A Study of Angels

An Application of the Correspondence and Connective Theories of Truth

By Michael Strawn and Latayne C. Scott

          The subject of angel activity on earth is a “hot issue” both in theological and secular circles.

           One common misconception held by many people is that people who die end up in heaven as angels. However, such a concept is never taught in Scripture. Quite to the contrary, angels are a completely different class of living beings, as different from humans as are animals. One cannot progress from human to angel.

            Just as prevalent in today’s world is an interest in supposed human interaction with angels. Because of reports of angelic involvement with humans both in contemporary folklore and the media, many Christians are confused when faced with “eyewitness” accounts of angels.

            A mind enlightened by Bible truth must not only critique culture and conditions but operate case-by-case as well. All evaluation must, however, be done using God's standards and not those of the prevalent culture or the standards of truth of other individuals. God's pronouncement of what is “good,” for instance, may differ greatly from what our sensoria may tell us are pleasant as we evaluate our own personal experience. Hebrews 12:4-11 tells us that God's discipline always feels unpleasant, but that in the end it is a good thing because it yields a harvest of righteousness for those who are trained by it. First Peter chapter 1 tells us that the suffering that the readers of Peter's letter underwent was likewise ultimately good because it refined their precious faith.

            A necessary element in the evaluation of experience (one's own personal experience or the recounting of the experience of another) is the nature of truth. Most people would agree that truth is that which corresponds to human observation (what one perceives about the present) and experience (what one remembers of the past). We could call this the “correspondence theory of truth.” An example of this would be in a court case where the words of someone's testimony would be considered “true” if they corresponded to what actually occurred.

            When the twelve spies reported to Moses after their trip to the Promised Land, ten of them recounted quite accurately the height of the walls, the fortifications of the cities, the strength of the inhabitants, etc. We might say therefore that they told the truth about what they saw in the sense that their words conformed to the events and objects they had experienced. The other two spies, however, who had experienced the same events and objects, did not verbally represent them as the ten did. In fact, they were distraught at the way that their fellow spies described the Promised Land as something inaccessible and unconquerable (Numbers 13).

            Another example from Scripture is found in the book of Job. While Job was undergoing his trials, his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to him with well-meaning advice and their view of reality and Job's place in it. A careful reading by even a modern-day Christian of what these men told Job about divine justice would find few areas to argue. Yet, in Job 42:7-9 God told Eliphaz that He was angry with them for what they had said–“because you have not spoken of Me what is right”–and He refused any fellowship with them whatsoever until Job prayed intercessorily for them.

            So in the examples of the ten spies and Job's friends, did they lie? Were the people in the Promised Land not of great size as the ten spies said (Numbers 13:32)? Is God not a just God as Bildad asserted (Job 8:3-4)? We could say that they were truthful in that what they said did indeed correspond to what they had experienced. And yet what they said was not reliable–in fact, it was sinful.

            The problem was that they regarded the “acid test” of truthfulness as being that which would correspond to their own experience. Quite to the contrary, Joshua and Caleb who had seen the same fortified walls and powerful inhabitants relied not upon what they'd seen, but on what God said in advance about the situation. Job, admittedly, had not a clue about what God was up to but after God addressed him agreed that human assessments of any situation are inferior to God's. That's because what corresponds to our judgment is always inferior to information which is connected to God.

            A connected appraisal of any situation or experience would be that which has its origin in what God would say about the situation or experience, not what our senses or our past experience tells us. God is the Ultimate Observer–and Generator of all meaning– standing outside time and space limitations, seeing all sides of situations, interiors of hearts, and across past, present, and future. (Who'd want to settle for what our eyeballs and finite days would provide in the way of information when you would have such a source of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding–Colossians 2:2-4)?

