To the modern mind, angels may seem like fictional creatures best suited to adorning old stained-glass windows. In the Bible, however, angels appear as messengers and agents of God, sometimes opposed to God and infrequently posing as God Himself. The regular mention of angels in both Old and New Testament affirms that angels play a key, though mysterious, role in God’s Kingdom.
Angels (also called “cherubim” in some versions of Scripture) first appear as guardians to the closed gates of Eden (Genesis 3:24). They were messengers of God, often mysterious and shadowy. There is a mystique about angels that still fascinate many of us today.
Other passages describing angels in the Old Testament besides the aforementioned one in Genesis include an encounter between a named angel, Gabriel, who appears to Daniel as a mentor (Daniel 8:16) and another, named Michael, who appeared in Daniel’s prophecy as a warrior prince (Daniel 10:21). Gabriel would also later appear to Zechariah and Mary with special messages (Luke 1:19; 26). An angel of death appeared in Egypt during Moses’s time (during the Passover: Exodus 12:23) and angels constitute God’s heavenly council in Job 1-2.
Besides Gabriel’s appearance to Zechariah and Mary, angels in the New Testament appear most publicly to shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth, singing (Luke 2:8-14). Angels help Jesus through His forty days of temptation in the wilderness (Mark 1:13). The book of Acts reports that angels open prison doors (Acts 5:19; 12:7).
Angels are prominent in the letter to Hebrews as a benchmark of Jesus’ superiority, and humankind’s giftedness. The book of Revelation includes dramatic interventions of angels as the last days unfold and God’s kingdom nears its fulfillment. Clearly angels as described in the Bible are meant to be taken seriously.
Yet the situation is more complex. Angels are not always messengers of God, and in some Bible instances, they even oppose God. In Paul’s letter, fallen angels are the “principalities” and “powers” that wage spiritual warfare against believers (Ephesians 6:12). In Romans 8, often cited as the Bible’s greatest statement on hope, both angels and demons (Romans 8:38) are described by Paul as powerless to separate believers from God, so strong is the bond of love established by Jesus Christ. Jude mentions fallen angels as those who abandoned their home and surrendered their positions of heavenly authority (Jude 6).
The reputation of angels in the life of the church has closely followed cultural changes. Thomas Aquinas, for example, wrote of the logical necessity of angels, who then gained huge popularity in the liturgy and architecture of medieval churches. However, during the Reformation, the importance of angels was toned down to focus on the recovery of the Bible’s central person, Jesus, as Savior and God.
John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost was the high point of angels in Western literature. But the Enlightenment and the modern era favored more material explanations for events. As a consequence, angels have been relegated to myth, often depicted as chubby and childlike. This is far from how angels are described in the Bible. Angels are potent testaments that there is a spiritual world beyond our material world, and the dismissive modern attitudes of skeptics must reckon with the Bible’s forthright description of angelic appearance and action.
Note: This is an adaptation of an article from the book Big Ideas of the Bible, published by Barbour Publishing. Used by permission. For more about angels, please visit the following articles contributed by Dr. Yeo Teck Thiam:
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