Angels, humans and rank (was OT: Concert Etiquette)

[annemehr]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley"
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:

> I think that the idea of man as 'pinnacle' does have a basis in the 
> Bible, as the incarnation was apparently a unique event *as far as 
> our planet is concerned*.

Annemehr:
I think even that may be saying too much, if I'm not way off base
here.  What I mean is, the Bible has a very limited purpose as far as
I can tell.  It exists to explain "here is what went wrong with the
human race, here is what God is doing about it, here is what you can
do to cooperate, oh, and here is a tiny hint about what it might be
like in heaven if you do (and a few more hints about if you don't)." 
Any hint about man ending up higher than angels I hesitate to take
literally since I'm not at all sure we know enough to understand what
that's supposed to mean, and anyway the idea of "rank" doesn't seem to
mesh well with my (pitiful, I'm sure) idea of "heaven."  Other planets
and their inhabitants, and what God may or may not have had to do for
them doesn't come into it at all.

There's not even anything in the bible about our relationship to the
animals on our own planet, really, let alone how many other worlds
there are with beings on them.  There are even quite a few moral
questions not really dealt with but left for us to work out on our own
on the basis of love of God and neighbor.
> 
> None of this, I think, has any bearing on the biblical view of 
> whether other worlds can be or are inhabited by intelligent, or 
> morally capable, beings.  (By Bible I mean the Hebrew/Aramaic canon 
> of 39 books plus the 27 books of the New Testament.)
> 
> David

And I'm agreeing with you, as well as rambling on a bit with my own
personal ideas -- even though I'm sure some people are going to be
rolling their eyes at the latter... oh, well, that's all right.  I
just think there's going to be so much more to "everything" that we've
never dreamed of, that we'll find out about once this little matter of
evil is dealt with...

Annemehr