           And often connected truth can actually oppose what our senses provide us in a correspondence mode. Abraham, for instance, had no prior experience with killing a living creature on an altar of sacrifice and having it somehow reconstitute its life by resurrection. Yet, because he decided not to operate on the correspondence of his experience to the situation of sacrificing Isaac, he concluded something which was true but outside his experience–that God could raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). All the heroes of faith of Hebrews 11, in fact, walked by faith (connectedness or information from God) and not by sight (correspondence truth): what God told them, not what they saw.

           Unfortunately, most of us don't have the luxury of having God tell us what He thinks about situations like Abraham and Job did. But we have a record of His reactions to all kinds of things in the Bible.

            The Bible, therefore, must be our source of truth about the subject of angels. Though someone could accurately relate an experience that does indeed correspond with an event, it could be untruthful in that it has no connection with the way that God would appraise or represent the same event. And how would we know, for instance, what God says is true about angels? From the way that He has portrayed them in His Word. What He says about angels doesn't just correspond to their reality, it actually has an organic or vinelike connection to their reality.

            Much of what popular culture says about angels is just dead wrong. A book published by a major Christian publisher that purports to give Christians the “tools” to know whether an experience is from God or just from within one's own consciousness is an example of just how dangerous the lies can be. The author, Christopher Knippers PhD, tells readers that they can know for sure that they've had an experience from God (an angelic visitation, for example) if you feel a wonderful, peaceful feeling afterwards because God is a God of peace. And thousands of people would say that this appraisal corresponds to what they've experienced.

            But what would a mind connected to God have to conclude? If you look at the unimpeachable witnesses of the Bible like John the Revelator, the young virgin Mary, and countless others, an encounter with an angel is usually a disturbing experience–one which results in awe, distress, even fear.

            People have been telling lies about angels and leading even the devout astray since antiquity. In 1 Kings 13:18, we have an example of this. A man of God had received direct instructions from the Lord not to eat or drink until he'd returned home to Judah by another route than the way he'd come to Bethel. King Jeroboam tried to tempt him to come to his home and eat a meal, and the man of God refused. But when a false prophet told him that an angel had amended God's instructions, the man of God believed the lie. The result? A sudden, violent death and burial away from his loved ones for “the man of God who defied the word of the Lord” (v. 26.)

            People are fascinated with the subject of angels because we are built by God to have a curiosity and hunger for the unseen. Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man,” and Augustine echoed a similar thought when he said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

            But God is so unlike us in so many ways that we also feel a need for an intermediary between us and Him. And we feel a need for communication, too–though we can speak to Him, we want to hear from the Unseen as well. For many people who want a Savior to rescue them but not a Lord to rule over them, the two functions of intermediary and communicator are met with the idea of an angel. It's about creating a manageable, responsive, and ultimately nonjudgmental connection with unseen powers and forces; one that exalts and personifies human qualities and requires nothing in return.

            But of course those two functions of intermediary and communicator are fulfilled perfectly in Jesus, who not only suffered as a man and knows our pains and worries most intimately; but who also “ever lives to intercede” for us (Hebrews 7:25.) For a world that wants positive strokes and access to power, however, the choice is clear: a cherubic-faced angel who'll keep you from falling off a precipice is a lot less demanding than a Jesus who cleanses temples and demands you carry a cross as a permanent fixture.

            Experiences with angels is a prominent feature of many religions, not just Christianity. Islam's holy book, the Quran, is based on reported revelations given by the angel Gabriel to Mohammed. Mormonism is founded on the purported visits of an angel named Moroni (whose likeness adorns temple spires) to Joseph Smith. The Hindu religion has many angels.

            The apostle Paul knew that there would always be a tension between people's experiences with angels (correspondence) with the truth of the eternal Gospel (connectedness): “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–which really is no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:6-8.) God has through the ages continually called us away from our own experiences and those of others to His representations of reality: truth that is connected to Him.

            Why, then, should we study angels if they are such a potential danger to us? Well, we have something intimately in common with them, because Luke 20:36 tells us that after we are resurrected, we will be like them in one specific and limited way: we'll not be involved in marital relationships. But beyond that, we should study angels because of the great emphasis that Scripture itself puts on the subject. One author, Harry Rimmer, calculates that in the books of Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiates, Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, and Zechariah, angels are spoken of 112 times. They are spoken of in 17 of the New Testament books for a total of 176 times there. In fact, they're spoken of over 300 times in the Bible as a whole.

