When I was writing the article Finding Jesus in the Old Testament the Lord spoke to me about how the Holy Spirit was the Rainbow that God placed in the sky after the flood. I knew that the Holy Spirit had appeared in the form of a dove at the baptism of Jesus and that He had appeared as a mighty wind and as tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost; however, the idea that the Holy Spirit could also appear as a rainbow was quite new to me.
I knew of no other instances in the Bible where the Holy Spirit appeared as a rainbow. However, I knew that in ancient Sumerian literature the gods Inanna and Enlil are referred to as rainbows. In the Sumerian story ‘Inana and Šu-kale-tuda the South wind’ the god Inanna is said to have stretched herself across the sky like a rainbow and in ‘Enlil in E-Kur’ the god Enlil is described as spanning the sky as the rainbow. I have long recognized these Sumerian gods to be fallen angels.
If these fallen angels are able to transform themselves into rainbows, this would indicate that unfallen angels can also appear in the form of rainbows and, because the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a rainbow after the flood of Noah, as the sign of God’s covenant with man that He would not flood the earth again, this would suggest that the Holy Spirit is an angel.
There is a great deal of evidence in the Bible and in early Chrisitan literature to suggest that the Holy Spirit is an angel. Firstly, let us take the name of the Holy Spirit. He is called the Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 1:9 it says:
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Notice that in verse 14 angels are called ministering ‘spirits’. The Holy Spirit is called the Holy ‘Spirit’. If the Bible is defining angels as spirits and the Holy Spirit is a spirit, would that not make the Holy Spirit an angel? Why would there be two definitions for the meaning of the word ‘spirit’ in the Bible? The fact that the Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit strongly suggests that He is an angel.
Secondly, the Bible blatantly calls the Holy Spirit an angel. In Isaiah 63:9-10 the Holy Spirit is called the angel of his presence:
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,[a]
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.10 But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.
In Genesis 48 Jacob called the God who cared for him an angel:
15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
—may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.”
Jacob could not have been referring to the Father or to Jesus, because neither the Father or Jesus are angels. As Jacob called this angel God, it has to be the Holy Spirit, because there are only three members of the Trinity.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit can become wind and fire and can have a human form. In Hebrews 1:7 it says:
7 Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”
This is a parallel verse, so the word ‘ministers’ is also referring to angels. The verse is saying that the Father makes angels into winds and into flames of fire. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came as a mighty wind and as tongues of fire.
Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to wind when He told Nicodemus that:
8 The wind[a] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
In Genesis 3:8 the Bible translators have mistranslated the verse to read that Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day. However, if one looks at the actual Hebrew this is not what the verse says. The Bible translators have translated the Hebrew word לְר֣וּחַ to mean ‘in the breeze’. However, the preposition לְ which is attached to the word is the preposition meaning either ‘to’ ; ‘for’ or ‘about’ (see https://talkpal.ai/grammar/simple-prepositions-in-hebrew-grammar/). It is not the ancient Hebrew preposition for ‘in’. The word ר֣וּחַ itself is better translated as the word ‘wind’:
Strong’s Concordance
ruach: breath, wind, spirit
Original Word: רוּחַ
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: ruach
Phonetic Spelling: (roo’-akh)
Definition: breath, wind, spirit
Therefore, the word לְר֣וּחַ can more correctly be translated as saying ‘for the wind’. The word מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ which is translated as ‘walking’ can be translated as ‘coming’:
Strong’s Concordance
halak: to go, come, walk
Original Word: הָלַךְ
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: halak
Phonetic Spelling: (haw-lak’)
Definition: to go, come, walk
Therefore, Genesis 3:8 can be translated as:
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God coming in the garden for the wind of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. In other words, they heard the Lord God coming in the form of wind. Because Hebrews 1:7 tells us that angels can be winds, this would indicate that the Lord God in Genesis 3 is an angel. Anyone who disagrees with my translation of Genesis 3:8 is going to have to suggest an alternative translation using the correct preposition לְ.
