Angels

Archangel Michaelerkirche, Vienna

Being an LSP isn't just about horses, guns and underhand attacks on the "agitprop abomination" (thanks Silverfiddle) that is TEC and the extra-planetary ACoC. No, sometimes it involves reflection on the Angels. What are these creatures?

If you're a dogmatic atheist the answer's simple - they're figments of overheated imaginations. Madeleine Murray O'Hair and Margaret Sanger probably thought that, but to the faithful they're something else again. 

Here's some basic background:

Being spirits, we can say that angels are invisible, immaterial essences and therefore not bound by physical constraints. However, we learn from Scripture that angels interact with the material world and can assume bodily appearance, for example, rolling away the stone of the empty tomb (Matthew 28:2; Mark 16:3-4).

O'Hair, not an angel

Likewise, they appear as messengers of the Divine will and harbingers of His judgement, notoriously so in John's Apocalypse, where they exercise power and control of the elements to bring about the consummation of the Kingdom. Possessed of intellect, emotion and volition and living in a permanent state of heavenly bliss, they act in harmony with the will of God against the forces of wickedness - not least that of Satan and his apostate angels whose end is destruction.

Tradition, relying on Scripture and the teaching of the Church Fathers, assigns nine ranks to the angelic host:  Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels, with each rank having a different function. Seraphim, for example, worship before the throne of God (Isaiah 6:2-3; Revelation 4:8), while the Archangel Michael leads the angelic army against Satan (Revelation 12:7).

Again, Tradition assigns each person and place an angel, from heavenly bodies to Airborne units.

Archangel Michael, Airborne Patron

 
And, if you want to learn more about angelic natures it's probably best to check out the Medieval schoolmen who devoted great mental energy to the thing. I find it interesting and suspect that the subjects of the inquiry served as vehicles for broader metaphysical speculation - but my preference aside, it seems abstruse  and fantastical to most people today.

So, granted belief, what are we to make of the angels?

On the one hand, it seems comforting to think that we have supernatural guardians, but when we reflect on their implacable goodness perhaps an element of healthy respect and awe is also in order.

Remember the Cherubim in Genesis 3:24 - they were possessed of a flaming sword. Not to be conjured with lightly.


God bless,


LSP

Late Christmas Message

I know this is old but I liked it; from Ben Stein on CBS:

"I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees…

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat…

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves…

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell."

You can read the whole thing here, or for something different visit GNN for an interesting tale of a Norwich clergyperson and Global Warming.

Cheers,

LSP

Norwich - don't be fooled.

PS. "Downtown" Norwich was once described to me as "hell with the lid off" - but don't let that put you off.

Foresight

Some people get bewildered by iron sights because they're so used to shooting with scopes, but what happens if the scope goes down? Here's some useful pictures viz. correct sight alignment. As we know, focus on the foresight and don't worry about the rear sight and target blurring.

This excerpt from Random Acts of Patriotism describes it well:

"Focus your eye on the front sight. This should make the rear sight a bit fuzzy, that's fine. The target will also be fuzzy. So... you have to know, and the drawings do show it to some extent, that the image you are seeking is a sharply focused front sight post centered inside a blurry rear sight and resting on a blurry out of focus target."

Allied with proper hold on the weapon, controlled breathing and instinctive position, shooting should be accurate, even if distance eyesight isn't that good - after all, it's only a matter of a few feet from eye to the principle point of focus, the foresight, or 'front sight post'.

Of course you can forget all that and adopt the Imperial Stormtrooper principles of marksmanship by simply blazing away without hitting anything much, which is fun too, if not as productive.

For some reason this puts me in mind of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who played such a major part in kicking God out of our schools and ended up dismembered, along with one of her sons and grandaughter on a ranch in Texas. She founded "American Atheists"; you can read about her bizarre murder by criminal atheists and its investigation in Crime Magazine. Its rather gruesome.

Off to shoot some guns.

LSP