These daily Advent studies are provided for your personal devotionals or for your daily family Advent devotionals during the evening meal. They are an excellent way to introduce daily Bible readings and discussions at the evening meal. Once begun during the Advent season the tradition can become a lifelong practice of your family. They seek to challenge both you and your children beyond the simplicity and often erroneous information provided in so called Advent calendars and children’s Christmas books. May you find it a blessing and may they be a starting point for your family in daily readings, discussions and meditations on the holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God.
(T = True; F = False) According to the Bible... 40_____The angel of the Lord who made his proclamation to the shepherds appeared to them in the sky, hovering above them.
41_____It was an act of grace for God to first reveal the location of the baby Jesus to shepherds as shepherds were considered by the Law to be unclean.
42_____ The angels who appeared to the shepherds had white robes, wings and halos.
Answer Key
40 F – Luke 2:9, 13 - 15 (The angel of the Lord who made his proclamation to the shepherds appeared to them in the sky, hovering above them.) When the angel of the Lord in Luke 2:9 appeared to the shepherds he was standing before them. Luke 2:9 “And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.” Although the Word of God does refer to the accompanying angels as “heavenly host” it does not say that they were in heaven praising God. (Luke 2:13) The phrase “heavenly host” can just as easily refer to their place of origin, especially since they are described as returning to heaven when their proclamation had been completed. (Luke 2:15) In the account of the angels nowhere is it mentioned that they are flying or hovering in the air.
41 F – (It was an act of grace for God to first reveal the location of the baby Jesus to shepherds as shepherds were considered by the Law to be unclean.) There is no injunction in the Law of Moses which declares the keeping of sheep as rendering one “unclean”.
42 F - Luke 2:8-15; Hebrews 13:2 (The angels who appeared to the shepherds had white robes, wings and halos.) There is no scriptural basis for the current fashion of depicting angels with white robes, wings, long flowing hair, halos and who speak in a special mystical language. In fact, the Angel who spoke to the shepherds stood before them, (Luke 2:9), and made his proclamation in their language (as do all Biblical accounts of angels). There is no specific mention of the heavenly host being in the air or flying when they were praising God and giving their revelation, nor is their any indication that, using wings, they flew away afterward. Nowhere is there depicted in the Bible angels, in human form having white robes, wings, long hair and halos. Nowhere in the Bible are angels depicted as beautiful young women or as babies. The only depiction of feminine angles in the Bible are of fallen angels, demons. These indeed were women with beautiful long wings , as in Zechariah 5:9, “Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.” As for babies with wings, this is a purely pagan depiction taken right out of Roman and Greek pagan ritual. Upon visiting Roman ruins in England I was amazed to see the commonly depicted Renaissance baby angles adorning the pagan grave stones and temples for Roman pagans.
In stark contrast to the current fad of feminizing angels, all angelic descriptions in the Bible are decidedly masculine in nature (and often fearful, violent and bloody). All named angels had male names. The fearful response given to the appearance of angels surely brings into question the wimpy, effeminate angels which are sold in most Christian book stores and appear on greeting cards. A careful study of history will reveal that these depictions are pagan in nature, harking back to the sculptures found in ancient Rome and Greece rather than the Bible. I doubt seriously the Death Angel or the angels whose appearance struck such fear into men that they fell on their faces unable to speak, appeared in long effeminate flowing robes with sappy expressions on their faces. All of these depictions are simply artistic fabrications and fables, which pander the predominantly female clientele of modern Christian bookstores and should be avoided (I Timothy 4:7 “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women...”)
Baby angels, angels with wings and effeminate depictions of angels are simply artistic recreations of Roman and Greek pagan deities. The use of halos in depicting angels, saints or Biblical figures was begun in the middle ages by painters who wished in some way to indicate the individual when he was painted in a group setting. Although in some early paintings arrows with annotations are used, slowly this was replaced by the use of halos. These were considered more esthetically appealing and carried with them the growing superstition, that like Moses when he came down from the mount, so surely all great saints, glow with the glory of God. Hebrews 13:2 makes it clear that angels are so human like in their appearance, speech and actions that we can entertain them in their earthly duties without ever even knowing it. (Authors Note: It is true, the Seraphim and Cherubim of Ezekiel 1 & 10 had wings but these were not in human form and are a form of angelic life known as “living being”.)
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