INTRODUCTION
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David. The virgin's name was Mary."
--Luke 1:26-27, NIV
Today we will look at some of the aspects of the Christian doctrine of Angels and their continued role in Christianity and humanity in general.
We will discuss the origin of Angels and likewise Demons, their role in both the New and Old Testament and lastly we will discuss the activity of angels in spiritual warfare.
Concluding that angels and demons were created by God, acting as ministers sent by a loving and divine God to oversee and participate in world events and to reveal our eternal salvation through Jesus Christ.
THE ORIGIN AND ROLE OF ANGELS AND DEMONS
So that we know what we are talking about let’s begin with a definition. Angels are typically knows as benevolent celestial beings created by God that act as an intermediaries between heaven and earth, and figure prominently in Christianity.
The creation of the most influential Christian angelic hierarchy is attributed to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, who was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century.
In his book De Coelesti Hierarchia Pseudo-Dionysius (The Celestial Hierarchy) he drew on passages from the New Testament, specifically Ephesians 1:21 and Colossians 1:16, in an attempt to develop a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs which resulted in
First sphere consisting of: 1. Seraphim, the highest ranking class of angels closest to the throne of God. 2. Cherubim, 3. Thrones
Second sphere consisting of: 4...
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It would seem from some of the biblical encounters recorded that angels have an active role in our eternal salvation whether it be defeating opposing rebel forces that we are unaware off, or simply delivering messages from God.
There definitely seems to be a complexity of organization and unknowable mysteries that may take an extensive amount of time to understand.
In researching the long established ideas about angels that have been a part of Christianity the spiritual world no longer seems black and white, instead there is an entire grey area open to be explored, this grey area is another subject entirely, but in researching the complexity of the spiritual world some questions have been answered, but many have been formed.
Bibliography
NIV Holy Bible
Wikipedia.org – ( Pseudo – Denys) background information and The Celestial Hierarchy.
Is there life out there in the great beyond? It is a question that many of us have asked, but there is no real answer, no tangible evidence to validate the existence of other intelligent beings. All we have are so-called experiences that earthly people have had with these beings, like me. I remember, as a child, I stayed awake late one night. I was lying in bed admiring the stars outside my window when I saw a bright light in the distance. It moved in impossible ways I could not explain, even to this day. It was only for a moment, but the memory of this unexplainable phenomena has stayed with me ever since. If there are other intelligent beings like us living in distant worlds, how do we explain their standing in religious history? Are they gods or angels? Are they our creators? In decades past, people who claim to have had ufological experiences have banded together to create religious societies in their quest to become closer to extraterrestrial life. While all of these societies support different views on UFOs and religion, all have one common belief – there is life out there and they are real and powerful beings far more advanced than humans in technology and psychic abilities. Throughout this research paper, I will establish how some of these religious societies were formed, and describe in detail how their belief system works and why they are considered religious in nature.
The term angel derives from a Greek translation of the Hebrew word mal'akh, which first meant "Shadow side of God," and now means messenger (Jeremiah 59). Angels as an article of faith have become an unshakeable part of our society. One in every ten popular songs involves angels in some way (Freeman 2). They appear in paintings and in museums as sculptures. Our culture is filled with angels that appear on clothing, cards, or as souvenirs, and jewelry. It would be reasonable to assume that one might find the most information about angels in the Christian bible. However , the bible only mentions three angels by name and actually contains very little information about these beings. Almost all of the information we have about angelic attributes comes from the three great Chronicles of Enoch. In these chronicles Enoch describes his journey to the ten Heavens where he saw angels in heaven's penal and punishment area, punishing sinners. His view was that hell existed in small pockets that were distributed throughout heaven. This view was not consistent with the later Church that believed heaven and hell were two separate places. Because of this, St. Jerome declared these texts apocryphal (Godwin 9). However, a lot of material from these chronicles appears in the New Testament. Though much of what we know currently about what angels are and what they do is based on misconception and myth, the concern of this paper is with the genus Angelus Occidentalis. This is the term used to describe a number of angelic species and sub-species in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (Godwin 7). The term angel describes not only the benevolent forces of heaven but also the malevolent forces of hell. When Lucifer fell from ...
