What Does the Bible Say About…Angels?
“Are not [angels] ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14; ESV)
One of my wife’s favorite movies is City of Angels starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan. In that movie, Nicholas Cage plays an angel named Seth who falls in love with a mortal woman, Meg Ryan. He learns from an ex-angel (played by Dennis Franz) that an angel can “renounce” his immortality and become human. Seth does just that and pursues his relationship with the Meg Ryan character. They get together long enough to share some intimate moments, but Meg Ryan’s character is killed when she is struck by a truck while riding her bicycle. Seth then has to learn how to deal with the emotional pain that follows by seeking guidance from his ex-angel friend, Dennis Franz.
What’s the point of all that? The point is that while the movie is a decent movie from an entertainment perspective, it has a really mixed up theology of angels. Throughout the movie you see the activity of angels. Angels are seen comforting human beings who are suffering or hurting emotionally. Angels are always present when a human being is about to die. They frequent hospitals and libraries apparently with a desire to learn about our plight. They all wear black clothing. They cannot be seen by adults, but are often seen by young children. Each morning at sunrise, they all gather on the beach apparently for a daily worship service. Then there is the aforementioned choice angels have to renounce their immortality and become human.
Watching this movie, I can see, from a Biblical perspective, there are some things they got right, some things they got wrong, and some things which are way off-base. This is to be expected because Hollywood isn’t interested so much in getting a Biblical perspective on angels as it is in making money off of our fascination with angels. Which leads me to the next point-our fascination with angels. Our opinions on angels are varied and range the gamut from an obsessed focus on them to a complete denial of them and everything in between.
Those who deny the existence of angels are, more than likely, the same people who deny the existence of anything supernatural. As such, there isn’t much value in discussing their point of view except to say this: I believe it to be a position of arrogance and ignorance to deny a priori the existence of anything supernatural. The reason I say this is because I don’t think a position of pure materialism/naturalism can fully explain the world in which we live.
Archangel Micahel Defeating Satan
What about the other side of the aisle-those who have an obsession with angels? Why do some people have this obsession? Many reasons can be put forth, but the one that resonates with me is that there is something within us (our souls, psyches, whatever) that wants to believe in something beyond us (i.e., the supernatural). This has been a staple of human history as long as there have been human beings as evidenced by the history of world religion and mythology. Even in our largely secular culture, we allow the indulgence of believing in angels. There is something comforting about the thought that a supernatural being, or beings, is watching over us. The problem we face is there is no definitive source on angels. Because of this, we come up with stories fueled by our imaginations. Much of what our culture believes regarding angels is based on mythology, folklore, or pure speculation (or a combination of the three).
When I said there was no definitive source on angels, I wasn’t being completely accurate. While there is no source that tells us everything we need, or want, to know regarding angels, there is a source that gives us accurate, albeit limited, information regarding angels: The Bible. So…what does the Bible have to say about angels? Since the Bible is the divinely inspired, “breathed out” word of God, it will reveal to us the truth regarding angels. As such, we should turn to its pages to find out what we need to know.
Some caveats before we go on. First, the Bible, as previously mentioned, doesn’t tell us everything there is to know about angels. For example, we know that angels are created beings, but we don’t when or how they were created. This begs the question, why doesn’t the Bible tell us this information? The answer to that question is that information isn’t necessary for our spiritual growth. Paul writes to Timothy regarding the word of God by saying, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work“ (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What that means is the Bible gives us everything we need to know in order to live godly, righteous lives. Where the Bible is sketchy or silent, we can assume that is an area of knowledge that while interesting, isn’t vital for our spiritual growth. I believe angels fall into that category, which begs another question: Why am I writing about this subject? Sometimes you need to go a little deeper into a subject in order to clear away all the garbage that has built up regarding it. This holds true for angels; there is so much false teaching and thinking regarding angels, that sometimes it becomes necessary to get the truth out there.
OK, enough of that, so what does the Bible say about angels? The passage that opens up this article is a good place to start. The writer of Hebrews writes to exhort his readers to keep on in their faith in Christ. He starts his letter by proclaiming the superiority of Christ to angels. One may wonder why Christ is being compared to angels. There are several answers to this question. One is that there is Biblical evidence that angel worship was common during NT times (cf. Colossians 2:18). Another answer is that there may have been some confusion over the nature of Christ as being an angelic nature (similar to cults who claim Jesus Christ was really the incarnation of the archangel Michael). I believe the answer that makes the most sense regarding the flow of the author’s argument is that Jesus Christ is God’s greatest revelation; better than the revelation of the OT prophets (which was believed to have been mediated by angels).
When the author of Hebrews gets to 1:14, he makes the claim that angels are “ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.“ In other words, angels are servants for our sakes (“we” being the “those” who are to inherit salvation).
The primary purpose of angels is to serve. They are at God’s “beck and call.” When God says “jump,” the angels say “how high?” As servants of God, they assist in carrying out his redemptive purposes for humanity. They provide a variety of services in their ministerial role. A quick survey of NT Scripture will bear this out…
- Calmed Joseph’s doubts about Mary’s faithfulness (Matt. 1:20-25).
- Warned Joseph to flee from Herod’s plan to kill Jesus (Matt. 2:13).
- Encouraged Joseph to return to Israel with his family (Matt. 2:19-20).
- Ministered to Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:11).
- Told the women at the empty tomb that Jesus was alive (Matt. 28:2-6).
- Foretold to Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20).
