Angels - Part 1
Posted by Randy | Labels: Angels, Heaven, New Earth | Posted On Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 12:01 AM
We're in a series on Heaven, and it's been really exciting for me to learn so much about our resurrected lives on our future home on the New Earth. In my third message I'm talking a little about angels, but I really only touch on the subject. A few years back I did a program on angels, and I've dug up the material and plan to share some of it over the next few days on this blog. I'm starting below, but check back each day as I put up more material.
The movie It’s a Wonderful Life with the angel Clarence Oddbody has become a Christmas tradition for many. While serving as God’s messengers, they are also getting credit for helping people lose weight or find their keys. A Wisconsin homemaker has a collection of 11,161 angel artifacts. There are angel clothes, brass cherub flushers, angel mouse pads and screen savers for our computers, angel soap, angel towels, Cherub air freshener, angel night-lights, angel sheets and pillows and angel suitcases. There are people who claim to help you get in touch with your guardian angel.
Yet, for all our interest, even our need, for angels, we must be careful. Virtually every major religion through the years has had its own form of angels. Christianity is no exception. And while the Bible has a great deal to say about angels, we want to be careful as Christians that we don’t get caught mixing our angels to create something that is not pleasing to God. In fact, the Bible indicates that not only are there good angels, but evil ones as well, that are very skilled at fooling people until it is too late. So, if you are interested in being aware of the angelic presence around us, do it from a biblical viewpoint so all that you do will give God honor and praise and not lead you astray.
Angels are found in 34 of the 66 books of the Bible (17 - Old Testament, 17 - New Testament). The word “angel” is used 108 times in the Old Testament, 165 in the New Testament.
Two classes of angels are shown in the Bible:
The movie It’s a Wonderful Life with the angel Clarence Oddbody has become a Christmas tradition for many. While serving as God’s messengers, they are also getting credit for helping people lose weight or find their keys. A Wisconsin homemaker has a collection of 11,161 angel artifacts. There are angel clothes, brass cherub flushers, angel mouse pads and screen savers for our computers, angel soap, angel towels, Cherub air freshener, angel night-lights, angel sheets and pillows and angel suitcases. There are people who claim to help you get in touch with your guardian angel.
Yet, for all our interest, even our need, for angels, we must be careful. Virtually every major religion through the years has had its own form of angels. Christianity is no exception. And while the Bible has a great deal to say about angels, we want to be careful as Christians that we don’t get caught mixing our angels to create something that is not pleasing to God. In fact, the Bible indicates that not only are there good angels, but evil ones as well, that are very skilled at fooling people until it is too late. So, if you are interested in being aware of the angelic presence around us, do it from a biblical viewpoint so all that you do will give God honor and praise and not lead you astray.
Angels are found in 34 of the 66 books of the Bible (17 - Old Testament, 17 - New Testament). The word “angel” is used 108 times in the Old Testament, 165 in the New Testament.
Two classes of angels are shown in the Bible:
- the "elect" (1 Timothy 5:21) and "holy" (Matthew 25:31) who worship God and serve Him completely
- the evil angels, including Satan, their leader (Matthew 25:41), and demons (Matthew 12:26-28), who oppose God and all His servants, both humans and angels.
Charlie Shedd says two words come closest to a true biblical understanding of what an angel is: "manifestation" and "servant." Servant is fairly clear, and the word "manifest" means "to reveal, prove, display, and put beyond doubt the nature of that which is being manifested." Since God is love and angels exist to manifest and serve him, then what angels do is to reveal, prove, and display God’s love.
Our word "angel" is derived from the Greek word angelos, which means, very simply, "messenger." In the Greek world just before New Testament times, the role of the human angelos was fairly simple: "he delivered messages, answered questions, and expected payment for his services—and he was protected by the gods." These ancient human angelos could also serve as envoys, making treaties and delivering official communications. In the New Testament an angelos is a celestial being with a divine message from God. This idea generally comes from the Jewish understanding of angels.
In the Old Testament the term most frequently used for angel is malak. It, too, means messenger or representative. Malachi, one of the Old Testament prophets (and the last book in the Old Testament) is a name that literally means "my messenger." However, even though malak is translated messenger, its meaning is broader than our modern day understanding. There weren't phones and email, nor did they have mail or cars, so delivering a message was not easy. Sometimes it took weeks to deliver a message. The malak represented the concerns and desires of the one who sent him. Sometimes, because of the distances and length of time involved, the malak had to interpret the message and its meaning. Angels in the Bible often directly represented God to their intended audience.
Come back tomorrow for information about what we know about the origins of angels and their basic nature.
