Angels and people
My WELS grandchildren believe that a distant deceased adolescent Catholic cousin is an angel and he is now watching over them. The deceased mother is the advocator of this angel theory. They admire the deceased cousin and his mother. I understand the Bible teaches there are a fixed number of angels, nevertheless I am struggling to clearly clarify this issue for them.
The Bible teaches that there are great differences between angels and people. While we know that God created Adam and Eve on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:4-25), the Bible does not specifically mention on what day God created the angels.
Angels are spirit beings (Hebrews 1:14) with no physical bodies. Human beings have bodies and souls. When death takes place, body and soul separate (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The souls of Christians are then in heaven, while their bodies remain on earth (Luke 23:43; Revelation 6:9-11). On the Last Day, the Lord will raise their bodies and reunite bodies and souls (Job 19:25-27; John 5:28-29).
Confusion about angels and people often arises by a misunderstanding of passages like these: “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30) and “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:34-36).
Jesus spoke the words of the passages above in response to a question about marriage, death and eternity. Jesus explained that marriage is an earthly blessing only. When Christians die, they become “like the angels” in that they live apart from God’s institution of marriage and they “can no longer die.” The word “like” is all-important in the passages above. Jesus did not say his followers become angels upon death; Christians who die are “like” angels for the reasons given.
One last thought. There is a significant difference between angels and human beings when it comes to salvation. Angels are certainly interested in people’s salvation (Luke 15:10; 1 Peter 1:12), but it is people who are the objects of God’s redeeming love (Hebrews 2).
Hopefully, you can share information like this with your grandchildren to clarify the difference between angels and people. God bless you all.