There is a flood of books, movies and TV shows about angels. Homes are decorated with pictures and images of angels, but each seems to have differing opinions of what angels are.
By definition, angels are messengers of God:
- Angels may be created beings (Colossians 1:16).
- Angels are able to obey or disobey God (2 Peter 2:4).
- Angels are held accountable for their actions (2 Peter 2:4; 1 Cor. 6:3).
- Angels are subject to Christ (Ephesians 1:21).
- Angels are mighty in power (Psalm 103:20), but not all-powerful.
- Angels are not omniscient (Mark 13:32).
- Angels are holy (Mathew 25:31).
- Angels travelled from God’s presence to earth (Daniel 9:20-21).
- There are untold numbers of them (Hebrews 12:22).
- Angels have names (Luke 1:26).
- Angels do not marry (Mathew 22:30).
- Angels served God as he directs (Psalm 103:20).
- Angels do service for the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14).
- Angels administered punishments upon the wicked (2 Kings 19:35).
- Some angels conveyed God’s instructions to his servants (Acts 5:20).
- Angels comforted and strengthened God’s elect (Luke 22:43).
- Angels ordained (throughly arranged or commanded) the Law of Moses (Gen 3:19).
- Angels spoke the OT law to Moses (Heb. 2:2).
- But angels did not mediate either the OT or NT (1 Timothy 2:5).
- Angels behold the face of God for little ones who believe in Jesus (Matthew 18:10)
- Angels sometime take a human appearance and can be seen and talked to (Genesis 19:1-2). Normally God’s servants are invisible to human eyes (2 Kings 6:16-17). What Gehazi saw was horses and chariots of fire – which would be God’s ministers rather than God’s angels according to Heb. 1:7.
- God forbids worship of angels (Col. 2:18; Rev. 22:8ff).
- Angels rejoice when sinners are saved (Luke 15:10).
- In heaven, angels appear to worship and praise the Father and Son (Rev. 5:13).
- Angels carried Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22).
- Angels will accompany Christ when he comes to raise the dead and judge the world (Matt. 13:39).
Some misconceptions about angels are:
- Angels are always women – the only two named have male names.
- Angels have wings and halos – artists depict them thusly to illustrate that they can fly and are holy, but the scriptures do not say that.
- Angels are dead saints now living in heaven – although comforting to their loved ones, no Scripture supports this idea.
- Each of us has a personal guardian angel – angels do look after the elect (Heb. 1:14), but the idea that each one of us has a personal angel is not found in Scripture.
- A death angel comes to claim us when our time on earth is up – this concept is not found in Scripture.
- A death angel killed the firstborn in Egypt – the scriptures say God or the “destroyer” killed the firstborn (Exodus, chapters 11 and 12).
REMEMBER THAT RELIABLE INFORMATION ABOUT ANGELS IS ONLY FOUND IN GOD’S WORD.