Angels

Dickason’s book, “Angels: Elect and Evil” is a great resource of spiritual truth for the Christian Biblical scholar. As believers, we need to be familiar with what the Bible teaches about angels, demons and Satan, the head of the evil spirits. We also must be aware of their activities and great powers. The book clearly exposes their existence, origin, names, ranks and ministry and it concludes with a summary of the defeat of Satan and the believer’s defense against the demonic forces.

Many make the tragic and un-Scriptural mistake of thinking that Christ is the first and highest of all of God’s angelic creatures. The Bible is very clear when it talks about the nature of Christ and that of the angels. Scriptures such as Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1-3; John 10:30; John 14:8; John 8:58; Col. 1:17, 19; Rom.9:5 clearly state that Christ is eternal and equal to the Father, God Almighty. By no means is Christ a created being for that would destroy the Biblical teaching on the Trinity person of the Godhead and the eternality of God. Jesus is unique, eternally begotten of the Father without beginning or end. According to Col.2:9, Jesus is the complete and personal revelation of God the Father whereas angels were created in the image of God, implying they have a beginning point and were created by an outside source-God.

Angels are spirit beings whose office is to do service to the Father and Son in heaven and by His command to intervene in man’s affairs upon the earth. They are messengers of God and are not to be worshipped or prayed to. Another thing to be noticed concerning angels is that they are not assigned dominion in the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus said in 1Cor.6:3 that we will reign with Him over the angelic host and judge them.

The nature of man is also different from that of angels for the reason of our own frailty and limitations. In Heb. 2:5-7 mankind is described as “a little lower than the angels”. The different services angels do may further support this distinction between them and humans. Angels are sent to minister to redeemed men who are the inheritors of salvation. They are greater in intelligence, strength, speed and are not subject to death like all other men.

The Scriptures communicate that there are several special classes of angelic beings: