"What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." (NIV)
A dear friend of mine went home to be with the Lord this past week. Facebook has been flooded with condolences and posts of concern and love for the family and for our small church. My friend was a wonderful woman who truly loved the Lord and she will be missed.
What happens to people when they die? One or two of the posters made statements that indicated that there was now a new angel in heaven. While those posts may have been to indicate her sweet nature, they also might have been intended as literal. Many people believe that people who die become angels in heaven.
What are angels? Are they advanced humans who have left this earth? If we are to believe scripture, that isn’t the case. Here in Psalms 8, it is clear that humans and angels are two separate species. It clearly differentiates between the two. It also references human beings’ mortality ("a little lower than the angels").
This issue of mortality is at the direct point of the difference between angels and humans. Angels live forever always in their original bodies, which humans are born into mortal bodies and will experience death prior to eternity.
Both species, humans and angels, were created with free will, but God chose not to redeem angels. Thus, the angels who rebelled became Satan’s dark forces and will, at the time of judgment, be cast in the Lake of fire (hell). Humans also rebelled (and continue to rebel). But God’s purpose for humans was totally different than angels.
The psalmist speaks to the purpose of angels:
"Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure." (Psalm 103:20-21 NKJV).
Angels have five purposes:
"These verses show God’s purpose for angels. Angels exist to serve God in five ways: (1) to ‘bless the Lord’ (in worship and service); (2) to ‘do His word’ (concerning activities on earth); (3) to heed the voice of God’s word (as it is spoken through the saints on earth); (4) to minister on God’s behalf (as described in Heb. 1:14); and (5) to do God’s pleasure (as His hosts are at His direction)." (Hayford’s Bible Handbook: Angels).
Some of these purposes are shared by the children of God (believers). But humans were created for a far higher purpose. Humans were created to become the Bride for God’s only Son. Thus, out of His great love and mercy, God chose to redeem the fallen humans (us), but will not redeem the angels. And although the salvation of the Church (which is made up of people) will also redeem creation, angels are not included in that process. The angels which rebelled against God are eternally damned.
We often speak of angels at the time of a person’s death, perhaps, to soften the reality of what death looks like and how it feels. The truth of death can be brutal. When someone dies who hasn’t been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, they are facing eternal damnation. This isn’t because God doesn’t love them, but because they have rejected God’s love. Their damnation is a consequence of their own choice. It’s heartbreaking to think about death in these terms. I have family who I know aren’t in heaven. Their fate is beyond gruesome, but sadly it is a fate they chose.
On the other hand, when someone dies who is redeemed, they leave this world to be immediately escorted by angels into the presence of their Savior. There they will wait until they are joined by the remainder of the Bride of Christ, at that time to live forever with Him in a paradise that we cannot begin to imagine.
Humans and angels are two different species with different possible eternal destinies. When someone dies, while it might be comforting to think that they are now angels in heaven, the truth is far more important. For God’s redeemed, death brings heaven and eternity with Him. For those who have rejected Him, there is hell, eternal hell. As believers, we should be comforted with the hope of heaven and invigorated into increased evangelism with the thought of hell for those around us. Rather than, at someone’s death, placating grief, perhaps it’s time for us to become empowered with the truth that will transform lives and save even one from the fiery pit that looms before them.
© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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