Pagan Gods/Angels

[devilwarrior]

The thought occured to me: in the Bible it makes several mentions of angels that are the guradians of specific places. For example, I believe it was either Metaron or Gabriel, but one of the angels was the specfic defender of Jersulam. So the thought was, what if the gods the pagans worshipped were really angels guarding thier specfic area ane misinterpreted by the people who saw them. It would explain why civilization as diverse as the Greeks, the Aztecs and the Celts all had "gods" for certain places. As fo why the names are different I thought that maybe the pagans just named them something in thier native language.
What do you think?

[choosybeggar]

Oh, totally!

One thing, though, is that I think they were demons. Still angels, but fallen ones. Angels don't receive worship. But demons do. They have a reason to grasp at the power of a region. Unfallen angels have their specific assignments, some for certain jobs, some for certain people, some for certain regions, some for other things, whatever those things may be. Fallen angels have their own assignments but a lot of those are assignments just to usurp God's presence in an area. Therefore they set themselves up as "God" there. The names might be native, but they're probably influenced by the names the spirits might already have.

It's an interesting thing I heard recently. Certain angels go with mantles. A mantle is the job given someone. Elijah gave his job to Elisha when he got zapped. The actual garment was a great symbol of the transfer. And certain angels are assigned to jobs that have been lost. They aren't able to do anything really until someone comes along and says, "This guy that died in the 1800's left something undone. I think I'll take it further, and I think I need the commission to do this job. God, please give me this mantle." And then the angels have jobs again. Like I said, very interesting.

[birdnerd]

It's Michael who guards Israel.

Gabriel is the Messianic message deliverer.

There are references in Daniel to demons being in charge of certain areas. "The prince of the power of Greece" ... and Persia, and a couple others.

[devilwarrior]

Thanks for responding. While I do believe some of the pagan gods were demons my thinking was along the line of what if humans starting worshipping angels out of misinterpretation of what they were. The Angels weren't trying to gather worshipperes like the demons do, they were just trying to do thier god-given duty to defend an area.

[choosybeggar]

Okay, yeah. I see what you mean.

Great book ideas! Frank Peretti thought so, anyway. Erm, though he mostly portrayed the bad territorial stuff.

[morganlbusse]

The issue of angel worship is addressed in the book of Hebrews. Specifically, it says that Christ is greater and that angels are only here to serve (1:14). To worship the created instead of the Creator is wrong. I would think those angels who are worshiped feel the same way Paul and Barnabas did when the crowds thought they were gods (Acts 14:14-18), telling them to worship God instead.

[birdnerd]

That's what the angels told John in Revelation...