What are Angels?

What are Angels?

Culturally, Angels Are Pagan!

Most English speaking people think of Angels as a strictly a Christian idea, having little if any knowledge of the universality of the concept. Various eerily similar concepts of angels can be traced back in time as far as the human race can be traced back. “Angels” have been known to virtually every civilized person and barbarian ever to have walked the planet. Atheists and agnostics assume that all of the religions of the world got their concepts from the same primordial (actually Babylonian) mythology.

Yet the real reason that the ancients all knew of “Angels” is because they were all descendants of the “herald of righteousness”—Noah!

2 Peter 2:4-5 If Yehovah didnt spare His Angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartaroo in chains of darkness, and restrained them in custody to be guarded until Judgment Day, 5 and didnt spare the ancient world, but rescued Noah, a herald of righteousness, and his family of eight, when He brought a flood on the world of the wicked; —The Testimony of Yeshua, (GV)

A more pressing reason that “angels” were common knowledge is because the fallen members of the heavenly host, the nephilim* were once very active among humanity! It is from those “angels” that we get our misguided notions about the angelic realm. Those angels are more frequently described as demons, and they are about to come out of their closet, and even from Tartaroo, as we just saw.

Strong’s 32, “aggelos”, is usually translated as “angels”, the literal meaning is apparently: “guides of the herd or company”. It is used to describe human “messengers”, spirit composed holy messengers or “guides”, and demons—“angels”.

Here is a brief history lesson about the demons/angels in the religions of the world.

In the pagan mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome, their gods and goddesses supposedly sent messengers (or angels or guides) to humanity. Cupid was the messenger of love.

Mercury: Messenger of the gods:

“The root of the idea of Mercury lies in Greek mythology with the messenger god, Hermes. The Romans, whose culture was in many ways derivative of the Greeks, borrowed the old stories and myths from the Greek God Hermes and laid them on top of their own similar god, Mercury. The process by which this was done is now shrouded somewhat by the mists of time, suffice it to say that these two names came to be recognized as designating one and the same mythical being.”

“Mercury was one of the most popular of the ancient deities and was featured in many stories. He is supposed to have killed Argus on the orders of Zeus, by lulling him to sleep and then chopping off his head. He assisted Odysseus in his travels as that wanderer returned from the siege of Troy. It is interesting to note that Mercury generally does not act on his own, but at the behest of some other god. He acts for his brother Apollo in saving the life of his child. Zeus often sends him to deliver dreams or to travel with a mortal to help keep him or her safe. This keeps him in accord with his mythical function as messenger. —link

“In Roman mythology, every man had a genius and every woman a juno (Juno was also the name of the queen of the gods)”.

“Originally, the genii and junones were ancestors who guarded over their descendants [as guardian angels]. Over time, they turned into personal guardian spirits, granting intellectual prowess. Sacrifices were made to one’s genius or juno on one’s birthday”.

“The juno was worshipped under many titles: Iugalis, protected marriage; Matronalis, protected married women; Pronuba, protected the bride; Virginalis, protected virginity”.

“In addition to the genius or juno of each individual, regions, families, households and cities had a genius. The genius of the Romans was a cat. The genii dedicated to places were usually depicted as snakes.” link

“Isis was “the messenger of the Mistress of the Sky. I belong to Her outer court. Tell me your petitions so that I can report them to the Mistress of the Two Lands, for She hears my supplications”.

Christianity later renamed the pagan gods “fairies” and pagan angels became “demons”.

Buddhist texts also refer to similar angelic beings called devata or “deities” and devaputra; “son of the gods”.

“Powers of the devas: From a human perspective, devas share the characteristic of being invisible to the physical human eye. The presence of a deva can be detected by those humans who have opened the divyacaksus (Pali: dibbacakkhu), an extrasensory power by which one can see beings from other planes. Their voices can also be heard by those who have cultivated a similar power of the ear.

“Most devas are also capable of constructing illusory forms by which they can manifest themselves to the beings of lower worlds; higher and lower devas even have to do this between each other.