In Ezekiel 1 ‘the Glory of God’ is seen by Ezekiel:
26 And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire;[a] and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. 27 And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.[b] 28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around…
Ezekiel describes the Glory of God as having the appearance of fire from His waist downwards. You will recall that in Hebrews 1:7 it says that God can make angels a flame of fire. This Being is very clearly an angel. Again, this has to be the Holy Spirit because the Father and Jesus are not angels.
After describing what he saw, Ezekiel makes the following statement:
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face…
The word that has been translated as ‘likeness’ is the ancient Hebrew word דְּמ֣וּת. This word can also be translated as the word ‘form’:
NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
from damah
Definition
likeness, similitude
NASB Translation
figure (1), figures like (1), figures resembling (1), form (4), like (4), likeness (8), pattern (1), resembling (1), something resembling (1), which resembled (1), who resembled (1).
Translating the word as ‘form’ allows one to understand what Ezekiel is saying. Ezekiel is saying that he was seeing the ‘form’ of the Holy Spirit. By saying this Ezekiel is confirming that there are times when the Holy Spirit has a form.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not only an invisible, amorphous force. The Holy Spirit is able to take a form and to talk to people. He speaks to Ezekiel at length in Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3. Ezekiel chapter 1 shows that He can take the form of a man. This is something that angels do. They take the form of men to talk to people on behalf of the Father.
Another time that the Holy Spirit has a form is in Daniel 7. In Daniel 7 the prophet Daniel has a vision of the future which he describes as follows:
9 “As I looked,
“thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.11 “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
You will notice that in verse 9 the Ancient of Days is described as having hair that is white like wool. This is not the last time that the Ancient of Days is described in the Bible. In the Book of Revelation John sees the Holy Spirit, on the island of Patmos. In Revelation 1:13 the apostle John says that he sees One like the Son of Man. It does not say that he sees the Son of Man:
12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
It must be remembered that John was the beloved disciple. If he had seen Jesus in the vision, his reaction would have been different. They would probably have been hugging each other with joy. Instead John falls down in terror when he sees this Person, Who is like the Son of Man, but isn’t the Son of Man:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
Revelation 1:17 NIV
This is because the Person that John sees is the Holy Spirit. We know that this is the Holy Spirit because we are told in Revelations 2 verses 1 and 7 that it is the Holy Spirit:
2 “To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
Revelation 2:1 NIV
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:7a NIV
Also, Revelation 2:12 says:
“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.
Revelation 2:12 NIV
Ephesians 6:17 says that the sword belongs to the Holy Spirit:
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17 NIV
In Revelation 1 and 2 the apostle John is seeing the Holy Spirit. He was seeing the Holy Spirit as He appeared in the Old Testament as the Ancient of Days. We see that in Daniel 7 and in Revelations 1 and 2 the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a man, making it most likely that He is an angel, as angels can take the form of men.
Another time that the Holy Spirit has a form occured when He appeared to the parents of Samson:
2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name, 7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.” 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?” 13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.” 16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?” 18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” 19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to the one who works[a] wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21 The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.” 24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
In Judges 13 verse 20 the Holy Spirit ascends in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife are watching. According to Hebrews 1:7 angels can become fire. Some Biblical scholars have argued that the ‘angel of the Lord’ was a man, but verse 20 disqualifies that argument. We know that this is the Holy Spirit because Manoah testifies that they have seen God. We know that they could not have seen the Father or Jesus because the Father and Jesus are not angels. We also know that this is the Holy Spirit, because in verse 18 the Holy Spirit tells Manoah that His name is wonderful.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 the apostle Paul wrote:
17 Now the Lord[a] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
If the apostle Paul was right about this, and I like to think that he was right, since he wrote so much of the New Testament that shapes our understanding of what the Christian faith is all about, then this angel with the wonderful name is Who Jesus was, before He became Jesus. At this point many of my readers will probably say that it is not possible that Jesus was an angel before He became Jesus because Jesus is the Son of God. However, Jesus identified Himself as this angel on more than one occasion. For example, in John 17:11 Jesus prayed:
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of[a] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
Notice that Jesus says that God the Father gave Him His own name. In the Old Testament the name of the Father is Yahweh. Therefore, Jesus is saying that the Father gave Him the name Yahweh.
