Behind the Folklore - Houses of the Holy

by Dee

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IS THIS GODS WILL

“Maybe we are hunting an angel here and we should stop! Maybe this is God’s Will!”

In the Bible, angels are a medium of God's power; they exist to execute God's will. Angels reveal themselves to individuals as well as to the whole nation, to announce events, either good or bad, affecting humans.

The angels of the Bible generally appear in the role of God's messengers to mankind. The word Angel comes from the Latin word angelus, which came from the Greek word, angelos, meaning “messenger” and Greek the Bible scripts originally were in Arameic or Greek. Angels are God’s instruments by whom He communicates His will to men, There are too many examples of visions in the Bible of how they appeared. You do well to remember the era that each book of the Bible is written in, and how these visions would scare the life out of the visionary.

The number of angels is enormous. The general conception is the one of ‘Job’, “Is there any number of his armies?” The Book of Revelations, gives the number as, "a thousand thousands, and many tens of thousands" again this is a very awesome book depicting the Worlds end the number terminology was relevant at the time of writing and would have seemed like infinity to the reader.

“A lot of scriptures paint angels as God’s warriors. ‘An angel of the lord appeared to them, glory of the lord shown down upon them. And they were terrified.’ Luke 2:9.”

This is not strictly true it can be read as that, but the explanation fitted well in this episode. Angels are portrayed as powerful and dreadful, endowed with wisdom and with knowledge of all earthly events, correct in their judgment, holy, but not infallible:

It is the Fathers’ belief that it is the angels who put into execution God’s law regarding the physical world. Many Old Testament Bible chapters mention an "angry God" who sends His angel to smite the enemies of the Israelites. This again is due to the writing era, the unknown making man afraid, however we were leading to a more forgiving God in the new Testamant, giving His Only Son that we may be forgiven.

In Islam, angels are benevolent beings created from light and do not possess free will. They are completely devoted to the worship of God and carry out certain functions on His command. As such, angels do not eat, procreate or commit sin as humans do. According to the majority of Islamic scholars, angels are incapable of committing sin, and therefore cannot fall from grace.


THE APPEARANCE OF AN ANGEL

In the Bible, angels often appear to people in the shape of humans of extraordinary beauty, and often are not immediately recognized as angels. Some fly through the air, some become invisible, sacrifices touched by some are consumed by fire, and some may disappear in sacrificial fire.

They are described as pure and bright as Heaven; consequently, they are said to be formed of fire, and encompassed by light, as the Psalmist said, "He makes winds His messengers, burning fire His ministers."

Most theologians in the cultures mentioned above would agree that angels are technically genderless. Such appearances of angels generally last only so long as the delivery of their message requires.


ANGEL OF DEATH

One of the universally feared angels, known and dreaded in every major religion of the world; the angel of death is found all over the earth, throughout all of history, existing as the spiritual embodiment of the great mystery of passing into the next world.

He is the appointed servant of God, with the task of bringing an end-at the appointed time-to the lives of humans. The first time to appear in Exodus when The Angle Of death took all the firstborn Egyptian boys, the Israelites children were saved by smearing lambs blood over the door. This is what founded the Jewish Passover feast, that is still celebrated to this day.


AVENGING ANGELS

Remember the angels in the film ‘Dogma’ portrayed by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? Well, those are angels of destruction.

A fearsome type of angel appearing regularly in Jewish writings, the angels of destruction serve two functions. The first is to descend to the earth and inflict terrible suffering upon those among the living who are wicked and in need of punishment. The second is to inflict even worse punishment upon damned souls in hell; in latter roles they act as purifiers.

In the forms of avenging angels, they appear regularly in the Old Testament: two angels destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, an angel massacred 70,000 people to punish the pride of King David.


ARCHANGEL MICHAEL

“The archangel Michael, with the flaming sword, the fighter of demons. Holy force against evil.”

The Catholic Church honours Michael with four main titles or offices. He is the Christian angel of death, carrying the souls of all the deceased to heaven, where they are weighed in his perfectly balanced scales (hence Michael is often depicted holding scales). At the hour of death, Michael descends and gives each soul the chance to redeem itself before passing, thus consternating the devil and his minions. Michael is the special patron of the Chosen People in the Old Testament and is guardian of the Church; it was thus not unusual for the angel to be revered by the military orders of knights during the Middle Ages. Last, he is the supreme enemy of Satan and the fallen angels.

I hope you saw Deans face at this explanation, I feel he was thinking ‘Hey that’s me’.


