Categories
of Angels: Rev. 5:9; Isa. 13-14
One category of angels is the cherubim [“im” is the Hebrew plural]. We
understand that what distinguishes the cherubs is that they have four wings.
They are mentioned in Genesis 3:24; Ezekiel 1:5-24; 10:1-15; Hebrews 9:5. They
are pictured as part human and part animal. What is interesting about this is
that the cherubs are created before the animal creation on planet earth.
Scripture describes them as having the four faces of a man, a lion, an ox and
an eagle. This predates the creation of men, lions, oxen, and eagles. So that
tells us that when God created the angels He already knew what He was going to
do, that His whole plan was already in His thinking, and he already had the
prototypes for human beings, lions, oxen and eagles. They are described as
being full of eyes in Ezekiel
The first mention of cherubs is in Genesis 3:24 when God drives Adam and
Eve out of the garden, and at the east of the
When we get into other passages such as Ezekiel that describe the
cherubs, other places that talk about how God is enthroned above the cherubs,
the emphasis seems to be that the cherubs are always associated with the
holiness and the righteousness of God. They seem to have this special role to
guard and protect the holiness and righteousness of God.
In the depiction of the cherubs in Ezekiel chapter one, cherubs surround
the chariot throne of God in Ezekiel’s vision. In the early tabernacle and
later in the temple the cherubs are depicted on the veil that hung between the
outer holy place and the inner holy of holies. In Solomon’s temple he placed
A second category is the seraphs. These are mentioned in only one place:
Isaiah 6:1-7. They have six wings. The root meaning in the Hebrew means burning
ones. Burning always emphasizes that purity of the holiness of God. The seraphs
have faces, feet, hands, and they fly above the throne of God singing, Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. They use two wings to cover their feet, two to
fly with, and two to cover their faces because they cannot look upon the glory
of God. Their duties seem to be to praise the glory of God and proclaim His
holiness and righteousness.
The third category we have in the Scripture are the living creatures.
The Greek word that is used in Revelation 4:6-9 is zoon [zwon]. These are living creatures,
also described as burning ones, they have faces of a lion, a calf, man and an
eagle. They are very similar to cherubs except that cherubs have four sings and
the living creatures have six wings.
The next two categories of angels actually have to do with individual
angels. The fourth is Michael the archangel—arch means the first, the highest
of all of the angels. He is pictured as contending with Satan over the body of
Moses in Jude 9. He is the archangel, there is not more than one, and he seems
to have replaced Lucifer as the leader of the holy angels following the Satanic
rebellion. Then we have Gabriel. He is mentioned twice in Scripture—Daniel
As we have mentioned cherubs we can now understand the reference in
Ezekiel 28 to this cherub who covered. Historically and traditionally the two
passages, Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, have been understood to refer to the fall
of Satan. There is this type of terminology in both passages that just can’t
describe a human being. This is the “anointed cherub.” These words are so
loaded with theological significance in the Scriptures. The first word
“anointed” is the same word we have to refer to Jesus, the coming Messiah. So
that immediately indicates some priestly role among the angels. The basic idea
of the word Messiah is “appointed,” so he has a specifically appointed role
that distinguishes him above all of the other cherubs, and he is said to be the
anointed cherub who covers. A covering is related to the throne of God, so he
is the one who is appointed above all the angels to be associated with the
throne of God. Then there is this failure that is identified in Ezekiel chapter
28.
One of the things that is important about understanding the whole
question of the angelic conflict is that we have often heard that the human
race was designed to resolve the angelic conflict—not to solve it but to
resolve it. What is being resolved? How it resolves it is related to the
doctrine of evil. That is what is resolved, because once God creates creatures
with volition there is potential of disobedience, sin and evil. And once evil
enters the universe evil has to be judged. But when we look at God’s plan,
apparently it had to be done the way it is being done, and it took a long period
of time in order to do that. So we need to plug this into our understanding of
the origin of evil.
First of all, we have to recognize that every creature, including the
angels, was created by God. There is nobody else creating anything—John 1:3;
Colossians
Evil
and the origin of evil
1) Of all religions
only Judaism and Christianity have an answer to the origin of evil.
2) The problem with
evil is that critics of Christianity often ask: “How can a loving God allow
suffering and evil to occur?” At some point in eternity past God created the
angels. They are not eternal but they will last for eternity. Following His
creation of the angels God creates the universe, Job 38:4-7. Then He creates
the human race. Evil comes into existence between the creation of the universe
and the creation of the human race. Evil will be allowed to run its course and
there will be a final judgment and resolution and restriction of all evil to
the lake of fire. Christianity has an answer to the problem of evil. It isn’t
that God is going to resolve all injustices on our timetable, but God will
resolve all injustice on His timetable. There is an ultimate accounting and
resolution to evil. There is something going on within creation that God is
demonstrating with regard to evil. What began with evil was first of all in the
angelic realm with a creature who wanted to assert his own desires. The basic
thing that Satan is claiming is that he wants to be like God, he wants to run
things. Isaiah 14, the five “I wills” of Satan. Often people will say that
Satan must have challenged God. In some way he said to God: “How can you send a
creature that you have made to an eternal punishment in the lake of fire?” In
other words, how does this horrible punishment fit the crime? So we believe
that is part of this challenge to God, and God creates the human race as an
experiment—in the classic sense of the word, which means not to see what will
happen but as a procedure designed to demonstrate a truth. Eating a piece of
fruit in the garden was innocuous, simple, but it represented disobedience to
God. And what God shows is that spiritual death in the universe and the
corruption of the universe, all of the famines, all of the wars, all of the
injustice, all stems from the fact that somebody performed what appeared to
them to be an innocuous act. But it if the creature who is finite in his
understanding operates independently from the creator, in even the most
innocuous manner, it creates this reverberation of evil and corruption that
changes the fabric of the universe. So the reason God consigns these creatures to
the lake of fire is because they are the ones who have originated all of this,
therefore an eternity in the lake of fire is a just and fitting punishment for
the creature acting independently of the creator. So it is in this way that the
human race functions to resolve the angelic conflict because the human race is
the test case that is going to demonstrate why evil is evil, why disobedience
and independence form God is so horrific, and how God ultimately brings all of
this together to a final judgment and resolution of the evil problem. And only
Christianity has this.
3) Non-Christians
don’t have an answer to this.
4) God allows evil
because He allows free will. If He didn’t give His creatures freedom then they
would not have that choice. And if we want to be free do succeed we have to be
free to fail. When there was the option of failure then God had a plan to deal
with the introduction of evil into the universe.
5) God originally
created angels with volition knowing that there would be a rebellion, evil
would be introduced into the creation; He knew the whole scenario, it was
always immediately and simultaneously known to Him, and so He had a plan for
resolving this in such a way that it would be forever taken care of. This is
how human history fits within this overall scope of the angelic conflict.