Elect angels of 1 Tim 5:21

[pinoybaptist]

If this topic should be posted somewhere else, please feel free to move it.
I just felt this does not necessarily have to be in the C/A Debate since both Arminians and Calvinists use this verse, as well as other verses, when they give the charge to a minister during his ordination.


This verse, 1 Timothy 5:21, could 'elect angels' mean the messengers of the gospel, the preachers and those in the ministry, or
are these elect angels indeed those described in Hebrews 12:22 as the innumerable hosts in heaven serving God ?

If so, how could the term 'elect' be applied to them ? Is there anything in the Bible that indicates that God 'elected' the 2/3 of the angels in heaven that did not fall
with Satan ?


1 Timothy 5:21 - I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels.....

 

[bjonson]

I believe he is referring to the angels in heaven - the ones who didn't rebel with Lucifer. I don't see an application for this to refer to earthly "messenger" or "sent ones" (as angels sometimes means).

Yes, I believe God chose the angels who didn't fall just as He chose the Christians who would receive salvation...

 

[Artimaeus]

elect angels—an epithet of reverence. The objects of divine electing love (1Pe 2:6). Not only “elect” (according to the everlasting purpose of God) in contradistinction to the reprobate angels (2Pe 2:4), but also to mark the excellence of the angels in general (as God’s chosen ministers, “holy angels,” “angels of light”), and so to give more solemnity to their testimony [Calvin] aS witnesses to Paul’s adjuration. Angels take part by action and sympathy in the affairs of the earth (Lu 15:10; 1Co 4:9).
Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, A.R.; and Brown, David, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1998.

 

[pinoybaptist]

Interesting.
This is certainly something new to me.
I have always understood the term election from which elect apparently comes from, in the context of a fallen race whose will is bound to its fallen nature, and therefore incapable of doing what is truly pleasing in the eyes of the Lord God, so much so that the Creator has to supernaturally intervene in their behalf.

Angels, on the other hand, or the 2/3 of the angels who did not join Satan's rebellion, I understood to have exercised choice unbound to a fallen nature, just as those who joined Satan joined freely and voluntarily which is why they are beyond redemption, since they had no fallen nature as spirit beings.

So, why use the term elect on such ?

 

[Cix]

Originally posted by pinoybaptist:
I have always understood the term election from which elect apparently comes from, in the context of a fallen race whose will is bound to its fallen nature, and therefore incapable of doing what is truly pleasing in the eyes of the Lord God, so much so that the Creator has to supernaturally intervene in their behalf.

from Vincent's Word Studies:
It is not necessary to suppose that a class of angels distinguished from the rest is meant. It may refer to all angels, as special objects of divine complacency.

Or from Barne's Notes:
The word “elect” here seems to imply that there had been some influence used to keep them, and some purpose respecting them, which had not existed in regard to those who had fallen. Saints are called “elect” because they are chosen of God unto salvation (notes on Eph_1:4-5), and it would appear that it is a great law extending through the universe, that both those who remain in a state of holiness, and those who are made holy, are the subjects of purpose and choice on the part of God. The fact only is stated; the reasons which led to the choice, alike in regard to angels and human beings, are unknown to us; compare notes on Mat_11:25.