The Angel Peter by B. A. Stephens

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1878

The Angel Peter.

By B. A. Stephens

SAID a Spiritual lecturer recently: "The modern word angel is from the Greek aggelos and only signifies a news-carrier. It means one who has been a human being, not one created higher than man. You know Peter was in jail. An angel let him out. Angels I have told you are only men. And then Peter went down to John Mark's house, and knocked. Rhoda went to the door, and recognized him, but the rest said it was the angel Peter, for they thought he was dead, and his immortal spirit was appearing to them in its materialized form." How false this last statement is, may be seen by reading Acts 12 : 15, "Then said they, It is his angel." Not the angel Peter, but Peter's angel. There is quite a difference between Peter and his angel.

Says Paul, "But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1 : 13, 14. Peter's angel was indeed a ministering spirit, sent forth from the throne of God to minister unto him. This guardian angel was not Peter's spirit. Says Jesus, "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Matt. 18 : 10. Then while the children of God are on earth their angels always behold the face of their heavenly Father.

That at death man becomes an angel and beholds the face of God is far from truth. Man will never be an angel, but at the resurrection will be equal unto the angels. "Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God; being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20 : 36. The word angel indeed means a messenger. Judges 2 : 1, margin. But this does not militate against the fact that the term refers and is applied to intelligences created higher than man and possessing different natures.

That they are such is plain from several passages of scripture. "What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." Ps. 8 : 4, 5. Christ "took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." Heb. 2 : 16, 14.

These angels are not dead people for they existed before people were created. At earth's creation, "the sons (Septuagint, angels) of God shouted for joy." Job. 38 : 7. These, then, were the cherubs that guarded the gates of paradise, after man's expulsion, and before any had ever died. Gen. 3 : 24. Cherubs are material beings. "And their whole body, [margin, Heb. flesh], and their backs, and their hands, and their wings," etc. They were created long before man, are a higher order of intelligences, different in nature from man, and are material beings possessing bodies of flesh, and are not the spirits of the dead. Heaven is their home, and they are messengers employed to do God's bidding. "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." Ps. 103 : 20.

What a privilege to have one of these mighty intelligences sent down from heaven to minister unto us, and to realize that "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Ps. 34 : 7.

Another much abused text is Rev. 22 : 9. This lecturer misquoted it, as others have before, "I am one of thy brethren the prophets." It reads, "I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets." Says a correspondent of the Bible Banner, "The word sundulos, fellowservant, is understood twice, being followed by two genitives to which it belongs." Then the angel was simply John's fellowservant, and a fellowservant of John's brethren the prophets, not a spirit of a prophet.

When will men cease to pervert the word of the Lord, and become candid in their search for truth? Certainly never, as long as they seek unto familiar spirits, not of the dead, but of devils, the chief of these fallen angels being the father of lies. B. A. STEPHENS.