Michael is called the “Archangel” in Jude 9, suggesting that He is both an angel and the highest ranking angel.
This is supported in Revelation 12:7, where Michael leads the confrontation against Lucifer and symbolically ousts him.
The word, “angel” means messenger and has always designated the function of a group of heavenly beings. This is why I distinguish angels from “angelic beings”. Angelic beings are created beings, who had a specific beginning in God’s timeline. I consider them all to have at least one more “dimension” (ie supernatural characteristic) than humans, since we need to explain how they can walk through our 3D walls. As noted elsewhere in my book, they cannot live in our temporary 3D world, since they would pass through it just as they pass through our walls.
In my opinion, these beings were created by fiat, although we have no proof. This means that God created them already mature; they were not born as infants like we are. Again this is only an opinion. However, when we are changed into angelic form on the Last Day, that too would be by fiat.
Exodus 3:2,4 and Judges 6:12,14 equate “the Angel of the Lord” with “the Lord”. I believe these texts are referring not to any angel, but to the archangel, Michael. Many Christians identify this special angel of the Lord with the pre-incarnate Christ. In Him the “Sender” and the “Messenger” are the same. How would that be possible? We’ll explain this in a minute.
Michael is also described as the Prince of Israel (Dan 10:13,21), Who protects Israel as both Warrior and Judge (Dan 10:1). He is most probably also the Prince of the Heavenly Host, Who is described in Daniel 8:10, as the Priest that is performing the daily sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary. In Joshua 5: 2,14, that same heavenly being is equated with the Lord Himself. It is this same being, Who will come again, “with the voice of the Archangel”, bringing life and final victory over evil powers (1 Thess 4:16). There would seem to be enough biblical information to equate the Archangel Michael with the Lord, so let’s see how this can make sense.
God has three persons: Father/Creator, the Image of the Creator in His thoughts, and His thoughts/Holy Spirit. The Father creates thinking beings in His mind. They can never see Him face-to-face, because the thinker and their thoughts can never see each other. However, the Thinker can think of Himself in His thought world as a created being like the others He has thought of in that world. Now, if they see that Image of Himself, they have indeed seen Him. The Image of God is God. Consequently, what is happening here is really very simple given this basic understanding. The Image of the Creator in His angelic world is the angelic being the Bible calls, “Michael”. The very name means, “the One Who is like God”. He is totally angelic and yet He is the one angelic being, Who is like God. This is so, because the Creator thought Michael up to be Himself in angelic form. On the other hand, When the Creator thinks of Himself as a human, the Bible calls that human Jesus Christ. When Peter asks Christ to show him the Father, Christ replies, “If you knew Me you would know My Father also.” (John 8:19). Also, in John 10:38 Christ indicates that He and the Father are One.
So, Christ was a created being. In fact He alone is the Son of God, since He was created in the womb as a regular human is. He is also the Second Person in the Godhead, ie the Image of God in His thoughts. The second Person has always existed along with the First and Second Persons of the Godhead. The Second Person of the Godhead is not a created being, but the eternal God. There has always existed a triune God as with any thinking being – three distinct Persons yet all the same Thinker. The deal is that the Second Person can take on any form the Creator wishes. He could also think of Himself as a burning bush, a pillar of smoke or fire, etc. He could think of Himself as dead and lying in the tomb for three days and then He could think of Himself a risen from the dead and appearing in angelic form again as Michael the Archangel with holes in His hands. So, when we say we believe that God gave up everything and became human, that is only understandable when we realize the second Person of the Godhead once was Michael the Archangel. God stopped thinking of Himself as that angelic being when He started thinking of Himself as a human fetus in the womb of Mary. Indeed, Michael ceased to exist (ie gave up everything) at that point and the Image of God appeared only in this human world as a human fetus. Therefore, Christ is different from Michael but both are the Image of God (second Person of the Godhead). Christ was born, so He can rightly be called the “Son of God”. Michael cannot be called the Son of God, if He was recreated already mature, at the “resurrection of Christ”. Note that Christ the human did not resurrect. He is still dead as required by the condition that the wages of sin (taking on the sins of the world for us) is death, not just sleeping. As He demonstrated, we too will not be resurrected as humans, but on the Last Day, those raised to everlasting Life, will be changed in the twinkling of an eye and recreated as angelic beings (1 Cor 15:50-53).
24 May 2002
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