Once again, thank you for your continued words of wisdom. My question is regarding the sentence before each letter to the seven churches; “To the Angel of the Church, write.” Who is the Angel of the Church; is it an angel, a pastor, preacher, etc.” My understanding is these letters were to be read aloud to the church body. I don’t believe an angel would be standing in the church reading the letters, so I don’t understand who is the angel? I do so appreciate reading on your site daily for answers to questions and your wonderful articles.
Although it’s rarely used this way in the bible, the Greek word for angel does not exclusively mean a heavenly being. It could be any kind of a messenger, including someone sent to read the letter to the particular church.
Revelation 1:20 says:
The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
From this it’s clear that these messengers are sent from Jesus because they are represented by stars He is holding in His right hand. This means they could be angels given permission to take on human form to deliver the letters to the various churches.