In Exodus 23 Yahweh the Father tells Moses:
20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
In Hosea 12:4-5 the prophet Hosea says:
And, yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought favour from Him. He found him in Bethel and there He spoke to us, that is Yahweh God of Hosts. His memorable name is Yahweh.
Hosea 12:4-5 Interlinear
The verse is saying that the angel, called Yahweh God of Hosts, found Jacob in Bethel and spoke to the Israelites. This angel’s memorable name is Yahweh.
In Ezekiel 9:3-4 the Glory of God is also named as Yahweh.
In John 8: 56-58 Jesus identifies Himself as the angel of the Lord Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush when He says:
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”[a] 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
In Exodus 3 the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told Moses that He was called ‘I am’:
3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed…
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,[b] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
It is clear from verse 2 that the angel of the Lord is an angel and not a man because He appeared to Moses in a flame of fire. In verse 15, in the Hebrew, the angel of the Lord tells Moses that His name is Yahweh and that the name Yahweh is His memorial name (Exodus 3:15 Interlinear). Therefore, we see that this is another appearance of the angel Who has the Father’s name.
Therefore, we have scriptures in the Old Testament telling us about an angel called Yahweh. This, presumably, is why the angel tells Manoah that His name is wonderful. It is because the name of the angel of the lord is Yahweh and Yahweh is a wonderful name because it is the name of God the Father.
Isaiah 30:27-28 says:
27 See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples
a bit that leads them astray.Isaiah 30:27-28 NIV
Clearly, the name of God is so important that the angel becomes known as the Name of God.
However, this angel has another name as well as the name Yahweh. He also has the name El Shaddai. The apostle John wrote in John 1 that ‘the Word became flesh’. He was referring to the Word of God Who appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15 in a vision. John would have known that the Word was an angel because in Exodus 6:2-3 the Father said that He appeared to the Patriarchs in El Shaddai and El Shaddai is the name of the angel who Jacob told Joseph about in Genesis 48 (Genesis 48:3). The pronoun on the word ‘el’ in Exodus 6:2 is mistranslated as ‘as’ in every English translation of the Bible. It is actually the Hebrew pronoun ‘in’. Jesus told His disciples that the Father is in Him. He was telling them what the correct translation of the pronoun on ‘el’ is in Exodus 6:2 and by telling the disciples that the Father is in Him, He was identifying Himself as El Shaddai.
In Isaiah 63 this angel called Yahweh and El Shaddai is called the angel of ‘His’ (the Father’s) presence:
7 I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord,
the deeds for which he is to be praised,
according to all the Lord has done for us—
yes, the many good things
he has done for Israel,
according to his compassion and many kindnesses.
8 He said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will be true to me”;
and so he became their Savior.
9 In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.[a]
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
10 Yet they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
and he himself fought against them.11 Then his people recalled[b] the days of old,
the days of Moses and his people—
where is he who brought them through the sea,
with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he who set
his Holy Spirit among them,
12 who sent his glorious arm of power
to be at Moses’ right hand,
who divided the waters before them,
to gain for himself everlasting renown,
13 who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in open country,
they did not stumble;
14 like cattle that go down to the plain,
they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord.
This is how you guided your people
to make for yourself a glorious name.15 Look down from heaven and see,
from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.
Where are your zeal and your might?
Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.
16 But you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us
or Israel acknowledge us;
you, Lord, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 Why, Lord, do you make us wander from your ways
and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes that are your inheritance.
18 For a little while your people possessed your holy place,
but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.
19 We are yours from of old;
but you have not ruled over them,
they have not been called[c] by your name.
We see from verses 9 and 10 that the angel of His (the Father’s) presence is the Holy Spirit. We see in verse 11 that the Holy Spirit is the shepherd of the Father’s flock. Therefore, when Jesus called Himself the good shepherd, He was identifying Himself as the Angel of His presence, the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 48:15 Jacob called El Shaddai his shepherd. Therefore, in the Old Testament it is the Holy Spirit Who is the good shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd because He is the incarnate Holy Spirit.
