Do angels know the future? What the sources say about angelic knowledge

Angels know the future in a way incomparably wider than ours, yet they do not know all of it. Angelology distinguishes two things: the knowledge an angel has of himself and of creatures, which is penetrating and immediate, and the knowledge of what God reserves to himself, which is denied him. Matthew 24,36 sets the limit by saying that not even the angels know that day.

The question is not settled by a single sentence, because the works of the Locus library do not say exactly the same thing, and the difference deserves to be shown. Anne Bernet holds that the angels see the end of everything. João Evangelista Martins Terra, reading Karl Rahner, recalls that Scripture denies the angels knowledge of the final day. This article sets the two positions against each other and shows where they meet.

What angelology holds about the knowledge of angels

The starting point is nature. Anne Bernet, in «In the company of the angels: the true history of God’s messengers» (1998), defines the angel as an intelligent and purely spiritual creature, with neither figure nor palpable form, and warns within the chapter itself that «unless otherwise indicated, the developments of this chapter are reproduced from the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas». The author adds that angels are not symbols of our drives but «individualities, capable of knowledge and of will», with a threefold vocation as perpetual adorers of the Trinity, messengers and protectors.

From this follows the mode of angelic knowledge. According to the same work, the intelligence of the angel admits of no comparison with ours, because in order to know he does not need the means that are indispensable to us, the senses: in him knowledge is wholly of the spiritual order. On the status of that nature, see the treatise on the angels in the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

The compilation «Notions on Angelology», by Luiz Sérgio Coelho de Sampaio, gathers other authors to the same effect. Citing Seemann, it records that the Fathers and the great theologians of the Middle Ages agree that angels, by their spiritual nature, are capable of a comprehensive knowledge of themselves and of all created things. And citing Michael Schmaus, it recalls that Scripture signifies this penetrating knowledge by saying that the angels are covered with innumerable eyes, in a formula the compilation transcribes thus: «Their whole essence is to see».

Anne Bernet: the angels «know the outcome of everything»

The library’s strongest statement on this matter is in Bernet, in a precise context: the scandal of evil. The author observes that angels suffer before crimes and blasphemies because they do not understand the place evil holds in God’s plan, and immediately counters: «The angels, for their part, are informed about everything God has done, does and will do; they know the outcome of everything.»

The argument closes with a sentence worth quoting whole, because from it springs the popular question about the future: «This end which is hidden from us, the angels see it.» Note the exact object of the claim. Bernet does not say that the angel reads the detail of events to come. She says he sees the outcome, the term toward which history moves, what remains hidden from man. The distinction is decisive for what follows.

«Not even the angels know that day»: the limit of Matthew 24,36

Against any reading that turns the angel into a universal seer, Scripture sets an explicit limit. João Evangelista Martins Terra, in «The angelology of Karl Rahner: in the light of his hermeneutical principles» (1996), states it bluntly when treating the glorious coming of Christ: «Not even the angels know “that day”, only the Father (Mt 24,36)». The same study recalls that the angels are sent to gather the elect when that day comes (Mk 13,26-27), which makes the ignorance still more striking: they are the executors of an event whose hour they do not know.

The same compilation by Sampaio, citing George Tavard, keeps the same limit in another form – the knowledge of angels far surpasses that of men, and yet there are mysteries God keeps for himself. And, citing Schmaus, it specifies that the angels do not wholly penetrate the divine depth, accessible only to the Spirit of God himself, with a reference to 1 Corinthians 2,10.

How the two statements are reconciled

The divergence between the sources is real and should not be dissolved in silence, but it is a divergence of object, not of doctrine. Bernet speaks of the outcome, the sense toward which everything converges, and on that plane she affirms that the angel sees. Terra and Tavard speak of the day, that is, of a datum belonging to the divine decree not yet communicated, and on that plane they deny that the angel knows. Between the two statements there is no clash once it is recognised that knowing the end and knowing the hour are distinct things.

There is also a second criterion, this one of nature. If angelic knowledge, as Sampaio’s compilation says following Seemann, embraces created things, then the free future and the divine decree do not fall under it for the simple reason that they are not created things already given. The angel is a creature, and no creature knows of itself what God has not yet manifested. It is the same reason why the angel can choose and, choosing, err – a question treated in do angels have free will.

Do angels know our acts?

Here the sources are more sober than devotion usually is. Terra’s study of Rahner grants the essential and no more: «We also admit that the angels and saints know us and the acts we direct to them». What is asserted is knowledge of the person and of the acts directed to them, and it is on that datum that the practice of invocation rests, not on a total surveillance of the human interior, which the texts consulted do not describe.

The same study raises the underlying question Rahner poses – whether angels and saints belong to God or to the world – and answers that, as creatures, they belong to the world, though they enter God’s sphere when relations of love and self-giving are established with them. This precision is useful precisely against inflation: the angel remains a creature, even when he is the object of prayer.

Why the question matters

Anízio Alves Caetano, in «Why study angelology and demonology?», gives the methodological reason: comparing life, knowledge, language and love as they are realised in an angel and in a human being makes it possible to determine the stable core of that perfection and, at the same time, the particular traits it takes on in man. To ask what the angel knows is therefore an indirect way of asking what knowing is.

And it is also a way of keeping proportion. An angel who knew everything would be a lesser god, and Catholic angelology refuses that road as firmly as it refuses to reduce the angel to a symbol. On the internal order of that created world, see the hierarchy of angels according to the Bible.

Frequently asked questions

Do angels know the future?

They know far more than man can reach, but not everything. Anne Bernet holds that the angels are informed about all that God has done, does and will do, and that they see the outcome of everything. Matthew 24,36, however, denies them knowledge of the final day, as João Evangelista Martins Terra recalls in his study of Karl Rahner’s angelology.

Do angels know the day of the last judgement?

No. The Gospel text is explicit and angelology respects it: not even the angels know that day, only the Father (Mt 24,36). According to the same study, the angels are sent to gather the elect when that day comes, without the hour being given to them.

Can angels read our thoughts?

The works consulted do not assert this. What they assert is that angels, by their spiritual nature, have comprehensive knowledge of themselves and of created things, and that they know us and the acts we direct to them. They also recall, with Michael Schmaus, that the angels do not wholly penetrate the divine depth, accessible only to the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2,10).

What is angelic knowledge like, if angels have no senses?

It is wholly of the spiritual order. Anne Bernet explains that angelic intelligence admits of no comparison with ours, because the angel does not need the means indispensable to us, the senses. Luiz Sérgio Coelho de Sampaio’s compilation cites Michael Schmaus to say that Scripture expresses this knowledge by calling angels beings covered with innumerable eyes.

What is the function of angels according to these works?

Anne Bernet sums up a threefold vocation: perpetual adorers of the Trinity, messengers between God and men, and protectors of humanity. The study on Karl Rahner adds the function of disclosing to men the saving dimension of Christ, in the two comings, that of the flesh and that of glory.