In Catholicism - Are angels made in God's image too?

[Guest1]

Are angels made in God’s image too?

 

[Jared2914]

I don’t have any references, but I remember reading that all creation reflects its creator. So humans are a reflection of God, our creator. Since angels were created by God, they would also be a reflection of God. Is a reflection the same as “made in the image of”? It sounds so to me, but maybe others have more hard evidence from good sources.

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

I don’t honestly think so, no. I’m shocking at references, but scripture does talk about us being different from the angels and about the unique nature of man as the image of God. That’s always been my understanding, I’d be very surprised if the Catholic church taught differently.

 

[SnoopSword]

No.

Otherwise Satan would be made in Gods image.

Those who say that angels ARE made in Gods image tend to claim:

-The Son is the good angel (aka Angel of the Lord/Shakina/Metatron). He sits at the right hand of God.
-Satan/Lucifer is the bad angel who sits at the left hand of God.
-They say the good angel represents the love, grace, blessings of God
-They say the bad angel represents the WRATH and punishing part of God.

Thus they make God into a yin-yang. Half light, half dark, both good and evil combined into one God. aka Dualism.

They say that since God is always good, then any perceived evil he does really isnt evil - it’s ALWAYS good. And if we dissagree, them thats just our human fallibilities.

Therefore, they conclude that evil can be done on behalf of God for the greater good. Because the lines of good and evil have been erased by angels being made in Gods image. Hence the gods of Judaism/Freemasonry/Anabaptists/some Islam resulting in creating war, persecution, and strife. That is a sign of worshipping the false God who is both light and dark.

God goes through great lengths in The Old Testament to teach us about this false God. But people mishandle the Bible and learn about God from the OT rather than the NT. The NT and John 1 specifically attempts to teach us about the True God, which is the Catholic (universal) God (Trinity).

The specifics of angels seem to be among the ‘lost teachings’ of modern times. From bits and pieces of I’ve heard over the years, is that humans were created to replace the angels cast out of heaven. The end of the world will happen when the full number comes in.

There are supoosedly many, many types of angels. They are extrmely diverse in role and function and size etc. Satan seems to have been a special creation of an arch angel. He was able to deceive a good portion of other angels and make them loyal to him.

In my opinion, bad angels mixed/tamlered with the creation of mankind. Hence the different races and diversity and talents. God preserved a pure line of human being theough Noah, or possibly Shem. No one knows for sure. What we do know is the last human that was genetically un-tampered with, and made in Gods image was Mary. This is why she could be FILLED with grace and bear Jesus. Jesus got his flesh from Mary. Jesus was NOT born with Sinful flesh (meaning basically that he was not mixed/corrupted with angels). This is WHY she reauired the Immaculate conception, and is WHY she was anle to be bodily assumed before hudgment.

But ALL outside of Mary are born with souls that are unclean and not allowed into heaven in their current state. Baptism partially resolves this. So do the sacraments. This is Christianity. Its LITERALLY working at a flesh/spirit level of your body. Things the tools cannot measure.

Again, the baptism and sacraments are very metaphysical and real on your human soul. Souls corrupted with opposition (sin) cannot enter heaven. This is why Jesus came. This is Christianity - baptism and sacraments. Good vs Evil. Not so much personal relationships, Bible study and philosophy… but that would take too long to get into.

 

[Vico]

Are angels made in God’s image too?

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “absolutely speaking, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, but that in some respects man is more like to God.”

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1093.htm#article3

 

[De_Maria]

Are angels made in God’s image too?

Yes. Angels are the original “sons of God” and they are spirit as God is Spirit:’

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

Psalm 103Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
4 Who makest thy angels spirits: and thy ministers a burning fire.

 

[SnoopSword]

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “absolutely speaking, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, but that in some respects man is more like to God.”

Sure thats one opinion. I dont know how he would know this factually however.

Why would God create humans if he could just create more angels? According to Aquinas, angels are made MORE in the image of God after all. Do they also have Gods breath in them too?

Actually, even in the Quran God blows the breath of life into Adam and the angels bow to man. Why? Because of ‘Gods breath’ implying humans have something they dont have.