            The word “angel” has different meanings in Scripture, however. The Hebrew and Greek words that are translated to indicate otherworldly messengers are used elsewhere for other messengers, too.

1. Purely human messengers (2 Samuel 2:5, Luke 7:24 and elsewhere in New Testament)
2. Human messengers with a message from God (Haggai 1:13; Galatians 4:14)
3. Agent or force without personality (2 Corinthians 12:7–the thorn in the flesh)
4. Church leaders in Revelation (examples: 2:1; 3:14)
5. Disembodied demons (Matthew 12:24; 25:41)
6. Heavenly beings from God (throughout the Bible–the most familiar use of the word)
7. The Angel of the Lord–specialized use of the word to refer to a Theophany or premortal appearance of Jesus as a messenger

           In definition number 6, the most common use of the word angel, it must be noted that such beings are not just referred to by that name. They are called “holy ones” (Daniel 4:13), “saints” (Deuteronomy 33:2), “sons of God” (Job 1:6–though not all sons of God are angels, of course), “ministers” (Psalm 103:21), “watchers” (Daniel 4:13). All these titles and definitions have to do with establishing the holiness of God and His purposes (Burton W. Barber as quoted by Victor Knowles in Angels and Demons (College Press, 1994.)

          We can get a special insight, too, in the way that angels function in the book of Joshua in chapter 5. There we meet a being who identifies himself as the commander of the army of the Lord–a separate army for a separate warfare than that which Joshua will engage in. (Because this “angel of the Lord” accepts worship and lets Joshua bow to him, though, some believe this is the premortal Christ as Angel of the Lord.)

          Some have asserted that the relationship of God to those created beings that we call angels is quite an intimate one. When in Ephesians 3:14-15 the Scripture speaks of God's “family in heaven,” it could be concluded that angels could be included in that number–His heavenly family, so to speak. But no matter whether that's the case or not, angels are not themselves a race but rather a “company” or “host”–they are incapable of reproduction. (The idea of an angel, even a cherub, being a little child is completely foreign to Scripture, but came originally from Zoroastrianism.)

          One of the richest sources of Scriptural information about angels is in the first two chapters of the book of Hebrews. Though Jesus is certainly the “point” of this chapter, the very prominent secondary theme is that of angels. In fact, we are told in 2:9 that Jesus was as a man “made a little lower than the angels,” though He was ultimately exalted above them (1:4). It's interesting to note the verbs in these chapters as well–while prophets are referred to in the past tense, both Jesus and angels are depicted in the present tense.

          Here are some interesting Biblical facts about angels:

