Angel worship was a problem in the Colossian church. As strange as it may seem for the first Jewish Christians, the first chapter of the book of Hebrews hints that it may also have been a problem for them. Then there were twentieth century American Christians, who seemed to have the most bizarre relic collections in their homes with beings alleged to be angels, and yet not seeming to resemble the awesome presences in Scripture that would typically cause a mere mortal to drop dead if God himself did not suspend them in existence.

The subject of angelic beings may seem like one of those parts of theology that is almost frivolous. But there are two extremes that can be easily revealed by the subject: unwitting naturalism and hyper-spiritual superstition. Listen to a person talk about such unseen realities, and you will find out much about all that he believes.

So what are these mysterious beings?

The Nature and Activity of Angels

Angels are spiritual beings, having no physical body. We can also safely say that they are personal beings, as we know from the relevant passages in the Bible that they possess intellect and will. The Bible nowhere makes clear the order of when angels were created, in relation to “the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Nor when the devil became the devil. The fact that Genesis 3:1 comes later in the narrative sequence does not give us ground for speculating what the actual order in the spiritual realm was. What we can say for sure is that all angels are created beings, and part of the point of Genesis 1:1 is to encompass all spiritual beings in “the heavens” in that divine act.

Now the chief business of angels is the worship of God (Isa. 6:2-3). Their secondary activity, but primary toward humans, is being “messengers” (angelos; cf. Gal. 3:19) and “ministering spirits” (Heb. 1:14) toward the saints.

In Genesis 16, 19, 22, Joshua 5, and Judges 2, 6, and 13 there are appearances of personal beings that are referred to as angels on the one hand, and yet one of the persons in a few of these texts is referred to as “the LORD.” It is argued by many that a few of these must be pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. In a few cases, that is a reasonable conclusion, and the opinion of many great theologians and commentators: for example, the case of Joshua 5, because Joshua fell down in worship (v. 14) which this commander did not refuse (v. 15).

Augustine very profoundly dealt with these Old Testament appearances in Book III of his classic work On the Trinity. The one point that concerns us is the way that the “angelic medium” explains Paul’s otherwise cryptic statement in Galatians 3 about the purpose of adding the law: “it was put in place through angels by an intermediary” (v. 19). First, Hebrews 1:14 is cited, namely that they serve the saints with God’s revelation, and then he transitions to the next chapter where we read:

For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (2:2-3).

The angels were considered messengers of the Old Covenant. We know this is the contrast because later in Hebrews 10, this same lesser to greater argument is used about the surpassing glory of the New Covenant bringing about a stricter judgment. We can see these references in Hebrews 1 and 2, and then in Galatians 3:19, easily enough; but the realization that these angelic appearances in the Old Testament were at key points in the development of the covenant, all of a sudden, begins to explain Paul’s precise meaning.

There are also a few mysterious passages about angels being involved in a great spiritual war. We can see this in Daniel 10 and in Revelation 12. This has naturally led to much speculation about connection between these two passages. However we can assume too much about how that spiritual realm parallels our space-time continuum. Here again the two extremes lurk.

On the one hand, we can super-spiritualize the angelic warfare and see that warfare paralleling our realm. Yet this same view winds up with the angelic crowding out the human. This view cannot conceive of a spiritual warfare that effects nature in perfectly natural ways: e.g. thinking, planning, exerting effort, the rising and falling of institutions, etc. On the other hand, we can naturalize the angelic warfare as being sealed off from our realm. One result of this is that all those natural motions of history ignore the spiritual dimension, even if one pays lip service to it.

The Curious and the Downright Erroneous

A very common question is whether or not there are guardian angels. The Bible is not explicit on this subject. Matthew 18:10 speaks of “their angels,” referring to children, and then there is a passing reference to Peter’s “angel” in Acts 12:15. However, the nature of these passages and the fact that there are only two, give us pause from constructing a doctrine around them. That angels do act in order to guard, as in Psalm 91:11-12 (cf. Mat. 4:6), is ambiguous in terms of whether those same angels are assigned to specific persons. All of this to say that the evidence is inconclusive.

