Is it sure that with "Let there be light" the creation of the angels is signified (see chapter 19)? Is it not possible that they are created another time?
I allow that the command "Let there be light" may refer to the creation of a physical light, and that the angels may be created before that. [It seems Augustine does not leave space for having a different interpretation about the separation of light and darkness which he interprets as the separation between holy and fallen angels.]
I allow that the angels thus may be created even before the heaven [created on the second day after the creation of the light] and earth were created; when the word "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" is interpreted differently from that "in the beginning" means there was nothing created before, it may be interpreted as refering to the Son of God [Augustine adds an obscure reference to the gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 25], such that here the holy Trinity is refered to in the first few verses of Genesis.
But does this not give the possibility that the angels are co-eternal with God?
Of course that is not possible; but they are eternally certain of their blessedness, and it is said of them that believe in God that they will be equal to the angels in that sense, and even added which contemplation of God the angels enjoy in heaven.
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