finished; for ERE ANOTHER CENTURY shall have gone by, the oppressors of the whole earth, hating and envying her exaltation, shall join themselves together and raise up their hands against her high calling they shall surely be discomfited, and then shall be ended her THIRD and last great struggle for existence. Thenceforth shall the Republic go on, increasing in power and goodness until her borders shall end only in the remotest corners of the earth, and the whole earth be blessed by her. Let her in her prosperity, however, remember the Lord her God, and let her trust be always in Him and she shall never be confounded."
After this, the heavenly visitor who appeared to be Washington raised his hand over General McClellan's head in blessing. A peal of thunder which rumbled through space awakened McClellan with a start, and he found himself in his room with his maps spread out before him on the table as they had been before he had dozed off.
As he looked upon the maps, he noticed a difference, for they were covered with marks, signs, and figures which he had made during the time he thought he had been sleeping. He stood up and started walking around the room to prove to himself that he was really awake and was seeing "straight." Then, taking another look at the maps, he found the markings still there.
Realizing this experience was divinely given, he ordered his horse saddled and went from camp to camp, ordering changes to be made which were necessary to frustrate the enemy's planned offensive. The strategy was successful and prevented the city of Washington from being captured. The Confederate Army, at that time, was so close to the capital that Abraham Lincoln, sitting in the White House, could hear the roar of the Confederate artillery.
Thus the Union was saved, and in the recorded story of General McClellan concludes his account of his vision with these words: "The future is too vast for our comprehension; we are all children of the present. When peace shall again have folded her bright wings and settled upon our land, the strange, unearthly map which was marked that night by a supernatural hand shall be preserved among American archives, as a precious reminder to the American nation what they owe to God for His intervention in the second great struggle for existence. Verily, the works of God are above the understanding of man!"
Within 30 days of this next angelic occurrence, the story was well known throughout all of England as "The Angels of Mons." It was August 1914 near Mons, France, where the British troops were surrounded, outnumbered, and doomed for destruction. Many days they fought valiantly while losing many men and much equipment. Captain Cecil W. Hayward was there. He tells that suddenly in the midst of heavy fighting on both sides, the battle came to an eerie halt. Of all the stories of angels in battle, this account probably has the largest numbers of eye witnesses recounting a singular event. Captain Hayward said what British troops saw were, "four or five wonderful beings, much bigger than men," between them and the German troops. These huge, bright angels stood with their backs to the British and with their arms extended toward the German troops. At that moment the horses ridden by the German Cavalry became terrified and stampeded off in every direction. The British troops were saved.
The following is an excerpt from the book The Truth About Angels:
Captain Hayward also wrote of the incident of the "white battalion" at Bethune three-and-a-half years later. He was one of the intelligence officers who interrogated German prisoners from that battle.
In April 1918, near the close of World War I, a mysterious white battalion was seen by hundreds of German soldiers near Bethune, France. One German officer told of his troops marching along in excellent spirits because they thought the British were defeated. Suddenly a lieutenant grabbed him by the arm, saying:
Look, Herr Captain, there is a large body of mounted men approaching Bethune from the other side. See, the smoke of the burning houses is blowing away and I can discern their uniforms. Why, they are all dressed in white and are mounted on white horses. Who can they be?
At first the captain thought the troops might be British Colonial mounted troops, but they knew of none who wore white uniforms and rode white chargers. The Germans stopped to watch the cavalrymen advancing through the smoke, their figures clearly outlined in the sun. Mortar shells shook the ground, and intensive machine gun fire raked the men, but the cavalry unit dressed in white rode on at a slow trot. Not one man or horse was hit.
Riding in front of them was "a fine figure of a man" who had a sword by his side like those used by the Crusaders, but his hands quietly held the reins of his horse. Suddenly, terror seized the German troops, and they fled.
The British troops did not see the cavalrymen dressed in white. Only the Germans did. The Prussian captain said he knew at that moment Germany had lost the war due to these mysterious troops on the side of the British.
During World War II, on a Sunday morning in September of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his advisors were consulting in an underground bunker. England was experiencing a dangerous shortage of materials and intelligence said that a German invasion was imminent. While contemplating their options, there was a sudden alert. A Nazi air flotilla was attacking. Again from T. Law's book The Truth About Angels:
On that otherwise quiet Sunday morning, a sudden alert heralded the approach of Nazi aircraft from several directions. Forty from one direction, sixty from another, followed by a formation of eighty planes. This was only the beginning. Aircraft continued to fill the sky from every direction.
As each Nazi formation neared the English coast, a British squadron would rise to meet it. Since there were only 25 squadrons assigned to the 11th Fighter Command defending southern England, soon all of them were in the air. Tension grew in the underground shelter...
Then inexplicably, the discs [markers] on the wall chart began to move eastward. The great Nazi air flotilla had turned back. With 185 of their aircraft downed in flames, they were in retreat! Miraculously, against all logistical probability, the Royal Air Force had won the battle!
There was no natural explanation for the outcome of this Nazi attack during the Battle of Britain, but intelligence officers who interrogated downed Nazi airmen heard this question from at least three different men: "Where did you get all the planes you threw into the battle over Britain?"
The British force was inferior, but the Germans claimed that they were outnumbered by the British planes they saw.
Again, the British, as a nation, were praying for the safety of their country and their military forces. From 1940 until the end of the war, the people throughout the Commonwealth observed a silent moment of prayer at 9 P.M. each day.
An imprisoned Nazi intelligence officer told his captors:
With the striking of your Big Ben clock each evening at nine, you used a secret weapon which we did not understand. It was very powerful and we could find no countermeasure against it.
GOD SAID, angels.
MAN SAID: foolishness.
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
King James Bible
"George Washington's Vision," Osterhus Publishing House.
"An Angel Saves the Union", newsletter, End-Time Handmaidens, Inc.
Evening Courier, Maine.
J. & J. French, Hear the Rush of Angel Wings, New Leaf Press.
T. Law, The Truth About Angels
