God’s Special Agents: Angels

Introduction

1. Good Angels

1.1. The Origin of the Angels

1.2. The Angels’ Appearance

1.3. The Angels’ Capacities and Powers

1.4. Difficult term of Angels

1.5. The Angels Activities

2. Evil Angels

2.1. The Origin of Demons

2.2. The Chief of the Demons

2.3. Activities of Demons

2.4. Demon Possession

2.5. The Destiny of Satan and the Demons

3. Evaluation

Conclusion

Bibliography
Introduction

The Bible portrays the acts of Angels in many parts. But no man has ever seen Angels

today. Therefore, man has no clue about the Angels unless he/she is taught from the

scriptures. Thus, this presentation paper attempts to give a concise and precise explanation

about the Angels specifically their origin, appearance, deeds and so forth.

1. Good Angels

1.1. The Origin of the Angels

The origin of Angels is precisely seen nowhere in the Bible, even the creation account

doesn’t give about it (Gen. 1-2). But it is true that they were created by God(Col. 1:6) before

the man was created (Job 38:7).

1.2. The Angels’ Appearance

In most cases unless a person’s eye is open by God, no man can see Angels (Num.

22:31; 2Kgs. 6:17). Sometimes the glory of the Lord shines from people (Luke 2:9; 9:26;

Matt. 28:3 cf. Ezek. 1:13; Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:14 &19:12) and sometimes they appeared in the

form of humans (Gen. 18:2, 16:22; 19:1, 5, 10, 15-16).

1.3. The Angels’ Capacities and Powers

The angels are represented as personal beings. They have intelligence and will (2

Sam. 14:20; Rev. 22:9). They are moral creatures; some being characterized as holy (Matt.

25:31; Mk. 8:38; Lk. 1:26; Acts 10:22; Rev. 14:10), while others, who have fallen away, are

described as lying sinning.

1.4. Difficult term of Angels

Genesis 6:2 stresses that “sons of God” took wives from among the daughters of men.

Some scholars suggest that these are the Angels of God who mated with human women to

produce a race of mighty men. Some scholars also delineate that these are the fallen Angels.

But if these are Angels either good or bad Angels, then it is contrary to what Jesu taught

Angels (Matt. 22:30).

1.5. The Angels Activities

There are mainly five activities what Angels have to:

 Angels continually praise and glorify God (Job 38:7; Psalm 103:20; 148:2; Rev.

5:11-12; 7:11; 8:1-4). It usually takes place in heaven but one time on earth when

Jesus was born, “glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:13-14).

 Angels reveal and communicate God’s message to man (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb.

2:2). They are particularly involved as mediators of the law.

 Angels minister to believers. They protect believers from harms (Acts 5:19; 12:6-11;

Pss. 34:7; 91:11; Luke 15:10; Heb. 1:14; 1 Cor. 11:10).

 Angels execute judgment upon the enemies of God. The brought death to 185,000

Assyrians (2Kgs. 19:35) and to the children of Israel until the Lord told him to stay

his hand at Jerusalem (2 Sam. 24:16). It was the Angel who delivered the Israelites

and destructed Egyptians (Exod. 14:19-20) at the Red sea. It was also the Angel who

killed hero (Acts 12:23).

 The Angels will be involved in the second coming. They will accompany the Lord at

His return (Matt. 25:31). They will separate the believers and unbelievers (Matt.

13:39-42). Christ will send forth the Angels with a loud trumpet call to gather the

elect from the four winds (Matt. 24:31; cf. 1 Thess. 4:16-17).
2. Evil Angels

2.1. The Origin of Demons

There is no specific scripture to give regarding the evil Angel’s origin. But by noting

2 Peter 2:4 & Jude 6, we can say that evil Angels are also created at the time good Angels

were created.1These two scriptures delineate that God didn’t spare the Angels when they

sinned, but committed them to pits.

2.2. The Chief of the Demons

Satan is considered as chief of the demons. He has many names such as tempter

(Matt. 4:3; 1 Thess. 3:5), Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24), evil one (Matt. 13:19), deceiver (Rev.

12:9), murderer (John 8:4), sinner (1 John 3:8), father of lies (John 8:44), and adversary (1

Pet. 5:8). The primary means used by Satan is deception (2 Cor. 11:14-15; Rev. 12:9; 20:8,

10).

2.3. Activities of Demons

The main activity of Satan is to oppose the spiritual progress of God’s people (Eph.

6:12). He also inflicts disease: dumbness (Mark 9:17), deafness and dumbness (Mark 9:25).

blindness and deafness (Matt. 12:22), convulsions (Mark 1:26; 9:20; Luke 9:39) and paralysis

(Acts 8:7).

2.4. Demon Possession

A person who is possessed by demon has a demon/unclean spirit (Acts 8:7) /evil spirit

(Acts 19:12), has an unusual strength (Mark 5:2-4), and may engage in self-destructive

behaviour (Matt. 17:15).

1
See the origin of the Angels in 1.1.
2.5. The Destiny of Satan and the Demons

Revelation 12 portrays a war in heaven between, on one side, Michael and his Angels

andon the other, Satan and his angels, a war that results in being Satan’s being thrown down

from heaven to earth, and then attacking Christ and the Church. Revelation 20 delineates that

will be bound for 1,000 years (v2) and then release for a time before being cast into the lake

of fire forever (v. 10; Matt. 25:41).

3. Evaluation

It is factual that Angels are powerful and they are unseen agents of God to help the

believers (Ps. 91:11). Unless human inner eyes are open by God, no man can see Angels (2

Kgs. 6:17) or appeared themselves to man (Gen. 18:2; 19:1-11).They were seen during the

Bible time but not today. The good Angels serve God without failure and praise Him while

evil Angels deceive the believers and against God.

Conclusion

As this paper has dealt about the Angels, it is precisely seen in this paper that there are

two types of Angels –good and evil. However, both the good and evil Angels are created

beings, but don’t have physical bodies like human beings. They were created before man was

created (Job 38:7).They were created to be the special agents for God, but some Angels were

thrown due to disobedience to God and they are later known as fallen Angels/ evil Angels.

Now the good Angels are with God while evil Angels are cast down to pit and will be put to

eternal fire one day because of their disobedience.

Bibliography

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Michigan: Baker Academic, 1998.