What are Angels?

What are Angels

What The Bible Says About Angels

INTRODUCTION

Angels at Christmas

Announcement, birth, ministry and resurrection of Jesus.

The Creation of Angels

God created the angels.

Time of their creation

Job 38:7

Job 38:7 ESV

7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

refers to “the morning stars” and “all the sons of God” shouting for joy when the cornerstone was laid.

“Morning stars”= angels of God. Actual stars were not created until the fourth day.

“Sons of God”= refers to angelic beings.

Job 1- speaks of the sons of God coming before God, and we are told Satan himself, as a member of the angelic hosts- was among them.

Psalm 104:4-5

Psalm 104:4–5 ESV

4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. 5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

- order of creation.

“Who makes His angels spirits, his minsters a flame of fire. You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever” (4-5)

Dr. Henry Morris, “According to the record here in Psalm 104, the next act after the creation of the space-time cosmos and the establishment of God’s light-arrayed throne therein was the creation of the angels. . . And here in Psalm 104, verse 5 speaks of God laying the foundation of the earth right after He made the angels in verse 4.”

The Substance of angels

Psalm 104

Says they are spirits and “a flame of fire.”

Henry Morris, “This remarkable verse seems. . . to state that these servants of God are actually also composed of flaming fire. . . . This concept is beyond our naturalistic comprehension, but that is no reason for us to reject or spiritualize it prematurely. We do not know the nature of angels. Man was made of the natural chemical elements and is therefore subject to the electromagnetic and gravitational forces which control these elements. But angels are not so bound. They can fly swiftly from God’s throne to earth when God commands them and they are not limited by gravity or other natural forces.”

Fire- many times angels are associated with fire and probably the reason that they are often associated with stars.

The Simultaneous Creation of Angels

Angels were all created simultaneously. Their full number was created in the beginning and there has been no increase in their ranks.

Matthew 22:30 -

angels do not marry and thus do not have children.

Matthew 22:30 ESV

30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

The Characteristics of Angels

Angels Are Innumerable

John– “ten thousand times ten thousand”- ten thousand being the largest number in the Greek language.

Hebrews 12:22- “innumerable company of angels.”

Hebrews 12:22 ESV

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

Angels Are Invisible

Angels work around us without us usually realizing it.

Billy Graham, “While angels may become visible by choice, our eyes are not constructed to see them ordinarily any more than we can see the dimensions of a nuclear field, the structure of atoms, or the electricity that flows through copper wiring. Our abilityt o sense reality is limited.”

He goes on to say that deer can smell much better than we can, bats have their own radar, some animals can see in the dark, geese seem to have a supernatural guidance system. “So why should we think it strange if men fail to perceive the evidences of angelic presence?”

Some angels appear in human form.

Genesis 18 and 19- to Abraham and Lot.

Hebrews 13:2

Hebrews 13:2 ESV

2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Sometimes God opens people’s eyes.

Numbers 22:31-

Numbers 22:31 ESV

31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face.

Balak had hired Balaam to curse Israel.

While Balaam was on his way to Moab with Balak’s men, Balaam’s donkey suddenly saw an angel standing in his path. Balaam did not. Finally, “the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand”

The donkey and Balaam saw what no one else could.

2 Kings 6:16-17-

2 Kings 6:16–17 ESV

16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

story of Elisha being surrounded by armies of King of Syria.

Angels Are Invincible

Modern angels do not appear at all invincible.

C.S. Lews, on the progression of human view of angels. “Fra Angelico’s angels carry in their face the gesture and peace and authority of Heaven. Later came the chubby and infantile nudes of Raphael; finally the soft, slim, girlish, and consolatory angels of nineteenth century art. . . In Scripture the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying, ‘Fear not.’ The Victorian angel looks as if it were going to say, ‘There, there.’”

Bible

Revelation:“Strong angel” and “mighty angel” are used to describe them.

Gabriel= “the mighty one of God.”

Dunamis (power, dynamite) is used to describe angels.

David – “excel in strength” (Psalm 103:20)

Psalm 103:20 ESV

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!

2 Kings- one angel in one night destroyed 185,000 warriors of Assyria.

Matthew- they rolled away a giant stone.

Revelation- angels hold the four winds of heaven, discharging the vials of judgment, sending down Jehovah’s wrath.

They may be powerful, but they are not omnipotent.

Jude 9 -

Jude 9 ESV

9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

Michael the archangel was no match for Satan in contending for the body of Moses.

Only God is omnipotent

Angels Are Immortal

Luke 20:36

Luke 20:36 ESV

36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Because angels do not have physical bodies, they know nothing of what it is like to get ill, grow old, decay, and eventually die. Angels know nothing of the limitations that are part of having a physical body. God created them as non-physical beings.

Daniel 9- Gabriel appeared to Daniel. 500 years later the unaged Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.

Angels Are Intrigued by Salvation

Luke 15:10–

Luke 15:10 ESV

10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

angles rejoice each moment a person repents of his sins and becomes a Christian.

However, angels cannot testify to salvation the same way as those who have experienced it.

Revelation– worship of the saints was different than the angels.