HUMAN ANGELS/MESSENGERS
In ancient mythology, angels are depicted as supernatural spiritual beings who mediate between God and men in a variety of ways. This characterization of angels has been adopted more or less intact by contemporary religions including Christianity and Judaism. The fact that contemporary theology of angels closely imitates ancient mythology is our first clue that they are not what contemporary religionists imagine them to be.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Egypt, Babylon and Canaan  for review of the origins of mythology present in Judaism and Christianity.

Our purpose in this series of pages is to demonstrate through scripture that angels are nothing more or less than human messengers. If we can accept that angels are not supernatural beings with wings flying around heaven and earth delivering messages and helping people who are in trouble, we are still left with the challenge of understanding what they are and what they do in God’s terms. In other words, we need to know what angles symbolize in spiritual terms. What we will show is that they are humans with unique spiritual functions.

The short, simple explanation is that they are ordinary, flesh and blood people. They are not ordinary, however, in the respect that the spirit of the living God lives within them. They are, as we have claimed above, New Covenant disciples who understand and practice Pure Religion. They were once Old/First Covenant religionists who practiced Defiled Religion but whose eyes have been opened so that they can now see the light.

Those who live in darkness still see angels as supernatural beings. Being in the spiritual darkness, these Old/First Covenant religionists will not easily accept the truth that angels are mere mortal men. One good way to help break the power of that imagery is to look at the many scriptures in which it is clear that Mal’ak are flesh and blood people who function as messengers in both the Old Testament and New Testament.

In reading those stories we see that some messenger/angels are sent by Godly people for Godly purposes. These angels are also called true prophets, messiahs, high priests and warriors. They are anointed by God to speak on his behalf to Old/First Covenant religionists whose habit is to listen to false prophets. The most notable Biblical examples of such angels are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jesus, Paul and John, but there were many others.

People who are sent by God are angels of the Lord because God has sent them and God speaks through them. These are to be differentiated from other angels/messengers/prophets who speak for themselves for selfish, ungodly purposes.

Those who are not angels of the Lord cannot be called angels of the Lord because God has not sent them and has not put his words in their mouths. They are messengers who are convinced that they speak for God but who really speak worldly wisdom and religious knowledge based on the literal words of the Bible — not on God’s spoken voice..

It could be said also that prophets not sent by God are fallen angels and false prophets.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See False Prophets, Pharisees and Scribes, and Shepherds, Priests and Sheep, and Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists for discussion about people who pretend to speak for God but who are only speaking out of the imaginations of their own minds. God says that we should not listen to these people.

Whether for good or bad, all those sent, whether by God or man, are Mal’ak and could have been translated as either angels or messengers. It would be wrong to conclude, therefore, that Mal’ak are always the imaginary spiritual beings commonly pictured in Biblical stories. And it would also be wrong to conclude that these mythical beings exist today as objects worthy of worship or attention.

It is correct to say, however, that Mal’ak are still at work in modern times delivering messages and doing works for good or evil.

Those doing works for good are New Covenant disciples. Serving quietly and unobtrusively, they can be said to be “in the spirit” because everything they do shows that they are directed by the spirit of God. Unlike Old/First Covenant religionists whose religious activities can always be seen and usually anticipated because they operate according to established religious laws, works done by New Covenant disciples are, by their very nature, invisible because they are spiritual. The results of their works exist only in hearts that only God can see.

The distinction between what can be seen and what is spirit is critical to the understanding of angels. First, the thing about angels that makes them so attractive is that angel theology creates relatively clear images of what they look like and what they do. These images are reinforced in Bible stories for Old/First Covenant religionists who read the Bible literally. New Covenant disciples, on the other hand, do not see images of physical angels when they read about messengers. Rather, they see New Covenant disciples speaking on God’s behalf to Old/First Covenant religionists who are lost in darkness.