“Devas do not require the same kind of sustenance as humans do, although the lower kinds do eat and drink. The higher sorts of deva shine with their own intrinsic luminosity.

“Devas are also capable of moving great distances speedily and of flying through the air, although the lower devas sometimes accomplish this through magical aids such as a flying chariot.

“Types of deva: The term deva does not refer to a natural class of beings, but is defined anthropocentrically to include all those beings more powerful or more blissful than humans. It includes some very different types of being; these types can be ranked hierarchically. The lowest classes of these beings are closer in their nature to human beings than to the higher classes of deva.

“The devas fall into three classes depending upon which of the three dhatus, or ‘realms’ of the universe they are born in”.

Tennin: Japanese Buddhism/Chinese Buddhism/Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism

“Tennin including the female tennyo (Sanskrit: apsaras) are spirits found in Japanese Buddhism that are similar to Western angels or fairies. They were imported from Chinese Buddhism, which was influenced itself by the concepts of heavenly beings found in Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism.

“Tennin are mentioned in Buddhist sutras, and these descriptions form the basis for depictions of the beings in Japanese art, sculpture, and theater. They are usually pictured as unnaturally beautiful women dressed in ornate, colorful kimonos (traditionally in five colors), exquisite jewelry, and flowing scarves that wrap loosely around their bodies. They usually carry lotus blossoms as a symbol of enlightenment or play musical instruments such as the biwa, or flute.

“Tennin live in the Buddhist heaven as the companions to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Some legends also make certain tennin solitary creatures living on mountain peaks. Pilgrims sometimes climb these mountains in order to meet the holy spirits.

“Tennin can fly, a fact generally indicated in art by their colored or feathered kimonos, called hagoromo (“dress of feathers”). In some legends tennin are unable to fly without these kimonos (and thus cannot return to heaven). More rarely, they are shown with feathered wings.”

Hinduism

“In Hinduism, the Asura are a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes referred to as demons. They were opposed to the devas. Both groups are children of Kashyapa. The name is cognate to Ahura – indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary recognizes the use of the term in reference to Zoroastrianism, where “Ahura” would perhaps be more appropriate—and AEsir, which implies a common Proto-Indo-European origin for the Asura and the AEsir.

“The negative character of the asura in Hinduism seems to have evolved over time. In general, the earliest texts have the asuras presiding over moral and social phenomena (e.g. Varuna, the guardian of Rtá, or Bhaga, the patron of marriages) and the devas presiding over natural phenomena (e.g. Ushas, whose name means “dawn”, or Indra, a weather god).

Islam

“In Islam, Allah created Angels, Jinns and Humans—the latter two of which have ‘free choice’ between good and evil.

“Iblis was of the jinn race and was supposedly a devoted servant of Allah. He attained a very high status and was brought close with the Angels. Allah knew Iblis harboured ill intentions, however, and therefore the Shayan was named Iblis (meaning “desperate”).

“The Angels do not have free will and do not sin because they do not know how. When Allah created Adam, He commanded all the Angels to prostrate to him. All the Angels did so, except Iblis, who refused to obey.

“Sumerian society is the oldest society that has left us clear evidence of the use of a winged human motif. This evidence is in the form of stone carvings, either in the form of three-D statues or relief carvings that provide the illusion of three-dimensionality. Sumerian culture flourished around 3,000 BC between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq (see map showing the geographical extent of Sumerian culture). The religion of these people was complex, embracing a wide variety of spirits and gods, but of particular interest was their belief in ‘messengers of the gods’, angelic forces who ran errands between gods and humans.

“The Sumerians also believed that each person had a ‘ghost’ of some sort (that we would now probably label as ‘guardian angel’) with this entity remaining a constant companion for a person throughout their life. Altars that appear to be dedicated to guardian angels have been found in the excavations of ancient Sumerian homes, along with stone engravings and temple wall paintings of human figures with wings. After the polytheistic Semitic tribes had conquered the Sumerians around 1900 BC their mythical cosmology borrowed the notion of angels from the vanquished Sumerians. These Semitic peoples developed the idea of a corpus of angels split into groupings answerable to each of the many Semitic gods, further subdividing these groups into vertical ‘ranked’ heirarchies, a notion which persisted into Zoroastrianism and monotheistic Judaism and beyond, as we shall see. Sumerian ideas probably set the scene for the development of Egyptian theology as well, although it is difficult to be clear about the detail of such cross-cultural influences.”

