What does the Bible say about angels?

Answer 1

The Bible indicates that they are spiritual beings, being neither male nor female.

According to Genesis, the Angels are certainly male 6:2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Answer 2

The Bible describes angels as heavenly messengers who either deliver messages to humans, carry out God's will, praise God, are members of God's army, or guard God's throne. Often angels appear as ordinary men but do things or appear in a fashion clearly non human (Genesis 16:7-11; 19:13,24; Exodus 3:2; Numbers 22:23;Judges 6:21; 13:20; Mark 16:5; John 20:12). Angels are created beings.

Matthew 18:10 and some other passages which assign protective roles to angels imply that a heavenly counterpart represents each person in heaven. For example, Michael, angelic prince over Israel (Daniel 10:13), and angels of specific churches (Daniel 10:13; Acts 12:15; Revelation 1:20; 2-3). The term guardian angel, however, is not biblical, and the idea is at best only implied in these passages.

Angels functioned in revealing the will of God and/or announcing key events (Gen.19:1-22; Ex. 3:2-6; Judges 2:1-5; 13:2-23; Matthew 1:20-24); ensuring the well being or survival of God's people (Exodus 14:19-20; 1 Kings 19:1-8; Matthew 4:11; Acts 12:7-110; and enforcing the wrath of God on the wicked Jews and Gentiles (Genesis 19:12-13; 2 Samuel 2:17; 2 Kings 19:35). Hebrews offers a lengthy contrast between Jesus and the angels (Hebrews 1:3-2:16).

Angels played an important role in the life of Jesus.

• An angel announced the birth of John (Luke 1:11-17).
• An angel named Him (Luke 1:13).
• An angel foretold to Mary the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:26-37).
• An angel foretold to Joseph the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21).
• Angels announced to shepherds the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:8-15).
• They sang hallelujahs (Luke 2:13-14).
• An angels directed the Child's flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13,20).
• Angels ministered to Jesus at His temptation (Matthew 4:11).
• An angel came to Jesus at Gethsemane (Luke 22:43).
• An angel rolled away the stone at His tomb (Matthew 28:2).
• Two angels presented Him to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-14).

Jesus said a good deal about angels.

• He saw angels ascending and descending upon Him (John 1:51).
• He could have 12 legions of angels deliver Him (Matthew 26:53).
• Angels will come with Him (Matthew 25:31; 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26).
• Angels will be the reapers (Matthew 13:39).
• Angels will gather the elect (Matthew 24:31).
• Angels will separate the wicked from the righteous (Matthew 13:4,49).
• Angels carried the beggar to Abraham's side (Luke 16:22).
• Angels rejoice over the repentance of sinners (Luke 15:10).
• Little children have angels that watch over them (Matthew 18:10).
• Jesus will confess His people before the angels (Luke 12:8).
• Angels have no gender and cannot die (Luke 20:35-36; Matthew 22:30).
• The Devil has angels (Matthew 25:41).

Angels play a large part in directing the panorama and scenery of the visions, and in the writing of the Book of Revelation. Altogether there are 27 additional references to their activities.

Angels in the Bible are the spirit creatures who are assigned various tasks by their creator. When presented in visions, they often took the form of powerful, winged men.

Answer 3

The Bible teaches us some mind-boggling things about the angels... if we could only bring ourselves to believe it.

Angels are "spirit beings: "...let all the angels of God worship Him. And of the angels He saith,, Who maketh His ANGELS SPIRITS, and His MINISTERS a flame of fire." (Heb.1:6-7)

There are "ranks" and "echelons" of angels, evidently, as Cherubim (pronounced, Kar- oo- bim) and Seraphim (Isa.6:2) are mentioned and described as four-winged and six-winged angels, respectively. Who knows how many other types there may be, although the Bible appears silent about that.

The first mention of the Cherubim (plural, the KJV uses an [s] at the end unnecessarily) is in the garden of Eden, to keep men from accessing the Tree of Life, following their expulsion.

