by Ivan Maddox
West End Bible Fellowship
Atlanta, GA
Isn't it amazing how popular angels are today? We have angel pins and angel dolls in our stores, angels are popular in our movies and TV shows, angels have reportedly visited churches to join in the singing or to provide special visual effects, and countless people are willing to tell you about how their lives have been touched by an angel.
Today, it seems, it is easier than ever to see an angel. They're all over the place, visiting all sorts of people, doing all sorts of things. But what seems to me most interesting about all this angel traffic is how independent these angels seem to be from God.
The word "angel" is a transliteration of the Greek word AGGELOS, which means "messenger." In the Bible, angels are messengers from God. Whether they are speaking or taking action, they are on God's business, doing God's will, and either speaking God's Word or speaking on God's behalf.
And right there seems to be the difference between the Bible's angels and the angels of today. Today's angels seem to be freelancers. They may speak, but their words all too often don't seem to line up with God's written Word. They may show up to save someone's life or perform some other good deed, but they seem strangely uninterested in steering the people they help to a right relationship with God.
If an angel is supposed to be a messenger of God, then it seems quite clear that something is wrong with an angel that is representing himself. You see, not all angels are messengers of God. Some are in rebellion against God. Worse yet, these angels will lie about who they are and what they are doing.
In Galatians 1, Paul made it quite clear to the saints in Galatia that they were to accept no substitutes for the gospel they had been given, regardless of the source.
Galatians 1:6-9.
1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Paul made it clear that even if the himself was the source of the bootleg gospel message, or even if it was an angel who taught contrary to the Word of God they had already been taught, their words were to be rejected. The standard by which God's people are to judge both the message and the messenger is God's written Word.
In II Corinthians 11 we are warned that everything that looks like light isn't light.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15.
11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
If Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, should we be surprised if the angels who are with him do the same? How, then, can we possibly protect ourselves against lying angels masquerading as angels of God?
By checking their actions and their words against the written Word of God. Their words and their actions may line up in part with God's Word -- otherwise they wouldn't look like light, would they? -- but unless they line up completely with the written Word, they're not from God.
And any angel who shows up on his own agenda, doing his own thing, is an evil angel disguised as an angel of light. Give him the left foot of fellowship.
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