Angels
In The Outfield
Part
3
From
Genesis to Revelation the angels of God are prominently mentioned, one hundred
and eight times in the Old Testament and one hundred and sixty five times
in the New Testament. They are seen throughout sacred history. Their activities
in heaven and on earth in the past are recorded in both Testaments, also their
future manifestations are prophetically revealed. There can, therefore, be
no question as to the existence of these supernatural beings for the infallible
Word of God speaks of them as real.
The sect of the Sadducees among the Jews did not believe in angels Acts 23:8. Modernism of today, the Twentieth Century Sadduceeism, also denies the existence of such a class of beings. Destructive criticism, which has given birth to Modernism, claims that the belief in angels must be traced to the period of the exile, when the Jews came in contact with Babylonian and Persian myths. Like so many other precious things in the Word of God, belief in angels is said to be of Babylonian origin. We do not follow these so-called "scholarly” inventions, which are aimed at the destruction of the Bible as our only authority. Over against all these denials we put but one witness, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
What
did He have to say about angels? He confirmed the teachings as to angels in the
Hebrew Scriptures. He spoke of them as real beings. In His kingdom parables He
mentions them as the reapers at the close of the age. He spoke of them as
associated with Him in His second coming. He rebuked Peter's action in
defending Him in the garden by a reference to angels, "Thinkest thou
that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels?" Mt.26:53. He described their very nature as
well as their interest in what is going on in the earth Lk. 15:10 and that in
the days of His kingdom they shall be seen ascending and descending upon the
Son of Man, Jn.1:5.
Modernism
gives an answer to these testimonies of our Lord, which dishonors Him in such a
manner that we cannot be in doubt as to the source from whence these infidel
theories emanate. They say that our infallible Lord, He who is the Truth,
mingled with His instructions the erroneous notions of those to whom they were
addressed. They claim, perhaps He knew, or perhaps He knew not, that angels
never existed, but He accommodated Himself to the beliefs current among the
Jews in His day. We add one more argument. Our blessed Lord, after His
resurrection, was exalted in His glorified humanity to a place above the
angels, receiving a more excellent name than they Heb.1:4. Now if angels are
only imaginary beings and do not exist, then we might conclude that His
exaltation and inheritance is also only imaginary and has no reality. Like
everything else in Modernism, the denial of angels strikes at the Deity and
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The
mythologies of nearly all the ancient nations speak of such beings. Babylonian
mythology pictured them as gods who conveyed messages from gods to men. Roman
and Greek mythology had its genii, semi-gods, fauns, nymphs and naiads, who
visited the earth. Hesiod, next to Homer, the earliest Greek poet, said:
"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth." Egypt and Eastern
nations believed in such super- natural, unseen creatures. The belief is
well-nigh universal.
Mythologies
are the faint and distorted echoes of a common primeval knowledge possessed by
the race. If such beings of a higher rank than man did not exist we would not
find them in the traditional beliefs of the nations of old.
The
Bible teaches that angels are a class of created beings above man. Man is made
a little lower than the angels Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7. This disposes of another
false conception. Some teach that believers 'who die, as well as children,
become angels. Man can never be an angel, for angels are forever distinct from
human beings. Man redeemed is not lifted in redemption to the dignity of an
angel, but in Christ man is carried into a higher rank than angels can ever
occupy.
When
were they created? The Bible gives no definite answer to this question. But
there is at least one passage from which we can learn by inference that they
were created in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. When
that beginning was, no scientist will ever discover by his research. Perhaps
millions of years before man was put here the earth existed in another
condition from what it is now. It must have been at the time of that original
creation, when God created the class of beings whom we call angels. All was
created by Him in the person of His Son, and for Him, including the invisible
things, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers Col. 1:16.
In
the beautiful words with which Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, we
find this hint as to the time when the angels came into being. “Where wast thou when I laid
earth's foundation? Tell me if thou knowest and hast understanding. Who set the measures
thereof? Dost thou know? Or who upon it stretched the measuring line? On what
were the foundations made to rest? Or who laid then the cornerstone, When the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? - Job 38:4-7. That Jehovah here refers to
creation is perfectly clear. They were, therefore, in existence when God laid
the foundation of the earth, when He first created. And as they beheld His
wonders in creation, they shouted for joy.