Jesus in John 10:36 again identified Himself as this angel when He says:
36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?…
Being set apart by the Father is the very essence of the meaning of the word ‘Holy’. The Holy Spirit is a unique angel. There is only one Holy Spirit. That is why the Holy Spirit is called ‘His Holy Spirit’ in Isaiah 63:10.
In verse 12 the Holy Spirit is called ‘His glorious arm of power’. Remember that Ezekiel called the Holy Spirit the Glory of God. The apostle Peter called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of glory:
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory[a] and of God rests upon you.
The apostle Paul provides proof that Jesus was the angel of His presence before He was Jesus. In Numbers 12:7-8 we read that Moses saw the ‘form’ of Yahweh:
Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to Face and even plainly and not in dark sayings and he sees the form of Yahweh….
Numbers 12:7;8 Interlinear
In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul writes:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a]6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b]7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The ‘form’ of Yahweh was the angel that the Father spoke to Moses about in Exodus 23 – the angel with Yahweh’s name in Him. In Philippians 2:5 Paul is identifying Jesus as having been this angel before He became a man.
In 1 Corinthians 10:9 Paul again identifies Jesus as this angel when he says:
9 We should not test Christ,[a] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
In Jude 5 the apostle Jude also identifies Jesus as this angel:
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved[a] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
However, in spite of all of the above scriptures which attest to Jesus having been the angel of the Lord or the angel of His presence before He was Jesus, many readers will still have difficulty with this and will say that it is not possible because Jesus is the Son of God and He has always been the Son of God and that the Son of God is not an angel.
What seems to have caused so much confusion is what is said in Hebrews 1 where the author seeks to differentiate the Son of God from an angel:
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?Or again,
“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”8 But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”10 And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.[a]
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
At the heart of the problem seems to be a failure to understand when the incarnation happened and what exactly the incarnation entailed.
When exactly did the incarnation occur? The scriptures in the Old Testament which refer to the Son are prophetic pointing to the time when the Son of God would come. The most significant reference to the Son of God is found in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 makes it clear that the Son of God was only begotten after there were already nations on the earth:
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
There were no nations present at the creation, because they had not been created yet, therefore the Son of God could not have been begotten before the creation.
In Zechariah 3, the second last book of the Old Testament, the Father is speaking through the Holy Spirit about the Branch. In verse 8 Yahweh says: ‘I Am bringing forth My Servant the Branch….’ Zechariah 3:8. He is describing a future event. He is not describing something that had happened in the past prior to creation. The Son was begotten only at the beginning of the New Testament when Mary became pregnant with Him, as a result of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her. When the Holy Spirit took up residence in the body that the Father had prepared for Him, the Son was begotten:
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]
The Son of God did not exist prior to that point. The Holy Spirit, existed before that point. The speaker in the verse makes it clear that He sees Himself as separate from the body that was prepared. In other words He is not the body. He is in the body. This is because the speaker is the Holy Spirit. This is what incarnation means – that a spirit or deity takes on flesh.
The incarnation entails that the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, became flesh. In flesh the Holy Spirit becomes the Davidic King that has been prophesied will rule in Jerusalem. However, He is still the Holy Spirit and all things have been created through Him and are being upheld by Him. This is what we have to try and understand, that the Son of God is both the Davidic King and the Holy Spirit simultaneously. I believe that this is what the author of Hebrews 1 is saying in verses 2 and 3:
… in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Because He is flesh, the Son inherits all things as the Davidic King, while simultaneously, because He is the incarnate Holy Spirit, He has created everything, is the radiance of the glory of God and the imprint or image of His form and is upholding all things by the power of His word. The Son of Man is as much the Holy Spirit as He is the Davidic King. He did not stop being the Holy Spirit when He became a man. Perhaps one can think of the incarnation as a bottle of sea water. The sea is vast, however, if some of it is scooped into a bottle to fill the bottle, the sea water in the bottle is still sea water, it is still a part of the sea; however, now it is in the bottle and it is constrained by the form of the bottle. The sea continues to be the sea, although a part of it is now in the bottle. The apostle Paul understood this, which is why he wrote that the Lord is the Spirit. The fact that the Son of God is the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that He isn’t a real man. What makes a man is the flesh and the Holy Spirit became flesh, so the Son of God is a real man.
