Do angels have wings?

[scripturewisdom]

Also in regards to your last paragraph... Love this!!! I'd like to put it on cards or bookmarks to pass out to people. 10pts. TW it's a wonderful point of view.

[Aliensanctuary]

I wonder if any of the Cherubim went over to the Dark Side.

[True-believer]

Angels I believe can show up in any shape or form...

If i'm in my car and it breaks down in the middle of no where, a person could come by to help me get my car started again--in a form of an angel...

Angels I believe do have wings, but some angels might not and instead could be in human form.

[Aliensanctuary]

Angels can, I believe, remotely control or influence a willing human being, causing that person to be somewhere at a critical moment when their assistance will be needed.

Satan and his Wicked Ones can do this also, but instead create death and destruction using the hands of their human slaves.

[rab]

Before God even created angels He knew He would someday create animals that could propel themselves through an atmosphere of gases on a distant planet. Their wings would be beatiful to behold, an artform even. So it seems reasonable to suppose He used that design motif in creating some of the Heavenly creatures, and foreseeing the useful and beatiful symbolisum wings would represent. As far as we know, angels dont need wings for any practical use. We all know wings dont work in the vacuum of outer space. As for the wings Ellen White saw the children have in one of her visions, I think they were a type of recreational vehicle, invented by the angels for their enjoyment, like we use bicycles and skateboards.

[Ellen]

I believe angels have appeared in forms other than human - like canine

My son's girlfriend has a cat visit her whenever she is sick. When she gets well it is nowhere to be seen, and doesn't come into the house, but when she got sick a second time that cat returned to her house and came in and stayed by her bed until she recovered again.

This girl nearly died a couple times (pulmonary clot) etc. I think God has more time for her and may have sent the cat.

[Guest]

Could be

[teresaq]

moses was instructed to make the "pattern" exactly as he saw the temple in heaven. the cherubim over the ark had wings. satan was a covering cherub, so that would mean he does have wings.

i read somewhere that we will have detachable wings so i would think that the angels wings could very well be detachable.

as for the "vacuum of space" i dont know that that would apply to angels. we are told they look like lightening when going somewhere. not sure ive seen a bird able to move so fast, perhaps a hummingbird?

[Tom Wetmore]

@aka - Thanks for drawing my attention back to this topic that was among the early attempts to think outside the box of other people's thinking.  It still goes in the direction of the spirit of this unique forum and reminds me how I enjoy this sort of free wheeling adventure in using our imaginations and creative thinking to just brain storm.

Back to the topic...  If thoughts take wing and soar to new heights of imagination and transport us to places beyond even the geniuses of human understanding and words fail us, how can we tell it to fish?  

 

I am reminded of Isaiah 55:8... 

[GayatfootofCross]

.. great thread! I gotta go to the OP!

I have two songs  EVERYBODY look up on youtube !

"Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

and

"Eagle" by ABBA

ahhh the 70's!

.

to me Wings represents freedom

to fly unencumbered

to soar above the whatever

I long for that

........................

we wont walk.. we will run and not poop out and take flight

no no im not quoting

i wrote that

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Tom Wetmore
quote removal...

[Unchained]

This is an old thread, but this is nevertheless an interesting topic for Bible nerds!

I agree with those here who say that angels having features such as wings or multiple heads, is meant to be interpreted in a symbolic way. In the Bible winged birds (eagles in particular) are generally understood as the fastest creatures in existence, and birds were admired for their freedom of movement. Even humans riding on horses couldn't match the speed of eagles.

The same principle applies to the statements in Ellen White's writings about angels (and more importantly - humans) having wings. That we'll have wings is way of stating that we'll be able to move swiftly and freely in all 3 dimensions.

It's nowhere stated that Jesus was given wings when he ascended to heaven in his glorified state, so there is no reason to assume that we'll need wings in order to travel to the ends of the universe. We'll be like him, and we'll be able to move by the speed of thought.

 

[aka]

Have you ever seen jets or commercial planes flap their wings like a bird? 

They work on another physical propelsion method for flying than how birds fly.

