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What Do Angels Look Like and Why Do They Hide Themselves?  Does God Talk to Us Through Dreams?

What is the appearance of angels?  Why don’t they show themselves?  Does God talk to us in dreams?  Let’s examine each of these three questions based on what the Bible tells us, etc.

Angels normally don’t show their appearance for presumably the same reasons that God doesn’t.  We are being tested to see if we will obey God without clearly being watched.  The (inevitably imperfect) analogy that I have thought of to our situation about seeing God is similar to what would happen if a substitute teacher did this:  He walks into the classroom of fifth graders, announces all the assignments and work for the day, proclaims that he will return to collect all the work done at 3 PM, and then strides out of the room.  The class isn’t watched for the rest of the school day.   How many students would actually do any work at all?  I suspect most would be very short sighted and would do none.  Some, with a little more faith, may do a little.  Those with the most faith in the teacher’s return would do the most work.  

To show that angels (and the Angel of the Lord) aren’t seen by people unless they want to be, consider the case of Balaam.  While riding his donkey, the donkey noticed that there was an angel (or the Angel) standing in front of him, but Balaam didn’t.  Notice Numbers 22:27, 31:  “When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick. . . .  Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground.”  (In this case, however, it should be noted that the “Angel” most likely was the one who became Jesus around 1400 years later, but the principle remains the same since God is composed of spirit as well (John 4:24).  “Angel” means “messenger,” so here was the One who became Jesus.  He was the Messenger of the Father).

Similarly, note that one of Elisha’s servants didn’t see the angelic army around him until Elisha prayed for him to see it (II Kings 6:17):  “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’  And the Lord opens the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Angels are beautiful spirit beings (Hebrews 1:6-7).  They aren’t ugly.  Even Satan, the fallen archangel, still remains beautiful in appearance, much as he was when he was Lucifer and hadn’t sinned yet (Ezekiel 28:12, 17).  So even the leader of all the demons remains attractive if he cares to show himself so, according to the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 11:14), in order to deceive people:  “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”  The main meaning here concerns Satan’s ability to appear to be telling people knowledge and truth when he isn’t, but secondarily he would still be able to look good if he cared to show himself to us.  The descriptions of the angels at God’s throne, such as in Isaiah 6:1-3; Ezekiel 1:4-28; and in Revelation 5:11; 20:8-9, imply that they are beautiful and powerful spirit beings.

Let’s now turn to the other subject that you asked about, which concerns whether God communicates with us by dreams.  This clearly happened to Jacob and to Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 28:11-16; 37:5-11).  The gift of prophecy is theoretically possible even today among true believers, but I don't believe presently any authentic manifestations of it occur that could guide decision making by the church in the doctrinal realm. It may be prophets with dreams and visions will arise shortly before Jesus returns (cf. Acts 2:17).  After all, the Two Witnesses will prophesy, and they will be human beings who will be killed before being resurrected miraculously and then ascending to heaven (Rev. 11:3-13).  It’s a poor argument to claim this gift passed away with the closing of the canon of Scripture.  That meaning that has to read into I Cor. 13's discussion of tongues ceasing and the perfect's arrival.  Rather, this text (vs. 8-10, 12) refers to Jesus' return and/or the Restoration of All Things (Acts 3:21).  So I think that people could have prophetic dreams today, but that they may not be that significant until the very close of the age arrives.

Angels are beautiful and powerful spirit beings who don’t show themselves to us in most cases because God is testing our faith.  Also I think that the gift of having prophetic dreams is indeed possible, but it won’t be important until just before Jesus arrives.  

Eric V. Snow
www.lionofjudah1.org

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Why does God Allow Evil? Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on Saturdays? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
Should Christians obey the Old Testament law? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does the New Covenant Abolish the OT Law.htm
Do you have an immortal soul? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Here and Hereafter.htm
Does the ministry have authority? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is There an Ordained Ministry vs Edwards.html
Is the United States the Beast? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are We the Beast vs Collins.htm
Should you give 10% of your income to your church? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does the Argument from Silence Abolish the Old Testament Law of Tithing 0205 Mokarow rebuttal.htm
Is Jesus God? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is Jesus God.htm
Will there be a third resurrection? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Will There Be a Third Resurrection.htm

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