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IV. Creation of the Spiritual World
A. The Doctrine of the Angels in History.
There are clear evidences of belief in the existence of angels from the very beginning of the
Christian era. Some of them were regarded as good, and others as evil. The former were held in
high esteem as personal beings of a lofty order, endowed with moral freedom, engaged in the
joyful service of God, and employed by God to minister to the welfare of men. According to
some of the early Church Fathers they had fine ethereal bodies. The general conviction was that
all angels were created good, but that some abused their freedom and fell away from God.
Satan, who was originally an angel of eminent rank, was regarded as their head. The cause of
his fall was found in pride and sinful ambition, while the fall of his subordinates was ascribed to
their lusting after the daughters of men. This view was based on what was then the common
interpretation of Gen. 6:2. Alongside of the general idea that the good angels ministered to the
needs and welfare of believers, the specific notion of guardian angels for individual churches
and individual men was cherished by some. Calamities of various kinds, such as sicknesses,
accidents, and losses, were frequently ascribed to the baneful influence of evil spirits. The idea
of a hierarchy of angels already made its appearance (Clement of Alexandria), but it was not
considered proper to worship any of the angels.
As time went on the angels continued to be regarded as blessed spirits, superior to men in
knowledge, and free from the encumbrance of gross material bodies. While some still ascribed
to them fine ethereal bodies, there was an ever increasing uncertainty as to whether they had
any bodies at all. They who still clung to the idea that they were corporeal did this, so it seems,
in the interest of the truth that they were subject to spatial limitations. Dionysius the
Areopagite divided the angels into three classes: the first class consisting of Thrones, Cherubim,
and Seraphim; the second, of Mights, Dominions, and Powers; and the third, of Principalities,
Archangels, and Angels. The first class is represented as enjoying the closest communion with
God; the second, as being enlightened by the first; and the third, as being enlightened by the
second. This classification was adopted by several later writers. Augustine stressed the fact that
the good angels were rewarded for their obedience by the gift of perseverance, which carried
with it the assurance that they would never fall. Pride was still regarded as the cause of Satan’s
fall, but the idea that the rest of the angels fell as the result of their lusting after the daughters
of men, though still held by some, was gradually disappearing under the influence of a better
exegesis of Gen. 6:2. A beneficent influence was ascribed to the unfallen angels, while the fallen
angels were regarded as corrupting the hearts of men, as stimulating to heresy. and as
engendering diseases and calamities. The polytheistic tendencies of many of the converts to