http://www.ccel.org/ccel/berkhof/systematictheology.

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infused knowledge at the time of their creation, but Thomas Aquinas

denied, while Duns Scotus affirmed, that they could acquire new
knowledge through their own intellectual activity. The former held that
the knowledge of the angels is purely intuitive, but the latter
asserted that it may also be discursive. The idea of guardian angels
found considerable favor during the Middle Ages.

The period of the Reformation brought nothing new respecting the

doctrine of the angels. Both Luther and Calvin had a vivid conception
of their ministry, and particularly of the presence and power of Satan.
The latter stresses the fact that he is under divine control, and that,
while he is sometimes the instrument of God, he can only work within
prescribed limits. Protestant theologians generally regarded the angels
as pure spiritual beings, though Zanchius and Grotius still speak of
them as having ethereal bodies. As to the work of the good angels the
general opinion was that it is their special task to minister to the
heirs of salvation. There was no general agreement, however, respecting
the existence of guardian angels. Some favored this view, others
opposed it, and still others refused to commit themselves on this
point. Our Belgic Confession says in Article XII, which deals with
creation: "He also created the angels good, to be His messengers and to
serve His elect: some of whom are fallen from that excellency, in which
God created them, into everlasting perdition; and the others have, by
the grace of God, remained steadfast, and continued in their primitive
state. The devils and evil spirits are so depraved that they are
enemies of God and every good thing to the utmost of their power, as
murderers watching to ruin the Church and every member thereof, and by
their wicked stratagems to destroy all; and are therefore, by their own
wickedness, adjudged to eternal damnation, daily expecting their
horrible torments."

Up to the present time Roman Catholics generally regarded the angels as

pure spirits, while some Protestants, such as Emmons, Ebrard, Kurtz,
Delitzsch, and others, still ascribe to them some special kind of
bodies. But even the great majority of the latter take the opposite
view. Swedenborg holds that all angels were originally men and exist in
bodily form. Their position in the angelic world depends on their life
in this world. Eighteenth century Rationalism boldly denied the
existence of angels and explained what the Bible teaches about them as
a species of accommodation. Some modern liberal theologians consider it
worthwhile to retain the fundamental idea expressed in the doctrine of
the angels. They find in it a symbolic representation of the protecting
care and helpfulness of God.

B. THE EXISTENCE OF THE ANGELS

All religions recognize the existence of a spiritual world. Their

mythologies speak of gods, half-gods, spirits, demons, genii, heroes,
and so on. It was especially among the Persians that the doctrine of
the angels was developed, and many critical scholars assert that the
Jews derived their angelology from the Persians. But this is an
unproved and, to say the least, very doubtful theory. It certainly
cannot be harmonized with the Word of God, in which angels appear from
the very beginning. Moreover, some great scholars, who made special
study of the subject, came to the conclusion that the Persian
angelology was derived from that current among the Hebrews. The
Christian Church has always believed in the existence of angels, but in
modern liberal theology this belief has been discarded, though it still
regards the angel-idea as useful, since it imprints upon us "the living
power of God in the history of redemption, His providentia
specialissima for His people, especially for the 'little ones.'" [68]
Though such men as Leibnitz and Wolff, Kant and Schleiermacher,
admitted the possibility of the existence of an angelic world, and some
of them even tried to prove this by rational argumentation, it is quite
evident that philosophy can neither prove nor disprove the existence of

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