Who is Michael the Archangel?

Who is Michael the Archangel, and why did Jehovah's Witnesses say He's Jesus? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you. And here's our phone number if you have a question.

It's 833-THUS. That's 1-833-843-2673. Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes or so, so now is your time to call. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us live on YouTube and message us that way. And of course, you can always email us a question. Here's the address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Let's go to Gary, who's calling in from Omaha, Nebraska. Yes, Pastor Adriel, my question is this. On November 5th of 1983, we had a baby girl, and she lived for seven weeks, and she passed away Christmas morning at 6 a.m. on the 25th of 1983. Question I have is this, and I've thought about this so many times over the years. When my wife and I get to heaven to be with the Lord, will our daughter still be seven weeks old, or will she be 37 as that is the number of years since she passed away? Gary, thank you for that question. And you know, I mean, it's a very good question, and one that I don't know that the Bible speaks very clearly to in terms of, you know, when we die, are we that age forever?

What does it look like? Well, we know in the new creation, we're gonna receive new bodies, glorified bodies. We're gonna be raised.

But we're not told, you know, you're gonna be 21 or 36 or that kind of a thing. One thing that we do know is that we're going to exist in perfect love and in perfect knowledge. I think of what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, where he's highlighting the preeminence of love. He says in verse eight, love never ends, as for prophecies they will pass away, as for tongues they will cease, as for knowledge it will pass away, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Your precious baby girl has that full knowledge through the vision of Christ in the presence of the Lord. And again, we don't know how old we're going to be, what that's going to look like exactly, but we're going to have perfect knowledge and perfect love. And you do have that hope, that anticipation of being reunited with her through Christ in his goodness.

You think of what David said in 1 Samuel chapter 12 regarding the death of his infant child. He's not going to come back to me, but I'm going to go to him and what a reunion that will be in perfect love and in perfect knowledge. Gary, thank you so much for your question. May the Lord bless you. Thanks, Gary, so much. And thanks for being a regular listener here at CORE Christianity. We would love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, pick up your phone right now. Call us at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Jeffrey in St. Louis, Missouri. Jeffrey, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my call. 1 Corinthians 1.18 says that the word of God is foolishness to those who are perishing. Who are the ones that are perishing? These are the ones that they don't understand.

I don't understand this question. Who are the ones that are perishing? Okay, so what Paul is highlighting here in 1 Corinthians is just the foolishness of the gospel and how it's rejected by Jews and Greeks alike for different reasons, but that's one of the things that he's going to highlight as he continues. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. What's being highlighted here is simply the fact that the message of the cross, when you think about it, what was the cross in the ancient world?

It was this instrument of torture, of suffering, of death. Many people when they heard the preaching of the cross, what Christians were doing in the first few centuries, they just thought this is outrageous. Your God was crucified, that's folly, that's foolishness, but the foolishness of God, if you will, is wiser than the wisdom of man.

It's through the message of the cross that we are redeemed and what Paul's highlighting here is the foolishness of that message. There's this ancient piece of graffiti that was discovered some years ago near the Palatine Hill in Rome and it's this picture of a man being crucified with the head of a donkey and another man right next to it bowing down before this crucified. It's supposed to be an image of Christ, it's a blasphemous image, but another man bowing down before it and there's this writing beneath that says this man is worshiping his God. It was the pagan world's attempt to mock Christianity and Christians because they worshiped the crucified God.

What could be more outrageous? He was crucified, this symbol of shame, and yet the eternal Son of God, when he hung on the cross, sanctified the cross. He made it no longer an instrument of terror and death, but an instrument of life. It's through the cross that we have life and it's that message of the cross that gives us life and it's that message that so many people today reject and in those days were rejecting, they just thought it was foolish. That's really what Paul is getting at there, Jeffrey. Appreciate your question and may God give us grace to cling to the foolishness of the message of the cross because that's where the power is.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. One of the ways you can ask a question is by leaving us a voicemail. You can call us 24 hours a day at this number and leave your voicemail question. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Terry. 1 Thessalonians 4.16 talks about the voice of an archangel and the trumpet call of God. Another religion the Jehovah's Witness believed that the voice of the archangel is actually Michael, that Jesus Christ is Michael.

Can you help me with that understanding? Yeah, so you have an archangel mentioned in that passage in 1 Thessalonians 4. He's not called Michael there, but Michael is referred to as an archangel in other places.

You think of Jude, chapter 1, verse 9, also the book of Revelation, Revelation 12, verse 7 talks about this great war in heaven. Michael is like this warrior angel. The title archangel highlights that there are these ranks among the angels.

Imagine Michael as this angelic general doing battle against the evil angels, the demons, the fallen angels. You also see references to Michael in the book of Daniel that line up with this. But the question is, and I've heard Jehovah's Witnesses say this as well, is Jesus Michael the archangel? Well, there are two passages of scripture that make it absolutely clear that Jesus is not Michael the archangel.

One is in the book of Hebrews, actually early in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 1. The whole point of the book of Hebrews is focusing on the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Jesus is better than the old covenant, than the Mosaic law, than the Levitical priesthood, and even than the angels.

