Leaders in faith: Angels among us

Posted November 17, 2009 at 4:43 pm and filed under Faith.

By Dr. Chris Partin

Chris Partin

Chris Partin

It has been said that since the 1950s, one out of every 10 chart-topping pop songs contained the word “angel”: “Earth Angel,” “Wild Angels,” “10,000 Angels,” “Send Me an Angel,” “How Do You Talk to an Angel,” “Dancing with Angels,” “City of Angels,” “Fly to the Angels,” etc. Aerosmith, 50 Cent, Jessica Simpson, Patsy Cline, Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews Band and Rod Stewart are just a few to release a song titled, “Angel.”

We have U2 singing about an angel of Harlem and Juice Newton singing, “Just call me Angel of the morning.” Charlie Pride wants to kiss an angel good morning. Blind man Jeff Healey sang about angel eyes. Allman Brothers sang, “I’m no angel,” and the J. Giles Band tried to put an angel in the centerfold!

In addition to music, there are multitudes of movies, Web sites, books and resources focusing on angels. Our culture is fascinated with angels, but yet the church rarely teaches about them.

Angels are mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible. Among other things, they guarded Eden, provided manna, fought battles and even talked with Mary, Daniel, Joseph, Zechariah and Balaam’s donkey!

Angels are involved in the world today as well. They can protect us, encourage us, deliver us from trouble and enlighten us. Angels were created by God. They are rational beings who have a will. They live in heaven but can be sent to Earth.

According to the Bible, angels are not on your shoulder. They are not cute, little, fat, arrow-toting babies. They are not aliens. They are not great-looking women with wings. In fact, every angel mentioned in the Bible is male, though there very well may be female angels.

People don’t turn into angels when they die either. If God needs another voice in the angelic chorus, he will create another angel. There is not one guardian angel assigned to each one of us a la Clarence in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

To say we each have a specific angel is to limit God. He can and does send numerous angels to minister to us at different times. Angels can take on different forms, and they are not bound by gravity or natural laws. Sometimes those forms appear to be human; as Hebrews 13:2 says, “Some have entertained angels unaware.”

Angels are servants of God. They were never meant to be worshipped or summoned by humans. In fact, it can be very dangerous when we try to contact angels and spirits. One of the great fallacies of our time is that people have been conditioned to believe that all contact with the spiritual world is positive.

But there are also fallen angels, called demons. The Bible teaches that Satan sometimes parades as “an angel of light”; therefore, we must be aware of angels but not fascinated to the point that we try to replace God with them (2 Cor. 11:14).

Scripture also teaches that angels celebrate when a person becomes a Christian (Luke 15:10). The angels longed to see how God was going to redeem his people. They marveled on the night of the savior’s birth.

The mystery, kept hidden for ages, was revealed: God was going to come to earth, confined in the form of man, to pay the price for us. Then he would indwell his believers through his Spirit.

What a wonderful savior. No wonder the angels praise him. Want to start a party in heaven? Accept Christ!

Dr. Chris Partin is a pastor at Plymouth Church.

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