Non Adventist sources on Michael the Archangel  being Christ Jesus, the Eternal Son of God

Following is a list of non-adventist sources which express the view that Michael the Archangel is Christ. Please note that this application of the title "Michael the Archangel" to Christ does not detract from his deity in any way nor does it say he is created a being. There must be some reason why these great Bible students of old, as well as many others, felt that Michael was another name for Christ, the Divine Son of God.

Charles Spurgeon (Baptist)

Let the Lord Jesus Christ be for ever endeared to us, for through Him we are made to sit in heavenly places far above principalities and powers. He it is whose camp is round about them that fear Him; He is the true Michael whose foot is upon the dragon. All hail, Jesus! thou Angel of Jehovah’s presence, to Thee this family offers its morning vows. (Morning and Evening Daily Readings 556)

Michael will always fight; his holy soul is vexed with sin, and will not endure it. Jesus will always be the dragon’s foe, and that not in a quiet sense, but actively, vigorously, with full determination to exterminate evil. (Ibid. 673) - See: Charles Spurgeon

John Gill - English Baptist Scholar

Another prophecy in Dan. xii. 1, 2, 3. represents the second and personal coming of Christ ; for he is meant by Michael, who is as God, as his name signifies, equal to him ; the great prince, the prince of the kings of the earth, and the head of all principalities and powers. (A Complete Body of Practical and Doctrinal Divinity, The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1987 reprint, p. 617.)

Commenting on Jude 9 he wrote:

Yet Michael the archangel, &c.] By whom is meant, not a created angel, but an eternal one, the Lord Jesus Christ; as appears from his name Michael, which signifies, "who is as God": and who is as God, or like unto him, but the Son of God, who is equal with God? and from his character as the archangel, or Prince of angels, for Christ is the head of all principality and power; and from what is elsewhere said of Michael, as that he is the great Prince, and on the side of the people of God, and to have angels under him, and at his command, Dan. 10:21, 12:1; Rev. 12:7. So Philo the Jew {o} calls the most ancient Word, firstborn of God, the archangel. . . .

Commenting on Revelation 12:7, he wrote:

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon: by whom is meant not a created angel, with whom his name does not agree, it signifying "who is as God"; nor does it appear that there is anyone created angel that presides over the rest, and has them at his command. . . .

Commenting on Daniel 12:1, he wrote:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, &c.] The Archangel, who has all the angels of heaven under him, and at his command, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; who is as God, as the name signifies, truly and really God, and equal in nature, power, and glory, to his divine Father. . . .

Jonathan Edwards - Congregatioal

When Lucifer rebelled and set up himself as a head in opposition to God and Christ, and set himself as a head in opposition to God and Christ, and drew away a great number of angels, the Son of God, manifested himself as an opposite head, and appeared graciously to dissuade and restrain by his grace the elect angels from hearkening to Lucifer’s temptation, so that they were upheld and preserved eternal destruction at this time of great danger by the free and sovereign distinguishing grace of Christ. Herein Christ was the Saviour of the elect angels, for thought he did not save them as he did elect men from the ruin they had already deserved, and were condemned to, and the miserable, state they were already in, yet he saved them from eternal destruction they were in great danger of, and otherwise would have fallen into with the other angels. The elect angels joined with him, the glorious Michael, as their captain, while the other angels hearkened to Lucifer and joined him, and then was that literally true that fulfilled afterwards figuratively. Rev xii. “When there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not ; neither was there place found any more heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world ; he was case out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, Banner of Truth, 1979 reprint, p. 606.)

Matthew Henry

Daniel 12:1Vs. 1-4: Michael signifies, "Who is like God," and his name, with the title of "the great Prince," points out the Divine Savior. Christ stood for the children of our people in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in pleading for them at the throne of grace. And after the destruction of antichrist, the Lord Jesus shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and He shall appear for the complete redemption of all his people. (Concise Commentary 1128) - See: Matthew Henry

Michael and his angels fight against the devil and his angels, who are defeated. (7-12). . . .Revelation 12:7Vs. 7-11: The attempts of the dragon proved unsuccessful against the church, and fatal to his own interests. The seat of this war was in heaven; in the church of Christ, the kingdom of heaven on earth. The parties were Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and his faithful followers; and Satan and his instruments. (Ibid. 1719)

1599 Geneva Study Bible

Even though God could by one angel destroy all the world, yet to assure his children of his love he sends forth double power, even Michael, that is, Christ Jesus the head of angels. (Footnote for Daniel 10:13)

The angel here notes two things: first that the Church will be in great affliction and trouble at Christ's coming, and next that God will send his angel to deliver it, whom he here calls Michael, meaning Christ, who is proclaimed by the preaching of the Gospel. (Footnote for Daniel 12:1) - See: Geneva notes

John Calvin

“As we stated yesterday, Michael may mean an angel; but I embrace the opinion of those who refer this to the person of Christ, because it suits the subject best to represent him as standing forward for the defense of his elect people.” - See: John Calvin

John Wesley - (Founder of Methodist)

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes Daniel chapter 10:

"10:5 A certain man - Very probably Christ, who appeared to Daniel in royal and priestly robes, and in so great brightness and majesty.