What is meant by “entertaining angels” in Hebrews? Some may opt for biblical examples as an alternative to explaining it as a norm, as, for instance, this note in the Reformation Study Bible: “Abraham, himself a stranger (11:13), showed hospitality to ‘three men’ (Gen. 18:2) who proved to be the Lord Himself with two of His supernatural messengers (Gen. 18:1–19:22).”

Angel fixation has also been mixed with near-death experience, or with visions of friends or family members who have passed. For some, this is no mere curiosity. What if someone refers to a loved one who has died as an angel? As comforting as such thoughts might be, there are many false comforts in life. Angels are very particular beings in the Bible. If they are the very spiritual beings and servants of God we have mentioned, then they never were nor ever will become humans, nor will humans become them.

When Jesus says we will be “like angels in heaven” (Mk. 12:25) about the eternal state, he did not mean that we would cease to be human, but rather that our state will transcend the business of earthly marriage, which was the context of that passage.

So as much as there may be sensitivity to overcome in our audience, no one will really be helped or comforted by believing things contrary to Scripture.

On a more polemical level, someone might ask (perhaps they have heard it from this or that cult) whether Michael the Archangel is the same person as Jesus? And the answer is No. Michael the Archangel is mentioned in different passages (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; and Rev. 12:7). But it is that Jude 9 passage especially that helps us here. Notice here that Michael the Archangel said, “The Lord rebuke you,” which naturally Jesus would not have to do. Even in Christ’s state of humiliation on earth, he was given full authority over all demonic powers. Then there is the fact that Hebrews 1:4-14 and Colossians 1:16-17 excludes this by virtue of the fact that no angel is given worship, and all angels were created by Christ. End of discussion.

The Dividing Line Between Elect and Fallen Angels

I am puzzled at the amount of people for whom it is news that the demons are fallen angels. I am even more puzzled at the amount of people who have been Christians for years who will push back about this, as if they could have had some independent and evil origin. Such an assumption is, quite simply, metaphysical dualism. It is nothing short of a departure from monotheism!

The Westminster Confession, III.3-4 on the Eternal Decree, summarizes things very well:

By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death.

These angels and men, thus predestinated and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished.

The elect angels can and do constantly choose God, though not in the sense that fallen humanity does. They are never fallen. And the fallen angels (demons) cannot and will never want to choose God.

Someone may object: “If angels are kept from impurity, then they have no intellect or free will.” However, the angels’ perpetual love for God is not involuntary. That there are elect angels who were presevered, and non-elect angels, who fell and joined Satan (Rev. 12:4), does not preclude will. Here we see the same assumptions concerning the nature of free will that form a stumbling block to the Pelagian and Arminian mind in viewing the same issue on the plane of salvation.

But this is the first point: angels are volitional, intelligent beings. Consider, for example, that if either intellect and will necessitates the familiarity with jealousy (or any other evil) in the sense of participating in it with one’s choice, then it would follow that God would be the least intellectual and least free being conceivable, which is the height of nonsense. It would also follow that we would have no guarantee of security in the eternal state, since we will surely experience the perfection of human intellect and inclination, yet with the promise that we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).

At any rate, the angels were not all sealed, just as not all human beings were. Our knowledge of their fall is based partly on the imagery of Revelation 12:4, and partly on Paul’s statement about even the “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” being created by and for Christ in Colossians 1:16. The rest of the doctrine involves a few valid inferences from everything Scripture teaches about God’s total sovereignty and omnipotence. Since nothing can thwart his will (Dan. 4:35, Ps. 115:3), it must follow that the angelic beings who did fall, and thus became demons, were indeed destined to fall and so were not elect angels. Their purity was not part of his plan, and conversely, their evil schemes were to be used by the only wise God in carrying out his story to perfection.