What Does the Bible Say About Angels?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

What angels are: ministering spirits, God's servants — not ours

• The host's frame, carried from the verbatim layer: angels play a prominent role in the resurrection — an angel came down and rolled away the stone, and angels were there at the tomb to greet those who came. There are mentions of angels all throughout scripture: what does the bible specifically say about these beings, and what are some common misconceptions about angels?
• If you look at Hebrews chapter 1, it says angels are ministering spirits. So they're spirit beings — not flesh beings, not humans. They can appear in human form, but they don't actually have flesh and blood. They are ministering spirits: their job is to serve. They serve God; they're agents of God — in fact the Greek word for angel also means messenger, and throughout the Bible, as we humans interact with angels, they come with a message from God. They're God's agents to do his bidding, to do his work. God can do anything and everything, but just as he often uses humans — he uses us to preach the gospel, instead of proclaiming it from a mountaintop himself — he might speak through a spiritual gift, or a dream or vision, or sometimes he may choose an angelic messenger. And Hebrews goes on to say, in that same chapter, that they minister to the heirs of salvation: in a very specific way they are used for our benefit.
• Most of us have never seen an angel, and we may not be aware of their presence except from the word of God. It's not necessary to focus on them. We should certainly not pray to angels — that would be wrong; Colossians 2 tells us that's heresy. Obviously we should only pray to the one true God. And we shouldn't even try to command angels: they're not our servants, they're God's servants. If we feel so inclined we can say: God, send your angel to protect me right now — but really our prayers are to God, and he can answer however he wants; the protection is what we're praying for, whether he sends a bunch of angels or does it some other way. We shouldn't develop techniques where we try to tell angels what to do — that's not our role. The evidence shows they are intelligent beings; they love God; they serve God. In some ways we are a little lower than the angels: as humans we have less ability than angels. But by being redeemed, in some sense we're greater than angels — because there is evidence that some angels sinned, but no evidence that God ever had a plan of redemption for them.

Scriptures: Hebrews 1; Colossians 2

We will judge angels — and how a third of them fell

• Paul makes the intriguing comment — and he cites it as 1 Corinthians 6 — that we will judge angels. Whether in the millennial kingdom or through eternity, in some way God is going to elevate us to a position even higher than angels. He wonders aloud whether God might somewhere in the future create another universe with other beings, and we'd be the angel-type people of that universe — I don't know; who knows what God has planned for eternity. But what we do see is that God created everything, and he created everything good: he created the angels, and he created them as good.
• We do find from Revelation that one third of them fell into sin: it looks like they rebelled against God. We typically see the devil as originally a good angel — an archangel, a leader of angels — and we often connect that with Isaiah 14 and ezel 28, as the second name is heard in this telling, even though those passages are related to human rulers: when you read carefully, the underlying seems to be supernatural elements that no human could fulfill. As often happens in scripture, the human is representing the demonic force behind him: that human king being judged by God is really motivated — maybe even possessed — by the devil himself. So those two passages are often taken as giving us insight: originally the devil was created as an angel, an archangel, a leader of angels, commonly thought of as Lucifer, an angel of light, serving God. But pride came in his heart; he exalted himself; he tried to be a rival with God; he pursued his own agenda — and so he fell, by pride, and became the devil, and he convinced a third of the angels to go with him.
• Those fallen angels — at least a portion of them — would explain what demons are: they're still spirits, but malevolent, evil spirits, who desire to inhabit humans or to affect humans. But ultimately Jesus Christ won victory over all of them, and we have power in the name of Jesus to cast out demon forces. And ultimately the fallen angels, including the demons, will be relegated to eternal judgment, without the presence of God.

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6; Revelation (book-only); Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28

Orders and names — and angels encamping around us

• It does seem there may be different types or orders of angels — the cherubim, the seraphim — we don't know too much about that. We do know two angels are named in scripture: Michael the Archangel, who seems to be particularly assigned to help the people of Israel; and Gabriel, who was a messenger of God — for Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so forth. We don't really know a lot more about angels than the ones mentioned.
• We should believe there is a spiritual realm that we cannot see. And our main focus should always be that our worship is to the one true God alone; our faith is in the one true God alone. We do believe he has angelic beings who assist him, and because we are his children, they assist us. The Psalms talk about angels encamping around those who love the Lord — so there is divine protection through angelic intervention, maybe far more than we realize: many of the times we face spiritual temptation or physical trauma, angels may come to our aid. Even Jesus, as a human, in his times of great struggles: angels came and ministered to him — some type of spiritual comfort or encouragement — and maybe we experience that and don't always know it.

Scriptures: Psalms (book-only)

Entertaining angels unaware — and faith placed in God alone

• The book of Hebrews even talks about entertaining angels unaware — it may be referring to some examples in the Old Testament, but it's an intriguing thought: if we are so cavalier, or harsh in rebuking a stranger or someone who tries to give us a word, could we actually be rejecting angelic intervention? We don't know — but maybe it should give us pause: treat everyone with respect, and try not to judge who they are or where they come from. He's never personally experienced it, but he has talked to ministers who said they encountered a time of great need, with somebody who seemed to come out of nowhere with a word of encouragement and blessing — they were so moved — and when they looked around, that person was nowhere to be found; when they checked to see who the person was, nobody could account for who they were, or where they came from, or where they went. It could be even today: some of those stories we read about in the Bible — God could use angels, and sometimes we're not fully aware of them.
• The bottom line: we should not create doctrines about angels, or techniques for encountering angels. There is a big difference between the Old Testament, even the gospel times, and now: we are filled with the Holy Ghost, so maybe there's not the same need of angelic presence, because we have the abiding presence of God's spirit — and we can see miracles, signs, and wonders as we pray in the name of Jesus. That's not to discount the reality of angels; it's just to say our faith is not in angels — our faith is in God. There are other intriguing references: the angels in heaven worship God, but they can't sing the song of the redeemed — that's unique for us; they've never been redeemed. And Peter talks about the angels being intrigued by our salvation, desiring to understand it: it must be amazing to them that we could actually have the presence of God inside of us. They know God in a greater dimension than we do, externally — but maybe we are able to experience God in a deeper dimension even than the angels. But the bottom line is: together they're God's servants, we're God's servants, and together we will worship and serve him throughout eternity.
• The host's closing wonder, carried from the verbatim layer: we're probably going to be shocked at just the times God intervened in our lives and we didn't even recognize it — we'd have to get to heaven to get the rest of the story. And he agrees: he wouldn't want to miss that.

Scriptures: Hebrews (book-only)

Scripture index: Hebrews 1; Colossians 2; 1 Corinthians 6; Revelation (book-only); Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Psalms (book-only); Hebrews (book-only).