ANGELS ORDERING TO KILL

In May 2003, Deanna Lanney believed God ordered her to kill her children. Laney, who is deeply religious had a series of delusions on the day of the killings. She said she saw Aaron with a spear, then throwing a rock, then squeezing a frog and believed God was suggesting she should either stab, stone or strangle her children.

She said she at first resisted, but she felt she had to do what she perceived to be God’s will to prove her faith. A Texas jury found Deanna Laney not guilty by reason of insanity for fatally beating two of her young sons with rocks and seriously injuring the third. She faces commitment to a mental facility for an unspecified amount of time.

In a similar care, Andrea Yates contended that Satan ordered her to kill her five children to save them from eternal damnation.

To put this into context, there is a story in Genesis 22 where God tests Abraham telling him to kill his son as a sacrifice, but God intervenes before Abraham kills Isaac and an animal sacrifice is used instead.


SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule or the state of having committed such a violation. In monotheistic religions, the code of conduct is determined by God. Colloquially, sin is any thought, word, or act considered immoral, shameful, harmful, or alienative might be termed "sinful".

The seven deadly sins are:

1. Lust
2. Gluttony
3. Greed
4. Laziness
5. Anger
6. Envy
7. Pride


REDEMPTION

“Those innocent people are being offered redemption. Some people need redemption.”

A concept referring to forgiveness for absolution for past sins and protection from eternal damnation. Practised more in Catholic religions than others.


SE'ANCE

“We’ll summon Gregory’s spirit. We’ll just need a few odds and ends and that séance ritual in Dad’s journal.”

A séance ritual is an attempt to communicate with the dead. The séance or sitting is led by a medium who goes into a trance that theoretically allows the dead to communicate through him or her. “It’s based on early Christian rights.” I cannot find a connection to early Christian rites, so I leave this open.


Dean’s loss of faith

“You know what? I get it. You’ve got faith. That’s hey, good for you. I’m sure it makes things easier. I’ll tell you who else had faith like that. Mom. She used to tell me when she tucked me in that angels were watching over us. In fact, I think that was the last thing she ever said to me… She was wrong, there was nothing protecting her. There’s no higher power. There’s no God. There’s just chaos and violence, random unpredictable evil that comes out of nowhere and rips you to shreds. So you want me to believe in this stuff? I’m going to need some hard proof. You got any?“ - Dean Winchester

Although as we see Dean pulls this back round by the end of the episode.


THE 700 CLUB

“Since when were you all 700 club?”

The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing on cable's ABC Family and in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966. The show presents news stories from Robertson's religious and political perspective, often relating stories to passages from the Bible which are generally followed by commentary from the hosts. The style of news reporting on the show has been criticized by many as unfairly biased, allegedly framing stories in a manner said to reflect Robertson's views.


WORMWOOD

“It’s Wormwood. Plant associated with the dead. Specifically the ones not at rest.”

Artemisia is a large, diverse genus of plants with between 200-400 species belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae. It comprises hardy herbs and shrubs known for their volatile oils. They grow in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, usually in dry or semi-dry habitats.

Common names used for several species include wormwood, mugwort, sagebrush and sagewort, while a few species have unique names, notably Tarragon A. dracunculus and Southernwood A. abrotanum. Occasionally some of the species are called sages, causing confusion with the Salvia sages in the family Lamiaceae.


Last rites.

“It’s time to rest, Thomas. To be at peace. Please, let me give your last rites.”

"Last Rites" are only administered to people in immediate danger of death, and again this is a term for the Catholic religion.

The term "Last Rites" refers to three distinct rites: Anointing of the Sick, Penance and Eucharist, the last of which, when administered to the dying, is known as "Viaticum", a word whose original meaning in Latin was "provision for the journey". Although the dying are prayed for in all other religions.


God’s Will

“I’ll tell you one thing, the way he died, if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I never would have believed it… I mean, I don’t know what to call it. Maybe, God’s Will.” - Dean Winchester to Sam.

The ending of the episode was purposefully left ambiguous, to create controversy and conversation between the fans about their own personal beliefs and what they witnessed in the end of the episode, this also saved the writers from being slated for making a statement that God does not exist. If you truly believe in God then you must believe in evil and Vice Versa. Lets face it we are talking Supernatural here so if we were only to believe what we see there would be no interest in the programme, so this dispelled all hypocrisy of the writers.

Was the rapist’s death divine intervention or a freak accident?

You decide yourself..