"So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and A FLAMING SWORD WHICH TURNED EVERY WAY, to keep the way of the Tree of Life." (Gen.3:24)

I picture a "Jedi-like" laser sword flashing back and forth.

These Cherubim would have been a daily spectacle among the generations of men for more than a thousand years, until the flood removed them from earth... along with the Tree of Life... which he won't see again until New Jerusalem descends from heaven onto the New Earth:

"...he shewed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life... and the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev.22:1-2)

It's little wonder that the cultures that developed on this side of the flood have Cherubim-like features in their architecture, like the faces of lions, eagles, oxen and men? (see: Ezek.10)

In fact, angels seem to show up at a moment's notice throughout the Bible... and most people seemed to take it in stride without a whole lot of panic. Fear, yes... panic, no.

"...there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them..." (Gen.19:1).

"...there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord... and when Zacharias saw him (angels most often appear as "men"), he was troubled, and fear fell upon him..." (Luke 1:11-12).

"...the angel Gabriel was sent... to a virgin... the virgin's name was Mary... and when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying..." (Luke 1:26-29).

Mary seemed more upset by what the angel SAID than the fact that he appeared.

Of angels, God says: "...to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand... Are they not all MINISTERING SPIRITS, SENT FORTH TO MINISTER FOR THEM WHO SHALL BE HEIRS OF SALVATION?" (Heb.1:13-14)

The term "guardian angel" is NOT in the Bible, but this can certainly fit the definition of one.

If we can accept this passage, notice it says nothing about "condemnation." The angels of God (who did not sin with Satan) are OUR HELPERS... if we might be bold enough to consider ourselves candidates for God's salvation.

So, how many angels are there?

The Bible symbolizes God's angels as "STARS."

"The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand... The seven STARS are THE ANGELS of the seven churches..." (Rev.1:20)

That reveals the meaning of Revelation 12:4, as Satan the Dragon's: "...tail drew the THIRD PART OF THE STARS OF HEAVEN..." with him in his rebellion against God's throne in heaven in the beginning. A full one-third of God's created angels followed him!

There are THREE "archangels" named in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel and Lucifer. So, by the above passage and others, it's evident that God divided His angels into thirds and put them under the authority of these three archangels. For we see:

"...there was war in heaven: Michael AND HIS ANGELS fought against the Dragon; and the dragon fought and HIS ANGELS..." (Rev.12:7).

God's promise to Abraham... the promise that Christians today may inherit: "...if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE." (Gal.3:29)... is:

"...in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee as THE STARS OF THE HEAVEN, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore... and in thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice." (Gen.22:17-18)

And so... if you want to know how many angels God created - COUNT THE STARS.

And do the same thing if you want to know how many people God has slated for salvation.

Answer 4

A:Some see the strangers who visited Abraham and Lot as angels, indeed many English translations of the Hebrew Bible use that word for them. However, the original Hebrew text uses the word, elohim, the Hebrew for gods. When these traditions were written down, they were not perceived to be angels, but gods.

The cherubim, such as those that guarded the path back to the Tree of Life and the images of cherubim that surrounded God's mercy seat in the Book of Exodus, were perceived as sphinx-like creatures with wings, similar to Mesopotamian depictions. Described in Isaiah 6:2, seraphim were said to be part of God's retinue and it seems they were creatures of fire (seraphmeans 'burn'), with six wings.

Angels, such as we perceive today, were never mentioned in scriptures written before the Babylonian Exile. They were messengers of God and did not necessarily have wings. From the time of the Babylonian Exile, they were mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. Matthew and Luke have angels in their nativity accounts, although in different circumstances, and Matthew has an angel appear at the tomb of Jesus. The two men in shining garments who were inside the tomb in Luke's Gospel are not actually called angels, but the intention seems to be that they are regarded as such. Angels are also found in Revelation.

Answer 5

Reference to angels is made 295 times in the Bible. For me to list all of them would take me a long time, I would therefore suggest you go to the concordance in your bible, if it has one, and look up the word Angle.