1. They surround the throne of God (1 Kings 22:10, Isaiah 6:1-3). One of their primary tasks is that of singing and praising God (Revelation 11:15.)
2. Because they have as we will see intelligence and emotions and are called sons of God, some people believe they might be included in the “us” of Genesis 3:22
3. They are created beings (Psalms 148:1-5, Colossians 1:15-17)
4. They pre-date mankind because they were created before the world was (Job 38:4-7)
5. Like all other created things, they were created for a purpose and a Person: Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:16)–to glorify Him and do His bidding.
6. Angels are very powerful–one angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one night (2 Kings 19:35), and rolled away a tomb stone that no single man could budge (Matthew 28:3, Mark 16:5.) No wonder Peter says that they're greater in power and might than men (2 Peter 2:11), that the psalmist says they “excel in strength” (Psalm 103:20), and that the word “mighty” that's applied to them in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 is the same root word for our word “dynamite.” But they're far from all-powerful like their Creator; and even they don't dare rebuke Satan to his face (Jude 9).
7. Angels can sin (Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4) and are charged with sin (Job 4:18). They are under the law of God (Psalm 103:20-21.) (One writer, Leroy Garrett, wondered if they could sin, maybe they get tired of us and try to trade us off.)
8. They are intensely interested in the salvation of individuals. They sang at the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:13-14) and rejoice at the return of a sinner (Luke 15:7, 10.)
9. Though both Daniel 7:10 and Revelation 5:11 speak of 100 million angels, Hebrews 12:22 says they are actually “innumerable.”
10. Angels are super-intelligent (2 Samuel 14:20) and can explain mysteries as in Revelation 17 but their knowledge is limited (Matthew 24:36.)
11. Matthew 22:30 says that angels are unmarriageable. Sometimes we think of them as being therefore “sexless”–but would that mean they have no sexual organs, or no sex drive?–because each one is always referred to as “he,” never “she” or it. Perhaps a better explanation of why they can't marry is that they are all male.
12. Angels can assume many different physical forms. While Hebrews 1:14 tells us that they are spirits and they are often invisible as they were to Balaam in Numbers 22, they can appear as horses and chariots (2 Kings 6: 14-17), as flames in a bush (Exodus 3:2), and as wind and fire (Hebrews1:7.)
13. Like Jesus in this one aspect, they can apparently “take on flesh” to communicate with people. Angels appeared in the form of men to Abraham (Genesis 18:1-2), to Lot (Genesis 19:1-2), to Manoah and Mrs. Manoah (Judges 13:9-11), to Jacob (Genesis 32:22-28), at the tomb of Christ (Mark 16:5 and Acts 1:10-11), but significantly they never appeared in the form of a woman. (One possible exception to this is found in Zechariah 5:9-11. However, it is not clear whether those are good or bad angels.)
14. Angels are often mistaken for mere humans. We have already mentioned Abraham's encounter with angels. The angel who helped Peter with his escape from prison (Acts 12:7) did some mundane things–whacked Peter on the side, and told him to get up and get dressed.
15. Some appearances of angels are decidedly non-ordinary, however. The appearance of the angels at the tomb of Jesus caused the guards to swoon (Matthew 28:2-4), and they are described as blinding in Mark 16:5 and Matthew 28:5.
16. They are transcendent in their transport. In Matthew 26:53 we learn that God could “at once” send over 60,000 angels had He chosen to do so. A “multitude” appeared “suddenly” with the angel that announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds (Luke 2:13.) When Herod sinned, he was smitten “immediately” by an angel (Acts 12:23.) Though angels like Gabriel are depicted as traveling in “swift flight” (Daniel 9:21), they can be delayed by satanic powers (three weeks as in the case of the angel in Daniel 10:10-15.)
17. Angels, though spirit, are corporeal or tangible in a sense. We have already mentioned the angel that struck Peter on the side, and another angel wrestled with Jacob for an entire night (Genesis 32.)
18. One writer has described the passion of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as a process of “coming apart at the seams”. Angels came to strengthen Him there just as they had done after the Temptations at the beginning of His ministry; and of all their acts on earth, we should love them most for that, I think.
19. The wording of Matthew 18:10 seems to indicate the validity of the popular belief that each child has an angel assigned to him or her. “Jesus is saying that that lowly black boy, unlearned and unkempt, has his own angel who stands in the presence of God, so you had better take care of how you treat him.”–Leroy Garrett
20. Angels have a job description beyond that of praise-givers and messengers, and it is to “minister to those who will inherit eternal salvation” (Hebrews 1:14.) Like the example of Jesus washing feet, it is the greater serving the lesser.
21. Angels rescue people like Daniel (6:22), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:28). Psalm 91:11-12 tells of their constant watching to rescue.
22. Angels provide a test of hospitality (Hebrews 13:2).
23. Angels can carry the spirit of a departed saint to heaven (Luke 16:22, Ecclesiastes 12:7.)
24. Angels can provide “moral support” (Hagar in Genesis 16:7-14), physical support like food (Elijah in 2 Kings 19:3-9), and encouragement (Paul in Acts 27:13-26.)
25. They were instrumental in the giving of the Old Testament Law (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19, Hebrews 2:2-3, Deuteronomy 33:2).
26. The angel of the Lord led and guided the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 20:15-16; Exodus 13:21, 14:19, 23:20-23.)
27. Angels bring death and destruction to the enemies of God (Psalm 35:5-6; Genesis 19:11; 2 Kings 6:18; Psalm 78:49; 2 Kings 24:15-17; 1 Chronicles 21:15; 1 Corinthians 10:10; the aforementioned example of Herod in Acts 12; and Revelation 16:10-11. Like the image of Jesus overturning tables and throwing out men and beasts from the temple, these functions of angels are foreign to the innocuous angel-types of our contemporary culture.
28. Angels observe the church and are affected by its worship (1 Corinthians 11:10, 1 Timothy 5:21-22) as well as individual Christians (1 Corinthians 4:9.)
29. Angels have longings, especially directed toward mankind's salvation (1 Peter 1:10-11.)
30. Angels will be the royal escort of Christ when He returns to earth (Matthew 16:27, 24:31) and will gather the elect together (Mark 13:27, Matthew 13:49).
31. Angels will hear the words of Christ as He confesses the name of each Christian who was faithful (Luke 12:9) before His Father.
32. An angel will stop time (Revelation 10:5-6.)
33. Angels will be the ones who throw the wicked humans and fallen angels into the pit of fire (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, Matthew 13:41-50, Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:1-3, 10.) They are often depicted in terms of battle imagery and fight against Satan, “the accuser of the brethren.” The stakes in their battle are not territory but men's souls.

