Angels in Different Religions

Christian belief

For Christians, angels have been created by God before creating the universe and mankind.  They are messengers that act on matters that are very important for spirituality, like the annunciation of Mary, and the resurrection of Christ. They serve as guardians, protectors and helpers of God.

Angels would frequently appear as human beings.  Unlike what is commonly depicted, angels are not cute babies with wings.  According to the Bible, angels during the annunciation of Mary were described by the shepherds as adults.  While at Christ’s tomb, the women there met two men and informed them of the resurrection of Christ.  They were bathed in light that made it difficult to look at them directly and define their exact features. Were these two men really angels?

There are also some Christian traditions citing that we are assigned with our angels on a specific ritual, like baptism.  But theologians quite agree that the dead and their spirits do not necessarily become angels.  There are some who believe that those who died and lived a righteous life would become angels in the afterlife, but there is nothing mentioned in the Bible about this.

Islamic belief

Muslims also believe in angels. Actually they have archangels that they believe in:  Archangel Gabriel who allegedly delivered the message of the Qur’an to Muhammad; Archangel Michael who is said responsible for rain, thunder and rewards to good people on Earth, Archangel Raphael whose responsibility is to announce the arrival of Judgment Day, and the Angel of Death who separates the body and the soul at the time of bodily death.

Latter Day Saints (Mormon) belief

Latter-Day Saints accept that angels are for real.  They are here to be a messenger and at the same time make sure that the work of the Lord is followed and implemented on Earth.  Angels are prominently mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants which play a major role in the construction of Mormon belief.

Mormons believe that angels are actually participating in daily tasks.  They are not only supernatural beings who appear from time to time, but they exist along with the people.

Hindu belief

Hindus take what cannot be seen as a very serious and important matter.  They would believe that every tree or river crossing is a home for spirits.  In India, they have what we would call Deva or Devata; they are referred to as the “shining ones” of locals. Hindi scriptures would say that there are approximately thirty-three million Devas in existence.

For Hindu followers, the divinity and the spirituality behind these angels are more important than that the angels themselves.  They would believe that Devas are only manifestations of a higher and Supreme Being.

Judaism belief

The same as Christians, Jews describes angels to be the messengers of God.  Not only are they messengers but also the implementer of God’s will.  All angels owe their existence to God since they were created by God.

Their appearance is not necessarily like that of a human being; they can assume likeness to humans, but otherwise they are still divine.  They also believe that angels can sit, walk, speak Hebrew and fly.  The Hebrew Bible frequently mentions the angels in its books.

Allah’s servants: Angels in Islam

It maybe surprising to some but the idea of angels isn’t exactly unique to the Christian religious tradition. That wouldn’t surprise religious scholars, of course. They know that Islam and Judaism share the same roots and those roots have some pretty noticeable appearances by angels. Islam’s angels, however, are significantly different from their Christian and Jewish cousins.

Islamic angelic tradition is pretty sparse. This is because, unlike Christian and Jewish religious scholars, Islamic theologians do not consider the study of angels as an important topic. In their opinion, if the Qur’an does not directly talk about a particular subject, there’s no need to study it. Of course, there’s a hierarchy, but they are of the belief that it’s none of their business. Why worry about something that’s not broken after all? Besides, angels have no free will – they do everything that God commands, with their supernatural powers focused on their goal.

There are, of course, several angels named in Islamic tradition, each accorded their duties by Allah. Some of them are actually quite familiar. Jibril is Gabriel, transliterated to Arabic, of course. His job is to be God’s voice to his prophets. He was the one who delivered the Qur’an in its entirety to the prophet Muhammad and this has made him a pretty honored angel. Another familiar angel is Mikaaiyl or Michael as we know him.