The Son of God is superior to the angels because He is a new Being Who is both the Davidic King and the Holy Spirit. That is why He has been ‘begotten’ by the Father. He is something new and superior. Perhaps a helpful example might be that of eggs and an omelette. The eggs are made into the omelette and the omelette is considered to be superior to the eggs. When we see the omelette we call it an omelette; we don’t say: ‘Oh, look at those eggs.’ However, the eggs are still very much a part of the omelette. In fact, the eggs make up the majority of the omelette. The apostle John wrote his Gospel to show us that the eggs make up the majority of the omelette. Verse after verse in the Gospel of John make it clear that Jesus was fully aware while He was living on the earth that He is the incarnate Holy Spirit. He spoke about this in John 17:5:
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
He spoke about this past in John 17:24:
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
If one understands the incarnation and the implications of the incarnation, then one no longer struggles to understand how it can be that Jesus is the Spirit. The fact that Jesus Himself and prominent apostles such as Paul and John identified Jesus as both the great angel in the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit, indicates that the Holy Spirit is an angel.
However, a number of scriptures in John 14 and 15 in which Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit would seem to render it entirely impossible that Jesus is the Holy Spirit:
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
John 14:16
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 14:26
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
John 15:26
It would seem that Jesus is indicating that the Holy Spirit is an individual Who is entirely separate and different from Himself. However, a similar thing occurs when Jesus refers to the Son of Man.
“The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.”
Matt. 13:41
“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they shall kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.”
Matt. 17:22-23
“Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Matt. 19:28
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
Matt. 20:18-19
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.”
Matt. 25:31
When Jesus refers to the Son of Man in these scriptures it also seems like He is referring to an entirely different person from Himself. However, in Matthew 16:15, Jesus identifies Himself to be the Son of Man:
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
Matthew 16:13-17
It is clear from verse 15 that Jesus is Himself the Son of Man and that there is no separate or different Son of Man.
It would seem that in the verses in John 14 and 15 in which Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit in the third person that He is doing the same thing as when He referred to Himself as the Son of Man in the third person.
Although He speaks of Himself as the Holy Spirit in the third person, He indicates in John 14, that He Himself is the Holy Spirit. For example, in John 14:7 Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit lives with them:
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you…..
John 14:17
As the Holy Spirit only came on Pentecost and Jesus was the One Who was living with them at that time and the One that they knew, this indicates that Jesus Himself is the incarnate Holy Spirit.
In John 14:18-20 He says:
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14:18-20
Notice that at the end of verse 20 He tells them that He will be in them. Obviously there is no way that He could come and physically climb inside of them to live in them. The only way that He could be in them would be in the form of a Spirit. We know as Christians that the Holy Spirit is the One Who is in us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
In verse 18 Jesus is telling the disciples that He will come to them. This happened on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and filled the disciples. He tells them that He will come to them in a way that the world cannot see Him. The world cannot see Jesus living in a Christian as the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul seems to be the person who fully understood that the Holy Spirit is Jesus Himself. He described it as a mystery:
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:24-27
This is the glorious mystery that the Holy Spirit is Jesus Himself and that He lives within the Church.
In Colossians 1 the apostle Paul distinguishes between Jesus’ physical body and the church as Jesus’ body:
22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
Colossians 1:22
24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Colossians 1:24
It is clear from Colossians 1:24-27 that Paul understands Jesus to be living inside the church as the Holy Spirit and that the Church is His body. A few verses earlier Paul described the Son of God:
12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and into him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:12-20
In verses 15-18 Paul is clearly describing Jesus as He pre-existed as the Holy Spirit. In verse 16 Paul says that all things were created through the Son. The apostle John describes Jesus in the same way:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In Colossians 1:16 Paul goes on to describe Jesus in terms that were associated with the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God is described as being used by God to create everything. For example, in the Book of Job, we are told that human beings were created by the Spirit of God:
The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Job 33:4 NIV
In Psalm 104 we are told that the animals are created by the Spirit of God:
All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
Therefore, there is overwhelming scriptural evidence that Jesus is both the incarnate Holy Spirit and that Jesus pre-existed as the angel of the Lord. This strongly indicates that the Holy Spirit is an angel.
