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Archangel
By Charles H. Welch
ARCHANGEL.
The place that angels occupy in the outworking of dispensational truth, their
presence in the epistle to the Hebrews, the paucity of reference to angels in
the epistles of the Mystery and their particular association with the destiny of
Israel, have been discussed under the headings ANGELS,
HEBREWS and HOPE . The
present note is in the form of a supplement and is concerned only with the term
ARCH-angel.
‘Arch’ is the Anglicized form of the Greek
arche, beginning, chief, first, and was once used independently as the
reference to Shakespeare will show:
‘My worthy arch and patron comes tonight’ (King
Lear ii. 1).
There are but two references to ‘the archangel’ in the Scriptures, namely:
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1 Thess. 4:16.
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‘The voice of the archangel’. |
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Jude 9.
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‘Yet Michael the archangel’. |
From Jude we learn that the archangel is ‘Michael’ a Hebrew name meaning ‘who
is like God?’ and so keeping the challenge of the ages to the forefront. Michael
is spoken of in the two great Apocalyptic Prophecies, Daniel and Revelation.
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Dan. 10:13.
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‘But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes’. |
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Dan. 10:21.
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‘And there is none ... but Michael your prince’. |
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Dan. 12:1.
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‘At that time shall Michael stand up’. |
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Rev. 12:7.
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‘Michael and his angels fought against the dragon’. |
Michael is called ‘one of the chief princes’, ‘Michael your prince’, and ‘the
great prince which standeth for the children of thy (Daniel’s) people’ (Dan.
10:13,21; 12:1), and so the ‘Prince of the kingdom of Persia’ and the ‘Prince of
Grecia’ (Dan. 10:13,20) must be angelic powers too.
In Daniel, Revelation and Jude, Michael leads the attack upon Satan and his
agents, which culminates at the Second Coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4) and the
deliverance of Israel (Dan. 12:1,2). The fact that the apostle introduces the
terms ‘the voice of the archangel and the trump of God’ into the Thessalonian
hope, links the hope with Israel and severs it from the church of the Mystery.
The hope of the Mystery is entirely disassociated from the time of trouble and
the deliverance of Israel, from the advent of the Man of Sin and the
accompaniments of flaming fire and the taking of vengeance, all of these are
definitely linked with the hope of the Thessalonians and the period prior to
Acts 28.
For a fuller exposition of the hope, and its relation to the three spheres of
blessing, see THREE SPHERES and
PAROUSIA.
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