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I suggest that his treatment of Isaiah 6 and the Seraphim is typical of his method of muddying the water in order to introduce Satan into Genesis 3.
He touched upon a raw nerve when he treated Isaiah 6 in such a fashion. Isaiah 6 is one of my favourite Bible chapters. In my youth a home study class considered Isaiah and I really enjoyed Isaiah 6 and my understanding of this chapter has grown over the years, together with a delight in the uniqueness of this chapter and the many quotations and allusions of this chapter in the NT. I am very reticent to endorse the sort of knowledge and external references that the speaker used, and possibly this is what you label as a knowledge of the occult. I prefer the Bible and its clear and simple teaching.
Perhaps the difference is that he may not consider the connection between the serpent on the pole and Jesus and any connection of this with the Seraphim and Isaiah 6. Do you endorse what he said about the Seraphim?
This is outside the sphere of my interest. My interest in books which has resulted in a very large collection of general interest, external religious books and internal fellowship books has resulted in the realisation that I will never digest much of this. To divert my attention to the occult and even trying to discover the full range of meaning of this term would be a complete waste of time in my estimation.
I am not sure of your position, but I consider the cherubim, seraphim and living creatures to be symbolic and not real Angels or varieties mainly because of their many different heads and wings. Possibly the Cherubim of Genesis 3 were real angels enacting the role of the theme of protecting the way to the Most Holy. I also see a strong connection between the Seraphim and the Serpent on the Pole, and this takes us back to Genesis 3:1 and Genesis 3:15 and then on to John 3:14-16 and Jesus as the representative atonement, crucifying the lusts of the flesh. We most probably therefore differ on this theme and some details.
Where I decide against real angels is that the Cherubim of Ezekiel 1 each have four heads, lion, eagle, ox and man, and four wings, the Seraphim's head(s) of Isaiah 6 is not described, but their name could link with the serpents and the serpent on the pole, and each has six wings, and the Living Creatures of Revelation also have six wings, but there are four individual Creatures with only one head apiece, and they have individually heads of lion, eagle, ox and man. There are other features such as calf feet, burning and this speaks of judgement. The four heads speak of different attributes, lion - king, Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah, Eagle - Divine attributes, Jesus is the Son of God, the full manifestation of God his Father, Ox - Jesus was the Servant of Yahweh, Man - Jesus was a man and partook of the flesh to become the perfect sacrifice and reverse the Adamic curse though conquest of sin, death and resurrection, and this is sometimes expounded that he was also the Priest.
In your Spirit world or God's Spirit world, the good guys instead of the bad guys, is there a breed of Angels called Cherubim with four different heads and four wings each, and is there another breed of Angels identified as four Living Creatures each with different heads apiece and six wings each?
There are a few, but I do not have a list. It is not a deliberate reference collection, but what has been collected from various people over a number of years. My personal collection is the five volume Hastings, 3 volume ivp The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, an abbreviated Smith's Bible Dictionary, Davis Dictionary and I use Logos8 Bible Software and there are a few that I have accumulated in that program, including Nelson's Dictionary.
Yes, but in practical terms as relevant to the situation in our Ecclesia, I doubt that I would suggest the ivp three volume Illustrated Bible Dictionary that I know is in the reference library, or any other of the dictionaries that may be there.
Anyone who takes the time to listen to these will come away with greater wisdom. It’s truly a valuable and enriching study to pursue.
All of the above resources are recommended and there is no need to issue a warning, but if the brother picked up the ivp Dictionary or any other of the Dictionaries, then this warning may be necessary, especially to a young brother.
I have been careful as to what books we stock and recommend. At one stage our senior expositor suggested that he review ALL the new books added before making them available, but often he was very busy. I changed this when it was apparent that our main supplier CSSS Adelaide already filtered the books they stocked and sold, and sometimes they would not stock and sell a few marginal Christadelphian books, while another supplier in Australia did not mind selling these. I will continue the present policy. If anyone wants to read outside our literature, then there is a good bookshop nearby, and I have purchased a number of reference books and some very worthwhile commentaries. Maybe I like books more than most members and many of the younger generation only like their i-phones. My Dad used to be the Collins Sales Rep, selling books by travelling to the various NSW School Libraries.
