Angels

Pure spirits devoted to the worship and service of GOD. Most developed religious traditions have a class of beings that range between the human realm and the supreme God or Ultimate Reality. They include lesser gods, SAINTS, ancestral spirits (see ANCESTOR WORSHIP), BODHISATTVAS, and today even aliens from other planets. Angels are among the most prominent, especially in monotheistic (believing in one God) religions. They are believed to be pure spirits created directly by God to praise and honor him in HEAVEN and to serve as his messengers (the word angel comes from the Greek angellos, messenger) on Earth. Angels are important in the Western religious traditions, JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, and ISLAM. Here they have several roles. A hierarchy, including the mighty archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and others, is believed to praise and serve God in heaven. According to ancient sources, there are ranks of angels, in descending order known as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and ordinary angels. A well-known story, hinted at in the Bible but developed by the poet John Milton and others, says that SATAN, the devil, was once a very high angel, Lucifer (Lightbearer), but rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven and into hell. Second, angels are messengers of God. Archangels and angels have performed missions for God crucial to the central narratives of these three faiths. In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament to Christians) angels guarded the Garden of Eden after ADAM and EVE were driven out of that garden. They visited ABRAHAM with the promise of a son, and the prophet ISAIAH saw a six-winged cherubim, a kind of angel, in the temple. In Christianity, it was the archangel Gabriel who visited MARY to inform her she would become the mother of the Savior, JESUS, and angels appeared singing in the skies at the time of his birth in Bethlehem. In Islam, the same archangel, Gabriel, delivered the sacred scriptures, the QUR'AN to the prophet MUHAMMAD. On a more personal level, these faiths have traditionally believed that each individual has a guardian angel who guides and protects him or her. There is some popular belief that the departed become angels after death, but this is not considered orthodox. Third, angels are pictured as protectors. Great archangels are patrons of nations and cities; lesser angels of individuals are "guardian angels," designated to help those persons and fend off temptations from the demons. Angels have traditionally been portrayed as beautiful human-like fi gures with wings. They often appear female but are said to be sexless, although the greatest archangels are often represented as male. The wings are partly due to the infl uence of ancient Greek and Roman art, which pictured various spirits in this way, although some ancient Hebrew angels, like the one Isaiah saw, were also winged. Historically, angels may have been a way to bring popular belief in many gods and spirits into harmony with belief in one God, by making them all his servants. But belief has certainly been reinforced by accounts from numerous ordinary people who report angelic help and encounters. One such account is from the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of LATTER-DAY SAINTS, the Mormon Church, by Joseph Smith (1805–44). Beginning in 1823, the angel Moroni is said to have visited Smith in upstate New York, and directed him to the golden plates containing the Book of Mormon, scriptures supplemental to the Bible in Mormonism. Moroni is often portrayed atop Mormon temples. In HINDUISM and BUDDHISM, the equivalent of angels are beautiful fi gures, apsaras or yaksas in India, tennin or tennyo in Japan, said to inhabit the heavens of the gods, the Pure Land, and even mountains and forests as playful or mysterious spirits. Some may tempt holy men, but in their most exalted conceptualization, as in the Pure Land, they represent the wonderful joy of the world of gods and buddhas. The Taoist (see TAOISM) immortals also have some angelic characteristics, and live in beautiful places in heaven or Earth accompanied by other worldly beings of angelic character. Lately there has been a renewal of interest in angels in popular culture in the United States. These beautiful beings appear to have meaning to many moderns, just as they did for people of the past.