The Death Angel

The Death Angel

          Does the Death Angel exist?  The idea of the death angel probably stems from the final plague that struck Egypt, which was the death of the first born if the blood was not applied to the doorposts and lentils.  However, the terms “death angel” or “angel of death” occurred nowhere in Scripture.  When writing about the time of the final plague in Egypt, Moses described the angel of judgment that passed by to slay the first born as the “destroyer.”[1]  And, the more one studies this passage, the possibility exists of a pre-incarnate Christ slaying the first born as evidenced by the phrase, “For the LORD will pass through to smite...”[2]  Notice Who will pass through.  Not just an angel but the LORD passed through Egypt.  Even if the “destroyer” was the pre-incarnate Christ, which is also sometimes signified by the term “angel of the Lord” in the Bible, the “destroyer” of Exodus 12 only killed the first born.  The Bible never recorded the “destroyer” as ushering people into the afterlife but merely killing them.  While angels carry forth the judgment of God, they also escort the souls of the dead from earth to their final destination.        

            The carrying away of the souls of the dead remains the task of the angels as well.  Jesus spoke of the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, in which Lazarus died and an angel carried him to Abraham’s bosom.[3] There exist accounts of angels carrying the souls of the dead to the spirit realm.  There exist accounts where saints of God state that they Christ or they hear an angelic choir.  There also reside accounts of sinners dying in hospital beds and tearing the sheets as the death angel approaches them because they can feel the heat from hell.  Regardless, the spirit does not just automatically arrive before the throne of God upon undergoing the death of the physical body, but rather, an angel comes and takes the spirit to its destination in the afterlife, whether it would be heaven or hell.

 

           

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[1]Exodus 12:23 “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”

[2]Exodus 12:23 “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”

[3] Luke 16:22 “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;”