| What Are Angels |
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| Artists have given us their vision of angels as winged creatures, usually beautiful figures that are glowing,shining, floating, in human form or as a voice. Meanings of angels, their appearances and purposes vary throughout history and the world. The word "angel" comes from the Greek word angelos which means messenger. |
| In the Bible, angels have appeared as messengers, guides, and healers. They also make up the celestial court. Angels are even recorded in Koran, "You shall see the angels circling around the throne, giving golry to their Lord." In Hebrew, angels are called "mal'lak" meaning messenger. "Mal'lak" originally meant shadow side of God. The Hebrews thought of angels as emanations of Yahweh, part of the same divine spirit. In the Christian Church, angels were not believed to be emanations of God, but spirits created by God at the time He created the material world. But in Christian beliefs, angels and heavens were formed through Hebrew concepts. Some people entrust their lives to angels. They believe when they die their spirit will be lead by the angel of death to heaven. The great religions have tried to define and give them names, while theologions and philosophers have argued their nature. |
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| What are angels according to famous people of history? According to Muhammad, angels were sent by God to seek out those places where men and women honor deity. The angels then report back to heaven what they have heard. Angels have been thought of as creations of a separate order from human beings and also as the spirits of highly evolved humans. St. Augustine described the nature of an angel by relating it to an angel's purpose. The angels are spirits, but it is not because they are spirits that they are angels. They become angels when they are sent. The name angel refers to their office not to their nature. "You ask the name of this nature, it is spirit. You ask its office, it is that of angel. In as far as he exists, an angel is a spirit, and as far as he acts he is an angel." Socrates tells us that Eros is a spirit who carries message back and forth between men and gods. Another angel-like figure from mythology is Hermes, the winged messenger. |
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