It is quite common in Christianity to refer to angels as spirit beings. That is probably because of verses like Heb 1:7 “Who makes His angels spirits…,” Heb 1:14, “Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits…,” and Eph 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against…spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Gotquestions.org, which I often like and agree with, makes this bold (and false) statement in an article titled, “What does the Bible say about angels?”:
Angels are spirit beings (Hebrews 1:14) without true physical bodies. Although they do not have physical bodies, they are still personalities and occasionally take on physical bodies”(see here).
In his commentary on Revelation, Greg Beale draws conclusions about the lake of fire based on his understanding that Satan and his angels are spiritual beings: “The ‘lake of fire’ in Rev. 20:10 is not literal since Satan (along with his angels) is a spiritual being” (p. 1029).
His reasoning goes like this:
- Major premise: The lake of fire was made for Satan and fallen angels.
- Minor premise: Satan and fallen angels are spiritual, not physical, beings.
- Conclusion: The lake of fire doles out spiritual pain, not physical pain.
But what if angels, fallen and unfallen, have bodies––real bodies? After all, whenever they appear to human beings, they have bodies. Michael and Gabriel are recognizable. Satan is as well. Hebrews 13:2 speaks of people’s having “…unwittingly entertained angels.” In Genesis 18, two angels ate food with Abraham.
Angels have wings, eyes, faces, and bodies.
In addition to that, we know from Gen 6:1-8 and 2 Pet 2:4-5 that fallen angels had sexual relations with women with the result that they fathered children. See this article.
In fact, I think correct reasoning about the lake of fire is just the opposite of Beale’s:
- Major premise: The lake of fire was made for Satan and fallen angels.
- Minor premise: Satan and fallen angels have bodies.
- Conclusion: The lake of fire will dole out both physical and spiritual pain.
How, then can we explain Heb 1:7, 14 and Eph 6:12?
Hebrews 1:7 is quoting Ps 104:4. The expression “Who makes His angels spirits” can also be translated “Who makes His angels winds” (NIV, NASB). The point is not that angels are spirit beings or winds, but that they are created beings, and the Lord Jesus is not.
F. F. Bruce comments:
The fourth quotation, from Ps. 104 (LXX 103):4, relates to the place of angels in the divine administration of the universe, in order to show that, high as that place may be, it is far inferior to the position of supremacy given to the Son. The quotation here conforms to the Septuagint, and expresses an emphasis slightly different from the probable intention of the Hebrew text:
Who makes winds his messengers;
Flames of fire his ministers (Hebrews, p. 58).
Regardless of the translation, Heb 1:7 does not suggest that angels are disembodied spirits.
Bruce says concerning “ministering spirits” in Heb 1:14:
All of them, the highest angels as well as the lowest, are but servants of God, “ministering spirits” (a phrase which echoes the language of Ps. 104:4 as quoted above in v. 7), and not to be compared with the Son (Hebrews, pp. 64-65).
Once again, Heb 1:14 does not suggest that angels are disembodied spirits. Compare Heb 13:2, which mentions unwittingly entertaining angels.
In Ephesians 6:12, Paul wrote:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Paul used the expression flesh and blood to refer to humans, not to deny that angels have flesh and blood.
The expression spiritual hosts of wickedness means that they are evil spiritual warriors. Hoehner calls them “the spiritual Mafia”:
The struggle is not physical (against flesh and blood); it is a spiritual conflict against the spiritual “Mafia.” Though the ranks of satanic forces cannot be fully categorized, the first two (rulers and authorities) have already been mentioned in 1:21 and 3:10. Paul added the powers of this dark world (cf. 2:2; 4:18; 5:8) and the spiritual forces of evil. Their sphere of activity is in the heavenly realms, the fifth occurrence of this phrase, which is mentioned in the New Testament only in 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12. Satan, who is in the heavens (2:2) until he will be cast out in the middle of the Tribulation (Rev. 12:9–10), is trying to rob believers of the spiritual blessings God has given them (Eph. 1:3) (“Ephesians” in BKC, p. 643).
That the angels have abilities humans do not have is clear from Scripture. They are stronger and they seem to have the ability to fly from one place to another without a plane and without walking or moving along the ground.
Of course, angels have spirits, as do we. They are physical beings and they are spiritual beings. So are we. We are not simply physical beings! That is Paul’s point in Eph 6:12. We do not battle fallen angels physically. We battle them spiritually. That is why we must use spiritual weapons.
According to Genesis 1-2, things reproduce after their kind. For example, tigers and lions, though different species, are of the same kind. They can reproduce. Genesis 6:1-11 tells of a time when fallen angels had children with human women. We must be of the same kind, or reproduction could not have occurred.
Angels have true physical bodies. Though they are not human, they have much in common with us. But since they are not human, Christ did not shed His blood for them. They are not savable. The angels who fell had no later opportunity to be saved from the lake of fire. But they will not go there until after the Millennium. They are our spiritual foes. But greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)!
Keep grace in focus.
