Hebrews Chapter One, Tracing Heresies

 

Here we begin our proper study of angels, or Angelology, begins here. But sadly we begin with the negative. Jesus is being contrasted now to the angels, God’s messengers throughout created time. Whereas first we view His superiority to the prophets of old, now the writer compares our Lord to angels and their respective place and purpose. Worship of angels is widespread. Cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists believe Christ to be an angel, or a mighty god. Some say that he is Michael the Archangel. All pseudo-Christian cults attribute to Him much honor, save for the honor of acknowledging Him as God the Son, second member of the holy Trinity. This depreciated belief can be traced back at least to Arius (circa. 250-336 AD). Arius and his followers believed and taught that Jesus was created by the Father and was by definition of His creation, not co-eternal with Him. This rejection of Biblical truth led to extreme heresy, and while Arius attempted to mollify his critics by attributing to Christ high praise for the position God elevated Him to, it was faint and damning praise since it robbed Him of His native divinity.

Scripture is crystal clear about the nature of angels, and what mankind should (or should not) think about them. We are warned, “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly (carnal) mind, and not holding fast to the Head (Christ),” Colossians 2:18, 19. In both Hebrews and Colossians the inspired writers use surgical precision dividing Jesus from angels. Paul contrasts the worship of angels against the worship of Jesus, the Head of the church, Ephesians 4:15. It was said that even by this time incipient Gnosticism had infiltrated the church. By the end of the apostolic age a professing Christian named Valentinus (circa. 100-180 AD) became a major advocate of Gnostic teaching at around 40 years old. Paul’s warning about worship of angels suggests an awareness of proto-Gnosticism already at work in the church. This warning is echoed by John in his own epistles, warning that anyone who does not believe that Jesus has come in the flesh is not truly of God, 1 John 4:1-3. An inordinate position was accorded angels while degrading the Son and (as with Arius) robbing him of His unique nature and divinity.

 

John, enraptured by the visions shown him by Jesus, fell at the feet of an angel to worship because the angel had conveyed to the apostle the Revelation. Without hesitation the angel stopped him, saying, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God,” Revelation 22:9. Peter, in like manner, refused the adoration reserved only for God. “Cornelius met [Peter] and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man,” Acts 10:25, 26. Both angels and humanity are in the same boat. Both are created races and not subject to worship. In fact worshiping either transgresses God’s command about putting other gods before Him, or making a graven image in His place. Paul, in one of his most scathing denouncements against idolatry and unbelief (the two always being conjoined) writes, “[They] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever,” Romans 1:25. The “creature” in this verse is an umbrella term denoting any created thing, as we find in Romans 8:39. The KJV renders both instances as “creature,” whereas the NKJV changes the word to “created thing,” in Romans 8:39, expanding the idea of what the term “creature” entails and what is allotted to it. In Romans 1:25 any object we worship apart from God Himself falls into this camp, including men and angels, no matter how powerful. In Romans 8:39 the same created things are contrasted against God’s preserving might, demonstrating the futility of any created instrumentality attempting to wrest us from God’s love. Again, that includes men and angels.

 

Jesus’ name is superior or “more excellent” than angels because of who He is and what He has done. Unlike angels or other men, Jesus accepted worship of Himself without a word of gainsaying, Matthew 8:2, 28:17, John 9:38, 20:28, etc. This attitude regarding worship aligns with what the apostle wrote of Him: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of the Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven (angels), and of those on the earth (humanity), and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:9-11. “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ,” Acts 2:36, KJV. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. At His name, or rather due the honor of His name and title, every knee will bow, human, angelic, or otherwise.