Book Plunge: The Angels and Their Mission

[Apologiaphoenix]

What do they do?

Link

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What do I think of Father Jean Danielou’s book published by Thomas More Publishing? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

This book is subtitled with “According to the Fathers of the Church.” Thus, while Scripture is used from time to time, Danielou is largely sharing what the fathers have to say. Also, these are normally the early church fathers, though sometimes the post-nicene ones are cited. Rarely is Aquinas mentioned, which is surprising seeing as he’s the angelic doctor, but I suppose he was considered too late to be a father.

I understand authors don’t always get to choose the titles of their books, but I was left thinking that “The Mission of the Angels” might have been a better title since not much is said about Angelology in this. Instead, much of this relates to what angels do in the service of God. That’s fine, but those wanting angelology will need to check other resources.

That being said, this is in many ways very thorough starting with what angels did before the birth of Christ and then with what angels did during the Earthly incarnation and then what they do following. How do they act in the lives of believers and unbelievers? Do we have a guardian angel? What do they do when people die?

In this, one surprising area was left out and that was the incarnation itself. What did they do during the ministry of Jesus? I couldn’t help but think of how N.T. Wright has talked about the making of the creed and having it say “Born of the Virgin Mary” (Which I do affirm), crucified under Pontius Pilate.” He says he can picture Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John sitting in the background saying, “We spent a lot of time on that stuff in the middle and we think that it’s rather important.”

The book is also definitely written from a Catholic perspective, but that doesn’t mean you have to be Catholic to get a lot out of it. A Protestant like myself could disagree with some aspects such as the idea of angels and the sacraments with the role that baptism and the eucharist play in the RCC, but we should not be dismissive of angels. If anything, angelology is a subject that Christians need to spend a lot more time thinking on, especially since we have so much misinformation, such as the idea that people become angels when they die.

One other section it might have been good to have had something on is demons. Yes. I know when we talk about angels, we normally think about the good ones who are meant to serve the Lord, but we also need to have a doctrine of demons. Again, we have a lot of misinformation here as we tend to either see them everywhere or else we deny their existing altogether. They are happy with both positions.

However, if you want to see a Catholic understanding of the work that angels do, this is a good resource. It is a doctrine that Protestants need to work on a lot more as well. Paul says we will judge angels one day. It might serve us to know a little bit more about them before we get to that job.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

[3 Resurrections]

Nick, something just occurred to me as I was reading your post with the point about the believers judging angels.

We know that the Greek word for "angels" (meaning "messenger") can apply not only to the CELESTIAL angels as "messengers", but to HUMAN messengers as well. What if this verse in I Corinthians 6:3 is not referring to believers judging the CELESTIAL angels in the next life, but to believers judging their HUMAN church leadership messengers in the next life? This would entirely fit with the context of I Corinthians 6:3 that speaks of even the "least esteemed" member of the church body being able to judge matters of this life (not just the church's pastor who led the flock doing that judging).

The believers in this Corinthian church were having disputes with each other over material matters, and they were taking each other to the civil "courts" of the day instead of settling these disputes internally within the church body. Paul was scolding them for this discord among them being displayed in front of the unbelieving world, by telling them that even the "least esteemed" among them ought to have been able to settle simple disputes among themselves of things that pertained to this life. What if these same "least esteemed" believers of the church were eventually in the next life going to judge their own pastor's leadership? As Hebrews 13:17 said, "Be obedient to those leading you, and be subject, for these do watch for your souls, as ABOUT TO GIVE ACCOUNT, that with joy they may do this, and not sighing, for this is unprofitable to you." (YLT).

These leaders "giving account" of their ministry in the next life would be done by the judgment of those who had been under their leadership. The believers in the next life would be able to give evidence or to judge these "angels" or "messengers" of the church who had ministered to their own church assembly - whether that leadership was done well or not. And since the members of the assembly were going to be giving testimony of praise or censure of their own church leader in the next life on judgment day, they at the very least ought to have been able to judge civil matters among themselves while in this mortal life, and not to depend upon the church leader or the civil courts to do this for them.

As for the current function of the celestial angels in this life, we have Hebrews 2:5 giving us some evidence of the limits they were about to be put under in the next coming age of the world (from the time perspective the Hebrews audience was then living in). Hebrews 2:5 said, "For unto the angels hath he NOT PUT IN SUBJECTION THE WORLD TO COME, whereof we speak." (KJV). In this context, the celestial angelic hosts were being contrasted to the human race, so "angels" or "messengers" in this context would be CELESTIAL ones, and NOT human ones. The Angels' authority structure over humankind was going to be dissolved in the world that was then coming for the Hebrews audience. This was speaking of the "divine counci" which God had long ago set up over the nations of the world in the days of Peleg, when the world was divided up according to the number of the celestial sons of God (the angels). During those OT days and into the early days of the church, this angelic "divine council" had operated behind the scenes of the nations of the world as the "Watchers" that Daniel called them.

However, this "divine council" role for the angels as the "Watchers" became outmoded along with the introduction of the New Covenant. Under this New Covenant, the Holy Spirit would come to permanently inhabit believers. The believers essentially took over this one particular duty of the angels' assignment, since WE were given the "Great commission" to influence the nations and introduce them to the kingdom of God. The angels have taken a back seat in this one service by now, and WE have become a new kind of HUMAN "divine council" to the nations.

The celestial angels are still the "ministering spirits" who are sent to minister to those about to inherit salvation, but the one function as the "divine council" in this world has expired for them.