Angels

Angel means messenger. Angels serve the Lord. They also serve God’s people. We do not have charge over angels. We do not pray to them or send them on assignments because:

1. This would lead to angel worship and idolatry.

2. Jesus said we should ask the Father in His name (John 16:23). He did not say we should pray to angels.

3. The Bible says that God “gives His angels charge concerning us” (Ps 91:11). That is, God directs how angels minister on our behalf.

4. If we directed the angels’ ministry it would not work well. It would depend on us remembering to give the right instructions at the right time and upon us knowing everything that needed to be done. We do not have this knowledge, so if we forgot to give an angel charge in any matter, our lives would be in danger.

5. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, that the ministry of the angels should be sufficient for our need (Heb 7:25). This ministry for us is part of the New Covenant, which God said He would undertake on our behalf (Heb 1:14, Ps 103:20).

Another aspect on which people sometimes speculate is the hierarchy of angels. It appears that Gabriel and Michael were angels to Israel during the Old Covenant, but the scripture does not give details on this. Some (John Wesley and others) have said that Michael was an Old Covenant term for Christ. A careful study would be required to say any more.

The Bible also mentions seraphim. However, the scriptures do not give a clear description of a hierarchy, nor of the roles of the various angels. We do not know the details on these matters and we are not supposed to know. The Lord is the one who directs their work.

There is also the “angel of the Lord” often mentioned in scripture. The identity of this angel could vary according to the text. Angel of the Lord just means messenger of the Lord, but the term could also mean a manifestation of the Son of God Himself in angelic form, sometimes called a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ.

It appears that the angel of the Lord often received worship, as was the case with the angel that Samson’s parents met (Judges 13:20), the angel that Abraham met and ate a meal with, the angel of God’s presence that was to follow Moses, the captain of the Lord’s hosts that Joshua met when crossing into the Promised Land and Melchizedek.

There is some mystery in these cases. The book of Hebrews says Melchizedek was greater than Abraham who had the promises (Heb 7:6). He is the only figure in Hebrews that is not said to be inferior to Christ.

Sons of God may sometimes refer to angels in various texts, such as Job 1. This refers to majesty or rulership duties in God’s kingdom. Angels are sometimes called elohim in Hebrew which means magistrate. God is the supreme El. Some of these angels are obedient to God and some rebellious, though they are all under His power (2 Pet 2:4).

The term “sons of God” does not always refer to angels. It can refer to men, to whom God gave dominion over the animals, under His will. In the Old Testament, it could also refer to men who walked with God. It can also mean magistrate, or mean one directly formed by God in His image, as Adam was. The Old Testament usage is never the same as the New Testament usage, meaning one born of the Spirit.

It may be that “the sons of God” who cohabited with the daughters of men in Genesis 6 were not angels but the descendants of the godly seed from Seth cohabiting with ungodly women. God did not want the godly seed and the ungodly to intermarry. He kept the lineage of Christ pure until the promised Seed came. Abraham was particular about who Isaac married (Gen 24:3).

Part of the reason for the Flood was to keep the lineage of Christ faithful and ensure the promise was fulfilled. Jesus said angels do not reproduce (Matt 22:30). Claims of some today that they have been impregnated by demons are not true.

The Hebrew for “giants” (KJV) in Genesis 6 can mean men of renown. These were ungodly and oppressive rulers like Nimrod and the kings of empires that followed later. They have no connection with Goliath. According to the text of Genesis 6 God judged men for their evil hearts, not demons or angels. Jude 6 (and 2 Pet 2:4) is likely a reference to the rebellion of angels and not to Genesis 6.

Tales that ascribe demons to Genesis 6 are built on Jewish pseudepigrapha books (books using a false name for the author), written during the Intertestamental period. The book of Enoch is one of these. It was not written by Enoch, but books like this are useful in describing Jewish thought before Jesus came. That Jude was inspired to use a phrase from the book of Enoch does not mean that the book of Enoch was inspired.

Enoch and other apocryphal writings were used by early Christian writers, supposedly assuming licence from Jude and following the asceticism of Judaism and this led to a lot of false theology being incorporated into early church history, which the Koran also adopted.

The Council of Laodicea (364 AD) rightly discredited the book of Enoch and it then passed out of general circulation until recent times. Some modern teachings are rebuilding on these Jewish ideas. (See www.jewishencyclopedia.com).

These Jewish ideas are harmful and we agree with Calvin’s commentary on 2 Pet 2:4:
But as Peter mentions here but briefly the fall of angels and as he has not named the time and the manner and other circumstances, it behooves us soberly to speak on the subject…

And indeed they who curiously inquire, do not regard edification, but seek to feed their souls with vain speculations. What is useful to us, God has made known, that is, that the devils were at first created, that they might serve and obey God, but that through their own fault they apostatized, because they would not submit to the authority of God; and that thus the wickedness found in them was accidental and not from nature, so that it could not be ascribed to God…

In all, we are instructed to accept what the scriptures say without speculating beyond what is revealed plainly. God said to Moses that the things that are revealed are for men, but the things that are not revealed are for God (Deut 29:29).

Occult means hidden. When we speculate on endless questions and build doctrines on things that are not of major importance in scripture we are outside of the will of God. Paul said do not do it:

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. (1 Tim 1:4).