There is much about angels we shall never know, but since God has mentioned them 273 times in His sacred book, it appears He wants us to know something about angels. The word "angel" (Hebrew malak; Greek, aggelos) simply means "a messenger" and so the word is translated in Isaiah 42:19 and Matthew 11:10. The emissaries John sent to Jesus were aggeloi, angels, messengers (Luke 7:24) and John himself was an aggelos, an angel, a messenger (Matthew 11:10). Jesus was sent in the flesh as a human malak, an angel, a messenger (Malachi 3:1).

Heavenly angels, or messengers, worship God, which shows they are not deity (Revelation 19:10; 22:8, 9). The speculation that malak YHWH, "the angel of Jehovah" (Genesis 16:7), was Jesus back in the Old Testament is refuted by his refusing to accept worship (Judges 13:16).

Because angels are not deity, they are not eternal (only God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are eternal, Psalm 90:1,2; Hebrews 9:14; 13:8). Since they are not eternal, they had a beginning, and they were created (Psalm 148:2-5; Colossians 1:16). Like human beings, after they were created they became immortal (Matthew 10:28; Luke 20:36).

Is Satan a fallen angel? Indeed so, but such cannot be proved by the use of the King James Version in Isaiah 14:12: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer?" Isaiah 14:4 shows that Lucifer is not Satan, but the arrogant king of Babylon. Though the interpretation that Lucifer is Satan is erroneous, one knows from other Scriptures that Satan is an angel who went bad.

Since the Creator is "without iniquity" and "cannot be tempted," "temps not one," and all His works are "perfect," angels were, therefore, originally created perfect and sinless, even as were Adam and Eve, as the king of Tyre, and as babies today (Deuteronomy 32:4; James 1:13; Genesis 1:31; Ezekiel 28:15; Matthew 19:14).

This means, then, that since God through Christ created all things (Colossians 1:16), including angels, He created Satan, but at first he was a sinless angel. Like Adam and Eve he could choose to obey or disobey God, but he with other angels chose to disobey (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). He once was in heaven, but was expelled along with "his angels" (Revelation 12:9).

Early he appeared on earth tempting Eve and has been here ever since (Genesis 3:1; 1 Peter 5:8). There was a time when God allowed him in a miraculous way to live in innocent human beings, as Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2). This was allowed in order that Jesus might come and demonstrate the God’s power is greater than Satan’s. Jesus’ exorcising evil spirits was a sign of the approaching kingdom (Matthew 12:28). Jesus gave that power also to His apostles (Luke 10:18; Mark 16:17).

When Jesus arose from the grave, He led captivity captive, despoiling principalities and powers, making an open show of them in His triumph (Ephesians 4:8; Colossians 2:15). The ‘prince of this world" had been cast out (John 12:31). The time had come for unclean spirits "to pass out of the land" (Zechariah 13:2), apparently a reference to the time when all miracles would cease. Satan’s miraculous indwelling in people would cease, and miracles among God’s people would cease (1 Corinthians 12:10; 13:8). Since the last person died on whom an apostle had laid his hands, no miracles have occurred (Acts 8:18).

As far as miracles indwelling is concerned, Satan has been bound (Revelation 20:2). But non-miraculous indwelling of Satan has not been bound. He stalks about seeking prey (1 Peter 5:8). His non-miraculous indwelling is real and potentially fatal to men’s souls.

Wise people know they must resist Satan (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9). No one can cop out and say, "The devil made me do it." Satan has no coercive power; we can expel and make him flee if we want to do so. But he keeps coming back. "We are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). He works through "undercover" agents pretending to be ministers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:15). He never misses a church service, though not recognizably as he appeared to Eve. But, thank God, he is conquerable, even by young people. The aged apostle John took pride in some who were strong with the Word of God in their hearts and had overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14).

Now wicked angels are jailed in Tartarus, chained until the Judgement (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). The ultimate doom of Satan is "the lake of fire and brimstone" in eternal conscious torment in the place prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).

The term "angels" probably includes the cherubs and seraphs (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 6:2) and are also known as the "sons of God" (Job 1:6; 38:7; Psalm 29:1,2) [Hebrew text]. They were created before the heavens and the earth and shouted for joy when they looked on God’s handiwork (Job 38:7).

Angels are spirit beings, without flesh and bones (Luke 24:39; Hebrews 1:14). Some translations speak of "angels’ food" (Psalm 78:25 KJV, NASB, NRS, NIV), but the word "angels" is not in that passage. It is difficult to think, in a place that flesh and blood cannot enter (1 Corinthians 15:50), that angels require nourishment for their spirit bodies.

