Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Do angels have actual physical bodies? Angels are spirit beings, yet many times we see them manifested physically, so do they have actual physical bodies? That is our question for today. This is Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. And today we invite you to explore our online seminary, Grace Evangelical Seminary, where you can earn an MDiv degree. One of the courses that you can take there is Angelology. So go through the application process and get ready to study with us in the fall. That’s Grace Evangelical Seminary. Find out more at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s topic about angels, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: All right, welcome back everyone. I’m here once again with Philippe Sterling and we’re talking again about angels. Everything you wanted to know about angels were afraid to ask. If you are interested in this, Philippe’s teaching a course on Angelology starting in August, so it’s free to sign up for it, if you’re interested, it’s an online course. We’ll have people from around the world taking that course. 

Well, let’s talk a little bit about the nature of angels. What can we say about angels? We know they’re called spirits in Scripture. 

PHILIPPE: They are ministering spirits sent to render aid, in Heb 1:14, “to those who will inherit salvation”, which [unintelligible] specifically to those who will rule with Christ.

BOB: Those who will be the metochoi.

PHILIPPE: The metochoi in that passage. 

BOB: Okay. So, but even though they’re called ministering spirits, they have bodies, right? Don’t they have bodies every time we see them appearing? I mean, some of them have wings. Maybe all of them have, do all angels have wings? 

PHILIPPE: There appears to be categories, you know, of angels and some of the named categories of angels are described as having wings. 

BOB: Okay. What does that have wing? 

PHILIPPE: Well, the seraphim, for example, that all cited in Isaiah chapter 6. 

BOB: I was wondering if that was Isaiah 6 where he sees these angels and they’ve got wings.

PHILIPPE: They have six wings in their case. 

BOB: The cherubs have wings too, right? When you’ve got the ark of the covenant, above it isn’t there this huge cherub with the long wings? 

PHILIPPE: Yeah. Now, the, the first citation to cherubim occurs in Genesis chapter 3, because Yahweh, Elohim, appoints cherubim to guard the way into—

BOB: Oh, so they won’t go back in. 

PHILIPPE: But they’re not described for us in that passage, but in the making of the ark of the covenant and then later on, even they, the cherubim in the first temple, the Solomonic temple, you know, have wings. So, the cherubim then are described, you know, definitely as having wings. And then there’s another group of angels talked about in Ezekiel chapter 1, and in Revelation chapter 4, and they’re just called four living creatures. And there are— 

BOB: which may not be a cherubim or a seraphim. And by the way, just real quick before we get into the four living creatures, the “im” ending is plural in Hebrew, right? So, seraphim is the plural of seraph. Yes. Multiple seraphs are a seraphim, one cherub, but many cherubim, right? Or Elohim, also is a plural. It’s a plural of majesty, most would say, El is God, but Elohim is the plural. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. And in Ezekiel 28, there is this personage that is called the anointed cherub. 

BOB: And does the anointed cherub refer to Lucifer? 

PHILIPPE: Right. It’s Lucifer. I think, Ezekiel 28 does indicate the fall of Lucifer. Now, Lucifer is how he’s called in Isaiah chapter 14, but here it’s simply that it’s the anointed cherub. That’s the power behind the king of Tyre. That says, “you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the Garden of God”, and so forth. Verse 14, this is Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 14, “you were the anointed cherub, who covers, I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you.” So this anointed cherub, perfect, created, but then iniquity was found in him. And I think Isaiah 14 then describes, just the pride aspects of that. 

BOB: Yes. And don’t we have from the book of Revelation that one third of the angels joined in Satan’s rebellion, so that a third of the angels were cast down, even though there’s some sense in which they were cast down from the third heaven, we know from Job 1 and 2 that fallen angels were permitted to go in the presence of God. At least Lucifer was, because in Job 1 and 2, he’s there, but doesn’t it say a third of the angels there? 

PHILIPPE: This will be in Revelation chapter 12, it says, “And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them.” And they were cast down to the earth, but it talks about his rebellion and the fact that he took a third of the angels with him. But the two-thirds who did not participate in that rebellion, then I think were confirmed then never to fall. 

BOB: So you have one third of the angels falling and we call those fallen angels and we’ll talk later about demons, but it’s probably not accurate to say that demons are fallen angels. Demons are probably a different category of being, but will— 

PHILIPPE: Genesis 6, I think, gives us some insight. 

BOB: But that’s a fascinating study all in itself. 