I’ve heard things like angels don’t even have Free Will for that very reason. And if they were in Gods image, why would they be so substantially different from each other. Extremely different. Humans are all… humans. We all have five fingers and toes. Fr. Rippenger said the difference is so vast between angels its like comparing a ladybug to giant. Completely different. How can that be in the image?

And finally, why wouldn’t God come down as an angel as Jesus? Oh wait. Yes. That’s what the cults believe - Jesus being an angel.

Also someone implied angels were God’s Spirit and even applied it to worship. That would place angels inside the Trinity wouldnt it? (not that I deny angels assist in mankinds petitions to God, as well as priests etc).

But if angels are literally made of God’s Spirit, then speaking in tongues would be manifest in Jesus. He didn’t speak in tongues. So we accept tongues as a charism - not officially a gift of the Holy Spirit like Anabaptists claim. I saw on Youtube, Michael Voris (if I remember correctly), say it was the angels that gave the tongues and languages (Paul mentions tongues of/from Angels) - not the Spirit. He also says tongues will cease. But the Spirit is Eternal. I’ve also heard angels are not eternal, but rather ‘indestructable/incorruptable’.

Like… I dont know… I see angels as created beings who were made to Gods design of course, but how can any such DIVERSE beings be considered the image of God? And why bother naming them Arch-Angels if they are collectively more in the image of God?

 

[RandomAlias]

SnoopSword,

Yes, angels and humans are different, but it is not to say that we have nothing in common.

As I understood it, our “image and likeness” does not refer to the physical characteristics of our body (fingers and toes, as you said), but rather our capacity for love. If angels can love, then they are like God too.

Regarding free will, I have heard and read that free will is different for angels because they have perfect knowledge, as we don’t, and with it each angel chose good or evil without what we would understand as deliberation. To us, that might not seem like free will, but at their level I think it is. If it wasn’t free will, why did some angels reject God? Or why would God create a class of angels to be condemned not through their own fault, but by some defect in their nature?

 

[RandomAlias]

No.

Otherwise Satan would be made in Gods image.

Wait a sec, … just thinking this over…

What about Hitler and Stalin? Osama bin Laden? Adam Lanza? Weren’t they made in God’s image?

Maybe Satan was created in God’s image, but chose to reject his own godliness just as he rejected God.

 

[Vico]

…

Yes, angels angels have free will. That is how the angels fall occurred.
Angels and humans are creatures so are unlike uncreated God, the angels are spiritual beings, and humans are composite beings spiritual sous and material body. Note that there is a difference between image and likeness.
Yes, angels were given sanctifying grace (God’s breath, the Holy Spirit) as humans were.
The Son assumed human nature that he could bring salvation for mankind. The fallen angels can not be saved, but humans dan.

Catholic Encylopedia

Grace (gratia, Charis), in general, is a supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures (men, angels) for their eternal salvation, whether the latter be furthered and attained through salutary acts or a state of holiness.

Pohle, J. (1909). Sanctifying Grace. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06701a.htm

Did you read what St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, it seems not, he said:

Secondly, we may consider the image of God in man as regards its accidental qualities, so far as to observe in man a certain imitation of God, consisting in the fact that man proceeds from man, as God from God; and also in the fact that the whole human soul is in the whole body, as God from God; and also in the fact that the whole human soul is in the whole body, and again, in every part, as God is in regard to the whole world. In these and the like things the image of God is more perfect in man than it is in the angels. But these do not of themselves belong to the nature of the Divine image in man, unless we presuppose the first likeness, which is in the intellectual nature; otherwise even brute animals would be to God’s image. Therefore, as in their intellectual nature, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, we must grant that, absolutely speaking, the angels are more to the image of God than man is, but that in some respects man is more like to God.

 

[NeedImprovement]

The Most Important Person on earth is a mother.
She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral.
She need not.
She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—
a dwelling for an immortal soul,
the tiny perfection of her baby’s body…
The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.
They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring
new saints to Heaven.
Only a human mother can.
Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature;
God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation…
What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this:
to be a mother?

—Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering .

- St. Faustina Kowalska ; (Diary, 1804).

 

[SnoopSword]

What about Hitler and Stalin? Osama bin Laden? Adam Lanza? Weren’t they made in God’s image?

