Are We Angels That Were Kicked Out Of Heaven? Part 7 – Revelation

Despite numerous counter-arguments, World Mission Society Church of God members continue to attempt to defend doctrinal claims that humans are all fallen angels from heaven.  In a recent conversation with a WMSCOG member, the member attempted to substantiate these claims with Revelation 3:12.

The WMSCOG member explained that since Jesus said he will make the person who overcomes into a pillar in a heavenly temple, and also said that the person would never leave it again, this proves that the person must have been in heaven before.

Does Revelation 3:12 Support The WMSCOG’s Fallen Angels Theory?

I looked up the verse in the interlinear Bible and noted something interesting.  The Greek word for “who overcomes” is “nikao”.  Nikao means to be victorious, subdue, conquer and implies a battle.

In the Bible it is not uncommon for the church to be referred to as a temple and Christians as part of it.

The apostle Paul refers to James, Peter and John as “pillars” in Galatians 2:9. Therefore, we can conclude that those who are strong in their faith in Jesus Christ are already considered to be pillars in His temple.  In Revelation 3:11 Jesus tells us that he is coming soon.  After that in verse 12, Jesus says that he will make those who overcome pillars in His heavenly temple.  Then what does it mean when Jesus says “never again will he leave it”?

Characteristics Of Temple Pillars

Temple pillars were for support and partly for ornament.  But not all of the characteristics of the pillar apply to man.  Man cannot physically support the temple as physical pillars do. Then being made a pillar of the temple is to be referred to as a very important part of the temple of God.  How honorable to made into a pillar that supports God’s eternal temple!

A physical pillar cannot “leave” the temple it supports.  But man’s strength in the battle against the evils of temptation, ones own errors, and ones own sinful nature can waver over time.  We are not always in the graces of God, yet at other times our faith is strong and we are metaphorically pillars of God’s temple.  As a pillar of God’s eternal temple, we are assured that our soul will no longer be periled, that we shall never again be in danger of falling into temptation, that no enemy will have the strength to alienate us from God, that we will have eternal life.  When God makes us a pillar in His heavenly temple and says that we will never again leave Him, it means that once we are in heaven we will never sin again or turn away from Him again as we do at different times during our life of sin on earth.  The battle we face on earth against sin and temptation seems never ending.  But there is hope when we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Once we admit that we are sinners, we can accept that Jesus paid the debt for our sins by shedding his blood on the cross.

Conclusion

Revelation 3:12 does not provide support for the WMSCOG’s theory that we were angels in heaven before being born on earth.  Despite six other counter-arguments, members of the WMSCOG continue to believe in the WMSCOG’s consistent misinterpretations of the Bible. But why does the World Mission Society Church of God teach such an erroneous doctrine?

According to cult expert Steve Hassan’s BITE Model, destructive mind control groups use guilt to control their members.  When the World Mission Society Church of God is successful in getting a member to believe that he or she was an angel in heaven that sinned against God, the WMSCOG is in essence getting that person to confess to a crime that they never committed.

When I was in the WMSCOG, they taught members that they tried to be higher than God by attempting to draw a relationship between the sins of the King of Tyre and humans.  The members often then felt immensely guilty.  This caused some to work for their salvation, and in turn they ended up working for the organization.  Once this happened, the WMSCOG had almost complete control over the person (as I saw happen in several instances).  Guilt can act as leverage to get a person to comply with an organization’s demands to spend all of their time studying, recruiting, partaking in ceremonial observances of the law, paying tithes, giving freewill offerings, neglecting their spouses and families, etc.  This lesson (which the WMSCOG calls “The Forgiveness of Sins”) is taught to new recruits early on.

We pray that members of the World Mission Society Church of God, bound by spiritual chains, wake up and believe that our Lord has given us His gift of eternal life freely (Romans 3:24, Ephesians 1:6).