format_quote Originally Posted by
PurestAmbrosia
I am amused! I don't mean this in any deragatory way but what do Christians think of the other angels? Are they too one with G-D a part of G-D?
Israfael and Michael to name a few? what are their duties?
مَن كَانَ عَدُوًّا لِّلّهِ وَمَلآئِكَتِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَجِبْرِيلَ وَمِيكَالَ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ عَدُوٌّ لِّلْكَافِرِينَ {98}
[Pickthal 2:98] Who is an enemy to Allah, and His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel and Michael! Then, lo! Allah (Himself) is an enemy to the disbelievers.
And I don't take it as anything other than an honest question.
Reiterating what Keltoi said, Christians don't understand the Holy Spirit to be an angel at all. (Sorry, I thought I had made that clear in my previous post.) Going further, we don't think that any angels are anything but creatures created by God. In essence, given the we think the Holy Spirit is himself one with the Creator God, then God the Holy Spirit would be the creator of the creature the Angel Gabriel and all other angels.
With reference to archangles, while there are over 300 references to angels in the Bible, there are only two references to an archangel:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.(1 Thessalonians 4:16)
and
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (Jude 1:9)
Michael is also mentioned in Revelation 12, but not identified as an archangel in that passage:
Revelation 12
7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Gabriel, who is only mentioned 4 times in the Bible (twice in the book of the prophet Daniel and twice in the Gospel of Luke), and all of the other angels are messengers, servants of God. Angels are sent to minister to Jesus during his time on earth, most notably while he was in the desert after being tempted by the devil and when in the garden praying before he went to face the Cross. They also are commanded by God to worship Jesus:
Hebrews 1
6And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
"Let all God's angels worship him." 7In speaking of the angels he says,
"He makes his angels winds,
his servants flames of fire." 8But about the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
We also believe that some angels sinned and rebelled against God. Legend, not the Bible, says they were led in this by Lucifer who is also considered an archangel. That legend springs from the following passage, the only place that the name Lucifer is found in the Bible:
Isaiah 14
12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
According to 2 Peter 2:4, "God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment."
No other angels are mentioned by name in the Bible.