Chapter 1

ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD

The Existence of Angels

Angels are a hot commodity these days. You can find popular books on angels in most local bookstores. In nearly every major city you can take a seminar from people who promise to "put you in touch with your angel." On the national level, Time, Newsweek and USA Today have devoted front-page cover stories to this current and rising interest.

   Unfortunately, most Christians spend very little time thinking about angels. We may acknowledge their existence, but we are usually unaware of their presence in our lives.

   Our perception of angels comes primarily from greeting cards and movies. When we think of angels we envision the chubby, naked cherubs who appear each year at Valentine's Day.

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We recall movies that portray angels as comical characters, like Clarence, the angel in It's a Wonderful Life, who tries to get his wings by doing a good deed.

   If we happen to think of the biblical angels, it is usually at holidays. We hang the gloria angel above the stable on our nativity set. We sing about angels at Christmas. We read about angels at Easter. But when we are sitting at our desk or working at the store or cleaning house, angels are the farthest thing from our minds.

   Yet the Bible offers a surprising amount of information about angels. When I first decided to study them, I carved out three weeks in my calendar for a series of sermons. As I began to study what the Bible had to say, I came to realize the large part angels play in God's program. Eventually the series expanded to a ten-week study, and we had only begun to explore the subject. Even then, the congregation responded with enthusiasm, asking for more.

Seeking a Reliable Source

While the Bible speaks extensively about angels, other sources also claim to provide information about them. In any bookstore's religion or New Age section you will find dozens of books about angels. Some of these books have had a wide and receptive audience.

   Most popularly written books contain beautifully drawn figures of angels interspersed with stories of men and women who have encountered angels. These accounts are almost always heartwarming and emotion-laden. I picked up a new angel book this week that begins with three riveting stories — an angel guides a seven-year-old girl through an out-of-body experience, unseen hands pull an electrician from a killer power line, and a hospital patient learns a new lifesaving breathing technique from an angel / nurse.

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   Many authors tell how to contact your personal angel. Sometimes they give you a series of techniques to follow to get in touch with "the angel within you."

   What these New Age angel guides fail to acknowledge is that angels fall into two categories. Good and pure angels do exist, but so do fallen, corrupt angels, who seek to deceive people. Few of the books I have read refer to biblical truth; none point the reader to the salvation and deliverance that comes from Christ alone. Instead these spirit guides counsel you to look into yourself for power (a standard mark of New Age philosophy), or they urge you to link up with a spirit being ("your personal angel").

   Any contact with spirits or angels, however, that is not guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is an open door to demonic influence and control. Satan himself can appear to be a sophisticated "angel of life" if it means misleading someone. New Age books on angels are dangerous and unreliable guides.

   The writings of other religions claim to give us insight into the angelic realm too. The Apocrypha and later Jewish writings like the Talmud and the Targums provide abundant references to specific angels and angelic involvement in our world. The Qur'an and the theologians of Islam have constructed an elaborate hierarchy of angels. Virtually every religion acknowledges the existence and influence of angels.

   But if we cannot trust the writings of other religious groups to tell us the truth about Jesus Christ and his redemptive power, how can we trust what they say about angels? Their speculations may be interesting, but we have no assurance that what we read is the truth.

   The only fully reliable source of information about the nature and ministry of angels is the inerrant Scripture contained in the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ, whom we as Christians

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acknowledge as Lord and God, put his stamp of approval on the Old Testament Scriptures he had received and on the New Testament writings his own apostles would produce under direction of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:17-18; John 15:26; 16:13-14). No other body of literature has that mark of authenticity and authority.

   Our study in this book will be confined to the Scriptures. The Bible tells us the truth, and we can rely completely on what it declares. Sometimes the Scriptures are silent on questions we would like to have answered. Sometimes only hints or clues are given, and we have to try to piece the clues together. Whatever we conclude, however, about angels — or about any other subject in the realm of God's kingdom — must be based on the Bible's clear declaration. To rely on any other source for information is to stand on shaky ground.

The Biblical Evidence

God has revealed an incredible amount of information about these beings we call angels. Obviously he wants us to know their role in his plan and be aware of their activity in our lives.

   Just over half of the biblical books (34 out of 66) refer to angels. Clearly the writers of these books believe that these beings truly exist. Half of the thirty-four books are found in the Old Testament and half in the New Testament. This is no minor doctrine confined to a small corner of the Bible.

   The word angel appears more than 250 times in the Bible. Our English word comes directly from the New Testament Greek word angelos. The corresponding word in the Hebrew Old Testament is mal'ak. Both mean "messenger." Occasionally the words are used of a human messenger (1 Samuel 6:21; Luke 7:24; James 2:25), but most often they refer to a heavenly being.

   The writers of Scripture use several other terms as well,

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each highlighting an aspect of the nature or work of angels. God's angels are called his "army" or "host" (Psalm 103:20-21; 148:2; 89:6-8; 1 Samuel 17:45). They are also called "the chariots of God" (Psalm 68:17) because of their swift power and disciplined organization. Daniel describes angels as "watchers" who act as God's agents in the affairs of human government (Daniel 4:13, 17, 23).

   The phrase "sons of God" occurs several times in the Old Testament as a general term for all the angels, good and evil (Job 1:6, 2:1; Genesis 6:2). God's angels are called "holy ones" (Psalm 89:7; Daniel 8:13; Zechariah 14:5) and "sons of the mighty" (Psalm 89:6 NASB). At times they even appear bodily as "men" (Genesis 18:2; Acts 1:10).

   Final confirmation of the angels' existence comes from the Lord Jesus. During Jesus' earthly life, angels ministered to him in many ways and on several occasions. He repeatedly taught that they would be involved in the climax of human history. When Jesus spoke of the events of the "end of the age," he even claimed personal authority over a group of angels: "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil" (Matthew 13:36-41, italics mine).

   The witness of the Bible is that angels really do exist. So if you think they belong in the same category as sea monsters, trolls and vampires, think again. Angels are real beings who have a deep interest and involvement in your life.

Chapter Two  ||  Table of Contents