ANGELS?
At a dinner with Christian friends recently, the question of angels came up. (Actually, I raised it.)
My wife has been telling me for years that my ‘guardian angels’ will breathe a sigh of relief when I pass on, because I’ve survived many instances when I shouldn’t have.
So the idea of guardian angels has intrigued me.
But after watching Salyut 7 — a Russian movie about the battle to save a stricken space station, some questions were in order because angels were involved.
Having to resuscitate a dead space station was a considerable challenge, made worse by the fact that a cosmonaut who had the rare expertise to do such a thing had been grounded by the Russian Space Agency on account of he and a fellow cosmonaut had seen angels in space on a previous mission.
At some point Salyut 7 was completely bathed in a mesmerising orange light. It appeared to enter from outside the space station and bled through an absolutely opaque wall.
There being no rationale for the sudden appearance of these giant beings (supposedly as big as airliners) in space, and fatigue, hallucination and drugs being ruled out as the cause, the Soviet authorities quietly put the cosmonauts out to pasture.
Angels, I thought? Really…?
Anyway, my question drew blank looks from my dinner pary guests and only some half-hearted discourse. Apparently, angel dogma isn’t preached too often from pulpits.
So I figured I’d look into the matter, and went straight to the Abrahamic faiths — Christianity and Judaism to do some research. I figured they were my best option given that both the Bible and the Talmud refer to a celestial hierarchy.
And lo and behold, I learned that angels not only exist but play a significant role in the history of man.
They are mentioned everywhere in many places in the Bible — 120 times in the Old Testament and 300 times in the New Testament. In fact, the Bible begins with a mention of angels (Genesis 3:24) and ends with angels involved in Revelation 22:16). While Christ begins his earthly mission in John 1:51, and ends at his crucifixion in Matthew 26:53.
Essentially, they are celestial beings, called ‘sons of God’ (Job 1:6) and ‘holy ones’ (Job 5:1), and when a sinner repents, ‘There is joy in the presence of the angels of God’ (Luke 15:10).
Now, all this depends on whether or not you accept that the Bible is indeed God’s word. So if you don’t believe that, there is no point in reading on.
BUT GUARDIAN ANGELS?
Turns out, my wife may well have been right about guardian angels. According to Christian tradition, every one of us has a guardian angel, who accompanies us from the moment we’re born until the moment of our death, and stays at our side at every moment of our life — a concept accepted at the Catholic church’s ecumenical Council of Trent (1545–1563) although not adopted officially as dogma.
- Matthew 18:10 refers to mankind and states ‘… their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.’
- Angels protect us (Daniel 6: 22);
- reveal information to us (Acts 7:52–53) and Luke 1:11–20);
- guide us (Matthew 1: 20–21); provide for us (Genesis 21: 17);
- and minister to believers (Hebrews 1:14).
But there’s more…
- an angel appeared to Joseph three times in a dream to make Mary his wife, and to take his wife to Egypt, and then back to Nazareth (Matthew 1:18)
- angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds (Luke 2:13–15),
- and ministered to Christ after his temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:11)
- they comforted Jesus in his agony in the garden (Luke 22:43)
- proclaimed his resurrection from the dead (John 20:12)
- they’ll come with Christ on the Day of Judgement (Matthew 24:31)
- and will separate the wicked from the just on the Last Day (Matthew 13:49), although they don’t actually know when the day of Judgement will occur (Mark 13:32)
- and God sent one angel to free the Apostle Peter after he was jailed by King Herod (Acts 12:7–11)…and there’s much more!
Unfortunately, the more I researched the matter, more and more baffling questions arose...
IN THE BEGINNING…
Let’s start with God.
As I understand it, it is a fundamental plank of Christianity that God created everything, including the universe which must have been one hell of a big bang. (And created Himself too, presumably?)
But either just before Adam was created, or after, (it’s not clear) God also created the angels. Billions of them, probably, if we accept a reference in Mark 5: 9 about a man possessed by a legion of demons (which are fallen angels, or ‘bad’ angels — more on that later!) Since a ‘legion’ was a Roman army unit containing 6,000 men, the suggestion is that Satan had enough bad angels to commit 6,000 of them to terrorise just one single man!
In fact, a theologian — Dr Fred Dickerson — proposes that Revelation 5:11 gives us a mathematical formula from which he concludes that the number could exceed 100 trillion! (And if we read Hebrews 12:22 which refers to a innumerable company of angels, the actual number may well be beyond comprehension.)
BUT WHY ANGELS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Christian dogma tells us that were created at the same time as the universe, but before the creation of Earth (Job 38:1,4, and 7), specifically to glorify God (Luke 2:13–14); then to worship Christ, the Son of God ( Colosians 1:14–26); to do the will of God (Psalm 103:20–21); and to help Christians (Hebrews 1:14).
(Personally, I found that to be created just to worhip God unfathomable. Why would He need such adoration?)
THE RANK OF ANGELS
According to a 5th century theologian — Dionysius — angels were ranked like an army. He described nine levels of angels (similar to that of a contemporary army — from generals to privates) and divided them into ranks, ranging from Seraphim to Angels, suggesting that while Man has some knowledge of the lowest order, there are greater celestial beings we know very little about.
Thomas Aquinas — a great medieval theologian, known as the “Angelic Doctor” for his writings on angels believed that angels, being spiritual beings, influence mankind by illuminating one’s mind with an idea. Similar to Dionysus, but using Scripture, Aquinas named nine orders of angels in 3 groups: the highest hierarchy being next to God being Seraphim (Isaiah 6:2), Cherubim (Genesis 3:24, Ezekiel 10:1–22), and Thrones (Colossians 1:16); the middle hierarchy involved in government, Dominations (Colossians 1:16), Virtues (1 Peter 3:22), and Powers (Colossians 1:16); and the third hierarchy involved in work, Principalities (Colossians 1:16), Archangels (First Thessalonians 4:16), and Angels (so ‘angels’ are relatively unimportant in the hierarchy.
