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FAQ # 218
QUESTION 218 : Is Jesus an Angel or “Angel of His presence” or
ever referred to as an Angel?
One person astutely said,
Jesus already bears the name
of God the Father during His pilgrimage with the children of Israel through
the wilderness: "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in
the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware
of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon
your transgressions; for My name is in Him." (Exodus 23:20-21).
This is the Angel of His presence, "In all their affliction
He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love
and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them All
the days of old." (Isaiah 63:9). This Angel
of His presence was Christ, who disciplined the children in the wilderness:
"...nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were
destroyed by serpents;..." (1 Corinthians 10:9).
Firstly, it was claim that the God that spoke to them
in the wilderness was not “God the father,” an alleged separate person,
but “God the son” another separate person. But now we are told he is an
angel. Which is he, an angel, or a separate person called "God the
Son" while a Father stood by silently throughout the Old testament?
On the contrary, this angel of their presence is not Christ but more than
likely Michael or one he sent from his regiment. Reason being, He is the
Prince of Israel or the Arc Angel that specifically watches over Israel;
the bible clearly said so, “Michael your prince” (Dan 10:21) and, “At
that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for
the children of thy people” (Dan 12:1). Other nations had their Prince,
like the “Prince of Persia….Prince of Grecia" (Dan 10:20) and so
on. So this angel is not Jesus, but Michael, Israel's Prince. Christ is
much bigger than that, he is the Prince of all the princes or as the Rev
1:5 puts it, "the Prince of the Kings of the earth."
So you see that what the doctrine of the Trinity does
is try to fit their theory in Old testament writings, which has no place
for it because the trinity doesn’t exist there (nor in the New Testament),
and thus the doctrine becomes mixed, like this mistaken identity of Michael
being Jesus. The scripture said that he will give his angel charge over
thee…to keep thee from dashing thy foot against the stone (Lk 4:10-11)
or prevent you from doing something stupid, this includes discipline.
How, for one, they can simply move their presence.
Separate and apart from allege *Theophany, other Hellenized
philosopher thought the angel of the lord in the Old Testament was always
Jesus (logos),
"On this first occasions
hers [Hagar's] was a voluntary flight, not a banishment, and when she
met the angel or divine reason [Logos], she returned to her master's house.
(Gen. xvi. 6 ff.)." (PHILO On the Cherubim, I.).
"But Hagar flees out of
shame. And a proof of this is,
that the angel, that is the word of God, met her, with the intent to recommend
her what she ought to do, and to guide her in her return to her mistress's
house." (PHILO On Flight and Finding, I, 5).
"Behold the armed angel,
the reason [Logos] of God, standing in the way against you (Number xxii.
31), the source through whom both good and ill come to fulfillment. See
where he stands...If you had learnt from the first that it is not your
life-pursuits which bring your share in good or ill, but the divine reason
[Logos], the ruler and steersman of all, you would bear with more patience
what befalls you, and cease from slandering and ascribing to us what we
have no power to bring about." (PHILO On the Cherubim, XI, 35-36).
So you see that this Angel Christological doctrine
is seeded in pagan philosophies and should be avoided. Theologians say
God appeared as an angel because of the narration of the angel and sometimes
the responses of the humans involved; example, “I am the lord,” says an
angel, and “wrestled with god,” says a human when encountering an angel.
What happened in so-called Theophanies is that they were actual angels
sent by God but they spoke prophetically. For instance, someone in church
would prophesy and say “repent, I say repent, this is the lord speaking
and I am God, repent.” Are we suppose to think of this person as God or
an instrument of God? This is what happens with Angels who are called
God; they speak on his behalf, like God was speaking himself. Though this
is not to say God is limited in that he can't appear as an angel.
The angel of the lord is not God, nor some separate
being called ‘God the son.’ The angel of the Lord is just that, an angel
who belongs to the company of angels that didn’t rebel with satan; resides
in the presence of God and used by him to deliver messages and watch over
the heirs of salvation (Heb 1:14).
When we read statements in the bible under Persons
like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and others, statements like "I am
the Lord, that is my name" (Isa 42:8), did you know that was herald
from a man's mouth? The prophet who spoke it. Are we now to think that
the prophet is God because he said, "I am the Lord, that is mine
name?" No, because he was a prophet who was sent (malak) to deliver
a message. The same thing goes for Angels (malakim), who when delivering
a message, speak as though it is God speaking; because like the prophet,
he is simply using their "mouths." Whereby God often related
to his prophets that their mouths are his mouth. Any other deviation from
this is only using our intellectualism to fathom the affairs of God. For
instance, someone without his knowledge would say,
"If
President Bill Clinton were to dispatch an envoy to France who, upon arrival,
were to present himself before the French authorities and boldly announce,
'I'm Bill Clinton', what would he be but a liar and a fraud?" (thriceholy.net).
Yet God does that with his prophets in the pass, present
and future. And does the same with all his messengers, including angels.
Again, here is an example of God doing so with an angel, "But the
Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!'
So he said, 'Here I am.' And He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the lad,
or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have
not withheld your son, your only son, from Me'" (Genesis 22:11-12).
Or even this vocal from Asaph, "Hear, O my people, and I will
speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy
God" (Ps 50:7). Is Asaph God? Or according to thriceholy, is
Asaph a liar and a fraud? Obviously not!
Men cannot do it (The President’s Ambassador). Some
devils do it when they possess a man, which outputs a violent nature because
the flesh is resisting the devilry. As seen with exorcists that ask the
devil possessing the man, “what is your name?” Though the man answers,
“I am satan.” Is the man satan, no, but he used the man’s elements to
speak. God never forces this on anyone, and it is quite ecstatic to the
person prophesying rather than horrifying to the person possessed by devils.
Devils jump into you and rend your body to do so. God does this because
when you invite him into your heart and become saved, you become apart
of his body. Angels are also apart of God’s body (whole family in heaven
and earth - Eph 3:5) and he can use them as such, and have.
Moreover, if the Angel of the Lord (lesser to God)
is the pre-incarnate Christ it would prove a subordination of persons,
which the trinity teaching today denies, simply because they found out
that it means tritheism. Remember, the word angel, strong numbers 04397
- mal'ak, comes from an unused root meaning to dispatch as a deputy;
AV
- angel 111, messenger 98, ambassadors 4, variant 1; 214, 1) messenger,
representative 1a) messenger 1b) angel 1c) the Theophanic angel.
An
if the Trinity is a subordination of persons, it means that it is a unit
of God and demi-gods – paganism. This is no different from saying Jesus
is only the first angel created by God amongst a group of angels he uses,
like Michael and Gabriel; a teaching that is uphold by Jehovah Witnesses
and Mormons. Even further, Christ could not be an angel, for an angel
is not God, as Christ ascribed to and is referenced in scripture as. But
rather, An Angel is an Angel and Jesus Christ is no other than the one
God himself incarnate, to which of the angels has He ever said: 'Sit at
My right hand [POWER], till I make Your enemies Your footstool?' Are
they not all ministering spirits…?" (Hebrews 1:13-14).
Answer
Notes: 1. * denotes, A theophany
is the belief that God manifested or appeared to men as an Angel.
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