Archangels in the world today

In the Canonical books of the Bible there are three archangels mentioned, Michael, Gabriel and Lucifer, who became the fallen angel we call the devil. Each of these archangels control(ed) one third of the angelic realm. The Roman  Catholic Church recognises a fourth, Raphael in the book of Tobit, not recognised as canonical by non-Catholics. Still others recognise three others from the non-canonical book of Enoch. Yet others are named in other traditions.

I will only speak of the three archangels found in the Canon of Scripture accepted by most Protestants. A further indicator for this is found in Revelation 12 where it mentions that the devil controls one third of the angels (now demons), cast down  to the earth to wage war against the disciples of Jesus.

I wrote some years ago about the function and character of each of these three archangels and their respective three realms. This post is just to simplify the character of each based on this previous material.

To sum up their characteristics in one word I believe the following does  justice to the bible text:

Lucifer – beauty
Michael – strength
Gabriel – wisdom.

To draw a long bow, these may well correspond to the three attitudes of the “world” in 1 John.

1 John 2:15-17 NIV
[15] Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. [16] For everything in the world---
the lust of the flesh, (power, strength?)
the lust of the eyes, (beauty?)
and the pride of life (wisdom?)
---comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

These are also seen in the original temptation by Lucifer, described as the serpent.

Genesis 3:6 NIV
[6] When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was
good for food (power for living)
and pleasing to the eye, (beauty)
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, (wisdom)
she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.


These three characteristics are possibly a description of the ideal man, who is Jesus, and found in man as created in the image and likeness of God. The Apostle John sees these three attributes in a fallen world as representing a counterfeit of God’s  intended reality.

Of these three characteristics, beauty is the most dangerous one. This is what led to Lucifer’s attempted coup in heaven and it  is seen in the person called the “king of Tyre” in Ezekiel 28, as distinct from the earthly “prince of Tyre”.

Beauty is also the most fleeting and potentially dangerous characteristic among humans.

Saying that beauty is fleeting is a cliché, but true none the less. It is also dangerous since people can be swayed by beauty without considering deeper and more important aspects of a person's makeup.

It is through beauty that many a person's mind has been turned. This is arguably the strongest weapon in Satan’s arsenal. When the other two are also used they are not as effective in most situations.

However it is in marriage and the Church that we see this effect most:

1. Marriage. “Marry in haste, repent at leisure”. How often do you hear of someone putting beauty at the top of the list for choosing a partner? The failure rate of marriages in the Western world, and in the Church, is over 50%. What a tragedy and perversion of God’s plan.

2. Church. One of the great challenges in contemporary worship is to recapture the true spiritual beauty of creativity in the worship of God the Father, His exemplary Son, and the powerful Holy Spirit. Many have found this wonderful worship, “in Spirit and in Truth.” However there is a large part of the contemporary church who have moved into the soulish realm, bordering on, or even concentrating on,  entertainment. Discerning the difference between the spiritual and the soulish is a crucially important part of our life with Jesus. The soulish aspect is the counterfeit from the fallen Lucifer, while the spiritual reality is given to us by a loving Father.

It is true that the aspects of the other two archangels, Michael and Gabriel, can be counterfeited as well. But it is in the realm of beauty, “the lust of the eyes”, that many men fall into the deception of the fallen Lucifer, the dragon, the satan. How desperately we need strong men in marriages and also in the Church.