About Angels

This article originally appeared on Beliefnet in 2002.

Have you noticed? Angels are everywhere you look--on television, and in stores, movies, and magazines. A 1994 Gallup poll found that 72% of Americans believe angels exist; and 76% of teens and people under 21 believe in the heavenly hosts. For Christians, the figure is 83%, with 89% of Catholics expressing belief in God’s angels.

But where do we get our information about these celestial beings? In 1990, there were only eight books in print on angels. In his 1975 book," Angels, God’s Secret Agents," Billy Graham wrote that he had never heard a sermon about angels. Most people today, even regular churchgoers, have not heard one either.

For many people, all they know about angels is what they have learned from movies and television programs. When my wife and I give talks about angels, we ask if anyone can name the angel in the classic film starring Jimmy Stewart, "It’s a Wonderful Life." The majority of the audiences correctly respond, "Clarence." But when we ask for the names of three angels mentioned in the Bible, few are able to come up with the answer. (In the Protestant Bible, the angels named are Michael, Gabriel, and Satan, the fallen angel. The Catholic Apocrypha books also include Raphael.) Today's AQ (Angel Quotient) does not include much information from the historic Judeo-Christian view.

The Mainstream Christian View of Angels
The following are several of the basic beliefs that have been held by Christians throughout the centuries.

God created angels as angels (Colossians 1:16). They have never been anything else. People do not become angels when they die. We do not know how many angels there are, but the Bible refers to them as an innumerable company (Hebrews 12:22).

God created the angels as spirit beings (Psalm 104:4). Because they are spirits, they are unseen by human eyes. An angel takes on a form that can be seen temporarily if this will help an angel do his assigned task on earth. In the Bible, angels are highly diverse in appearance. They are usually so awesome when they appear that their first words are, "Fear not." Angelic appearances in the Scriptures include being seen as a bright light, fire, having wings (but never a halo), or like an ordinary person. As spirit beings, angels are not only invisible but also immortal. They never get sick or die. They are without gender as we know it, being neither male nor female, and they do not marry (Matthew 22:28-30).

Continued on page 2: What 'jobs' do angels have? »