A SHORT COURSE ON THE NATURE AND MINISTRY OF ANGELS

PART ONE

Tina Gilson

Angels are intimately woven into the workings of the Kingdom of God and into the core beliefs of the Holy Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, they have also become equally woven into the beliefs and practices of a lot of New Agers and spiritual syncretists—people who might acknowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a “good teacher,” as an ascended master, or as the perfect example of “Christ Consciousness,” while revering angels as semi-divine guides, protectors, and energy sources. Angels are acceptable to them, while the message of the Gospel is not—possibly because angels can be manipulated to fit in with a spiritual creed that glorifies self-actualization and personal ascendancy, rather than submission, self-denial, and war against the passions.

Judeo-Christian culture has always had an affinity for angels. Unfortunately, misconceptions and misinformation about angels have crept into the thinking of the average Christian today. It is because modern religious beliefs do not retain an Orthodox view of angels that their true nature and purpose have become confused with kitsch refrigerator magnets and new age paraphernalia. You often hear people say things such as, “You’re my cute little angel,” or “She’s an angel in heaven now.” Somewhere along the line, the biblical nature and power of angels became a caricature. For the record, angels aren’t cute; they aren’t little; and people do not become angels when they go to heaven. (Isn’t it odd that so many believe people become angels when they go to heaven? No one seems to think unrepentant sinners become demons when they go to hell!)

The English word angel translates the Hebrew mal'akh, or “messenger of Yahweh.” The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament uses the word angelos, and the Latin Vulgate, angelus. Finally, a fusion of the Old English word engel and the Old French word angele gave us the English word we know and use today. In all translations, the original understanding of the most basic purpose of angels has been as “messengers of God.”

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1. Angels are supernatural beings created by God—the first (or among the first) creation of God.

2. They are active spirits endowed with individual personality, reason, free will, and extraordinary intellect.

3. They are bodiless or incorporeal spirits who have no gender, but can take on human appearance in their interactions with man.

4. Angels are not limited by space or time, but neither do they possess God’s omnipresence.

5. Because of their purity and single-minded devotion to God, their spiritual powers are superior to man’s.

6. They are immortal and ageless, but their immortality is through the grace of God and not by nature; God alone is immortal by nature.

7. Just as angels had free will to fall, they have free will to achieve greater perfection and grow in virtue.

8. They are to be respected and honored, but never worshiped.

9. They are servants of God, and their very purpose is to serve His will.

St. Gregory Palamas, commenting on the nature of angels in The Philokalia (Vol. IV), said, “Since the angels and souls are incorporeal beings, they are not in a particular place, yet neither are they everywhere. They do not sustain all things, but themselves depend on Him who sustains them. Hence they, too, are in Him who sustains and embraces all things, and they are appropriately delimited by Him.”

Through these God-given powers, the angels are both messengers of God and active participants in His glory, bearing the very name and power of God. If that seems like an unfathomable concept, it should be. Our comprehension of the true nature of God and His Kingdom is so limited we’ve made the angels into “angelic” versions of ourselves, and therefore more humanly understandable. The opposite should be the case. By reflecting on the attributes of the angels we are, in essence, growing in our understanding of the attributes of God.

The Ranks and Orders of Angels

The Old Testament descriptions of different sorts of angels and man’s own predisposition to categorize things have long resulted in the placement of angels into ranks and hierarchies. According to St. Gregory Nazianzen:

We know there are Angels and Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Princedoms, Powers, Splendors, Ascents, Intelligent Powers or Intelligences, pure natures and unalloyed, immovable to evil, or scarcely movable; ever circling in chorus round the First Cause (or how should we sing their praises?), illuminated thence with the purest Illumination, or in one degree or another, proportionally to their nature and rank . . . so conformed to beauty and molded that they become secondary Lights, and can enlighten others by the overflowings and largesse of the First Light. Ministrants of God’s Will, strong with both inborn and imparted strength, traversing all space, readily present to all at any place through their zeal for ministry and the agility of their nature. (Second Theological Oration No. 31)

This formal ranking of angels was most elaborately outlined by a late fifth- or early sixth-century Syrian writer known only as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (as he had taken a pen name from the earlier first-century apostle Dionysius of the seventy), in his book The Celestial Hierarchy. Orthodoxy has in general accepted his views, with some reservations concerning the author’s tendencies towards a neoplatonic method of grouping things in threes and classifying them as matter versus non-matter. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the work that contradicts biblical understanding and teaching. Earlier theologians, such as St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Jerusalem, had written about the nature of angels, and later theologians, like St. John of Damascus, expanded on the ideas of the Areopagite to give us our present Orthodox view of the structure and purpose of the angelic hosts.

Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones

The seraphim, cherubim, and thrones together comprise the first hierarchy or first order of angels who exist closest to God, surrounding His throne and offering continuous praise and adoration. They have no direct contact with man, but are the first to receive divine instruction and wisdom which is passed down to man.

The Seraphim—the “flaming” or “fiery ones”—stand closest of all to the Creator. Their burning love for God allows them to exist before Him who is “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) and whose “throne was a flame of fire” (Daniel 7:9), and to pass that fiery love on to others.

The Cherubim—literally, the angels of “great understanding” or the “stream of wisdom”—possess the fullness of knowledge and transmit divine wisdom and spiritual insight to the world. In the account of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise (Genesis 3:24), we find the first mention of this rank of angels when the cherubim are posted at the entrance to Eden with flaming swords.

The Thrones. It would be silly to picture God the Father seated on the angels called thrones, but angels of this order are called the God-bearing thrones and have been given grace to carry God within themselves. They glorify and manifest God’s justice to the world. As it says in the Psalms (9:4), “Thou hast sat upon a throne, O Thou that judgest righteousness.”

Look for PART TWO next week.

This article was first published in The Handmaiden Spring 2009 issue.

Tina Gilson is a native of San Antonio, Texas, and the mom of two boys, Eric Anthony (9) and Michael (7).  A convert from the Lutheran Church, she has been a member of St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church (OCA) since her chrismation on the feast of Saint Herman of Alaska in December 1992.  She blogs at http://comethatmidnight.wor...