Angels and Demons
ANGELS AND DEMONS
WHO ARE THEY ??? THERE ARE ALWAYS TWO GROUPS FIGHTING CONSTANTLY FOR POWER>>>
THEY BOTH HAVE MANY THINGS IN COMMON>>>
In all culture around the world we see two super human beings, two races born mostly from the same source fighting for power. One represents positive aspect while the other represents evil. They are usually considered as secondary set of God who have a supreme God above them. Like in Hindu Mythology, the devas( Hinduism ) have Three Superior Gods above them, God Brahma, God Vishnu and God Shiva( Rudra). In christian Myths... Angels have a supreme God above them. But in Greek Myths, The Olympians are considered supreme but from the stories we can see that they stick to some rules and obey someone above.
ANGELS
An angel is a supernatural being or spirit, usually in
humanoid form with feathered wings on their backs and halos around their heads,
found in various religions and mythologies.
The
theological study of angels is known as "angelology". In Zoroastrianism and Abrahamic religions they are often depicted as benevolent
celestial beings who act as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits or a guiding influence.
The term
"angel" has also been expanded to various notions of spirits found in
many other religious traditions. Other roles of angels include protecting and
guiding human beings, and carrying out God's tasks.
In art, angels are often depicted with bird-like wings on their
back, a halo, robes and various forms of glowing light.
Individual angels
·
Michael (translation: who is like
God?),kindness of God
·
Gabriel (translation: the
strength of God), performs acts of justice and power
·
Raphael (translation: God Heals),
God's healing force
·
Uriel (translation: God
is my light), leads us to destiny
·
Samael (translation: the
severity of God), angel of death
·
Sandalphon (translation: bringing together),
battles Samuel and brings humankind together
·
Camael/Chamuel
(translation: one who seeks God), expelled Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden holding a flaming sword and
punishes those who transgress against God
·
Sataniel/Satan (translation: the
adversary), tempts humans, serves as an adversary, and brings people's
sins before them in the heavenly court
·
Metatron (translation
is disputed, may mean "keeper of the watch", "guardian", or
"he who sits behind the throne of Heaven"), God's heavenly scribe
recording the deeds of all that is done in Earth and Heaven and all of
Creation.
Later
Christians inherited Jewish understandings of angels, which in turn may have
been partly inherited from the Egyptians.In the early stage, the Christian
concept of an angel characterized the angel as a messenger of God. Angels are
creatures of good, spirits of love, and messengers of the savior Jesus
Christ.Later came identification of individual angelic messengers: Gabriel,Michael, Raphael, Uriel,
and Lucifer. Then, in the space of little more
than two centuries (from the 3rd to the 5th) the image of angels took on
definite characteristics both in theology and in art.[25]
By the
late 4th century, the Church Fathers agreed that there were different
categories of angels, with appropriate missions and activities assigned to
them. There was, however, some disagreement regarding the nature of angels. Some
argued that Angels had physical bodies,[26] while some maintained that they were
entirely spiritual. Some theologians had proposed that angels were not divine
but on the level of immaterial beings subordinate to the Trinity. The
resolution of this Trinitarian dispute included the development of doctrine
about angels. However, while cherubim and
seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings.
ISLAM
Angels are mentioned
many times in the Qur'an and Hadith. Islam is
clear on the nature of angels in that they are messengers of God. They have
no free will, and can do only what God orders
them to do. An example of a task they carry out is that of testing individuals
by granting them abundant wealth and curing their illness.[53] Believing
in angels is one of the six Articles of
Faith in Islam.
Some examples of angels in Islam:
·
Jibrail:
the archangel Gabriel is an archangel who serves as a messenger from God.
·
Michael:
the angel of nature.
·
Israfil is
the angel of the trumpet in Islam, Darda'il: the angels who travel in the earth searching out assemblies
where people remember God's name.
·
Kiraman Katibin: the two angels who record a
person's good and bad deeds.
·
Mu'aqqibat: a class of guardian angels who keep people from
death until its decreed time.
·
Munkar and Nakir: the angels who test the faith
of the dead in their graves. They ask the soul of the dead person questions. If
the person fails the questions, the angels make the man suffer until the Day of Judgement.
If the soul passes the questions, he will have a pleasant time in the grave
until the Day of Judgement.
·
Harut and Marut are two angels mentioned
in Qur'an, who were sent down to test the people at Babylon.
MARUT S IN
HINDUISM
In Hinduism the Maruts
also known as the Marutagana and sometimes identified with Rudras, are
storm deities and sons of Rudra and Prisni and attendants of Indra.The number of Maruts
varies from 27 to sixty (three times sixty in RV 8.96.8).
They are very violent and aggressive, described as armed with golden weapons
i.e. lightning and thunderbolts, as having iron teeth and roaring like lions,
as residing in the north, as riding in golden chariots drawn by ruddy horses.
In the Vedic mythology,
the Marutas, a troop of young warriors, are Indra's companions.
According to French comparative mythologist Georges Dumézil,
they are cognate to the Einherjar and the Wild hunt.
 |
| Devas in Heaven |
The
angels are identified as Devas in hindism, Devas are the guardians of earth and
they look after the day to day activities of the universe. The king of the
Devas is God Indra, son of Dyaus pita( Zeus pitar).They are a set of powerful
beings that are subordinate to the Trinity .
They obey the rules of the Three Elder Gods (TRINITY).
Buddhism:
A deva
in Buddhism is one of many different types of non-human
beings who share the characteristics of being more powerful, longer-lived, and,
in general, living more contentedly than the average human being. The Trāyastriṃśa heaven is an important world of the devas in Buddhist cosmology.
Trāyastriṃśa is located on the peak of Sumeru, the central mountain of the world, at a height of
80,000 yojanas (a height sometimes equated to about
40,000 feet); the total area of the heaven is 80,000 yojanas square.
According
to Vasubandhu, inhabitants of Trāyastriṃśa are each half a krośa tall (about 1500 feet) and live for
1000 years, of which each day is equivalent to 100 years of our world: that is,
for a total of 36 million of our years.
In
particular, they frequently find themselves in quarrels with the Asuras, semi-divine beings who were long ago expelled from Trāyastriṃśa, at the beginning of the reign of the present Śakra
(INDRA).There is, however, marriage between the Trāyastriṃśa devas and the Asuras, just as there is between the Æsir and
the jötnar in Norse mythology.
 |
| Devas headed by the King of Devas,Indra |
The chief
of the Trāyastriṃśa gods is INDRA.
He manages all earthly matter and when things
goes out of hand he will get help from the TRINITY.
TRINITY
Christian
:
The doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine
persons or hypostases:
the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; "one God in
three persons". The three persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or
nature". A nature is what one is, while a person is who one is.
The
Trinity is considered to be the central mystery of Christian faith.According to this
doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and
entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who
is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their
relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of
creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons,
who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all
things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.The three
persons are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial.
Hindu:
Here
we have a similar pattern: Brahman (SUPREME SOUL) is equal to holy sprite as
described in Christian mythology and Allah in Islamic believes. In Hinduism,
Mahadev is the male form of the supreme soul (Brahman). He created God Vishnu
and God Vishnu created God Brahma. Later Mahadev took an incarnation as God
Shiva as a son of God Brahma. Together God Shiva(Mahadev), God Vishnu and God
Brahma is called the trinity.
.jpg) |
| God Brahma , God Shiva and God Vishnu |
God
Brahma= CREATOR GOD
God
Vishnu =PROTECTOR GOD
God
Shiva=DESTROYER OR TRANSFORMER OF LIFE.
DEMONS
Kali / satan is the leader of demons /personified beings that represents sins, animal instincts and other negative aspects man that dwell in the hellish planes.
Demons
are sometimes included into biblical interpretation. In the story of Passover,
the Bible tells the story as "the Lord struck down all the firstborn in
Egypt" (Exodus 12:21–29). In Jubilees, however, this same event is told
slightly differently: "All the powers of [the demon] Mastema had been let
loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt...And the powers of the
Lord did everything according as the Lord commanded them" (Jubilees
49:2–4).
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In
Genesis in the story of the flood, the author explains how God was noticing
"how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had
corrupted their ways" (Genesis 6:12). In Jubilees the sins of man is
attributed to "the unclean demons [who] began to lead astray the children
of the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them" (Jubilees 10:1).
In Jubilees Mastema questions the loyalty of Abraham and tells God to "bid
him offer him as a burnt offering on the altar, and Thou wilt see if he will do
this command" (Jubilees 17:16). The discrepancy between the story in
Jubilees and the story in Genesis 22 exists with the presence of Mastema. In
Genesis, God tests the will of Abraham merely to determine whether he is a true
follower, however; in Jubilees Mastema has an agenda behind promoting the
sacrifice of Abraham’s son, "an even more demonic act than that of the
Satan in Job."
Jesus
cast out many demons or evil angels from those afflicted with various ailments. He also lent this
power to some of his disciples (Luke 10:17). The demons were
cast out by the utterance of a name, according to Matthew 7:22, with some groups
insisting the original pronunciation of the name "Jesus" be used. The
demons or unclean spirits themselves were said to often recognize Jesus as the
Messiah. In Matthew 12:43, Jesus taught that
when demons were driven from a human, they went through dry places as
disembodied spirits seeking respite, although on some occasion he would send
them into a herd of swine. Through all accounts, Jesus had never failed in his
exorcism of a demon.
The Christian Bible's Book of Revelation describes a "war in heaven"
between angels led by the archangel Michael versus those led by
"the dragon", identified with "the devil andSatan", who are defeated and thrown down to the
earth.[1][2] Revelation's
"war in heaven" has been compared to the idea of fallen angels and possible parallels
have been proposed in the Old Testament and Dead Sea Scrolls.
Islam recognizes the
existence of jinn, which are sentient beings with free will that
can co-exist with humans (though not the genies of modern lore). In Islam, evil
jinns are referred to as the shayātīn, or
devils,
Hinduism
includes numerous varieties of spirits that might be classified as demons,
including Vetalas, Bhutas and Pishachas. Rakshasas and Asuras are often also taken
as demons.
Originally, Asura, in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda, meant any supernatural spirit, either good or
bad. Since the /s/ of the Indic linguistic branch is cognate with the /h/ of
the Early Iranian languages, the word Asura,
representing a category of celestial beings, became the word Ahura (Mazda),
the Supreme God of the monotheistic Zoroastrians.
Ancient Hinduism tells that Devas (also called suras) and Asuras are half-brothers,
sons of the same father Kasyapa
Later,
during Puranic age, Asura and Rakshasa came to exclusively
mean any of a race of anthropomorphic, powerful, possibly evil beings.
The Asura are not fundamentally against the
gods, nor do they tempt humans to fall. This is markedly different from the
traditional Western notions of demons as a rival army of God but comparable
with the concept of the jinns in Islam.
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