False teachers seem to delight in speculation, and sometimes it seems that the simple truth would suit their purposes as well, or better, than the speculation. Such is the case with the identity of Michael, the archangel. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons both engage in pointless speculation about him.

Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus is God the Son. They teach that He was a created being and that He was known as "Michael" in heaven. "Being the only begotten Son of God . . . the Word would be a prince among all other creatures. In this office he bore another name in heaven, which is Michael" (The Truth Shall Make You Free, p. 49).

The Hebrew writer said: "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?" (Heb. 1:5,6) The point in these verses is that God never made such a statement to an angel. Of the angels He said: "Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire: but of the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; And the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom" (Heb. 1:7,8). Two points are clear in this passage: (1) God never spoke to an angel and called him His Son, and (2) "of the Son, he said, Thy throne, O God . . . . Yes, the Father called the Son "God." Isaiah had prophesied that His name would be called "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). An angel told Joseph, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Matthew continues and says that "they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us" (v. 23). Jesus is not God the Father, but the Father called Him "God," therefore He was not an angel!

The Mormons have another problem with their doctrine of Adam being an angel, because they teach that Adam was married in another world and brought one of his wives to this world to populate it. Brigham Young, the second President of the Utah Branch of the Mormon Church, said: "When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve, one of his celestial wives, with him. . - " (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 50). When the Sadducees questioned Jesus about "whose wife shall she be?" if there is a resurrection, He said, "You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:30,31). Since angels do not marry, then Adam could not have been Michael, because according to Mormon doctrine, Adam was married when he came to earth!

The Bible says that angels are "ministering spirits" (Heb. 1:14). The word "archangel" appears only twice. In Jude 9, Michael is called "the archangel." In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, the write speaks of Jesus coming "with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. " Daniel mentions Michael as "one of the chief princes" (Dan. 10:13), and "the great prince which standeth- for the children of thy people" (Dan. 12:1). For men to try to make him the Son of God, or Adam, is purely speculation and contrary to what the Bible says about both Jesus and Adam.

Guardian of Truth XXX: 22, p. 681
November 20, 1986