Just wrote this article today because I was encourage by a thought that God gave me when my fiance’ made a comment about me being “an angel”. Although I knew she was using a “figure of speech” the comment reminded me of a very encouraging idea that is spoken about in the scriptures.
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” Heb 1:14 … And in the context of that scripture in Heb 1:14 I also starting looking at the ‘other things’ that angels are listed as in the scriptures.
My friend Daniel started teaching me about the Greek words that represented “angel” a few months ago. And I’ve always wanted to visit this topic again since then. I was able to find the following information in a couple of good references. My references by the way are an article at Belief.net and another article at Catholic.org .
What are angels? An angel is a pure spirit created by God. The Old Testament theology included the belief in angels: the name applied to certain spiritual beings or intelligences of heavenly residence, employed by God as the ministers of His will. The English word “angel” comes from the Greek angelos, which means ‘messenger’. In the Old Testament, with two exceptions, the Hebrew word for “angel” is malak, also meaning ‘messenger’. The prophet Malachi took his name from this word. He was himself a messenger, and he prophesied about the coming of “the messenger of the covenant”, Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1).
Although the word “angel” in the Bible, meaning a messenger, nearly always applies to heavenly beings, it can occasionally apply to human messengers. Malachi himself said a priest was a messenger (malak) of the LORD of hosts (Malachi 2:7), and in the Book of Revelation the elders of the seven churches of Asia were called angels (1:20; 2:1 etc.). But when we meet messengers doing supernatural things, there is no doubt they are heavenly beings – God’s messengers, working for Him and for the ultimate benefit of mankind.
And by the way it was this article that got me going on this research in the first place. All of this was very encouraging to think that such amazing creatures, so intimate in their workings with God, have been sent to be spirits that “minister” to us that have been selected to inherit salvation.
