Angels

The end result is not that glorified believers become angels. Rather, we are fully grafted into the glorious family council of God. Our “already” status in that regard becomes full reality at death. We join the heavenly children of God in a blended divine family and actually outrank angels in the new global Eden.

Believers are already “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). We are destined to reconstitute the divine council of Yahweh alongside his spiritual children, the “sons of God,” the members of his loyal heavenly host. The same language is used of believers (1 John 3:1–3). We are the “holy ones,” the common term for angels in the Old Testament.2

Christian theologians use various terms for the doctrine: glorification, deification, theosis among them. The idea is not that we become the same as Yahweh or Jesus, but, as John wrote, “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).

The idea that believers become angels after death draws on several scriptural threads. Two that might be familiar to most Christians are the doctrine of glorification (being made like Jesus; 1 John 3:1–3); statements that a believer’s existence in the afterlife makes them “like the angels” (Matt 22:30; Mark 12:25); and Paul’s teaching that the beli

The second reason that Hebrews 1:14 does not mean angels were sent to serve at the behest of Christians is the wider context of the New Testament—and really the entire Bible: there isn’t a single instance in Scripture where a human being commands an angel. Human beings converse with angels. They ask questions. They do not give angels orders. This f

There are two reasons why Hebrews 1:14 does not give Christians authority to command angels—one grammatical, the other contextual.

“BELIEVERS HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO COMMAND ANGELS”

Bock notes that “an angelic escort [to heaven] is a common Jewish image.

The possibility means that, along with assuming corporeal form, spirit beings might be able to alter that form—that is, changing appearance may be among their suite of abilities.