Writer: Taelor Pickel / A ‘sorta’ blunt Autistic person
Subject: Why are biblically accurate angels so terrifying?
Link: Quora / 09.05.2022
Why are biblically accurate angels so terrifying?
There are about nine ranks in the Choirs of Angels/Heavenly Beings. The only odd looking ones are the ones on the highest order, meaning they are more rare and harder to encounter. These ranks of Heavenly Choirs are Seraphim, Ophanim (AKA Thrones), and Cherubim, the only “eerie” looking ones.
This means that only a minority would be remotely different. Only a minority are really in the throne of God. Famous angels like Michael, Gabriel, and the other Holy Angels/Archangels are what they are described to be, beings of celestial brightness and some take human forms.
RESPONSE FROM PETER PAYNE (VIA QUORA)
Quite consistently people in the Bible who encounter an angel feel terror. I suggest that it is not because of brightness (or wings—not usual), but because they reflect the glory, the holiness, of God.
God’s holiness reflects his complete goodness, but, with regard to the current question, it reflects his complete opposition to all that is evil. (“Holy” means set apart; here it is being set apart from, and opposed to, all that is evil.) “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Part of God being light is God being wholly good, but it is light that pierces darkness and reveals what is evil. Anyone who is not holy, anyone who is infected with evil at all, cannot endure in the direct presence of God. That is what is meant when God tells Moses that no one can see the face of God—directly encounter the full holiness of God— and live (Exodus 33:20). When Isaiah has a vision of God and the angels surrounding him, he says, “Woe is me for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). It is also why God is described as “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). Isaiah’s response is not due just to the razzle dazzle of his vision, but to his awareness of being in the presence of God, the absolutely holy one. To be confronted with the holiness of God is to be acutely aware of one’s lack of holiness and of God’s opposition to all that is unholy.
As said above, angels reflect the glory and holiness of God, and hence to encounter an angel is to become acutely aware of one’s lack of holiness.
PS: Although angels in the Bible are always portrayed in masculine form, they are not sexual beings. As Jesus said “they neither marry, nor are given in marriage” (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35–36)
RESPONSE FROM MIKI TASSENI (VIA QUORA)
Angel appear either as virtual humans or with a measure of celestial brightness, but it easy to confuse with their nemesis, namely Baal and Ashteroth as they are also angels (Revelation 9:11 for Baal, and the prince of Tyre for Ashteroth). Trying to figure out divinity in human terms can be tiring, if the throne of God is ‘a consuming fire,’ where the core of the fire symbol and its mainstay is Baal (Lucifuge) while the holy spirit is given the image of a dove. the forms are momentary
RESPONSE FROM PETER PAYNE (VIA QUORA)
“Lucifuge” comes from the Latin word lucifugus, meaning “light-shunning.” Revelation 9:11 has no reference to Baal. And Ashteroth is not the prince of Tyre. And reference to the king or prince of Tyre being a cherub is the result of an error in transmission into writing of the formerly unwritten vowel sounds in Ezekiel 28:14.
RESPONSE FROM JARED X (VIA QUORA)
Well the Bible actually states, to be careful when we entertain strangers for we may be entertaining an angel unaware. So angels are not at all scary looking or some radiant figure. Even in Lot’s day the men that surrounded his house wanted Lot to send the men out that came to visit him. So angels can look just like man.
RESPONSE FROM MOHAMMED KHAN (VIA QUORA)
Has any one ever seen an angel in reality. Its just religions mythological belief not reality. I cant believe this age of so much scientific knowledge and we are already venturing out in the sky with our spacecraft people still holding on to the mythological belief as reality.
RESPONSE FROM WILLOWRUNSTABLES ALLEN (VIA QUORA)
Don’t forget Ezekiel had never seen a space ship – the mode of transportation back then was an ox cart. This flying vehicle was made of highly polished bronze, and when it went in one direction all inside went also. So the eyes would go in the direction of the ship. Not like an ox cart that head can be sideways. Ezekiel did a good job of describing what we call today a flying saucer.