Instead of being Heaven’s General, in Islam, he is the angel of mercy, dispenser of rain, (which is a very big thing when you’re living in the desert.) He’s also in charge of the just reward of virtuous people which is a long way from the demon slayer of Christian tradition. The name Israfil sounds unfamiliar, but just take out the “is” and you get Raphael. He’s got the dubious honor of blowing his trumpet that ends the world on Judgment Day.

Of course, there are some original angels among the bunch named in the Qur’an and in the Hadith, which are the oral stories about Muhammad which have been passed down through the generations. Probably the most famous is Malak al Maut, the Angel of  Death, though popular tradition calls him Azrael, which is strange, considering he isn’t even named in the Qur’an. His job, if it wasn’t obvious enough from his title, is pretty much tasked to take the souls of people at death to Allah be judged. Other angels mentioned in the Qur’an are Maalik, the guardian of Hell, and Rid wan, the keeper of Heaven. Note that Maalik is not a fallen angel.

Islamic tradition states that angels cannot fall because they do not have free will, so they cannot rebel. Maalik is there because Allah wants him to make sure that no one escapes. He stays there with nineteen other angels to make sure that sinners receive their well-deserved punishment. Kiraamun and KAAT been double-team to record all the good and bad deeds a person has done, while another pair, Munkar and Nakir interview them in the afterlife about it.

As is typical of angel imagery, most Islamic sources describe angels by their wings, though some of them can be overkill. Two to four wings is the usual count, but Gabriel and Michael are said to have thousands of wings sprouting from their back, signifying their power and position. Some aren’t even human in appearance – 70 thousand-headed angels are said to sing praises to Allah in Heaven.

All in all, you can see how different Islam views its angels. It’s like looking at a weird fun house mirror; there’s a certain familiarity that we can almost recognize, but there’s a telling difference in the way we see things.

Angels: faithful messengers of different faiths

There’s a lot of angel imagery hanging around in our modern world: Angels on greeting cards, in commercials, movies, and on television shows. Some of them are really hokey or reaching for it, but some are actually pretty good depictions of them. There are some depictions that actually push the limits of what some consider as appropriate; Super natural’s for one. There’s actually some pretty good reasons from departing from what most people see as angels being Michael Landon-like figures of cheap salvation.

Let’s be clear:  angels aren’t exactly unique to the Christian faith. Christianity is based on Judaism and it also shares roots with Islam. Angels have been mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament, and the Hebrew Faith is based on the Old Testament, with the prophet Daniel having the honor of being the person who has the most dealings with them; although they were briefly mentioned in the stories of Jacob and Lot.

Elohim is what the Jews called angels and they’re actually what early Christians based their belief in angels on. Popular angels Gabriel, Raphael and Michael have their roots in Jewish literature as well. It’s pretty safe to say that the early Christians; the core groups of which were converted Jews, co-opted quite a bit of this imagery into their own beliefs.

Christianity, the faith most associated with angels, has numerous angels. Some theologians believe that some were actually made up out of the blue to correspond with a particular idea or theme, but nonetheless, most Christians still believe in them. The New Testament has a whole army of them marching through – announcing Christ’s birth to Mary, Joseph, and random shepherds; there allegedly angels at Christ’s tomb on his resurrection and various other tales where they helped apostles escape imprisonment.

Christianity, with its large and early dominance, also has the honor of having a multitude of depictions of angels ranging from mosaics to stained-glass to sculptured figures. Even today’s modern icons of angels are pretty much Christian-based — who can forget Michael Landon’s classic TV show, “Highway to Heaven” and later, “Touched by an Angel” starring Roma Downey.

Not to be outdone, Islam has its own share of angelic beings — they are a cousin faith to Christianity after all, and actually have a surprising similarity in angelic beliefs. One of the six basic beliefs in Islam is the belief in angels or Malae ah, which pretty much means if you don’t believe in them, then your faith isn’t exactly up to snuff. We can see also see the appearance of the popular trio of angels: Gabriel as Jibril, Michael as Mikaaiyl, and Raphael as Israfil. However, angels in Islam are viewed pretty differently, in that all angels have no free will and were created expressly to serve God.

