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angels

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 1:04 pm
by Praise
With Christmas holidays approaching, I'm bothered with all the angels being portrayed as females with wings. Don't know about you but my angels are mighty warriors!

Re: angels

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:28 pm
by EchoDelta
Hmm, have you read "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness" by Frank Peretti?

Re: angels

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:29 pm
by Deepfreeze32
Angels are probably some of the weirdest (and therefore coolest) parts of the Tanakh.

For example, the Ophanim are wheels within wheels that can roll in any direction, with eyes around the rim. The Hayyoth are cherubim that have four faces, one in each direction, and are human-like but with faces of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle.

And lest you doubt wikipedia, Ezekiel Chapter 1, verses 4-21 is the description in question.


Crazy stuff.

Re: angels

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:30 pm
by oregorn1997
Who says angels can't be women? Who says they can't have wings? And who says that women angels with wings can't be bad-donkey warriors?

If I was God, that would be my army... And if I wasn't God, that would be pretty darn terrifying

Re: angels

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:00 pm
by Praise
Yes I have read "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing The Darkness." It's been a long time since I've read them. I recall them being very good. I need to read them again.

Re: angels

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:36 am
by Wintercross
Praise wrote:Yes I have read "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing The Darkness." It's been a long time since I've read them. I recall them being very good. I need to read them again.
The portrayal of Angels in those books was pretty good imo.

Re: angels

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 1:24 am
by UsagiGlen
"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:2, NIV)

Evidently angels can appear like humans if there's a good reason to do so. Maybe that's where the girly angel image comes from. Maybe they actually have appeared as ladies with wings and robes sometimes.

Even so, I'm sure they're just as powerful when they're disguised as us. They're so powerful that God once promised to send "an" angel ahead of Israel to ensure victory in battle. It only took one. Another time, two angels were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Re: angels

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:56 pm
by appleseed2002
I think some angels do different things for instance, Gabriel went down as a messenger to Mary or like what usagiGlen said about the angels came down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and another one would be disguised like in Hebrews 13:2.





Apple

Re: angels

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:13 pm
by ArcticFox
Nowhere in Scripture is any angel described as having wings... I think the reason they're so often portrayed in that way is because angels can fly, and artists probably added the wings as a way to fit the theme of a spiritual being who can fly.

Personally, I find the image of an angel (male or female) in full armor with enormous wings to be flat AWESOME, but that's my gamer nerd showing.

Re: angels

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 6:49 pm
by UsagiGlen
Check out Isaiah 6. It describes seraphim that have 6 wings. There are so many things we don't know though, like whether some of the angels always look the same, or whether there are different categories of angels with different forms, or whether Isaiah's visions are partly symbolic. It doesn't sound very much like the vivid symbolism in Revelation or Daniel to me though.

Revelation 4 describes some creatures with the heads of animals, 6 wings each, and eyes all over them. Revelation's visions include a lot more obvious symbolism overall though, so there's a greater chance that the features described are symbolic. The creatures in Revelation are doing basically the same thing that the seraphim in Isaiah are doing. They're praising God with very similar words. Whatever they are, they're cool :)

Re: angels

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 3:08 pm
by ArcticFox
I stand corrected, although it's worth noting that the 6 wings symbolism is still very different from the typical angel as depicted with 2 wings.

I've often wondered at that symbolism, since it seems to be a repeating pattern.

Re: angels

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:50 am
by Expat_PM
Okay, a lot to talk about in this thread.
Yes, Ezekiel has some truly strange stuff in it - but what an amazing book. Wow. Just plain wow. I love Chapter 37 - the dry bones and I wonder what happened to all those people after they were brought back to life? did they just live normal lives or what?

This Present Darkness is one of my all time favorite books and did more to open my eyes to the spirit world that is all around us than just about any single other thing (except of course God). Rumors float around from time to time about turning it into a movie. Maybe Nicolas Cage could be in it (now that he's played the lead in the remake of Left Behind).

Angels are, as someone on here said, "bad-donkey" dudes. There are scads of tales of them conquering the enemy again and again. I have a couple cool angel stories I may share sometime but not today. I see no reason why they couldn't look like anything and as Glen pointed out, the bible does admonish us to "be careful lest you entertain one unaware." So I think they could look like anything and there are plenty of freaky descriptions of them in the bible.

In general, I like to think of them as conventional warrior archetype but I'm sure that's just my small mind locking me into what's comfortable. I just pray that they are surrounding us, watching over us (especially my kids), keeping the enemy at bay, and swinging that flaming sword on our behalf!

Re: angels

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:20 pm
by lukee123321
Its true all of the angels in the bible were male. But just focus on Jesus