He's better than the angels. That's the point in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 5 says, 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. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the sun, he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. This is, by the way, just a great text to go to when you're having conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, because it highlights, one, that Jesus is not an angel. He's not a created being. He's the eternal son of God, and the angels of God worship him. Well, that's not true of Michael.

Michael is a created being. He's an angel, an archangel, but he's distinct, different from Jesus, who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. So that's one passage that you can go to to help explain this view and teach the truth regarding who Jesus is. The other one that I was thinking of is in Colossians chapter one. What's interesting about this text in Colossians chapter one is actually, if you look at the Jehovah's Witness Bible, it's called the New World Translation of the Bible.

It's not a very good translation of the scriptures. They actually changed this text a little bit, but Colossians chapter one verse 16 says, by him, that is by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. Now, that reference to thrones and dominions, rulers or authorities, that's a reference to the angelic realm.

The angels were created by Jesus and for Jesus. Now, in the Jehovah's Witness Bible, they add a word there. They say, by him all, and then in parentheses or in brackets, they put other things were created. But that's just not faithful to the Greek text of Colossians chapter one verse 16, because the word other is not there. And so it's how they explain away, essentially, the clear teaching of scripture. But those are two passages of scripture. Colossians one and Hebrews one that make it absolutely clear that Jesus is not an angel. He's not Michael the archangel. He's greater than the angels. He's the eternal son of God, and all the angels worship him. Thanks for that question.

Great explanation, Adriel. And of course, it's very important for all of us to know the Bible well enough that when we're talking to someone involved in a cult, that we can respond to them. So we're not having the wool pull over our eyes by their interpretation of the Bible.

Absolutely. And many of us have had those conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses because they go door to door. And I'm sure you've had that, Bill, you've probably had the experience. And so being able to open up the scriptures and reason with people and say, look, this is what the Bible actually teaches. I mean, we plead with people, you need to understand who Jesus really is.

Because if you get this wrong, it's trouble. You can't be saved if you don't understand who Christ is and what he's done for you. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd like to invite you to join what we call our inner core. That is a group of people who faithfully support this program that allow us to be on the air every day. If this program is helpful to you, if you believe it's something that helps you to grow spiritually, would you consider that? We don't receive any money from the government or from any particular church or denomination.

We don't play commercials here. We just depend on people like you to keep this show on the air. And Adriel, tell me a little bit about joining the inner core.

Yeah. I mean, this is one of the ways you can support us in our mission if you've been blessed by core Christianity. I mean, what we want to do is open the scriptures every day and help you understand the Bible better, in particular, those core doctrines that the church really needs to recover.

I mean, it's imperative that the church recovers these core doctrines. And so if you've been helped in that and you'd like to support us, would you join the inner core? It's a monthly donation of $25 or more.

We send our inner core members a number of exclusive goodies throughout the year. And when you join, you get a copy of the book written by Dr. Michael Horton, a professor I had in seminary called Core Christianity, which is just a wonderful introduction to those core doctrines that we love to talk about on this program. And so please prayerfully consider joining the inner core.

Here's how you do it. You go to our website corechristianity.com forward slash inner core, just all one word corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more about joining that exclusive group of people who believe strongly in what we do here at core Christianity. Well, here's the phone number if you have a question for Pastor Adriel. We've got about 10 minutes left of the program. Here's the number 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. And let's go to Lisa in Missouri. Lisa, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, my question is, I have a friend, me and her always have a discussion about abortion. She believes that it's okay to have an abortion because the baby's not born yet and it doesn't have a soul. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it sounds to me like she's just assuming that we get souls the moment we come out of the birth canal.

There's nothing to support that. Probably the better way of saying this is that the moment we're conceived, we have a soul. It's very clear to me in the scripture that even children, babies in the womb have a soul. And one text that I would point your friend to is Luke chapter 1 verse 41 when Elizabeth is in the presence of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist in her womb leaps.

It's really this kind of neat story. But why does he leap? Well, because he's in the presence of Mary but really in the presence of Jesus who's in Mary's womb. It's as if baby John the Baptist in the womb is able to recognize the presence of his savior Jesus. And if he didn't have a soul, that wouldn't be possible. We're not this sort of piecemeal thing that we're put together at these different times. When God makes us, when we're created, formed in the womb, we have a soul there. And so that's a great passage of scripture that you can go to in discussions with your friend, Lisa.

And I don't know what your friend's background is. Maybe this is something that is a very sensitive topic for her specifically. And we know that there's grace for people who have had abortions, that the gospel is big enough, that the blood of Jesus is potent enough to forgive all sins. And so we want to be gracious in our discussions while also emphasizing the value of human life, the dignity of human life as scripture does. And so God bless you in your conversations with your friend, Lisa, and thank you for giving us a call.

Thanks so much, Lisa, and thank you for caring about your friend enough to have those difficult conversations and extend God's grace and mercy to her. Let's go back to the phones. Nathaniel is on the line from St. Louis, Missouri. Nathaniel, what's your question? Yes. Can you hear me?

