Unraveling the truth about Michael the Archangel requires a deep dive down the biblical rabbit hole. Did he have free will? Was he a major player? What did he actually do, anyway? Turns out it's complicated.
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00:00Unraveling the truth about Michael the archangel requires a deep dive down the biblical rabbit
00:05hole. Did he have free will? Was he a major player? What did he actually do anyway? Turns
00:10out, it's complicated.
00:13If you think the archangel Michael is flitting around the pages of the Bible with a bunch
00:17of archangel friends, well, maybe. It depends on whether you're referring to the canonical
00:22Bible, like the one you get in a store or in the bedside table at a motel, or those
00:26Bible extras like the Book of Enoch. It makes a difference whether you're reading the Old
00:30or New Testament, too. In fact, Michael is open to interpretation in a lot of ways. Simply
00:35put, there are discrepancies.
00:37The official Christian Bible dates back to the late 4th century AD, over 350 years after
00:42the accepted death of Jesus. That's when St. Jerome finalized the New Testament and combined
00:47it with the existing Old Testament to make one whole book of books. And Michael is only
00:52mentioned by name five times across the entire thing, three times in the Old Testament Book
00:56of Daniel and twice in the New Testament, in Jude and Revelation.
01:00If you know your Bible, you've heard of the archangel Michael.
01:03After the Holy Trinity of Mary, St. Michael is the most powerful being of God.
01:09He seems like a major character, being Chief Angel and all that. But if you actually look
01:14at what he does, it's not a lot. That's not to say that a minor character can't make a
01:19major difference. Of course they can, but Michael doesn't actually do a lot that makes
01:24an impact, at least until we get to our old friend the Book of Revelation.
01:28In Daniel 10, an angel, likely Gabriel, delivers a message to Daniel when he's in prison. He
01:33basically says God wants Daniel to know he's special to him and that he, the angel, has
01:38been sent to help. The angel mentions that he was blocked from getting to Daniel by the
01:42Prince of Persia and that Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help.
01:46And just before the angel splits, he tells Daniel that bad times are coming, but that
01:50Michael will, once again, be there to help out.
01:54He calls Michael the great prince who protects your people, like some kind of political or
01:58military leader. But what does Michael actually do? We have no idea. That part's not in the book.
02:05Archangel Michael, what say you?
02:07These are Michael's words, for them, to the devil, in Jude 1.9,
02:11The Lord rebuked you.
02:13The issue is Moses' dead body. God put Michael in charge of looking after the grave, and
02:18Satan wants to dig up the dead prophet. But after the rebuking, what happens? Who knows?
02:24The plot's got some holes.
02:25So as far as we know, up till now, Michael, the archangel, is all talk, but it's about
02:30to get action-packed. But first, there's one thing we have to discuss.
02:35Do angels have free will?
02:36To start with, remember, we're speaking from a text-based, literary perspective here, not
02:41from any religious or belief-based scenario.
02:44Looking at the Christian Bible, we know that at least one angel acted independently. He
02:48went so far as to rebel against God. Yeah, that guy. Isaiah 14 calls him the Morning
02:53Star, and Jesus references his fall from heaven in Luke 10 when he calls him Satan, which,
02:58in Hebrew, is a common noun meaning adversary. The Greek word for Satan is Diabolos, or,
03:04in English, devil. So the Morning Star, Satan, and the devil are all the same guy, a fallen
03:09angel.
03:10Which leads us to the conclusion that, yes, at least some biblical angels can act and
03:14think for themselves. When Jude describes Michael having a conversation with the devil,
03:19the Lord rebuke you, he's invoking the Creator as a distinct entity from himself. He's not
03:23merely a messenger.
03:25Finally, we come to the point about the archangel Michael that embodies a debate that still
03:29plays a vital life-or-death role in modern life — the necessity of violence to bring
03:34about peace. Some people might picture the ideal — Christians, Jesus, God, God's angels,
03:40etc. — all living together in hippie-dippie harmony. Most people clearly haven't read
03:44the Old Testament, or even much of the New Jesus-centric Testament, including a critical
03:49chunk of the Michael story.
03:51We're talking about the Book of Revelation.
04:02That archangel Michael is far from the wispy-winged, dreamy-voiced vision some might have of angels.
04:08In Revelation 12, Michael's a dragonslayer — like, literally. A warrior with an angel
04:12army fighting a rival angel army. This is why so many scriptures and paintings of Michael
04:17over the centuries depict him in armor wielding a weapon. The passage lays it out as such.
04:23Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against a dragon, and the
04:27dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their
04:31place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the Devil
04:35or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels
04:40with him.
04:41Thankfully, Michael defeated Lucifer and bound him in hell.
04:45But there's something else we need to discuss. Revelation's apocalyptic timeline is a bit
04:50convoluted, but biblical scholars interpret this event as happening in the future. That
04:55means that Michael isn't just a cloud-dwelling angel whose work on Earth is done. He's a
04:59fighter whose skill and ferocity in battle helps bring about final, ultimate peace.