10:13 Michael - Michael here is commonly supposed to mean Christ. I remained - To counter - work their designs against the people of God.

10:21 Michael - Christ alone is the protector of his church, when all the princes of the earth desert or oppose it." “Michael - Christ alone is the protector of his church, when all the princes of the earth desert or oppose it.” - John Wesley's commentary on Daniel 10:21. -See: John Wesley

Brown's dictionary of the Bible and Wood's Spiritual Dictionary

Brown's dictionary of the Bible on the words MICHAEL and ANGEL says, that both these words do sometimes refer to Christ; and also affirms that Christ is the Archangel. Wood's Spiritual Dictionary teaches nearly, if not exactly, the same thing on this subject that Brown's does. The former was a Calvinist, the latter a Methodist.

Lutheran E. W. Hengstenberg

Nineteenth-century Lutheran E. W. Hengstenberg said: “The two passages in the New Testament, in which Michael is mentioned, serve to confirm the result already arrived at. That the Michael referred to in Rev. xii. 7 is no other than the Logos, has already been proved in my commentary upon that passage..” - Christology of the OT and a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions.

Thomas Scott and Thomas Haweis - Anglican

Daniel 12 "Verse 1: Michael signifies, Who is like God? And this name, with the title of “the great Prince, which standeth for the children of thy people,” most clearly points out the divine Saviour; and cannot properly be understood of a created angel." - (Thomas Scott was an Anglican priest and is principally known for his best-selling work A Commentary On The Whole Bible, and as one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society:)

Daniel 12:1. Christ, the great Prince, shall stand up in the time of great tribulation; either to save the Jews from the persecutions of Antiochus; or to save his church from the antichristian tyranny; or at the great day when he shall come to complete the redemption of his people, and to execute final vengeance on their enemies, when all that are written among the righteous, and found in the book of life of the Lamb, shall be delivered from the power of evil for ever. (Thomas Haweis, also an Anglican, wrote A Commentary on the Holy Bible)

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Daniel chapter 10 Comments : "Michael, he who is like God, sometimes appears to signify the Messiah, at other times the highest or chief archangel. Indeed there is no archangel mentioned in the whole Scripture but this one. See Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7."

Jude 9: "Verse 9. Yet Michael the archangel Of this personage many things are spoken in the Jewish writings "Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh says: Wherever Michael is said to appear, the glory of the Divine Majesty is always to be understood." Shemoth Rabba, sec. ii., fol. 104,3. So that it seems as if they considered Michael in some sort as we do the Messiah manifested in the flesh." "Let it be observed that the word archangel is never found in the plural number in the sacred writings. There can be properly only one archangel, one chief or head of all the angelic host. Nor is the word devil, as applied to the great enemy of mankind, ever found in the plural; there can be but one monarch of all fallen spirits. Michael is this archangel, and head of all the angelic orders; the devil, great dragon, or Satan, is head of all the diabolic orders. When these two hosts are opposed to each other they are said to act under these two chiefs, as leaders; hence in Revelation 12:7, it is said: MICHAEL and his angels fought against the DRAGON and his angels. The word Michael seems to be compounded of mi, who, ke, like, and El, God; he who is like God; hence by this personage, in the Apocalypse, many understand the Lord Jesus."

Michael was the man child which the woman brought forth."—Clarke's Commentary.

Abingdon Bible Commentary

"The idea of the heavenly being who thus comes to view as a feature in old apocalyptic tradition is the source of the conception of the heavenly Messiah—the Son of Man. . . . We have already seen that the heavenly being 'like unto a son of man' of Dan. 7 was probably identified by the author . . . with Israel's angel—prince Michael; this angelic being was later, it would seem, invested with Messianic attributes, and so became the pre-existent heavenly Messiah."—Abingdon Bible Commentary, p.846.

Lange's Commentary

"We have shown elsewhere that the Archangel Michael is an image of Christ victoriously combatant. Christ is an Archangel in His quality of judge; and He appears as judge, not only at the end of the world, but also in the preservation of the purity of His Church."—Lange's Commentary (1874), on Rev. 12:1-12, Exegetical and Critical Synoptic View, p. 238.

Other

"The earlier Protestant scholars usually identified Michael with the pre-incarnate Christ, finding support for their view, not only in the juxtaposition of the "child" and the archangel in Rev 12, but also in the attributes ascribed to him in Daniel." - John A. Lees, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1930, Vol. 3, page 2048

Trinitarian Bible scholar W. E. Vine (“recognized as one of the foremost Greek scholars”) writes “voice of the archangel” (1 Thess. 4:16) is apparently “the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ”! - p. 64, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.

"This being 'a war in the heaven,' and waged by Michael, who is Christ (whose warfare is not like that of earthly kings), and by His messengers, is an intellectual and polemical warfare."—J. D. Glasgow, Commentary on the Apocalypse (1872).