Why they were ranked in any way at all, is not clear.
We know cherubim are the highest ranked angels because God resides among them (2 Kings 19–15 and Isiaiah 37:16); speaks from among them (Numbers 7: 89); and rides upon them (2 Samuel 22: 11).
ANGELS AT WORK
Angels were involved in human affairs.
- God stationed cherubim to protect the Garden of Eden after the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:24
- An angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in Exodus 3:2 to lead the Israelites from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land
- An angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon under the terebinth tree to encourage him to rescue the Israelites in Judges 6:11
- God sent an angel to punish King David and the Israelites, but stopped the angel from destroying Jerusalem after King David repented and offered sacrifice to the Lord in 2 Samuel 2:24
- When Elijah fled Jezebel after his triumph on Mount Carmel, an angel brought him food, giving him strength to meet the Lord on Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19
- and an angel restored the high priest Joshua in Zechariah 3
Sometimes angels take human form, as seen in the men who appeared to Abraham and Lot in Genesis 18–19.
Other angels took human form at times as well:
- Michael — considered “Prince” of the heavenly hosts, appears three times in Daniel 10:13, 10:21, and 12:1). He is the only one in the Bible referred to as an Archangel (Jude 1:9), and serves a major role in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation during armageddon
- Gabriel first appears twice to Daniel (Daniel 8:16 and 9:21), but is best known for the Annunciation to Mary that she would be the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God (Luke 1:26–38).
Revelation 8:2 refers to the seven angels who stand before the Lord — Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the three named in the Bible, while Enoch (a book found in the Dead Sea Scrolls) names Raguel, Remiel, Saraqael, and Uriel. (Some are also named in the Bible of the Oriental Orthodox Church of Ethiopia.)
THE FALL
Now, although it has been a circuitous route, we get to the most interesting part. According to the Bible, there was discord anong the angels and that one of them — Lucifer — became so impressed with his own beauty, intelligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the honour and glory that belonged to God alone.
He led a mutiny in heaven which resulted in him and his rebellious angels (about 1/3 of the host) being unceremoniously kicked out, and as they fell, were transformed into demons and other hybrid monsters — the ‘bad’ angels that tempt Man today.
In that way, theologians agree that Lucifer’s pride was the beginning of sin in the universe.
Ezekiel 28: 19 (the NIV version) sums up the sin, and the fall:
‘You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
Your heart became proud on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
All the nations who knew you are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.’
It is sobering to realise that even angels, created by God, and close to Him, were still capable of succumbing to temptation. Thus the warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12 that we humans ‘…take heed, lest we fall (as well)...’ should be a fair warning. Do so at our own peril. We end up losing our own innate virtue and become embroiled in Lucifer’s apostasy.
Is there a lesson for us in that fall? I think so.
In his classic free verse poem, Paradise Lost, Milton suggests that Lucifer rued his rebellion:
….which way shall I flie
Infinite wrauth, and infinite despaire?
Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatning to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.
O then at last relent: is there no place
Left for Repentance, none for Pardon left?
AN ANGEL BRINGS ADAM AND EVE UNDONE
But I have digressed…back to the beginning:
A special part of that universe created by God was a tiny blue planet in the Virgo Super-Cluster — commonly referred to as Earth.
And on Earth, he put a man — Adam. (Interestingly, not a woman.) And Adam roamed around naked in this amazing garden called Eden.
Now, Adam was made in the image of God, and therfore was perfect in all respects. Only trouble was, he had an appendage that kept troubling him, and if modern man is anything like ancient Adam, he was most likely fascinated by it.
And God saw that this was not good at all. So he created Eve to keep him company, and occupied. Which raises the question…didn’t God realise Adam would be a lustful creature and would need a mate pretty quickly?
I’ll come back to this couple because they were the first humans to come into contact with angels.
It didn’t turn out well. Unfortunately, it was Lucifer, in disguise as a snake.
LUCIFER’S STRATEGY
Okay, so we know Lucifer (Satan) deceived Eve by speaking through the serpent (which may or may not have been in the form we see a snake today.)
He simply tempted her to disobey God — by doubting Him (Genesis 3:1). Eve then made the mistake first, of debating with him, then by altering God’s word, and further compounding her error by denying what God had told her and Adam.
In that way, Adam became the world’s first sinner, even though it had been Eve who ate of the forbidden apple first. (Theologically, Adam was the head of the family and therfore ultimately responsible.)
ANGELS AT WORK TODAY
It is a big topic, and one essay can’t do the subject justice, but to come back to my original concern as to whether or not angels exist today.
The answer lies in many stories and anecdotes from all over the world, not just that of the Soviet cosmonauts.
Here is just one, Peter Jenkins quoting from a blog by author and broadcaster, Sheridan Voysey:
‘In 1982 a thief in northern Ghana tried to kill me by cracking open my skull with a car stand, trying to cut through my jugular, then whacking me over the face with a broken bottle. My wife Eileen, who was trapped inside, recounts what happened next. The thief locked me out of the courtyard and took the keys. There was no way Eileen could unlock the front door so, when I came to, she sent me around the back where there was a cement wall and picket gate about eye-level high. It was also locked. She then says I flew over the gate and landed sitting at her feet, where she then supported me into the house and treated my wounds. It must have been an angel that carried me over the gate.’
Other stories can be found at: https://sheridanvoysey.com/are-angels-real-stories/
Don Tate is an historian and author of five books including a best-selling memoir, The War Within and Crucible: The Australians in Action in Vietnam.
Both are available from the author at: warvet_69@yahoo.com
