Angels were everywhere.
Thousands of six-foot choir angels swirled above the fiery Throne of God in an ever-expanding cone of concentric circles moving in opposing, alternating directions as high as the eye could see. Faces of brown, black, yellow, and white spun together in a blur of light and motion. Their childlike shouts of joy and their ringing peals of laughter formed a contagious counterpoint to the massive choruses of praise echoing across the vast expanse of heaven.
Just below that whirlwind of worship, a rippling, iridescent rainbow arched regally over the Throne. Lightning and thunderous, staccato voices shot up into the angelic cone from the throats of dozens of eight-foot, golden-headed Cherubim and Seraphim who sang as they soared up and down its center, adding a complex vocal drumbeat to the rhythm of the rotating choir.
Finally, watchful and majestic, a hundred thousand fierce, ten-foot Warrior Angels with faces like burning bronze lined the walls of heaven—wings furled, arms akimbo, massive swords at the ready. Multitudes of the six-foot angels sped past them, racing out of Heaven’s Gates, headed for Earth with assignments to serve the saints.
***
It had not always been that way.
Once, there were no Warrior Angels or swords in heaven. Before time began, peace had always reigned there. God’s angels were his family, and they all lived in great contentment, enjoying one another and the incredible pleasures of heaven.
Although all angels were males, their love for one another was stronger, deeper, and purer than any human could ever know. In the beginning, God created one hundred eighty thousand angels to serve the Court of Heaven and to help his people on Earth. But, just after God decided to make Adam and Eve, eighty thousand beautiful angels disappeared in a way that changed heaven forever.
Sixty thousand angels were cast out of heaven in the Great Rebellion. Twenty thousand other angels died in the fierce battle to protect heaven. Michael, General of the Lord’s Army, drove Lucifer and his rebel angels from heaven, never to return. Those sixty thousand became Dark Angels. The remaining one hundred thousand in heaven lost their best friends, closest companions, comrades-in-arms . . . forever! Because of this, the Great Rebellion was immediately followed by the Great Grief. God himself grieved deeply at the loss of eighty thousand beloved sons.
For hundreds of years, the Great Grief muffled the joy of heaven. Angel poets later wrote that God and the angels released their tears of sadness on the earth during Noah’s time, flooding the Earth with water. Most angels got over their grief. A few struggled from time to time. A very few never recovered from the loss of so many good friends. But heaven moved inexorably onward. All the angels knew that somehow, God would bring good from it.
Shortly after the Great Rebellion, the Lord of Hosts restructured heaven for war. God immediately gave many of his remaining angels ten-foot-tall, massive physiques and long, sharp swords. They became the Warrior Angels in the Host of Heaven, the ones who now protect heaven under Michael’s leadership. God established a War Room where Michael and his staff would coordinate heaven’s plans against Lucifer’s Dark Angels.
At roughly the same time, Lucifer somehow spawned billions of new creatures that would later be called demons. Most demons do not have wings. They must walk the earth to tempt and torment individual humans. Some of the more powerful demons do have wings so that they can do combat with angels. But even the most powerful demon is no match for a Dark Angel. Lucifer made sure of that. He knew his demons had his rebel nature in them.
As weaker beings, demons are constantly humiliated and abused by Lucifer and his angels. Lucifer took great delight in giving his demons some of the most disgusting faces in creation. Many demons got the faces of insects, birds, reptiles, and gruesome deep-sea marine life. Lucifer told his demons that their ugliness would help subdue humans through fear. But the demons all knew better—and they hated Lucifer for it. They heard him and his angels making cruel jokes about how disgusting they looked. It was true. They were ugly. In fact, their ugliness was only exceeded by their fierce hatred for Lucifer and the Dark Angels.
But after thousands of years of vicious combat between the Host of Heaven and Lucifer’s evil forces, God revealed his ultimate solution to rescue mankind. God planned to send his Son, Jesus, to destroy Satan’s wicked works on earth! The angels were ecstatic! Tidal waves of worship washed over heaven again, healing the broken hearts of almost every angel. According to God’s plans, vast multitudes of people would soon come to heaven as his children from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Heaven was about to explode with new sons and daughters of God. The party was on!
So, God had to create billions of new angels to serve the vast throngs of people on earth who would soon become disciples of Jesus. These new angels were called Mod1 Angels. They are all six-foot-tall males with shoulder-length hair and a twelve-foot wingspan. Even though they carry no sword, these muscular Mod1s still look formidable in their blinding white, one-piece robes that hang down to their ankles, cinched up at the waist with a gleaming gold belt. Their assignments vary according to the needs of their assigned person. Sometimes, they pass messages to them from the Holy Spirit. At other times, they guide the person away from danger in ways that are usually unnoticeable.
At the same time, to counter the increasing threats to his people, the Lord created six million Mod2 angels as scouts to monitor the movements of Satan’s forces. To the surprise of every angel in heaven, God made all Mod2s female—the first ever seen in heaven. Most male angels were in shock when they heard it.
Mod2s are much smaller and harder to detect by the enemy. They range in size from fourteen to eighteen inches. They are equipped with the most powerful visual and auditory sensors any angel has ever had. Most of the Mod1 angels welcomed them as partners, but some of the older, male Warrior Angels felt that the female Mod2s were not that effective—and that their tiny size was an embarrassment to the prestige of angels. When Jesus heard that, he laughed and said, “One day, you will all thank me.” But they still frowned.
In order to equip all these new angels for service in the Earth war-zone, God created Angel Academy. He erected it on the same ground where the demolished Archangel Academy once stood, to signify that what Lucifer did in that former academy would be undone by this new school. After six months of intense training there, each angel would be released to serve on Earth.
Eons have now passed since the Great Rebellion. For thousands of years, The Great War between the Kingdom of God and Lucifer’s Dominion on Earth has raged. God’s people would surge forward in revivals and then fall back into grave sins. Satan’s forces would be pushed back by godly people, only to resurface in a new and wicked way all across the globe. Nation after nation, continent after continent, was either a total prisoner-of-war camp for Satan or the Christians there were bogged down in so much sin that their spiritual gifts and heavenly destinies were neutralized.
As a result, demons were dragging most of mankind down to hell forever. All this broke God’s heart. However, God had hidden one continent on earth for thousands of years for a final assault on Lucifer, whom he now called Satan. So, in the 1500s, God decided it was time to unveil that continent and start a colony of Christians there who would birth a nation unlike any other—a nation that would help untold numbers of people from all over the globe make it to heaven. For this special job, God decided to use a special angel—one that the other angels would never have chosen. Angel 24.
