Children's Ministry

The Angels                                       

Angels

(Latin angelus; Greek aggelos; from the Hebrew for "one going" or "one sent"; messenger).

The word is used in Hebrew to denote indifferently either a divine or human messenger.

The Septuagint renders it by aggelos which also has both significations.

The Latin version, however, distinguishes the divine or spirit-messenger from the human,

rendering the original in the one case by angelus and in the other by legatus

or more generally by nuntius. In a few passages the Latin version is misleading,

the word angelus being used where nuntius would have better expressed the meaning, e.g.

( Isaiah 18:2; 33:3, 6.)

Madonna of  the Angels

It is with the spirit-messenger alone that we are here concerned. We have to discuss

• the meaning of the term in the Bible,
• the offices of the angels,
• the names assigned to the angels,
• the distinction between good and evil spirits,
• the divisions of the angelic choirs,
• the question of angelic appearances, and
• the development of the scriptural idea of angels.

The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate

 between God and men: "You have made him (man) a little less than the angels" (Psalm 8:6).

They, equally with man, are created beings; "praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts

 . . . for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created"

(Psalm 148:2, 5; Colossians 1:16-17). That the angels were created was laid down in the

Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The decree "Firmiter" against the Albigenses

declared both the fact that they were created and that men were created after them. This decree

was repeated by the Vatican Council, "Dei Filius". We mention it here because the words:

 "He that liveth for ever created all things together" (Ecclesiasticus 18:1) have been held to prove

a simultaneous creation of all things; but it is generally conceded that "together" (simul) may here mean

"equally", in the sense that all things were "alike" created. They are spirits; the writer of the

Epistle to the Hebrews says: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to

them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14).

GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS.