The Men In White Linen

We are truly "surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses" as it states in Hebrews 12:1. As Ian Clayton explains so well, "There are hundreds of thousands of angels that are onnected to your destiny and are waiting to do their job. Not only are there angels, but all the saints of old are gathered in the cloud of witnesses around us; millions of them are looking and waiting."[1] These "men in white linen" are found in both the Old and New Testament of the Bible. The first occurance is in Genesis 18:2-8 where Abraham lifts his eyes [looks into the spirit realm] and sees three men standing by him and they all eat together. Angels don't eat but men do. In Genesis 19, the two "angels" could actually be men in white linen because they ate and Lot referred to their feet being washed which wouldn't be the case with angels. The depraved men of the city also wanted to have sex with these men so they weren't spirits. Jesus himself said in Luke 24:39 that a spirit does not have flesh and bones. We see in verse 10 and 12 they are called "men" but later in verse 15 they are called angels again but verse 16 they are called men. This is just a by-product of the English translators not understanding the men in white linen and they just assumed these were angels.

In Ezekiel 10:1-22 it specifically mentions a "man clothed with linen." In Daniel 12 it mentions men in white linen several times. In Zecheriah 1:7-11 it specifies that "these are the ones whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth." In the New Testament, in Matthew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9, Jesus himself encountered and spoke with Moses and Elijah who were dressed in white. In Mark 16:5 they find a young man in white linen and this is further detailed in Luke 24:3 two men were sitting and clothed in a long white garment and in Acts 1, two men in white appeared.  In Matthew 27:52-53 we see that the graves were opened and "many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." These are just a few examples in the Bible. There have been many, many accounts throughout history where people have encountered those who are in the cloud of witnesses.

Some people have suggested that we can't interact with these people because they are dead. Well, surely Jesus was aware of the fact that Moses and Elijah were considered "dead" but the Gospels make it clear that they appeared with Jesus, and they talked and hung out together. They are not dead but are rather eternally alive in Christ. Historical Christian orthodoxy traditionally embraced communion with the saints. There are also numerous Christian books which contain stories or people on earth being introduced to people who are in heaven. Personally I haven't knowingly interacted with any men in white linen or the cloud of witnesses but many people have seen and interacted with them. In fact, I know someone personally who wrote a whole book through interactions with men in white linen. The book is by Joseph C. Sturgeon and called “Treasures of Darkness Volume II: Echoes of a Father (Volume 2).”



© Todd Tyszka