No. Only Adam and Eve were made in Gods image. Everyone AFTER Adam is made in the likeness of Adam (Gen 5:3), which is basically likeness of God. You can say Jesus too, but he is God and not made from the dust so it would be bad practice in general to include him.

But look… this is very unpopular and un-politically correct in our modern times. Scoffers will scoff. People will hide the information. So what I’m going to say is something crazy like flat earth. Obviously crazy views are hidden these days so this isn’t something you can just quickly look up and definitely something that won’t be advertised. But it’s the real reason why humanity needs a savior. So here it goes. Take it or leave it.

-Since Jesus, all mankind genetically inherit a corrupted image of Adam mixed with literal sin (opposition). We’re ‘mutts’ essentially.
-Yes. Our human DNA literally got mixed and corrupted with impurities that are not of Gods original design which is WHY there was a flood. (Genesis 6:1-8)
-Our current souls are NOT allowed into heaven for this reason. BUT, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only son… so we can have a chance at heaven.
-This is very real and is proven by our incompatible blood types, DNA, races, etc.
-All babies are born IN Adam, and thus the image of God. But this is now in MEASURE.
-All babies are at ENMITY with God until our baptism where we change our parents and become children of Mary, The Father, and Christ our Brother.
-Adults baptism often doesn’t work because… actually I’ll skip that.
-Yes. You become a new RACE when you are baptized. It’s in the Catechism. This is at the unseen level of course.
-The ONLY exception to all this is Mary. If not, then Jesus flesh would be mixed with literal sin as per (Genesis 6:1-8)

THE BIG SECRET TEACHING. Mary is the FIRST person prophesied about in the Bible believe it or not. Right in Genesis. The prophecy is that Mary will have a seed (seed of a woman). This might sound crazy but you should know this; The movie 'Davinci-Code is somewhat real. They just have the wrong Mary. The Blessed Virgin was born through an UN-CORRUPTED, SECRET BLOODLINE that God was protecting since Adam, all the way through Noah, all the way to St. Anna. She’s not just ‘in/of Adam’ like us, she’s a direct ‘daughter of Adam’ (infallibly declared dogma). This is WHY she required the Immaculate Conception, because Jesus could not take on corrupted flesh or dwell within it. Also this allowed Mary was FULL of grace for this reason.

-Adam means Man.
-Mary was a daughter of Adam (like Gen 5:3)
-Jesus was the Son of Man.
-But really Son of Mary in plain sight!

Mary did NOT have the sinful fallen nature like people think. Enoch was a son of Adam, but was able to walk with God so closely that God TOOK HIM! (Gen 5:23:24). Again, the enmity started here (Genesis 6:1-8). This is where god supposedly REGRETS making mankind. Noah likewise. No one really knows what happened to him.

 

[Benadam]

Satan was cast out of hell by an angel who’s name means "who is like God?’

 

[Wesrock]

I don’t even…

-Since Jesus, all mankind genetically inherit a corrupted image of Adam mixed with literal sin (opposition). We’re ‘mutts’ essentially.

Genetically? No. What is this? This is not Church Teaching. Church teaching is that original sin forfeited original holiness and justice. This is spiritual, not genetic.

-Yes. Our human DNA literally got mixed and corrupted with impurities that are not of Gods original design which is WHY there was a flood. (Genesis 6:1-8)

No. Our human DNA did not literally get mixed and corrupted with impurities the way you speak of. Original sin isn’t some physical substance. God permitted natural evils into the world, but that’s something different.

-Our current souls are NOT allowed into heaven for this reason. BUT, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only son… so we can have a chance at heaven.

Because of a loss of original holiness and justice and an inability to be righteous apart from God. Not because we’re genetically impure…

-This is very real and is proven by our incompatible blood types, DNA, races, etc.

No.

-All babies are born IN Adam, and thus the image of God. But this is now in MEASURE.
-All babies are at ENMITY with God until our baptism where we change our parents and become children of Mary, The Father, and Christ our Brother.

This is not consistent with Church teaching. We do not believe babies have any personal guilt, and we entrust unbaptized babies into God’s mercy.

-Adults baptism often doesn’t work because… actually I’ll skip that.

