Question. SMM teaches that “Jehovah” in the OT was an angel acting on God’s behalf, not God directly (citing Acts 7). If this is true, what is the epistemic and spiritual status of OT prophetic revelation — are the words attributed to God in the OT the words of an angel, and does that diminish their authority?
Why it matters. This is not a minor theological footnote. If OT scripture quotes “God” but the speaker was an angel, then the entire Hebrew prophetic tradition — Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, the Law — was delivered by a created being. That raises questions UC believers regularly face: Is the OT still authoritative? How does UC read OT prophecy about the Messiah if the speaker was not God? This concern is immediately weaponizable by evangelical critics.
Current best guesses. One reading: God’s authority was fully delegated, making the angel’s words effectively God’s — like a king’s ambassador speaking with royal authority. Another: the OT’s authority comes from its accuracy in pointing toward the Messiah, not from the ontological status of its speaker. But neither answer is made explicit in CSG Ch03.