The Spirit World  by Ken Speer

Many are ignorant of the spirit world. The spirit world is a thriving, flurry of activity and is very, very real. In fact, the spirit world is more real than the physical world for it created the physical world. The spirit world consists of all sorts of beings that are buzzing about all around us. The fact that we are, for the most part, totally oblivious to this world is the primary reason we consider it unreal. If we could get a 10 minute glance into this spirit world, we would be amazed (and frightened). More than a glance, though, awaits each of us as we are just a heartbeat away from entering this world for all eternity.

The whole world is seeking to get in touch with this spirit world through various methods, including channeling, mediums, séances, witchcraft, divination, chanting, rituals, and, sometimes, even prayer. Television and the movie screens are littered with spiritual themes. There is a lot of interest in this unknown world. This unknown world, however, is greatly exposed in the Bible. The Bible gives us a lengthy look into the mysteries of this unseen world. It speaks of and describes many spirit beings and their duties. They have personalities and are ambitious. They fight and make war with each other. Their operations are similar to those we see among people in the physical world. They love, hate, mourn, envy, steal, kill, and destroy. Let's take a look at the biblical descriptions of some of these spirit beings.

First, of course, we have a God who is a spirit as mentioned in John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth".  The Bible talks a lot about the Holy Spirit and describes Him as a separate person from God (Luke 3:22 "And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.") . Notice that the Bible speaks of three separate persons that make up the one God (1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.) The Word is none other than the one we know as Jesus (John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."). There is so much written about these three that we see no need to go into great detail at this time. Maybe, later. Let's take a look at some not so well known spirit beings.

Seraphim

There are angelic beings known as Seraphim  They are mentioned twice in the Bible, both times in the book of Isaiah, chapter 6: [1] In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. [2] Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. [3] And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. [4] And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. The word, Seraphim, is the plural form of  the Hebrew word, saraph, which means a burning, fiery seraph. A seraph, according to Webster, is one of the highest order of angels, above the cherubim. Now, this is an odd creature, indeed. At least, to we humans...six wings, with which he covered his face with two, covered his feet with two, and flew with two.

I should stop and make note of the fact that I am obviously understanding the Bible in a literal sense. My hermeneutical position is that the Bible is to be taken literally when at all possible. When not possible, one should attempt to understand the literal meaning behind the figurative language. My position is that God was fully capable of communicating in our language and that he intended for us to understand what He was bringing to light in His Word. In so doing, it is logical to believe that He saw to it that the Bible was written so that we could understand exactly what it said without having to be a mind reader and that He describes things exactly as they are. To do otherwise is to leave us guessing as to what He is trying to say, then answering to Him for misunderstanding what He said. He wants us to understand His word, not be confused by it and arrive at a multitude of different meanings for every word. To arrive at different meanings means that everyone would understand biblical words differently and have different truths. My philosophy is that if the Bible reads that farmer John had a brown cow, then farmer John had a brown cow.

Now that we have gotten this out of the way, it, in my humble opinion, is entirely possible that Seraphim as described in Isaiah do exist as described.

Cherubim

Cherubim are first mentioned in Genesis 3:24 as guarding the tree of life. The word, cherubim, is the plural of the word, cherub. Per Webster, a cherub is any of the second order of angels, usually ranked just below the seraphim.  Cherubim are described in Ezekiel 1: "Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. [6] And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. [7] And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. [8] And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. [9] Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. [10] As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. [11] Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. [12] And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. [13] As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. [14] And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning."

In Ezekiel 10, he describes these beings as cherubim: "This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims."

If you ever wondered what Satan looked like, he is described in Ezekiel 28:14 as being " the anointed cherub that covereth". This kind of flies in the face of the popular image of Satan dressed in red with a pitchfork, doesn't it?

The Four Beasts

Revelation 4 speaks of four beasts that were in the midst and around the throne of God in heaven. These four beasts are described thusly: [6] "And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. [7] And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. [8] And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

Locusts

In Revelation 9, an angel comes down out of heaven with the keys to the bottomless pit, where spiritual beings reside. When the bottomless pit is opened, out come creatures that are called locusts. They are much different than the locusts we see in our physical world.

[2] "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. [3] And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power....[7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. [8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. [9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. [10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

These locusts had an angelic king over them by the name of Abaddon.

Rev. 9:11 "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon."