Angels – What Does This Mean?

You’re No Angel: Things Angels are Not

Encore Post:

Beautiful young women in long, flowing white gowns, with big, downy wings and a glowing gold halo. A chubby, winged baby. The spirits of deceased Christians, also bearing wings and a halo, carrying a harp, and floating on clouds. Images like these fill our pictures, movies, television shows, and songs. Yet none of these are real, nor do they share much in common with God’s holy angels. They are very different creatures and are not mild, gentle beings. They are God’s heavenly army, powerful servants who, when they appear, command respect.

First of all, angels are not people. They are spirits God created to serve Him (Hebrews 1). Christians do not become angels when they die. Our spirits are unnaturally separated from our bodies at death — bodies that decay. But we do not remain in that state. On the Last Day, God will raise our bodies from the dead and reunite our spirits with them.

Angels are powerful beings, sometimes tasked with battling Satan and his demons (these are fallen, angelic creatures). They guard us, serve God on our behalf, and stand in His eternal presence. When they appear to people, they often inspire fear, and their first words are usually, “Fear not.” Some of God’s people are even tempted to fall down and worship them. Scripture poetically calls them gods.

Unlike popular television series and movies, angels are not like humans with flaws, prone to temptation and sin. The holy angels are now eternally sinless, having been tested by Lucifer’s rebellion. They have a perfect knowledge of God. While they always take the form of a male human when they appear to people, they never marry. They are not young, having existed since before the fall of Adam and Eve, nor are they ever female. Scripture does not mention halos. Medieval artists added them to draw attention to holy people and beings, especially in stained-glass windows. Likewise, Scripture only describes angels with wings when speaking of seraphim and cherubim.

Most importantly, angels ministered to Jesus during His earthly ministry. They announced His birth to the shepherds, ministered to Him after His temptation in the wilderness, strengthened Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, proclaimed His resurrection at the empty tomb, and promised His return at His ascension. Their ministry is always centered on Jesus and His saving work.

God does not send angels so that we will admire angels. He sends them to direct us to Christ. Their ministry always points beyond themselves to the Savior who died and rose again for us. On our last day and on the Last Day, they will escort God’s children into His presence, where we will live with Him forever. Therefore, we thank God for the ministry of His holy angels and join our voices with theirs in praising Him, both now and forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: What Does This Mean?

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Michelmas

Encore Post:

The Church’s long season of ordinary time (Sundays after Trinity on a one-year cycle, Sundays after Pentecost on a three-year cycle) takes a turn with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels on September 29. After this day, the readings increasingly direct our attention to the Last Day, when Jesus will return to be with us forever. We use the day to thank God for His holy angels, especially Michael the Archangel, whose army of light defeated Satan and his forces, casting them out of Heaven to the earth. In the English-speaking world, the feast is nicknamed Michelmas (Michael’s Mass), similar to Christmas (Christ’s Mass).

The holy angels (מַלְאָךְ, ἄγγελος) are God’s messengers. God created them to praise Him and bear His messages to His people. After the fall of Satan and his evil angels, they also battle these forces and protect us from harm. Two angels are named in Scripture: Michael (“Who is like God?”) and Gabriel (“God is my Strength”). Michael the Archangel leads the heavenly army of angels that battled Satan and his forces, casting him down from Heaven. Gabriel is the heavenly messenger who interpreted Daniel’s visions and announced the conceptions of John the Baptist and Jesus.

The Church does not worship angels. Instead, we thank God for them and for the care He provides through their ministry. Scripture repeatedly shows angels protecting God’s people, delivering His messages, and rejoicing in His saving work. Jesus Himself tells us that the angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents.

As we remember St. Michael and All Angels, we also remember that we are part of a larger conflict between God’s kingdom and the powers of darkness. Yet we need not fear. Christ has already won the victory. The holy angels serve at His command and work for the good of His people. On the Last Day, they will gather the elect from the four winds and accompany God’s children into His presence forever.

We thank God for the ministry of angels, who stand by our side, protect us from the evil one, and will, on the last of our days, escort us home to Jesus. With Martin Luther, we pray:

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

— Martin Luther, Morning Prayer, Small Catechism

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

What does it mean to be saved, anyway?

[Tenth in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

Puffy, white clouds. People all dressed in white, wearing feathery wings, going in and out of golden gates. All of them strumming on harps they carry everywhere. This image often appears in American culture when the subject is eternal life. Is this really what salvation is all about?

Not at all. People do not become angels when they die. There is a lot of singing before God’s throne, but nowhere in the Bible does it say everyone will play the harp! The truth is, we do not know what being with God forever will look like. The Scripture uses many images. Jesus himself describes it as paradise and a great wedding feast that never ends. Other passages talk about a shining, gleaming city, full of mighty rivers. Life is described as very happy and as eternal rest. The images of a great judgment seat and a reward ceremony are also there. But salvation really is not about us — it is about living with God, seeing His face and being with Jesus.

The Bible describes the relationship between God and his people as a marriage. In Eden, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. When they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they traded another god for their creator. They were unfaithful to him. This broke the bond between God and his children. Jesus reconciled God to us by paying the price of our unfaithfulness. Salvation is all about our return home to live with God again — this time forever.

What this means for us is salvation begins now. When we were baptized, God adopted us as his children. He drowned our sinful self, and a new life began in us. In this life, the old Adam or Eve fights back. We still sin a lot, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, we no longer have to sin. We can now do good deeds. Our relationship with God grows as we receive his gifts in worship, especially when we eat Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper.

When we die, Christ takes our spirit to live with him, kept safe until the last day. When he returns, we will return with him. He will raise our body from the grave, and we will be restored to life. Our new life will be like his. What it will be like, we will not fully know until we get there. But what is sure is we will live with him forever. Sin and death will be no more, and all suffering, grief, and pain will be gone forever.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Last Things #13: Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

[Twenty-Second in a series of posts on Last Things] Encore Post: They were ordinary days. The seaside resort of Pompeii was bustling with the daily activities of the luxurious retreat for the most affluent Romans, who escaped the pressures of the imperial capital of ancient Rome. That is, until Mount Vesuvius buried it in ash for 1700 years. It was a lazy Sunday morning in Hawaii, slower than usual for a navy base — until Japanese bombs shattered Pearl Harbor that December 7, 1941. On a bright, lovely September morning, a pastor drove from downtown Fort Wayne, practicing a sermon for chapel on the first regular day of classes for Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne — a sermon he rewrote on the ride in as he learned airplanes had destroyed the Twin Towers in New York City that September 11, 2001. Life was normal — until the world changed.

On another ordinary day, when people will go about their daily lives as usual, eating, drinking, marrying, working in the field and in businesses, Jesus will return from Heaven. (Matthew 24:37-41) He will appear in the sky with the angel armies of Heaven and the souls of his people with him. Every eye will see him. He will send his angels to gather both those who are saved to meet him and the damned to be judged. ( Matthew 13:41, 49, Matthew 24:30-31) There will be no rapture, where Christ appears secretly to claim his own and leave the world in tribulation. This notion comes from a misunderstanding of the dispensationalists.

At that time, Jesus will break the seal of the grave forever. All people will rise from the dead in the great resurrection of the dead. All souls will be reunited with their bodies, and Christ’s own will be transformed to be just like him. (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) As great dread has been put in this day, it is for Christians the most joyful day of all, even with the next event — the Last Judgment — coming. For the goal of the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord is this day, when all is made right, we are restored to his image, and we will shine like the stars in his kingdom. So, the Church has always prayed: Come, Lord Jesus, come!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastoral Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana