“Therefore a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels” (I Cor. 11:10). There is likely no point at which the Apostle Paul more plainly reveals how far removed his perspective is from that of our times than when he suggests that the impression we make on the angels should have some bearing on our choice of customs and costumes. If anything he wrote could presumably be (as it is) dismissed as, in the jargon of our time, “culturally conditioned” and therefore irrelevant, it must certainly be the thought that we should consider the sensitivities of angels. The problem with that instinctive, and quite understandable presumption is that it does not so much reflect the limitations of the Apostle’s first century point of view as it does our “cultural conditioning” or imprisonment in the little materialistic age in which we live.

The Unseen World

One of the urgent needs of our age is to be shocked into recognizing the realities of the world in which we live. I recall what a jolt it was a number of years ago to read C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. That correspondence between devils was Lewis’ fantasy, of course; but a little reflection compelled the reader to admit that it was more realistic than today’s newspaper in explaining the current deviltries of human behavior.

The Christmas season with its traditional references to angelic announcements of Christ’s birth is one of the rare times in our routine when we encounter anything that might disturb the generally unquestioned assumption that people now living are alone in the universe. But we may hear, or even sing, “Angels from the realms of glory . . .” without ever thinking of the practical significance of the song, especially as it may be sandwiched between the legends and sentimentalities of “Jingle Bells” and “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”

If we take the Biblical revelation seriously—as we must hardly anything can so revolutionize our perspective on the course of human events as realizing that there is a whole angelic world of spectators who have been taking notice of them across the centuries. Their life-time is evidently not limited like ours. We sing “Ye who sang creation‘s story now proclaim Messiah’s birth.” One of the inestimable benefits of our recognizing that fact is that it should save us from the common wrong notion that “everything is time—and culturally—conditioned.” What is really odd or inappropriate about Paul’s suggestion that in evaluating our customs we, among other things, consider how they might look to angels who have been observing mankind’s foolish fads and follies through the centuries?

The Bible contains many a reminder to bear in mind the role of angels. Recall, for example, how Elisha prayed for his servant who was panic-stricken at the sight of the Syrian army that had come to seize the prophet, “LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.” Then he saw the horses and chariots of fire surrounding the prophet (2 Kings 6:17). Peter in his foolhardy and misdirected effort to defend Jesus against arrest had to be informed that his activity appeared in a somewhat different light when one saw that more than twelve legions of angels were ready to perform that service if it had been required (Matt. 26:53). The Apostle Paul noted among those who observed his work angels as well as men (I Cor. 4:9; Eph. 3:10; I Tim. 5:21).

D.H. Kromminga’s Reflections

More than 40 years ago Rev. D.H. Kromminga became fascinated with this subject and wrote about it. The old church history professor, father of two later professors, John and Carl, whose wit and wide reading helped to make him one of the most fascinating and delightful of teachers, after he had been teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary for a dozen years, did the work required for a master’s degree. He wrote a thesis for that purpose on St. Augustine’s City of God. In the course of that study he became fascinated with the church father’s treatment of the subject of angels and devoted the last quarter of his study to this. He observed that in Augustine’s City of God, as also later in Anselm‘s Cur Deus Homo “angels and devils appear with good sense on almost every page” (p. 84), while such references have almost disappeared from modern theology. He noted especially the effect of neglecting this Biblical teaching on the views of the Crisis Theologians (Barth and his companions) in their defective notions of sin and the Fall, which occurred first among the angels.