Zoroastrianism and the Baha’i faith also share a belief in angels, although the Zoroastrianism belief probably developed around the same time as that of Judaism’s. The ancient faith had a dozen angel-like figures who were representatives of Mazas, the Supreme God, though they were more like his limbs rather than his creations.

Baha’i is a fairly new religion and combines several belief systems into one, emphasizing that all faiths had a similar underlying component: the love of God. It’s no wonder that it managed to gain angel figures – though these are people who have been totally embraced by God that they have overcome their human frailties and now are more spirit than human.

As you can see once again, angels aren’t just a Christian monopoly. They can be seen in all faiths. So you’ll always be sure that an angel’s got your back.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah has his vast angelic family organized as follows:

The angel foremost in power and authority is Michael the archangel, or Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9) Seraphs, cherubs, and other angels are under him.

Seraphs occupy a very high position in God’s arrangement. They serve as attendants at God’s throne. Their assignment includes declaring God’s holiness and keeping his people spiritually clean.—Isaiah 6:1-3, 6, 7.

Cherubs are associated with God’s throne and uphold Jehovah’s majesty.—Psalm 80:1; 99:1; Ezekiel 10:1, 2.

Other angels are agents of Jehovah, and they carry out the divine will.

Angels and Their Ranks

As stated previously, angels are creatures that we have become fascinated with for centuries. Remember that time when an angel appeared to Mary and said that she will be having a baby?

Angels are peppered all throughout the Bible. The very first person who called angels by a name was Daniel, as I believe I previously mentioned. There were also mentions of angels in the Talmud and in other religious texts besides the Christian Bible.

Angels have their own hierarchy. The first is the seraphim, which is said to be the caretakers of God’s throne. The word seraphim in and of itself means “the burning ones” because they are literally always heated up with love and support for the God. The seraphims have six wings. One pair on their faces and the other pairs they use to fly.

The next in line is the cherub, which are the guardians of the lights and the stars. These angels are often depicted as small and cuddly but the truth is cherubs have other images. They can be a man, an ox, a lion and lastly an eagle. The face of the ox is however said to be their true form.

Next in the tier are the Elders or the Thrones. They are also knows as Ere Lim or Orphanin, which are angels that were mentioned in the New Testament’s Colossians. They are considered to be the symbols of God’s justice and authority and have also been mentioned in the last chapter in the Bible, the Book of Revelation.

On another level are the Dominions. In some sectors, they are also known as Hashmallim. They are the ones tasked to regulate the duties of lower angels. Among all the other angels, they are the only ones with scepters that have orbs on top. They wield these scepters or use their swords. They also have a pair of light feathery wings and are perfect in appearance.  In fact, it is the Dominions whose images are often the image from which most angel depictions are based on.

The virtues on the other hand are the next in line. Their primary duty is to supervise the actions of nature and heavenly bodies so that disasters can be averted. They ensure that everything in nature are in order. The term virtue is actually derived from the Greek term dunamis, which translates directly to Virtue.

The next one is the Powers, which are the guardians of people’s conscience. They are perhaps the ones always being depicted as advisors to people when they are at a crossroad. They are also responsible for distributing the power for humankind. They are also warrior angels who defend the heavens and God. No power has ever fallen from grace but according to folklore, Satan was a former power angel who fell to Hell.

The principality is another angel rank which is often depicted to be wearing crowns and carrying scepters. They carry out the orders that are given by the other angels in higher ranks as well as to oversee groups of people. They are also said to inspire people to do things for the arts and the Sciences.

Angelology: Knowing Your Angels

Angels are a popular image in modern culture. A lot of this popularity comes from popular culture: images of kindly messengers running around helping the underprivileged and giving those who’ve been through dark times a chance at redemption. This image isn’t exactly a new one. The Bible has had quite a few angel tales in it as previously mentioned. Almost everyone knows the story of Mother Mary, and there’s an entire book, Tobias to be specific, in the Old Testament where an angel pretty much sets up a guy for marriage.