Grammatically, malak and aggelos are masculine gender, but that does not mean that they refer to males as over against females. Of the three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), only the masculine is used generically as including both sexes (cf. Mark 16:15-16). Apparently, the Holy Spirit chose to use the masculine to describe non-sexual beings, that is, angels. Heavenly angels differ from earthings in that they do not marry and never die (Luke 20:35,36.

Angels are higher in the creation scale than we earthings, for we are made "a little lower than the angels" (Hebrews 2:7). However, they themselves are subject to God and "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:@; Hebrews 1:6). But they are not to be worshiped (Colossians 2:18; Revelation 19:10; 22:8, 9). They are our fellow servants and, like us, are subject to the Lord Jesus (1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 22:9). In the future, we earthlings will be equal to the angels (Luke 20:36).

The number of angels is 100 million plus, and their hosts are innumerable (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 5:11). They are mighty in strength (Psalm 103:20). Since there is an archangel, there must be subordinate angels (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9). The names of only two angels have been revealed: Gabriel and Michael (Daniel 9:21; Jude 9). Angels rejoice when sinners on earth repent (Luke 15:10).

In the days of miracles, angels made visible and audible appearances to people: Zacharias, Mary, shepherds, Philip, Cornelius, Peter, Paul, and three times in dreams to Joseph (Luke 1:11, 26; 2:9; Acts 8:26; 10:3; 12:7; 27:23; Matthew 1:20; 2:13, 19). God sent an angel to kill Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:23).

On jesus’ resurrection day, angels came to the tomb in apparel as white as snow (Matthew 28:2,3; Luke 24:4). Sometimes they appeared as human beings (Genesis 18:2-8). At times some people entertained angels unaware (Hebrews 13:2). One time an angel as a man was Jacob’s wrestling partner (Genesis 32:24; Hosea 12:4).

Are angels appointed for each child? "Their angels," said an authority, "do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 18:10). Is there a guardian angel? "The angel of the Lord encamps around about them who fear him and delivers them" (Psalm 34:7). The Lord "will give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways" (Psalm 91:11).

After a whole night in an animal den, Daniel exclaimed, "God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me" (Daniel 6:22). However, some of God’s finest people, just as dedicated as Daniel, have been left unguarded: "righteous Abel" and Stephen and Paul (Genesis 4:8; Matthew 24:35; Acts 7:60; 2 Timothy 4:6).

Even the only One "who did no sin" was left unguarded by angels and cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46; 1 Peter 2:22). But He did not have to be forsaken or left unguarded, for "more than 12 legions" [73,200; Matthew 26:53] of angels were ready to deliver Him instantly, but were restrained. Why were they held back?

There was a divine reason: God’s love for Hugo saw no way to save him from eternal ruin than to leave His beloved Son unprotected. The only plan the wisdom of heaven could devise was that the Father spare not His own Son in order that He might "freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32). Perhaps it was the human side of Jesus in the agony of the Cross that made Him ask, "Why?" (Matthew 27:46), but the divine side understood and explained it to one who had a sword and wanted to use it (Matthew 26:54).

So all men of faith know that the Almighty, with uncountable armies of angels under His control, does, on purpose and for someone’s good, at times leave heroes and heroines "of whom the world was [is] not worthy" unguarded (Hebrews 11:38).

Are angels of assistance today? "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). What do these mute, invisible spirit beings do? We walk by faith, not by sight or by hearing (2 Corinthians 5:7). So by faith we know that, in an overseeing providence, they are doing what we cannot do for ourselves.

"God works all things together for good" to "them who love the Lord" (Romans 8:28). Those translations which say that "all things work together for goo" (KJV, ASV, NRS), though they follow excellent Greek manuscripts, do not follow the most accurate, which say that "God," not "things," work together for good (NASB, NIV, NW).

Inanimate, mindless "things" might accidentally effect some good, but the One supervising Christians’ lives, as He works through angels (Hebrews 1:14), is not inanimate or mindless.

At life’s end, God’s angels escort the souls of the saved out of even diseased bodies "into Abraham’s bosom" where they are comforted (Luke 16:22, 25). Then at Judgment Day "the angels of his power" have an unpleasant duty: to come from heaven "in flaming fire" to gather out of the Lord’s kingdom all "them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:41, 42; 2 Thessalonians 1:7). Then good angels will rejoice with the righteous as they "shine forth in … the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).