Who are Those Guys?

No, God does not ‘need’ a supporting cast, anyone to make Him/Them more God. He is wholly sufficient, capable and infinite enough to do anything He would purpose to do within His nature and character. And no, God would not violate His character by doing anything contradictory to Himself, i.e., creating a rock too big for Him to pick up. God is not given to foolhardiness.

In this article, we give brief synopses of the ‘hierarchy’ of God’s kingdom recognizing that not all are as defined biblically as much as some would like. Yes, there are lots of extra-biblical sources which claim to know more about God’s kingdom than God defines in the key sixty-six books of the Christian Bible sans the Apocrypha, pseudepigrapha and other extra-canonical texts of other religions.

Lᴏʀᴅ as known as God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. This is the Creator of all and each is both a person in sense of identity, infinite in ability, eternal in not having beginning nor end and yet in complete agreement of character and purpose as Three-in-One. Only God the Son became fully man while continuing to be fully God yet choosing to depend upon the direction of Father God while a man. The Holy Spirit is as equally God as the other two Persons and even though in some Bibles is referred to as the Holy Ghost following the crucifixion of Jesus, is not the ‘ghost’ of Jesus. All three were present in Genesis according to that text compared to John 1 and appear together multiple times through the Bible such as at the baptism of Jesus. There appears to be a delineation of function that is not due to incapability but rather serving the purposes of the Godhead in specific accomplishments. Jesus said, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”¹ Jesus also said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you… But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” ² And they all have the same age rather than what is seen in medieval art where the Father is an old man, Son is young and Spirit is a mist. Jesus clarified the Godhead’s natural state when He said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ³ Again, yes, Jesus in the Incarnation took on humanity, had a real body but returned to his more ‘normal’ form after the resurrection and was able to be touched when He determined and yet could still pass through walls. If that isn’t enough, speaking of the eternal city of God, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.” ⁴

Angels are created beings, are not equal to God and are not lesser beings elevated to being angels by some merit system. Only in art do they lounge on clouds playing harps but rather they are messengers to be about God’s service. This is by choice because they recognize His right as their Creator.
Seraphim (Isaiah 6:1-7; Revelation 4:2-8) are angelic beings serving in worship around the throne of God
Cheubium (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:18; 2 Samuel 6:2; 1 Kings 6:27) are angelic beings serving as guards to the way of God’s presence
Archangel (Daniel 8:16; 10:13; Luke 1:19,26; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7) Michael and Gabriel are two of the messengers (to Daniel, Zechariah, Mary) or warrior/champions (against demonic opposition)

Lucifer/Devil, known originally as lightbearer (lucifer) was a created angel who chose to become god in his own eyes and convinced one-third of the angels to follow him instead of God (Revelation 12:7-9) and was cast out of heaven into the earthly realm. Continued to be a messenger but of deception and deceit against God as well as an accuser of mankind before God.

Adam (name literally is ‘man’ Hebrew ‘āḏām) is the first created ‘in God’s image’ to be followed sequentially by the female who was also ‘in the image of God’. Man was given the ability to make choices and was guided by God in which choices were wise but mankind decided to use the power of choice “will” to do acquisition of knowledge without the wisdom of God.

Abraham was found by God to be a man “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10) As Abram he was called by God to leave ancient Chaldea and go to a land God would show him. And he did. Abram became Abraham and was the Father of Ishmael, Isaac and the sons of Keturah.

For continuity, Isaac’s son Jacob became Israel, Israel’s son Joseph became second-in-rule under Pharaoh in Egypt, all the offspring of Israel’s eleven other sons moved to Egypt during a famine and the family of Israel stayed in Egypt 400 years with the latter part of that as enslaved peoples.

Moses was an Israelite raised by the daughter of Pharaoh as an Egyptian who eventually tried to protect an Israelite, killed and Egyptian overseer and fled into Midian until ‘due time’ when God called him and sent him back to Egypt to bring the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt and back into the land promised to Abraham’s offspring. Moses was God’s intermediary to speak on God’s behalf, to return them back to God’s ways and then to the homeland.

David, the king following Saul, was the first king of Israel ‘after God’s heart’ and united and extended the nation to the extents promised by God to Abraham hundreds of years earlier. A long line of kings followed David but the kingdom divided under his son Solomon and had varying degrees of faithfulness and rebellion toward God. The Northern Tribes (known as Israel and headquartered in Samaria) went into captivity under the Assyrians with the Southern Tribes (known as Judah, headquartered Jerusalem) went into captivity under the Babylonians. There were no more kings. When the Jewish nation was returned to the Promised Land after 70 years of captivity, they returned under the control of the Persian Empire and then a succession of world powers down to the Roman Empire when Jesus was incarnated.

Jesus, God the Son, existed before the beginning and has always been God. The Incarnation is God taking on the form of man and living among us in a choice to submit to the desires of God the Father and the direction of God the Spirit. Jesus was born of Mary after “… she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” ⁵ “He grew up in submission to both his mother Mary, her husband Joseph and God the Father and increased in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man.” ⁶ At around thirty years of age, He began His public life with the baptism by John the Baptist and then the three-and-a-half years of ministry to those who followed and the discipling of those who He would name His Apostles. Then He was crucified, buried, resurrected, re-appeared to His disciples, reinforced His guidance for them and then after several appearances, returned to Heaven. He later appeared to Saul (who became Paul) on the road to Damascus and to the Apostle John in the visions of The Revelation. He remains God the Son.

The Disciples were those who followed or believed in Jesus’s message and the desires of God but there came to be an inner group called specifically by Jesus to be with Him continually and learn of Him the ways of God more deeply than the masses. These became the Apostles, the ‘sent ones’ by Jesus (except for Judas son of Simon Iscariot who betrayed Jesus and killed himself). Apostles were disciples but were able to testify as to the scope, content and life-work of Jesus as eye witnesses. Disciples also included in the Great Commission and were pivotal in fulfilling that mission even as they are today.

The Gospels were written down by two Apostles (Matthew, John) and by two disciples (Mark, Luke); several of the other disciples wrote other books but the majority of the latter testament of God’s work was by the Apostle Paul.

A Few Additional Notes:

Satan/Devil are created beings after the form of angelic beings. They no longer serve God and are not part of the heavenly host.

Men and women do not become angels. Neither to children or infants or the unborn. Created beings do not migrate to become something other than as created.

Angels are beings but are neither male nor female for there is neither male nor female in Heaven. They do not reproduce.

‘Saints’ while a special designation in some traditions is a simple designation for all ‘holy ones’ who are disciples/followers in agreement with God. Think ‘holy as God is holy’ or ‘set apart ones’ which is the intended state of all desiring what God desires.

Women: the Bible has hundreds of significant women and says before God all have equal value as created in the image of God. But, there is a focus on male because the sacrificial blood was to be through the male because man was the first.