Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: December 20, 2007 - # 951a – Christmas – A time for Angels (805)

Christmas will be here next Tuesday and the thoughts of tens of millions of Christian believers worldwide will turn to the birth of He whom they accept as their Savior, Jesus Christ.

            While pondering what to write for this column, my tenth on Christmas for the Tribune, I read an article by former Brigham Young University president Merrill J. Bateman titled “A Season for Angels.” He told of the many Christian hymns that speak of angels and how the biblical record tells of the numerous accounts of heavenly beings speaking to mortals both before and at the time of Christ’s birth and of the visits of heavenly beings (angels) to Christ during his ministry.

Bateman’s essay intrigued me. As I pondered it I was reminded that Christmas is truly America’s oldest Christian tradition with angels a major component of this tradition.

There are two forms of angels. One form are those individuals that go about daily helping people in need in our homes and communities – those we call mom/dad, wife/husband, grandma/grandpa, etc, those we buy presents for at Christmas. My wife Joan is one of these angels, one of the best who has already earned her wings of glory. Each of us knows such angels in our life and we need to be grateful for their presence.

Then there are those “Angels of the Lord” that the Bible tells us spoke to Adam, Abraham, Moses and others. Paul called these ‘Angels’ “ministering spirits.” They were sent to assist in the restoration process of each new gospel dispensation. A dispensation being, according to my Bible dictionary, “a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth.”

This definition suggests there have been periods of apostasy, periods when the heavens were closed with no authorized servants to dispense the gospel to the earth’s inhabitants. Biblical scholars speak of the “angelic patterns” that encircled the lives of Adam, Abraham, Moses, including the birth and life of Christ, suggesting those individuals ushered in new gospel dispensations.

These scholars explain the Mosaic dispensation began at the burning bush where Moses received instructions from a ‘ministering spirit,’ presumably Jehovah. His instructions kept coming from ‘on high’ as he negotiated with the Egyptian Pharaoh with his powers magnified to carry out his assignment: lead the enslaved Israelites to the Promised Land. In the Promised Land Moses continued to be instructed by ‘ministering spirits’ until he had completed the massive training and organization of his people in the ways of the Lord, ways necessary to administer the statutes (laws) he received on Mt. Sinai, the laws James called “the perfect laws of liberty,” the laws America’s Founding Fathers wanted to emulate.

The Mosaic dispensation lasted approximately 948 years – 1371 BC to 432 BC, ending with the death of Malachi. Those laws given to Moses helped the Israelites implement the first functioning ‘self government’ and provided the Israelites with unprecedented riches and liberties. Following Moses’ death the Lord continued to communicate with his people through his prophets (Amos 3:7).

Some biblical scholars see something similar to the Mosaic pattern emerge as they review the Angelic activity leading up to the birth of Christ and lasting throughout his ministry, a pattern most of us should probably better understand as it may help us better prepare for Christ’s second coming which most believers expect will occur sooner than later, beginning His reign of a thousand years.

 Old Testament prophets testified of the coming of Christ often. And following the Mosaic pattern Christ’s dispensation began with the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, Elizabeth, and Zachariah. Gabriel prepared them for what was to come. Then following the Blessed event Angelic choirs announced His birth to the shepherds in their fields. These angelic visits continued throughout His ministry and culminated with His resurrection and visit with his apostles for 40 days. Reason tells us He instructed his apostles, as did Moses, on how to organize His followers in order to re-establish His kingdom on earth.

Paul, in Hebrews, speaks of the “dispensation of the fullness of times” and John tells us in Revelation 14 that he saw another “angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell in the earth, and to every nation, and people, and kindred and tongue.”

This Christmas as we share our Christmas joy with those close to us, our own Angels, let us also ponder His awaited coming while preparing ourselves to accept that “Angel” sent to announce His coming that will begin that “dispensation of the  fullness of times” Paul spoke of that was yet to come.

And to all a Merry Christmas.