          Speaking of evil angels, it must be noted that a discussion of their activities and history is beyond the scope of this brief study. The list above of course doesn't purport to tell all the activities of beneficial angels, but is intended to stimulate appreciation for their important function in the lives of Christians.

         Another interesting aspect of the study of angels is the fact that angels are classified in distinctive categories in the Bible. Church tradition, according to author Janis Hutchinson, assigns a hierarchy of ranks to the angels. The concept of a hierarchy has come down through three sources: Christian tradition, early church fathers, and apocryphal literature. 

• Seraphim (Isa. 6)
• Cherubim Ezek. 1:1-20
• Thrones (Col. 1:16)
• Dominions (Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16)
• Principalities (Eph. 1:21; 6:12; Rom. 8:38; Col. 1:16)
• Authorities (1 Pet. 3:22)
• Powers (Eph. 1:21; Rom. 8:38; Col. 1:16; 1 Pet. 3:22)
• Archangels (I Thess. 4:16; Jude 1:9; 1 Thess. 4:13-18)
• Angels (Rom. 8:38; 1 Pet. 3:22)
• (Also, wicked spirits: angels who rebelled)

          There is only one archangel mentioned (the term does not appear in the plural in the Bible.) Though not mentioned by name, the archangel is spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. We learn that his name is Michael (Jude 9), and he is truly in a class all by himself, with his own cadre of attendant angels (Revelation 12:7). He is “a prince of Israel” (Daniel 10:21), whose function is to protect and stand for the people of God (Daniel 12:1) and to war against Satan (Revelation 12:7-9.)

          Only one other angel is mentioned by name in the Bible, and that is the angel Gabriel who announced the births of both Jesus and John the Baptist in addition to his previous acts in the time of Daniel (8:16, 9:21.). He is unique like Michael because his name is revealed, but he is not an archangel.

           A second classification of angels is that of cherubim (plural of the word cherub.) They were first mentioned in Genesis 3:24 as the guardians of Eden, but they are also found in 2 Kings 19:25, Ezekiel 10:1-20 and 28:14-16. They guard the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:18-20), the Tabernacle (their image woven into curtains–Exodus 21:6) and most importantly the throne of God (Psalm 80:1, 99:1.) As depicted in Ezekiel, they are fantastic creatures that possess and portray the characteristics of not only a man, but also a lion, an ox, and an eagle–intelligence and emotion, power and courage, patient service, and swiftness and perception.