I have studied this subject by looking at every bible verse on Angels.

Not once was any mention of them using or having wings.

But that may not rule out them having jet-packs for forward movement, perhaps.

The exception is to be found in Cheribim. 

I do love this subject because it once again brings me to many memories of being protected from harm due to the intervention of angels in my life at various times.

[phkrause]

Absolutely aka, on more than one occasion have I been bailed out by them.

[debbym]

They do have form but they travel faster than the speed of light which gives me second thought on  the need or use for wings.  Truly interdimensional beings.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Quantum mechanics may give us some insight on the travel of angels.

[aka]

Gregory, how about going into more depth on this approach of quantum mechanics giving us more insight on travelling angels?

[Ellen]

I like this topic too.  The wife of our minister Branca, was told by the automobile driver behind her that when Branca was in a disastrous accident that she saw three angels flying over her car as it rolled and tumbled down a ravine.  That experience affected not only her but those of us who heard about it.  I will never forget it as long as I live.

[Tom Wetmore]

Reminds me of a story I heard or read recently of a person, fairly well known in Adventist circles that had an accident after which she was attended to by several uniformed emergency response "people" that arrived on the scene almost immediately afterwards and stayed with her until an ambulance  arrived. They left quickly when the ambulance attendants came to her so she was not able to thank them. When later she stopped at the fire and rescue department to thank everyone for helping her, she especially wanted to thank those men who had syed with her.  When she described them and the uniforms they were wearing she was told that no fire and rescue personnel wore such uniforms.   

[CoAspen]

Supernatural, shape shifters, defies known law of physics, etc, etc...

Rather amazing, if a person believes in angels then they should be able accept other possibilities that are deemed impossible!!

[Gregory Matthews]

To explain quantum mechanics as to angelic travel would require me to violate the rule for this thread and quote from others as the explaination is above my level.

Briefly:  Quantum Mechanics experiments have demonstrated that something traveling from point A to point B can instantly have traveled to point C and be in both places at the same moment of time, to include instant travel.

[aka]

Whenever you have the time and opportunity please elaborate in more detail about this, Gregory. I for one would really like to grasp the physics of dimension this theory presents.

[Aliensanctuary]

If Christ could suddenly appear and disappear after his resurrection, why not his messengers also? This is beyond our current technology, but maybe someday we will understand it. 

The wings of the Cherubim, covered with "eyes", or facets, may or may not function like wings in air, but might use some other propulsive force. The Cherubim may very well be robots that are located between the whirling wheels of the fiery "chariot" of the LORD, and also at the place from which YHVH communicated to man via the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Moses. Recall that the Ark had two Cherubim facing each other on the lid, and when the LORD wanted to communicate with Moses, that spot between them was where the brilliant light and the voice came from.

I don't suppose the Cherubim are classified as "angels" or messengers since they seem to have a different function. Maybe that's why some think that angels have wings, by confusing them with the Cherubim who actually have several pairs of "wings". When they raise their wings, the chariot of the LORD moves with lightning flashes and the sound of thunder, but when they lower their wings, the chariot no longer moves. I don't think that they flapped their wings like birds, just raised or lowered them while traveling or stopping.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

AKA, I appreciate you asking me to explain.  However, I feel very limited in my ability to explain something that is so complex.  Also, I do not want to violate any norms of this thread as to quoting what others have said.

In 1935 Erwin Schrodinger postulated an imagined experiment with a cat.  In popular terms this imagined experiment  is commonly called "Schrodinger's Cat" and discussion of that imagined experiment is discussed in many places on the Internet.   I believe that discussion would shed some light on the quantum mechanics behind my previous statement.

 Also, in physics there is a classic actual experiment that is called the "double-slit" experiment.  It is discussed all over the Internet.  I believe that discussion would shed some light on my previous statement.

My thinking is that if you were to take a look at the above you would have a better understanding of the thinking that was behind my previous statement.

So, here it is, my thoughts, while attempting not to quote anyone other. 

Bravus could probably do better at this, if he would want to comment.  In any case, if I am wrong in anything that I have said, I would appreciate any correction.