Transcript

Biblically Accurate Angels, Explained

Introduction

In today's video, we're talking all about angels — you know, those benevolent spiritual beings who float around with wings and halos, right? Wrong! In fact, whether or not angels have wings isn't the only commonly misunderstood aspect of these mysterious creatures. So, what are angels? Where did they come from? And what do they actually do? 

What Is An Angel?

First, let's start with what an angel even is. The English word 'angel' is derived from the Greek word 'Angelos' (or 'Aggelos'), which simply means 'messenger.' This word can be used of any messenger, human or divine. In the gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist was called an 'Angelos', and in his epistle, James refers to the two men who spied out the city of Jericho as 'Angelos,' or messengers. Of course, neither of these people were divine beings but just human messengers, and it's the same concept in the Old Testament, written in Hebrew. There, the word for angel is 'mal'ak', which again simply refers to a messenger, human or divine. But we're talking about divine beings here, so what separates the angelic messengers from human ones?

You might think that one key differentiator is the way that angels look. Most classical Christian art depicts angels as glowing figures with wings on their backs and halos above their heads, but there actually isn't much Biblical evidence to support that. In fact, what we do know from the Bible is that angels look just like regular human beings. In Genesis chapter 19, we read of two angels that enter the house of Lot, and the men of Sodom come knocking on the door asking for "the men" that came into his house. In Judges 13, we read about Manoah, who was unaware he was speaking to an angel until the angel ascended to heaven in a flame of fire. So if looks don’t differentiate men from angels, what does?

The key difference between human and angelic messengers is their divine nature. Angels share God's divine nature. In other words, they are immortal. We know this because of verses like Luke 20:35-36 which says, "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain the world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels." And this actually brings up some important implications.

In the Bible, death is the penalty for sin. Romans 6:3 says, "The wages of sin is death." If death is the penalty for sin, it stands to reason that the angels who are immortal and cannot die do not sin. If they did, they would die as a consequence and would not be immortal. That means that angels do not sin, so the common conceptions of the devil being a fallen angel must be mistaken. But that's the topic for another video.

What Angels Do

So angels are divine and immortal messengers, and specifically, they are God's messengers. They perform missions on God's behalf. So when God protected the nation of Israel from the army of the Egyptians, it was actually an angel sent from God who stood between the two camps. When God saved his people from the Assyrian army, it was a single angel who wiped out 185,000 men in one night. And when Mary was told that she would be the one to give birth to Jesus, it was an angel sent from God to deliver the message.

What's interesting is that though angels possess higher physical and spiritual abilities than humans, they also have some key limitations—there are some things that they just don't know. For example, 1 Peter 1:12 talks about things even the angels want to learn about. Matthew 23:26 says that not even the angels of heaven know the day or hour when Jesus will return to earth to set up the Kingdom.

So that's what angels are, but what do they actually do? Well, one of the key roles of Angels was to act as ambassadors for God to humans. This is important because some places in the Bible say that "no man hath seen God," while others say that people "saw God face to face." How do you reconcile these two ideas?

There's this story in the book of Exodus where Moses sees God in a burning bush. In one verse, it says that an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in the bush, but then just a few verses later, it says that God called Moses out of the midst of the bush. This is a classic example of angelic representation. Because humans can't see God, God sends his angels to represent himself to humans. These angels speak and act with the authority of God, although they are not God himself. It's a lot like how kings or rulers would send their own ambassadors when they wanted to share an important message. The words were spoken as the King’s, even if it wasn’t the King sharing the message directly.

Can We See Angels Today?

So angels act as God's ambassadors, but then why don’t we see them today? Well, maybe you have, or maybe you will, but angels don't need to speak to us on behalf of God because we already have God's word recorded in the Bible. Now, they perform missions on behalf of God, direct the nations to bring about God's will, and minister to the needs of believers without explicitly appearing in front of our eyes.

Conclusion

So that’s just about everything we know about the Angels, but there is one more thing. The gospel of Luke says that those who are worthy in the sight of God will one day be made equal to the angels! Immortal, unable to sin and experience physical infirmities, and able to perfectly perform God’s will. So, if that’s something that interests you and you want to learn more about how you can be a part of that future, make sure to learn more about God’s plan by watching this video right here.