I can hear you, brother. What's your question? Yes, I have a friend that's a full of predators, and he believes that when Jesus came in judgment in 70 AD, that that was the second coming, which I was telling him, I believe that Christ, when he made the statements about his coming, that he would be coming bodily, like the angels said, ye men of Galilee, you the same Jesus you've seen, growing up is going to come back. But he said that is not considered the second coming. But he said when he came in AD 70 in judgment on Jerusalem, when the Gentile armies shuffled down, you know, the temple and all of that, that that was the second coming. And I want to get thoughts on that. Yeah, I disagree with that.

I would disagree with your friend. So he has the full preterist view, which argues that the second coming already took place in 70 AD when Jerusalem was judged. But as you said, you know, you pointed to the right text, I think, in the early chapters of Acts, in Acts chapter one, where the angels say, look, this same Jesus is coming back, just like you saw him go. In other words, there's going to be a bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everyone is going to know when it happens.

It's not going to be something that happens in secret or something that people think, oh, you know, was that it? I don't know. I don't know.

I'm not sure. No, people are going to be sure. And so did Jesus talk about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD?

Yeah, I think he did in places like Matthew chapter 24. But we have to be careful that we don't read everything as already having happened there. The second coming is going to be contemporaneous with that means it's going to happen at the same time as the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the life of the world to come when he comes. All that is going to happen, and that hasn't happened yet, and that's very clear to me.

And so I would disagree with your friend. I think you're on the right track, and you're pointing to the right passages of scripture, the same ones I would point to if I was having a discussion with him. So thanks for that question, Nathaniel. You know, we've been getting a lot of calls about this Preterist view. Any reason for that, do you think, Adriel, during this day and age? You know, we've been getting a lot of calls lately just about end times, and I think, you know, people look around themselves and they start to wonder, you know, are we living in the end, or did it already happen, that kind of a thing. And so there are a lot of discussions that are happening right now, and I think that's reflected in the calls that we've been getting. Let's go back to the phones. We have Marcus from Norman, Oklahoma. Marcus, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Well, good afternoon. My question also refers to end times. What is the great delusion, and are we going there? Yeah, so you're referring to what we see in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 11.

Let me just read that. 2 Thessalonians 2. I'm going to start in verse 9. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Okay, so we're talking in one sense the context here in 2 Thessalonians 2.

We're talking about the Antichrist. We're talking about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as well, which you get a lot of that in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. But the point here is that there is going to be this great apostasy, this great delusion where people turn from the gospel, reject the gospel. They don't want the truth, and because they don't want the truth, God confirms them in that state of unbelief, of rejecting the gospel. That's a strong delusion. You see similar language in Romans chapter 1, the hardening of the heart, the darkening of the mind.

One, this is actually a terrifying reality. This is why when we hear the gospel preached and we're sensing the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we turn to the Lord. Today is the day of salvation, and what these people would do is they would just continually turn away. They wanted nothing to do with it, and so God gave them this great delusion to believe that which was false. And that coincides with the appearance of the man of sin, the Antichrist as he's sometimes called, who is going to be destroyed at the second coming when God the Son brings relief to the church and to his saints. Now the question is, are we going there? Well, the reality is we do see the spirit of the Antichrist already at work all over the world, and John talked about that in 1 John.

Yeah, there is. It does seem like there is this great blindness that so many people have. The apostle Paul talked about this when writing to Timothy saying, In the latter days, many will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the doctrines of demons, 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. And so this is, again, part of the reason why I think we're getting a lot of these questions related to the end times.

Here's what we need to focus on, though. It's not trying to determine the identity of the Antichrist. It's fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Christ, growing in holiness, growing in a love for him, growing in hospitality, in life within the local church, the body, sharing the gospel with the people around us who we know and love. And so no one knows, Jesus says, according to Matthew 24, the day or the hour. It does seem at times, and this has been the case throughout the history of the church, there are moments in history where people think, boy, it's right around the corner. And so I think we might feel that way, but we just need to know it could happen. Christ could come back at any time.

We have to be ready, and the way we're ready is by fixing our eyes on him and resting in his gospel. And so I appreciate your question, brother, and thank you for that. By the way, we have a great Bible study on the book of Revelation. If you'd like to check that out, just go to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation to study on that very sometimes confusing book, but very important book in God's word.

Well, here's a quick question for you as we close, Adriel. This is from Jacqueline. She says, I know Jesus is sinless, but please help me understand his being angry, yet not sinning when he was cleansing the temple, as told in all the gospels.

Yeah, yeah, really simple. So anger isn't always a sin. There are sinful kinds of anger, certainly, and we're called to be angry and not sin.

Well, when should we be angry? Well, when was Jesus angry? He was angry when the worship of God was being corrupted. The religious leaders in his day were turning the house of God, the temple, into a place for making money. And you see those kinds of abuses in churches even today. That should make us angry. When the word of God and the worship of God is being corrupted, we should be upset, but that shouldn't lead us to sin.

So there are okay things to be angry about, and Jesus certainly was. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-the-core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.