Mithraism: “Mithras was a light-bringer god [sound familiar?], whose cult flourished between 1500 BC and the time of Christ, in lands as far apart as India and Great Britain, with a basis in what was then known as Persia (see map of the Persian empire around 500 BC). Although in his own cult Mithras does not fully conform to the image of ‘angel’ that we are particularly interested in here, nevertheless Mithraism was the most prevalent religion in Persia when Zoroaster (qv section below) was alive, and in Zoroastrianism Mithras was considered to be an angel who mediated between heaven and earth, later becoming judge and preserver of the created world. In Vedic cosmology also (where in the Rig Veda, Mitra is mentioned over 200 times), Mitra appears often to be more angel than god. The ‘Mithras-cult’ images of Mithras that we see here are typical close variations on the same scene, where Mithras fights the sacred bull, with his cloak billowing out behind him in a way that seems meant to suggest wings. Over and over again we find Mithras depicted in this way.

“Zoroastrianism: identifies six main archangels: the Archangel of Good Thought, the Archangel of Right, the Archangel of Dominion, the Archangel of Piety, the Archangel of Prosperity and the Archangel of Immorality, along with at least 40 lesser angels called Adorable Ones. Some of these angels/archangels were considered to be male, some were considered to be female, and each one was associated with some particular attribute or quality. On a lower level again the third rank of angels in Zoroastrian cosmology were the Guardian Angels, each one assigned as guide, conscience, protector and helpmate throughout the life of one single human being. All of the various heirarchies of angels were considered to be divine gifts, all of them aspects or manifestations of the one ‘Lord of Light’. Zoroastrians also believed that corresponding to the Lord of Light there was also a Lord of Darkness, with complementary demons and evil spirits, and it was felt that in the battle between light and darkness the forces of light would eventually win. To demonstrate the lengths to which one must go in an attempt to put together any sort of ‘complete’ history of angels, one need only look at some of the terminology: for instance the demons of Zoroastrianism, that are referred to as daevas, exist in opposition to ‘angelic’ forces that are referred to as ahuras. In the ancient Hinduism of the Vedas, however, we find demons referred to as asuras, existing in opposition to ‘divine’ forces known as devas.”

Bahá’íAn angel, often termed a “Maiden of Heaven”, also appears in Bahá’í literature. Bahá’ís generally see her as a symbol of the holy spirit, the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation, or even as his “higher self”. Bahá’u’lláh taught that his ministry began when he was visited by a Maiden of Heaven while incarcerated in a dungeon of Tehran. While always depicted as desirable and attractive, she also appears as a transcendent spiritual figure, and sexual desire is understood to be a metaphor for spiritual longing. While other angels appear in Bahá’u’lláh’s works, they are generally depicted as the personification of a divine virtue, such as trustworthiness.

Can angels be demons?

2 Corinthians It’s no wonder, because if Satan impersonates a Messenger of light, 15 it is no great surprise if his “deacons” impersonate servants of righteousness; whose end state is a consequence of their works. GV

2 Peter 2:4 If Yehovah didnt spare His Angels who sinned ... GV

Galatians 1:8 But if we, or a “Messenger” from Heaven were to bring you a different “Good News” than we have, they will be rotten meat. GV

Revelation 9:11 Their king was the angel of the abyss [abussos]; and his name, in Hebrew, is Abaddon [1]; and in Greek, his name is Apollyon [2]. GV

[1] Abaddon means the “Destroyer”. [2] Apollyon means “the angel of the bottomless pit”, the “Destroyer”.

