Thursday, September 10, 2020

Matt Foreman and Doug Van Dorn on Evidence Against Jesus Being Identified with Michael

 

 

Reasons Why Michael Might Not Be Christ

 

1. Daniel 10:13, 21. . . . If the figure Daniel sees in 10:4-6 is the Divine Angel [note: the authors believe that the Divine Angel/Angel of the Lord is the premortal Jesus] and if the hand that touches Daniel and speaks to him in 10:10-14 is the same person, then the Divine Angel cannot be Michael, because he speaks of Michael helping him. However, it’s possible that 10:4-6 is not the Divine Angel (though we argue that it is). It’s also possible that the figure switches in 10:10-14 and is a different angel than in 4-6, in which case the identity of the Divine Angel as Michael is still possible.

2. Revelation 12:7. The imagery of this passage is also notoriously difficult. But since 12:5 references the birth of Jesus and a child who was “caught up to God and to his throne” and then separately mentions a war in heaven with “Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon,” the plain reading of the text might suggest they are different figures. The writer John had the opportunity of making clear that the Christ and Michael were the same person, but he did not.

3. Jude 9. Similarly, Jude has no problem identifying Jesus as active in the OT (Jude 5). When he cites the archangel Michael as “disputing about the body of Moses,” the plain reading again suggests that he doesn’t identify the two. If he wanted to make the identification between the two clear, he could have, but didn’t. Also, when Jude says that Michael “did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The LORD rebuke you,’” he seems to suggest that Michael ls a properly subservient creature who doesn’t presumes to pronounce judgment by his own authority. This does not seem to characterize the Angel of the LORD, who sometimes will speak of Yahweh in the third person, but will sometimes also speak as Yahweh himself and pronounce judgment directly. (Matt Foreman and Doug Van Dorn, The Angel of the Lord: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Study [Dacono, Colo.: Waters of Creation Publishing, 2020], 361-62; this is significant as one of the authors states he believes Michael and Jesus to be one and the same person [p. 359])