- Told Mary that she would bear the Christ (Luke 1:26-38).
- Announced Jesus’ birth to shepherds near Bethlehem (Luke 2:8-15).
- Appeared to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to give Him strength (Luke 22:43).
- Promised the crowd observing Jesus’ ascension that He would return in like manner (Acts 1:10-11).
- Brought Peter and John out of prison (Acts 5:17-20).
- Told Philip to go into the desert where he met the Ethiopian treasurer (Acts 8:26).
- Told the centurion Cornelius to send for Peter (Acts 10:3-8).
- Released Peter from prison (Acts 12:7).
- Struck down Herod for not giving glory to God (Acts 12:23).
- Stood by Paul during a storm at sea to assure him that he would stand before Caesar (Acts 27:23-24).[1]
From this sample list we can see that angels performed the following services: 1) Heralds of divine messages; 2) Bringing comfort and encouragement to God’s people; 3) Providing guidance and direction of God’s plan to his people; 4) Rescuing God’s people in time of need. Even though the Bible says that we are made a “little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7), we will eventually be judging angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).
In addition to their ministerial role on our behalf, angels also serve as God’s army. In 2 Kings 6, when the king of Syria was going after Elisha, an army of angels protected Elisha from the Syrian king’s army and struck them blind. Then there is 2 Kings 19 when an angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 men from the Assyrian army. Angels also engage in conflict within the spiritual realm too. In Daniel 10, the prophet is given a glimpse of the intense spiritual warfare that takes place all around unbeknownst to us. An angel that was dispatched to answer Daniel’s prayers was delayed 21 days because he was in battle with the prince of Persia. The archangel Michael was sent to help out. After delivering his message, the angel returns to fight against the prince of Persia. Considering that one angel could wipe out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, we must infer that the “prince of Persia” is an angelic being, albeit a fallen angel. The truth to take away from this is that there is an intense spiritual battle being waged all around us between angels and demons. This spiritual warfare seems to have ramifications in the material world as governments rise and fall. Daniel was given a glimpse of this in his vision.
We see this spiritual battle motif in the book of Revelation. In chapter 12:7-12 war breaks out in heaven between Michael and his angels and the Dragon (Satan) and his angels. Clearly angels are engaged in a conflict of cosmic proportions as they protect God’s people from the demonic hosts.
Which begs another question: Who is Satan and who are Satan’s “angels?” Satan (whose name literally means “adversary”) is God’s chief rival, and his angels are those who rebelled along with Satan against God. These “fallen angels” are usually referred to in the Bible as demons. No Biblical passage describes the fall of Satan and his fellow demons. When Satan first comes onto the scene (Genesis 3), he was already God’s chief adversary; so somewhere between the creation of the universe and the fall of man, there was a great angelic rebellion. Some commentators and Bible teachers believe that passages such as Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-19 speak of Satan’s rebellion. The point is we can’t be dogmatic about this. The only thing we can say with confidence is that God did not create Satan and his demons as evil. There must have been an angelic revolt which resulted in Satan and his minions falling from grace.
As has been mentioned before, angels are an order of created being that is superior to humanity and inferior to divinity. They are more powerful and intelligent that human beings (2 Peter 2:11), yet they are not omnipotent or omniscient as is God. Furthermore, they are highly organized. Paul mentions a hierarchy of demons in Ephesians when writing about spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12). He writes that we are at war against “rulers, authorities and cosmic powers.” These phrases represent levels of demonic authority. The enemy is organized! Holy angels are similarly organized. The Bible mentions two types of angels: Seraphim and Cherubim. Furthermore, there is the designation archangel in reference to Michael. According to Jewish tradition, there were seven archangels.
Finally, we have the Biblical reference to “the angel of the LORD.” This phrase appears to designate a special being as opposed to your “rank and file” angel. In many of the OT passages in which the angel of the LORD appears, he is seen speaking for God and then speaking as God. This has been explained by some Bible commentators as being a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ (a Christophany). Whether or not this is true is open for debate, but the Biblical evidence is strong for equating the angel of the LORD as divine in many of those OT passages.
Bottom Line: In conclusion, what have we learned about angels? We haven’t learned as much as some would like, but we have learned enough to dispel some of the falsehoods our entertainment industry feeds us. There are several things we can take away from this study:
- Angels do exist. The Bible clearly and unapologetically asserts their existence
- Angels are created beings. They are not eternal, but had a beginning at some point in past.
- Angels are spiritual beings. They have a real, yet invisible existence. There have been “angelophanies” recorded in the OT, but angels do not have the autonomy to appear in physical form
- Angels are not autonomous. In other words, they act within the sovereign authority of God; even Satan and his demons! In the book of Job, Satan is allowed by God to torment Job; Satan cannot act without God’s permission
- Angels engage in continual spiritual warfare. This warfare is conducted on both the macro and micro level. In other words, this warfare concerns the affairs of governments and individuals
- Angels’ primary function is as servants to God and ministers to human beings. They deliver God’s messages and bring comfort and protection to God’s people.
More can be said about angels, but this should suffice for now. The Bible doesn’t make a big deal regarding the activity of angels very much because that is incidental to the message of salvation found in Jesus Christ. Our focus should be on Jesus Christ who is Lord of lords and King of kings, and to whom all creation-even angels-will one day bow down.
[1] The above list was taken from the book “What Does the Bible Say About…” from Thomas Nelson Publishers (2001).
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