Two Worlds — Physical and Spiritual

Excerpt from: Angels, Blessed Messengers of God
by Bishop Alexender (Mileant)

Our world would be utterly poor in content and dull if it consisted of only that which man can touch and feel. In such a world, without a meaningful past and without a superior purpose, where death unceremoniously cuts short all creative enterprise, all enthusiastic endeavors toward good and happiness, existence itself would be a tragic contradiction. 

However, using his reasoning power and insight, man can perceive much more depth and mystery in the world than relying just on bodily senses. He can realize that, besides the physical, he is surrounded by a huge spiritual world. At the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, a materialistic attitude ridiculed the very possibility of different forms of life besides those existing on earth. However, thanks to the speedy progress of science during the last fifty years, modern man has considerably enlarged his scope of understanding. Now it is well known that the universe which we inhabit, although it be vast, is not unending. The very representation of the world has been greatly spiritualized. Scientists have come to understand that matter is not a hard, indivisible and unchanging substance, but it is rather one of the manifestations of energy. Energy can take other forms totally unlike the familiar atoms and molecules. Therefore, outside the boundaries of the visible world there may exist other worlds totally different from ours. These discoveries, as well as space flights, have given birth to a whole new movement in contemporary literature as well as in the movie industry which touches upon encounters with beings from other galaxies and worlds. This interest in the alien and unusual, unfortunately, often intertwines with unhealthy fantasy and carries with it a semi-demonic character. Nevertheless, the gravitation toward the enlargement of the conception of the world by contemporary society is evident.

Instead of these extravagances, the fantasies of theosophists and spiritists, the Christian faith gives contemporary man a clear and sound doctrine regarding the spiritual world. The Christian faith teaches that, besides our physical, there is a great angelic world. The angels, like human beings, possess intellect, free will and feelings similar to ours, but they are bodiless spirits. As a matter of fact, our visible world is but a drop in the ocean of God's creation.