I… have nothing to say, besides this is not Church teaching.

-Yes. You become a new RACE when you are baptized. It’s in the Catechism. This is at the unseen level of course.

CCC quote, please. We are not a new race. Not in any manner resembling your blood or gene purity examples, at least.

-The ONLY exception to all this is Mary. If not, then Jesus flesh would be mixed with literal sin as per (Genesis 6:1-8)

No. No. No. That is absolutely NOT why the Church teaches the Immaculate Conception and you’re going to do grave harm in apologetics if that’s your argument. It’s completely illogical. If God could present Mary from inheriting original sin from parents with original sin, He could have done the same with Jesus. And it’s just not what the Church teaches.

There’s just so much wrong and at odds with Church doctrine in your post.

 

[Wesrock]

Oh my, I didn’t even see this at first.

THE BIG SECRET TEACHING. Mary is the FIRST person prophesied about in the Bible believe it or not. Right in Genesis. The prophecy is that Mary will have a seed (seed of a woman). This might sound crazy but you should know this; The movie 'Davinci-Code is somewhat real. They just have the wrong Mary. The Blessed Virgin was born through an UN-CORRUPTED, SECRET BLOODLINE that God was protecting since Adam, all the way through Noah, all the way to St. Anna. She’s not just ‘in/of Adam’ like us, she’s a direct ‘daughter of Adam’ (infallibly declared dogma). This is WHY she required the Immaculate Conception, because Jesus could not take on corrupted flesh or dwell within it. Also this allowed Mary was FULL of grace for this reason.

This is conspiracy theory level nonsense. Stop. Please. The first good news/gospel about Mary and Jesus in Genesis, yes, but secret bloodlines and the Da Vinci Code and Bene Gesserit-like breeding programs? No, no, just no.

 

[RandomAlias]

This thread is full of trouble.

@Guest1, your question was a good one, and there are some good answers, but beware. There is also a great deal of – How shall I say it? – malarkey.

Keep what is good and true, keep that which strengthens your faith, and ignore or forget the rest.

 

[misstherese]

We would not be here if it weren’t for the fall of the angels. Blessed Anne Emmerich says this in her writings that after the fall, God decided to replace the number that had fallen and thus decided to create man. He made man to be fruitful and multiply and to keep multiplying until that number is fulfilled. So yes of course, angels were made in the image of God.

 

[SnoopSword]

Satan was cast out of hell by an angel who’s name means "who is like God?’

Yes. And all major cults tend to believe that Archangel Michael is Jesus. This is a natural byproduct of trying to read the Bible through our own interpretation. Both NT and OT Scripture is actual very dangerous and can lead to someone to be damned, St. Peter himself said this.

People can even ‘curse themselves’ by misreading the Gospels (which is why they need to be ‘heard’ from the mouth of Peter… well… as far as gentiles are concerned at least which is what Anabaptists are). People can deceive themselves into believing wild things like Judas being a good guy, Jesus have a twin brother, and the classic of Jesus having an imposter on the cross. Do you think this is all a coincidence? No! It demonstrates how divine these Gospels really are.

Actually, these Anabaptist cults were founded within 150 miles each other, and, in the same generation in the early/mid 19th century! ALL of their lead/key founders were Freemasons. All of the ‘40,000 denominations’ come from Anabaptiststs technically - not Protestants. The Anabaptists are anti-Protestant, anti-Catholic, and were a 3rd party born out of the Reformation. They NEVER WERE Protestants and are not protesting anything. Their influence on Christianity worldwide has been profound. America garuntees their freedom to operate and harm Christianity worldwide.

 

[RandomAlias]

Interesting. I heard another story that some of the angels, full of pride, could not bear the thought that God chose to become man rather than angel. And that is how they fell.

 

[Benadam]

hmm never heard that one. The reason I tend to believe is that when Satan saw how much God esteemed man and that his purpose was to serve man he said" I will not serve".

Then when God showed the devil that He was going to put on flesh and dwell among men that was too much for Satan. Not only would he have to serve a creature lower than himself he would have to worship God in the form of a creature lower than himself. Satan’s pride wouldn’t allow what God had planned so he rebelled .