Interest in angels and angel lore has increased in recent years. Books recounting personal experience with angels, as well as the history of angels in art and religion, top the religious best-seller lists. One in every ten pop songs mentions an angel. Angel conferences, clubs, and organizations are drawing people nationwide, There is a resurgence of angels in art, prose, and poetry that hasn’t been seen since the Middle and Renaissance Ages. For perhaps the first time since the Middle Ages, writes Gustav Neibuhr in The Wall Street Journal, “the ranks of angelologists are swelling.”[1]
It does not take long, looking at the participants of this new era of angels, to see that there is little, if any, connection with the biblical witness concerning angels. In this section, we will explore how the mighty cherubim of the Garden of Eden have been turned into the rosy-cheeked infants that adorn everything from T-shirts to greeting cards, children's books to churches. When did the army of God’s angels turn into beautiful pasteboard maidens in extravagant gowns? Ultimately we need to ask, “Are the angels of today’s culture still God’s messengers, or have they become pagan icons thinly veiled in a Christian terminology”?
1.0. Angel Lore
