“When believers die they become angels in heaven.”
Angels are a separate order of creation, made before man and never described as departed humans. Scripture calls the redeemed in heaven the spirits of just men made perfect, listed alongside an innumerable company of angels, not among them.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, — Hebrews 12:22
It is a gentle thought and it turns up on sympathy cards constantly, but it trades a greater promise for a lesser one. Hebrews describes the heavenly Jerusalem as holding an innumerable company of angels and also the spirits of just men made perfect. Two groups, named separately in one breath. Angels are created beings who worship and serve, and Hebrews says elsewhere that Christ took not on Him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham. The Christian hope is not that you become something else. It is resurrection: this same body raised incorruptible, this same person made perfect, knowing as also we are known. Paul says we shall judge angels, which would be a strange thing to say of creatures we were destined to join. What awaits the believer is better than wings. It is to be fully and finally human, at last without sin.
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