So intrigued was Kromminga with this subject that he then wrote a second thesis enlarging upon it under the title Why Men and Angels? He observed that the Biblical teaching about angels had implications for the common grace and millennial controversies as well as for evaluation of the defective views of Barth and Brunner. The Biblical teaching about angels gives an explanation of the occult that is as far removed from the superstitions of paganism as it is from the skepticism of the modern world. Paul in I Cor. 10:19–21 denied the reality of idols, but affirmed that behind them was the reality of devils. The Christian recognized the power of demons but knew and confessed the greater power of the Sovereign God. The modern denial of the supernatural is not a whit less evil than the paganism Augustine encountered and it is more resistant to the gospel than the old polytheism was. Kromminga ventured the prediction that we would probably see a resurgence of demonic influence, less disguised than it used to be under the old paganism. (We are seeing that today!) He observed that in Barth and Brunner a fundamental error was the confusion of creation and fall, creatureliness and sinfulness. (Denying an actual creation and fall, they made man and creation always sinful.) ~aul’s references to the “elect angels” (I Tim. 5:21) who did not fall deny the notion that creatureliness necessarily issues in rebellion. Their failure to fall, Article 12 of the Belgic Confession attributes to the grace of God (as do some other Reformed confessions such as the Westminster). God’s election always implies something of reprobation-predestination is necessarily double. (If some are really chosen, others are not chosen.) Man’s natural antipathy to the truth of God’s elective grace is so strong that God saw fit to illustrate .that truth in the history of the patriarchs and in Paul’s teachings (Romans 9-11) about that history. In the history of both men and angels God accomplishes the “apparent imposstbility of bringing about the intelligent creatures’ genuine freedom and God’s unabridged Lordship. Although God’s grace to men and angels evidently differs, it is simliar; man’s history illustrates the work of God’s grace in a way which the angels’ experience does not. The angels show God’s grace as indispensible for the good; men show its power to save the fallen. Although God’s saving grace to the church and His preserving grace to the good angels differ, both are saved by His unchanging love. These were some of Professor Kromminga’s reflections on the Bible’s teaching regarding angels.

Important Values of the Doctrine

Despite the lapse of years, I vividly remember the professor’s account of the oral examination which followed the thesis. One of his professor colleagues, noting some of the interesting things he had cited in the thesis, then asked him what practical value this information had. In reply, he answered that the old steam engines that used to power the big threshing machines on the farms each had a little fly-ball governor. The Bible’s teaching about angels had a function somewhat like that of the fly-ball governor on the steam engine. The old gentleman was highly amused by the obvious bewilderment of his questioner who was left with no idea what he was talking about. What was the point of the curious illustration? He explained to us: Was the fact that the “elect angels” did not fall into s in a result of God’s grace? It must have been so (as we confess in the Belgic Confession, Article 12). What kind of grace was this? Was it “special” (or redeeming) grace? Obviously not! Was it then “common” grace? It didn’t fit into that classification either. Then God must have some other kinds of grace that we haven’t yet heard about. In other words, our consideration of the Bible’s teaching about angels will restrain our speculation about matters which God has not revealed to us and about which we know little or nothing. The teaching was somewhat like the little fly-ball governor that kept the old steam engine from going too fast and flying apart. What God has revealed to us concerning angels and their activities is very limited, although it suggests a great deal. Think of the implications of Hebrews 1:14, for example: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” In theological discussions, the arguments advanced sometimes come perilously close to arrogantly saying what our views will permit or not permit God to do. Noticing the few glimpses He has given us about His dealings with the angel world reminds us of how vastly ignorant we are in these areas.* Especially in our discussions and controversies about the deeper Biblical doctrines such as predestination, their history right down to the present shows how urgently we need such restraining reminders. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor?” (Romans 11:33–34)

A Biblical awareness of the angel world can also deliver us from the foolish and generally unquestioned current assumption that everything is “time-” and “culture-” “conditioned.” It reduces our role in the scheme of things to its modest and proper proportions, as John Milton reflected in his sonnet “On His Blindness.” The poet, frustrated by his affliction, was reminded that

God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

His state Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,

An post o’er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait.

We are called and privileged to join in the Divine service and

Hallelujah chorus of accompanying and encouraging angels

(Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 4, 5)

*One is reminded of the observation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of m your philosophy” and of Professor Kromminga’s occasional remark. “It is better not to know quite so much than a lot of things that am I so.