From all the funeral services I’ve been to, I can remember choking back tears when the body was being presented, holding a tissue up to my nose when the pastor was reflecting on the person's life, and also gritting my teeth when I heard a family member make a comment that their loved one was an angel now, flying in heaven, and looking down on them. Ah — I get it, it’s an incredibly sad time. A time of mourning and reflecting on the life of the one who passed away, but I also believe that despite the heavy emotions, it isn’t a time of spreading false rumors of the dead.
Trying to keep the mood light here, ahem — Angels and humans have always been interconnected in some way it seems. In Christianity, scripture dates angels back even before the Garden of Eden — so by the time that humans came onto the scene, angels were already there! Angels and humans are two separate beings, two different creature created in a different time and space. To say that humans will eventually become angels one day — well, it makes it sounds as if humans are the lower form, the pre-form, the first evolution, which makes angels seems like the higher form, real-form, final evolution. But this isn’t the case. The answer to the question: Humans do not become angels.
For starters, they are not one in the same even though they share similar attributes. (Maybe they seem similar to one another because they were made by the same creator). Aside from that, both are very special and unique to God, and indeed they are special and unique enough to not belong in the same race of beings. Not convinced? Below are pieces of evidence from scripture that further bring out the differences and similarities (the similarities in return actually help bolster credibility of the differences) between the two creatures, (also below is scripture that supports humans turning into angels after death — don't see it? Exactly.)
Angels are servants to God, sent by God to minister Christians (Hebrews 1:14). They serve on Earth by encouraging, teaching, and watching over humans. But more than this, each angel has their own unique identity just as God has given each human their own unique identity. Michael and Gabriel are mentioned throughout scripture, Michael being seen as more of the archangel with other angelic beings under his command. From scripture, Christians can infer that angels have their own personal names, positions of servitude, histories, and personal stories. Angels are supernatural beings that were created from God to serve him and humans. Humans are natural beings created from God to serve him and govern all his creation. In fact, though angels and humans are each unique to God and special in their separate ways, angels do serve humans and this will become more prominent on the New Earth when humans will actually govern angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).
Angels work on the Earth to serve and minister to humans, so don’t think it’s unlikely that you’ve met one. It seems that there are more than ten hundred million angels at the foot of God ready to praise him and serve his people (Revelation 5:11). Think of all the stories that can be told one day on the New Earth from the angels. Imagine an angel retelling stories from your life, and how he/she intervened to help or save you or to just simply bring up an old, embarrassing or funny experience, from the perspective of a supernatural being. That one time you almost got in a wreck but didn’t, or maybe you did get in a wreck, but you came out without a scratch. Almost drowning in water and getting saved by a random person, somebody paying for your food at a restaurant, feeling very depressed and a random person giving you a smile with words of encouragement. Advice from a stranger to do or not to do something that may have prevented an accident. All these stories that can’t wait to be retold one day by the one who actually came into human form to help you.
Angels and humans are very different creatures, and rather than wishing we would become angels one day, we should respect the difference and appreciate the similarities. When humans die, there is a movement of the same person to a different place. The person stays the same (aside from having a perfect body), but the place does indeed change. And in that place, we will encounter the angels that have been watching over us our whole life.
“We won’t be angels, but we’ll be with angels — and that’ll be far better.” Randy Alcorn, "Heaven."
