Is Belief in Angels Optional or Mandatory?

When I hear this question, the first thing that comes to mind is the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:10, "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” If Jesus affirmed and experienced their existence to be true, then I would have to say that it is mandatory! After all, Jesus was very aware of each angel’s creation because he was present. Thus, the Church says we must believe in angels.

The word angel appears in the Old Testament over one hundred times in more than fifteen books. In the New Testament, we see it used 178 times in over fifteen books, most predominantly in Revelation. There are many angelic appearances to many people. Of greatest importance, is when the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to announce that she would be the mother of the Messiah, if she consented, which she did with great haste. We know from several citations that the Archangel Michael contended with the devil, a fallen angel. And the Angel Raphael appears several times in the book of Tobit. We know that in Daniel 7, he (Daniel) had a vision where thousands upon thousands of Angels were ministering to the Ancient of Days, and Jesus, while in the desert had Angels ministering to Him (Mark 1:13).

Angels are mostly recorded as messengers, delivering God’s word to people, but there are other instances when they actually perform deeds, such as Michael defeating the devil and Raphael assisting Tobit, or the Angel that held back the hand of Abraham from slaughtering his son Isaac.

Paul speaks of them a couple of times. In Colossians 1:15, it says, “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.” In Romans 8: 38, 39 he states, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So not only was Paul familiar with angels in general, he also knew the different classifications of angels, such as thrones, dominions, principalities and powers. We know from the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote in the 5^th or 6^th century that there are at least nine classes of angels: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels.

Augustine, in his book, City of God, makes a point of saying that when God created light and darkness, that was a reference to the spiritual world, where the light was the angels who remained faithful to God and the darkness was those angels who fell.

Why would something or someone spoken of so many times throughout Scripture be an option to believe in? No, I say that, since so many others in Scripture, most notable Jesus, believed in Angels, then it is mandatory for us to believe as well. If we are Christians, then we are followers of Jesus and as such we not only believe in all that He believes in, but all that He teaches too.