Who are the Angels that we will Judge?

Full Question

Answer

Angels from heaven, or mortal angels?, would sum up the question. The Hebrew term ‘Walak‘ is less applied to heavenly angels than to mortals, but this rule is reversed in the New Testament. However, in some instances, the pattern of the Old is followed in affixing the equivalent denomination when there is a direct reference made to their messengerial function, e.g. John the Baptist, and the spies in Canaan.(Mark 1:2 and James 2:25.) Are the angels of 1 Cor. 6 like them?

We must find an explanation that is consistent with the criterion of the case which seems to say, “If we cannot judge our own community of believers, how can we possibly qualify to judge in a bigger way?” Paul uses ‘angels’ to describe that larger sense. Therefore, it is not enough to say ‘mortal angels’ unless we can point to difficult situations or even more difficult people to judge than the Corinthian believers If the angels are priests in the age to come that minister to the people, they should have more enlightenment than perhaps some of the believers to whom Paul was writing; and at least they would qualify for the term ‘angel’ in consistency with Mal. 2:7.

But is the comparison great enough? If we-could say there would be princes on the pattern of Ezekiel 44 to 48, perhaps the argument is a little stronger. But do these two examples provide sufficient criterion of themselves unless we reinforce them with the startling possibility -that, in judging these messengers of high office, it is a judgment unto death as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira? This is a form of judgment denied every saint in this life (1 Cor. 4:5; Rom 14:13), but Psalm 149:5-9 in conjunction with Isaiah 65:20 (R.V.) gives it to us in the future.

On the other hand, the term ‘to judge’ can mean administer or rule, and the suggestion has often been made that the milder use is given here, and so the criterion is preserved in the fact that it will be heavenly angels who are being administered, though not condemned. The angels who encamp around us now as our guardians (unto whom the age to come is not given) are said to abdicate in our favour, though they do not leave the arena under control, but subject themselves to our administration. The greatest weakness I see in this view is that the sense of the judgment is changed from a discernment between right and wrong. It undoubtedly referred to this in determining matters of difference between brethren, some of whom were even defrauded. Contextual consistency appears to be ignored in order to propound a viewpoint.