We
must not overlook the name given to them. They are called the Sons of God. Six
times we read of the Sons of God in the Old Testament and each time it means
these supernatural beings Gen. 6:2; Job. 1:6, 2:l, 38:7; Ps.
29-1. But it
must be noted that while angels are called Sons of God, they are never called
the Sons of the Lord. It is in the Hebrew always Bnai* Elohim (Elohim is
God's name as Creator) and never Bnai Jehovah. The Bnai Jehovah are
sinners redeemed and brought into the filial relationship by redemption. The Bnai
Elohim are unfallen beings, Sons of God by creation. The angels are the
Sons of God in the first creation; sinners saved by grace are the Sons of God
in the new creation.
Inasmuch
as they are sexless, according to the testimony of our Lord (they marry not
nor are they given in marriage - Matt. 22:30), and therefore do not
multiply as the human race does, they were all created at one time in the
beginning. Scripture informs us that their number is very large. Daniel, in one
of his night visions, saw them before the throne, "thousand thousands
ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him"
Dan. 7:10. John tells us of his vision, similar to Daniel's, "And I
beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the
living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times
ten thousand and thousands of thousands" Rev. 5:11. Heb. 11:22 speaks
also of "an innumerable company of angels" (literally:
myriads).
Multitudes of heavenly hosts appeared at the
birth of Christ, shouting once more for joy at the beginning of the new
creation Lk. 2:13. How large their number is only He knows whose name is
Jehovah-Zebaoth, the Lord of Hosts.
Scripture
indicates that in the angelic world, this vast kingdom of light and glory,
there are different grades and ranks. In Ephesians 1:21 and Col. 1:16 we read
of principalities, thrones, dominions and powers, which exist in this
unseen world. They are in the heavenlies.
We
also know there is an Archangel. Christendom speaks of archangels, and follows
certain traditional, apocalyptic views of different archangels, but in
Scripture only one archangel is seen. His name is Michael, which means, Who is
like God? His name occurs three times. In Daniel 12:1, where his special work
is mentioned in behalf of the remnant of Israel, here he is called the Great
Prince. In Jude, verse 9, where we hear of him contending with the devil
for the body of Moses, and in Rev. 12, where he appears as the victorious
leader of the heavenly hosts warring against Satan and his angels. His voice
will be heard when the Lord comes for His own I Thess. 4:17.
Then
we find Gabriel in Scripture. Gabriel means, The Mighty One. Both Jews and
Christians have also called him an archangel without any Scriptural foundation,
for he is never called by that name. He is a very august person. He, himself,
bears witness to his place in glory, for he said to Zechariah the ministering
priest, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" Lk.
1:19. From the throne of God he was commissioned (besides announcing the birth
of John the Baptist) to bring to earth two of the greatest messages which ever
left the courts of heaven. When Daniel prayed his great prayer of humiliation,
Gabriel was called upon to carry the answer to the praying prophet of God. So
swiftly did he pierce the immeasurable space that it took him but a few minutes
to reach Daniel and to interrupt his prayer Dan. 9:21-23.
But
the greatest of all the messages any angel ever carried to earth was the
message sent through Gabriel to the Virgin of Nazareth, announcing the coming
incarnation of the Son of God Luke 1:26-38.
The
Cherubim and Seraphim are angelic beings of a very high rank and are always
seen in connection with the throne of God. The Seraphim appear only in Isaiah's
temple vision (Isaiah 6). Ezekiel and John in the Apocalypse (as living
creatures, erroneously translated, "beasts") saw the Cherubim.
In the next lesson, I will
examine in the Scriptures as to the nature of the angels, their bodily forms,
their dwelling places, their ministries in the past, in the present, and their
wonderful relation to coming events and their future glorious display in the
age to come.
But suffice to say, as
powerful and as glorious as the angelic beings are in all their splendor and
wonder, the bible still says, concerning Christ Jesus: “Who being the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on High: Being made so much better than
the angels, as He hath obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which
of the angels said He at any time. Thou art My Son, this day hath I begotten
thee? And again, I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son? And
again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, And let
all the angels of God worship Him.” Jesus, is the matchless Son of the
living God.