Revelation 9:14-15 The four angels were unchained. They had been made ready for this very hour, day, month, and year [1], to kill one third of humanity. 16 The number of the warrior cavalry was two hundred million; and I heard their number. GV

[1] There is a definite time appointed (Habakkuk 2:3) for the end of the age. It will not be “cut short” or “tarry”. I believe that this exact time was set when Yeshua was rejected, tho a bona fide opportunity had been presented for His acceptance, as Father indicated in the analogy of the vineyard (Matthew 21:37).

Are Angels Women?

Go to any search engine that has a pictures option and look up angels. You will readily see that virtually every rendition is of a beautiful female with wings. This is where the problem begins to take shape. Scripturally, God’s messengers never ever appear as women, tho in the KJV Hebrew Scriptures there are 214 opportunities for “angel” [mal’ak] to be female. There are 186 opportunities for slipping in a female in Biblical Greek. But no such luck. Yet the concept certainly wasnt foreign. Consider this account in Zechariah. Here we have both an “angel” and two winged women!

Zechariah 5:7-11 Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing.” 6 I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the ephah basket that is appearing.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land 7 (and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket.” 8 He said, “[She] is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth. 9 Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky. 10 Then said I to the angel who talked with me, “Where are these carrying the ephah basket?” 11 He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar [Babylon]. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.” WEB

This would have been the very best opportunity in the Bible to identify a female winged angel. What is happening here? We see an angel talking to Zechariah, informing him that a woman, representing evil incarnate, is being transported back to Babylon, the very seat of paganism, by two “babes” with birdie wings! And their intentions are not good. While the evil is being taken from Zechariah’s presence, it is being replanted (Literally, “established”) in the Babylonian homeland by the “babes”! Whose side do you think they are on?

It is because of the nearly universal misconceptions of what an angel is that I have decided to dispense with the term “angel” when referring to one of Yehovahs (God’s) representitives. First let’s see the definition of an “angel”: “[Mal’ak]”, the Hebrew word usually translated as angel, and the Greek word “angelos” have identical meanings, as the respective lexicon links demonstrate. They both mean a messenger:

The translators translate “angelos” as “angel”, 111 times in Biblical Greek, and translate it as “messenger” 98 times. Had they always translated “angelos” as either “angel” or “messenger” consistently every time, then people would be far more inclined to know that the meaning is always a messenger, whether a flesh and blood human or spirit composed being.

In The Word of Elohim I have decided to translate “angelos” the same way all 214 times. Using “angel” every time would have been chaotic, so “messenger” is the logical choice. Some words are far more complicated, having many nuances of meanings in different contexts, but “angelos” is not a complicated word, other than the fact that “no one” knows what one is due to the winged lady stuff.

The Gabriel Version designates human “aggelos” as messengers. Because people are used to seeing a special designation for God’s “aggelos”, I have opted to preface Yehovahs messengers as holy messengers as a convenience, unless the text clearly specifies whose they are. For educational purposes, the fallen “aggelos” will continue to be translated as “angels” in the pertinent texts.

Two final points: The “angels” of the Seven “Churches” (of Revelation 2-3) are men (messengers).

Secondly, “the Messenger of Yehovah” (“Angel of the Lord”) is the pre incarnate Yeshua (Jesus*).

PS: While trying to find an existing article on this topic (so that I didnt feel the “need” to write one), I did find a very interesting article on angels that has almost nothing to do with what mine is about. I do take exception to the blasphemy of equating The Name Lucifer with Satan, tho it is a very common mistake. I also take exception with the idea of Petra, in the nation of Jordan, being a safe haven during the coming Great Tribulation (but there is a safe haven elsewhere). While Edom, Moab and Ammon (modern Jordan) are spared the ravages of the Beast for a time (Daniel 11:41), they will have hell to pay for betraying the returning Israelites towards the end of the Tribulation. The first 14 verses of Ezekiel 25 thoroughly covers this:

Ezekiel 25:13-14 ‘therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom [where Petra is], cut off man and beast from it, and make it desolate from Teman; Dedan shall fall by the sword. 14 I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, that they may do in Edom according to My anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance,” says the Lord GOD. WEB