(1) The mention of angels is inclusive in Scripture. While many details about angels are omitted, it is important to keep in mind three important elements about the biblical revelation God has given us about angels. Since details about angels are not significant for that purpose, they tend to be omitted. When they are mentioned, it is always in order to inform us further about God, what he does, and how he does it. God’s revelation never aims at informing us regarding the nature of angels. Though the doctrine of angels holds an important place in the Word of God, it is often viewed as a difficult subject because, while there is abundant mention of angels in the Bible, the nature of this revelation is without the same kind of explicit description we often find with other subjects developed in the Bible:Įvery reference to angels is incidental to some other topic. Even Calvin was cautious in discussing this subject ( Institutes, I, xiv, 3). This disregard for the doctrine may simply be neglect or it may indicate a tacit rejection of this area of biblical teaching. One has only to peruse the amount of space devoted to angelology in standard theologies to demonstrate this.
The tendency, however, has been to neglect it. The study of angels or the doctrine of angelology is one of the ten major categories of theology developed in many systematic theological works. It would be sad indeed if we should allow ourselves to be such victims of sense perception and so materialistic that we should refuse to believe in an order of spiritual beings simply because they were beyond our sight and touch. This possibility is turned into certainty by the express and explicit teaching of the Scriptures. Indeed, the existence of lesser deities in all heathen mythologies presumes the existence of a higher order of beings between God and man, superior to man and inferior to God. As the distance between man and the lower forms of life is filled with beings of various grades, so it is possible that between man and God there exist creatures of higher than human intelligence and power. We are not to think that man is the highest form of created being. The fact that God has created a realm of personal beings other than mankind is a fitting topic for systematic theological studies for it naturally broadens our understanding of God, of what He is doing, and how He works in the universe.
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