           Some authors have speculated that these creatures also appear in pagan art and literature; and thus they are indications that angels can take the form of whatever culture of the audience or recipient to which they are sent. In the words of author Janis Hutchinson, “When God gives a visionary message, he is going to portray it in the contextual environment of the perceiver. His one objective is to be sure the recipient is given an image that contains familiar symbols he can relate to and understand.”

            Perhaps it would be more accurate to assume that pagan cultures adapted the concepts of fantastic beings like cherubim (and thus created what would look like hybrid idols such as sphinxes) from hearing about the true appearance of cherubim in the Tabernacle and Temple.

           A third class of angels–only mentioned once and that in Isaiah 6:2 and 6–are portrayed as having only one function: that of worshiping and purifying worshipers. They bring awe and reverence to worship, and some believe that they are the “living creatures” of the book of Revelation.

          By far, however, the majority of angels mentioned in the Bible belong to a fourth class–the “many” angels of Revelation 5:11 who perform a wide range of tasks as we have already seen.

          A special mention should be made of another class of angel, that of the Angel of the Lord. The mystery which surrounds this Being is one which should warn us of the danger of idle speculation. However, the fact that this special Angel is often directly identified with God Himself has led many, including myself, to conclude that the Angel of the Lord was a special manifestation of the ministry and personality of Jesus before He actually took on flesh (a theophany). Here are the incidents in which He appeared: to Hagar (Genesis 16 and 21), Jacob (Genesis 31 and 32; see also Hosea 12:4 where the “man” he wrestles with is called an angel), Moses (Exodus 3; see also Acts 7:30-35), Israelites in the desert (Exodus 14:19 along with 13:21, 23:20, 23:21, 23:23, Isaiah 63:9); Israelites in later history (Judges 2:1-5, 5;23), Balaam (Numbers 22), Joshua (Joshua 5:14–note that this angel allowed Joshua to worship him, unlike other angels in Acts 10:26 and Revelation 22:8-9; see also Colossians 2:18); Gideon (Judges 6), Manoah and his wife (Judges 13), David (1 Chronicles 21), and Zechariah (Zechariah 1).

          Like all other matters of importance in the life of a Christian, the subject of angels is one in which a Christian must exercise great care in how his or her discourse reflects the truth–a connected truth–about angels. We are urged by Scripture to resist unwarranted speculation on the subject; to refrain from slandering celestial beings, and above all to reserve worship for God Himself and not for anything He created. Because angels are spirits and we are told to “test every spirit” to ascertain its origins whether from God or from another source (1 John 4:1-6), we must have some standards with which to perform these tests. It's not coincidental that the world is embraces and is comfortable with false spirits, because they test them against their own feelings and experiences, not against the test of inherent, vinelike connection with God.

          The current popular attraction to angels borders on worship, which Scripture sternly warns against (Colossians 2:8, Revelation 19:10.) The Colossian passage shows a frightening progression that accompanies angel worship: one is first duped, cheated of his reward, assumes a false humility, intrudes into improper areas, becomes vain and puffed-up, loses his connection (thus true) relationship with Christ, and thus is undernourished as he descends into legalism–a weak and worthless religion (2:18-23.)

          Worshiping an angel who is God's messenger is like kissing the postman when he brings you a letter from your beloved. You wouldn't want to pursue a love relationship with the mailman if you want to concentrate on your loved one, would you?

         Angels are a peculiar kind of gift from God to mankind. Though their services are offered to us freely, we are forbidden to seek them. All the books and talk shows and television shows and seminars that encourage people to seek contact with angels are not only ungodly, they are actually dangerous.

          In Scripture, only one person ever advised another to try to get the involvement and help of angels. That person was Satan, and when he tried to get Jesus to enlist the help of an angel, our Savior equated such action as tempting God. Who in their right mind would take such a risk just to see an angelic personage?