But still all those Bible stories are kind of sparse compared to the whole field of literature and study which has sprung up around them. After all, the idea of angels has been around since the Old Testament and quite a few scholars, starting from Jewish tradition in the Biblical times, have taken up the opportunity to study this field of theology, calling it Angelology.

This might all seem crazy, but they’re all pretty passionate about this stuff and it shows in the large amounts of material they have managed to come up with from the ancient times to the present. There are actually some pretty active angelologists around.

Of course, since angels are kind of hard to find on the ground, most of their ideas of angels come from the Bible and more fanciful sources like the Apocrypha, which are technically non-official books of the Bible, along with more mystical sources like the Kabbala. All of those sources are mixed in with personal theories, assumptions, and a few choice bits of folklore. It all seems a bit of a mish-mash of ideas, but like fine wine, the development of angelic theory has pretty much settled down through the ages to a definitive set of beliefs.

Medieval Christian theologians pretty much set down the definitive angelic hierarchy. Since they were pretty much enamored by the number three, the holy number of the Trinity, these theologians divided the angels into three spheres, basing most of their beliefs from New Testament books like Ephesians and Colossians. Each sphere was then divided into another three sets. The first sphere is composed of the angels seen in the Old Testament: the Seraphim, Cherubim and the Thrones.

These angels worked to guard God’s divine throne. The next sphere were governors of the heavens, making sure everything ran smoothly. They are divided into the Dominions, the Virtues, and the Powers. Finally, the last sphere dealt the most with humans; delivering messages to them and guarding them against demons: the Principalities, Archangels, and just plain Angels.

General divisions like these helped systematize the theology behind angels. It was all very serious business back then. Both the Fourth Lateran Council and the First Vatican Council each had definite things to say about angels based on the research of angelologists. Even then, study did not stop of course. Shifting on individual angels, especially the ones named in the Bible were another part of Angelology.

The most popular belief in seven Archangels is pretty much one of the results of these studies.

The archangels, according to angelologists, were charged with the protection of nations. Also, each had a specific name that could be used to invoke their protection: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Zerachiel and Remiel. Occult imagery has co-opted some of these ideas and usually use them in magical rituals of protection.

As you can see so far, the study of angels can be pretty complicated. A lot of work has been put into it through the years and it’s become part of modern mythology. Angels aren’t just winged fellows with harps, and all of the research so far proves that.

Amazing Facts About Angels

Many people may not be aware, but there are several truly amazing facts about angels, most especially since it literally bears reference in the Bible no less than 300 times, all the way from Genesis to the Book of Revelation.

Other religious manuscripts and literature bear similar and fascinating facts about the existence of angels and it continues to captivate and awe mankind to this day.

In the Bible, an angel is portrayed at the beginning as a carrier of messages from God, as mentioned previously, while in the closing passages of Revelation, the angel is the bearer of the messages from Jesus Christ.

Here are some interesting facts that are seen in the Bible:

• Angels also care for soldiers and members of the military. This is evidenced in scripture where it was identified that the very first Gentile convert was a military officer.

• Acts chapter 10 verses 3 and 4 state that “About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come unto him, and said to him, ‘Cornelius!’ and fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed, he said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ And he said to him, ‘Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God “

• In the same book if Acts, the scriptures vividly describe that no prison or jail cell can detain an angel; there are many instances of which angels have appeared to many Christian followers like Peter and Paul among others, who were freed by angels from confinement in prison.

• Angels are tasked to keep watch and safeguard little children. Jesus Christ fondly spoke of children being under the care of angels.

• The scriptures also declare that angels are subject to Jesus Christ as the Supreme Commander, thus, angles cannot perform the works of the Holy Spirit nor can they grant forgiveness of man’s sins, as stated in 1 Peter, chapter 3 verses 21 and 22.