Fourthly, the fact that the Holy Spirit is the image of God indicates that the Holy Spirit is an angel. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote:
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
In his letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
We know that when Paul refers to the Son and to the Lord in the verses above, that he is referring to Jesus. If Jesus is the image of God and Jesus is the Spirit of God, it follows that the Spirit of God must be the image of God.
In the Old Testament there are many encounters in which people saw God. Jesus made it clear that the Father is Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth:
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Therefore, the Father is not a spirit. Angels are spirits, but the Father is something else. He is not an angel. The Father is Spirit and, therefore, cannot be seen (Colossians 1:15 ; 1 Timothy 1:17). Jesus made it clear that the Father had never been seen (John 6:46); therefore the appearances of God in the Old Testmament were not appearances by the Father. They could also not have been appearances by Jesus, the Son of God, as He had not yet been begotten by the Father. The most logical option for Who these people were seeing is that they were seeing the Holy Spirit. As we have seen these appearances were of an angel Who is called Yahweh, the angel of the Lord, El Shaddai and the Glory of God. This would of course mean that the Holy Spirit is an angel and that the invisible Father created this angel to be His image. I believe that Paul understood that when Yahweh said that His name was in the Angel, that He was saying that the Angel was His image (Exodus 23:21).
Fifthly, the Bible teaches that angels can enter people and even live in them. Satan, who is an angel, was able to enter Judas Iscariot, so that Judas betrayed Jesus:
27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
The ‘ruler of the kingdom of the air’ would seem to be a powerful angel who is able to work in unbelievers in Jesus.
In Hebrews 1:14 we are told that angels are ministering spirits:
14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
In 1 Kings we read about how Yahweh meets with spirits and that one of them offers to be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets:
19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’
“One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’
22 “‘By what means?’ the Lord asked.
“‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.
“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’
23 “So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”
Clearly, Yahweh Who is meeting with the multitude of Heaven, is the Angel of His presence, Who is meeting with other angels. It cannot be the Father because Jesus made it clear that no one had ever seen the Father (John 6:46).
We see from this account in 1 Kings 22 that it is possible for an angel to enter a human being and to work within a human being to achieve a purpose, because this spirit was going to be within the mouths of the prophets causing them to lie to Ahab.
We know that the Holy Spirit lives within a believer and that the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Holy Spirit is able to enter into and live within the believer in the same way as the angels described above could and can enter into people, would indicate that the Holy Spirit is an angel.
Finally, as we have already seen members of the early church believed that the Holy Spirit is an angel. We have seen that Paul, Jude and John believed this.
Philo, who visited the apostles in Jerusalem, made the following statement in a piece of his writing entitled The Confusion of Languages:
“And even if there be not as yet anyone who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to His First-born Word, the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names; for He is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God’s image, and He who sees Israel.”
Another early Christian, Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century, wrote:
I shall give you another testimony, my friends,” said I, “from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, a certain rational power from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos.”
It does not come through well in the epistles that Jesus was the Great Archangel, the Holy Spirit, before He became Jesus. I suspect that this was because Paul was writing to established churches about specific problems that they were having, so he wasn’t talking about the basics of Christianity because everyone that he was writing to already knew them. However in one of Paul’s letters Jesus is referred to as the Archangel:
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
The passage about Jesus in Isaiah 9 in the Septuagint reads:
For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the angel of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him.
His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: upon the throne of David, and his kingdom, to establish it, and to support with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and forever. The seal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
The angel of great counsel is the seal of the Lord of Hosts. The Bible says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit:
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
In the church background that I grew up in the Holy Spirit was thought of as an amorphous spiritual Being, Who could live within a Christian and empower a Christian to be like Christ. Therefore, the idea that the Holy Spirit could be an angel was an extremely foreign idea for me to take on board. However, it is clear from all of the above that there is more Biblical evidence to suggest that the Holy Spirit is an angel than there is to suggest that He isn’t an angel and I would prefer to align myself with what the Bible actually teaches about the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I have come to accept that the Rainbow of promise is the Holy Spirit and that the reason that He can appear as a rainbow and in other forms, is because He is an angel.