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BOB: So you’ve got a third of the angels falling and those angels, there’s no salvation for them. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for them. So once they fell, their eternal destiny is set on the lake of fire. 

PHILIPPE: They’re confirmed in that state forever and the lake of fire was created, of course we know, from the statement that’s made at the judgment of the sheep and goats, the lake of fire was prepared for Satan and his angels. 

BOB: Yeah it wasn’t created for humans, and humans only get to go there if they decide to line up with Satan and his rebellion, that is, if they’re going to reject the free gift of eternal life through Messiah, Who died in the cross and Whose blood made them all saveable—”Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” If they reject this gift of life, well then they’re ultimately siding with the satanic rebellion and by the way you’ve already mentioned the names of some angels. We have Michael, right? and we have Satan or Lucifer but there’s also— 

PHILIPPE: There’s Gabriel and Gabriel seems to be a type of angel different than Michael because Michael is actually named an Archangel. 

BOB: “Arch” in Greek means ruler? So an Archangel is a ruling angel? 

PHILIPPE: A ruling angel, apparently a ruling angel over other angels and in Revelation 12, it’s again, it’s Michael and his angels, you know, fighting against the dragon and his—

BOB: And the dragon is Satan. 

PHILIPPE: And the dragon is Satan. 

BOB: So you’ve got at least three named angels and they look different, right? In other words, Michael looks like Michael, Gabriel looks like Gabriel and they appear over time in the Scriptures, right? 

PHILIPPE: Right, Gabriel first appears to Daniel which would have been somewhere between 586 and 520. And he appears several times to Daniel. And 550 years later, this Gabriel appears to Mary, and he’s still Gabriel. 

BOB: He’s not aging. 

PHILIPPE: He’s not aging.

BOB: And he’s not a different appearance. 

PHILIPPE: But he has recognizable form. 

BOB: So even if we call the angel spirit beings, let me read you a quick quote from GotQuestions.org which I—I generally like GotQuestions.org except when they get into their Calvinism. But here they have an article, “What does the Bible say about angels?” And they say, “Angels are spirit beings without true physical bodies. Although they do not have physical bodies, they are still personalities and occasionally take on physical bodies.” There’s not an example anywhere in the Bible where an angel is without a body. They always have bodies. 

PHILIPPE: And when they appear, they have bodies.  And they’re able to eat and to drink. Certainly when they appeared with the pre-incarnate Christ, 

BOB: In Genesis 18, 

PHILIPPE: In Genesis 18 to Abraham,

BOB: Before Sodom and Gomorrah, these three angels appear, he feeds them.  And the two angels, along with the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, they all eat food.

PHILIPPE: Yeah, they all eat food. And then when two of them go to Sodom, they literally grab hold of Lot and his daughters to drag them out. Again, just like Jesus was able to eat food, even in His glorified state, angels are able to do that. And when we talk about Genesis 6, at least until they were not permitted to do that any longer, and those that did are confined, but they were able to marry with women and have children, and procreate. 

BOB: Yeah. So we’re going to get into that in the next episode, because I’m sure we’ve got people who are pulling the car off to the side of the road going, wait a minute, what does Genesis 6 say? 

Actually, there is a theory, which I think is much more than a theory in light of both Genesis 6 and in light of 2 Peter chapter 2, that angels in the past, no longer longer does God allow this, procreated with women and had offspring. And that some of the mythology we have today, you know, like Hercules and Thor and all this stuff, it probably dates back to the fact that these offspring were a special class of half human, half fallen angels, and they had more strength and more power than typical humans. 

All right, well, very good. So I think the thing we need to realize is angels are actual beings. They have personalities. They have appearances. They look different. 

PHILIPPE: They have individual names. 

BOB: And we only know three names, but evidently they all have names. We’re going to talk about the number and all that as we go on in the future, but there are lots of them. And two-thirds of them have been sealed in a state of holiness and we’ll be interacting with those two-thirds for all of eternity. 

PHILIPPE: They will be serving the Lord, but they will be serving us and assisting us in our service to the Lord. 

BOB: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks so much, Philippe, and thank you to y’all and remember, let’s all keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be our guest and subscribe to our 48-page magazine, six issues per Year, also called Grace in Focus. It’s free by emailing your name and snail mail address to GES@faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. Maybe you’ve got a question or comment or feedback. If so, please send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. And when you do, please make sure your question is as succinct and clear as possible. That would be a great big help. 

On our next episode, did fallen angels procreate with women in Genesis 6? Come back and join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.