• A great multitude of angels descended on Mt. Sinai, the place where the prophet Moses received the tablet bearing the laws God wanted to bring to His people, the Israelites, which had reference to the scriptures where the psalmist declared “Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, at the mountain which God has desired for His abode? Surely, the Lord will dwell there forever. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness” (Psalm 68:16,17)

• Angels also live in constant communion with God, who continually praise and worship Him. “And Zacharias said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this for certain? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years,’ And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you, and to bring to you this good news.” (Luke 1:18,19)

• Heaven remains to be the center of activity for angels and there exists the busiest traffic of angels from heaven to earth and back, which clearly indicates that to deny the existence of angels and of heaven is to deny the Deity of Christ.

• Jesus Christ often spoke both of angels and heaven, and one good example can be found in the book of John chapter 1, verses 50 and 51: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.’ And He said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the Heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

• These are but some interesting facts about angels, but if you find the time to read through the Bible, you may be surprised to discover many more interesting facts about angels than you may have ever imagined.

All About Angels

Angels are a necessary part of our faith. They are said to be the guardians that help us avoid disasters and also help us weigh-in on things and help us choose the right path. Of course, there are people who also say that angels go both ways… the good and the bad. It is of course, up to us to choose which advice we will follow. There are even depictions of angels from both heaven and hell sitting on both sides of the conscience. They are each providing their own tips for the day and influencing the way we think.

Despite this, angels have always been depicted as the good and kind ones that help us along the way. They are even sometimes pictured in artworks as small cuddly ones; the cherubs, that do harmless mischief. They also have the trademark wings, white clothes, and usually a halo.

The word angel actually comes from an old French word, angele and the old English term, engel. These words are said to mean messenger. In the Bible, angels appear to act as go-betweens; they relay to us the messages from God and what He wants to enforce on earth. The very first biblical figure that made a reference to God is Daniel, who referred to angels by their names. He particularly had a scene with the Angel, Gabriel.

The earliest known depiction of any angels was in the Catacomb of Priscilla, which had been in existence since approximately the third century. The angels there however, did not have wings. There were also angels found in sarcophagus,  and lamps. One of the most famous examples is the Angel in the Sacrifice of Isaac picture in the sarcophagus of Junius Bassos.

Angels somehow, eventually acquired wings. In 1930, a sarcophagus in Istanbul was discovered to have an image of an angel with wings. The time frame for the sarcophagus was set to the time of Theodosius I. According to St. John Chrysostom, the addition of wings into their image was a symbolism of the heights they can reach and the sublimity of their existence.

The most famous of the angels is the angel Gabriel, which is believed to be the leader of all the angels. He has always been classified as an archangel, which is at the top of the hierarchy. He has also been mentioned several times in the Bible, and is believed to be the one who allegedly delivered the Koran to the prophet Muhammad.

Another famous angel is Raphael, who is said to be the healer. He helps sick people, and is generally called upon to help with terminal illnesses and grave wounds.

Angel Barchiel is the Angel for the month of February. He is actually not the angel of love, but is instead dubbed as the bringer of hope for mankind.

Angel Michael is often depicted as the warrior, defending the heavens from demons. He has a military cloak on and has a profile that is symmetrically perfect.

There is also Metatron, who is very popular in Judaism. This angel is mentioned in Merkabah and Kabbalist texts and beliefs, and is considered to be the highest in rank. He is also mentioned in the Talmud.

There have been many more mentions of angels since then. In fact, it has become for us a symbol of goodness, of peace, and of hope.

Your Own Belief System

As you grow older, you tend to develop your own beliefs with regards to angels. You may even experience some things similar to those that you see through mainstream media that will make you want to know more about them and believe that these beings were those that you have encountered.

You may even die without really believing that angels are real.

Different people will be influenced in various ways by the different views that are being fed to us by the media and other outlets that try to present their concept of angels.