The Bible contains many stories of people having an encounter with angels. An encounter alludes to an unexpected meeting. The word “angel” is a transliteration from the Hebrew word “mal’ak” in the Old Testament (Strong’s H4397) and the Greek word “angelos” in the New Testament (Strong’s G32). Both words mean “messenger” and describes one who executes the plan and will of the person whom they serve.
As men fought their wars against one another, the Angels, unknown of by man, were fighting in their own war above them, in the vast sky the Angels refer to as Heaven. The Angels fought with weapons unknown to man, as they had to be powerful enough to kill an angel of Heaven. The Angels who fought for freedom, known as The Brotherhood of Angel Steel, fought against those who wanted control in Heaven, known as The Overseers. The Overseers wanted to take control of Heaven ever since God had left, while the Brotherhood wanted to keep the order of Heaven as God had left it. The Overseers were very powerful, but The Brotherhood had ways of getting around them. For centuries, the Angels fought against one another, for as long as the Overseers lived, Heaven would not be safe. Then one fateful day a new angel was born. This newborn, named Cassander, would turn out to be the most important angel in Heaven.
In the short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the overtone of it is that they do not care and are not phased by the fact that he may be an angel. They brush it off and keep him locked up like a wild animal, “and before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop” (page 354). Every time they spoke about the angel they sounded as if he was not a real being, complaining of his presence as if it were an unwanted pest in the house. The tone is jaded and unconvinced, making the whole story seem as if it were only a minor inconvenience.
To his dismay, he is unimpressed, accusing the old man, “who looked more like a huge decrepit hen,” (Marquez, 2) as imposturous. This statement suggests the appearance of the “angel” was the least of what the priest had expected. To him, “…nothing about [the old man] measured up to the proud dignity of angels,” (Marquez, 2), as he surveyed the worn and grimy feathers of the old man’s wings. He concluded “that if wings were not the essential element in determining the difference between a hawk and an airplane, they were even less so in the recognition of angels,” (Marquez, 3). In conclusion, the priest supposes that the old man is rather a fake than what he'd believed real angels
By far the most fascinating aspect of this great work by Milton is the way in which he pulls the angels out of time so as to give them a spiritual journey of a sort. The fact that one can now see Lucifer as a main character, unchained from the lack of time and place, who is now allowed to show an amount of character development that any story of this magnitude would inherently require. Angels have always been much of an enigma, and the fact that they cannot change from what they are after their initial decision - to either follow God or not – means they never seem human enough to understand. It is known from Genesis that some angels, with Lucifer at their lead, fell from heaven, but why?
David Almond has thoroughly and clearly displayed the theme. Unanswered question always leaves a person’s imagination whirring with theories, belief and disbelief. We can only imagine what angels look like, but what they do is clear. Most people use their ideas and dreams to make their world better by turning them into reality. So dream, the world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
As a Christian an angel is represented as supernatural being from heaven, someone close to God. Angels are often visualized as beautiful winged people. As for the wings, it represents freedom and are generally white”, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Marquez did not follow this cultural belief. The story revolves around an old sickly angel who was founded by Pelayo in the courtyard. When reading deeper into this story many questions came rushing to my mind. One important question in which I must state is “What was going through the angel mind?” I have two hypotheses; first one is that the angel felt like a captive animal for society enjoyment. Second is, he felt as though he was not giving credit for the little “magic” he had brought
Included in Old Testament theology is the belief in angels. Devotion to the angels and in particular, to St. Michael, dates to the very early beginnings of the Church. An angel is a pure spirit created by God and it is given to certain spiritual beings or intelligences of heavenly residence. “Angel" comes from the Greek angelos, which means 'messenger'.
It is thus that the angels will embark on their first manifestation on Earth in history. which will lead to all those cited by Milton, and the Fall of Man. Works Cited and Consulted The Bible. The Bible. The Bible Daiches, David.
Once upon a time. Satan the devil was an Angel. Some say that his former position in Heaven was equivalent to a modern day Choir Director. Satan was in charge of leading the praise and worship to God. Satan became greedy for power and led a rebellion to over throw God. Satan was relieved of his duties, and dis-fellowshipped from the Angelic ranks.
The doctrine of angels is called “Angelology” which is one of the ten major categories of theology and angels are a part of those ten studies. Scholars have many views about angels