Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible
Guardian angels
Dear Father Paul: Last month I had a very close brush with death in a horrific car accident. I didn’t even get a scratch! Several of my friends later said that, “your ‘guardian angel’ protected you.” They said that guardian angels are real, that they are spoken of in the Bible and that everyone has one. I’m for sure thankful to God to be alive, but I am not sure about me having my own personal protecting angel. What does the Bible say about guardian angels? — Danny.
Dear Danny: The notion that each of us has a specific and personal angel assigned to us at birth by God has been around since the early church a few hundred years after Christ. Some theologies espouse this belief very strongly. Unfortunately, it has little, if any, true Biblical basis. Think about it, if every one of us had his/her own personal guardian angel, then no one would ever get sick, die young or experience hardships. Our guardian angel would automatically take care of all our problems.
But the notion of personal guardian angels is a wonderful idea isn’t it? It makes for very entertaining movies and TV shows. Just imagine how awesome it would be for each of us to actually have our own personal, all-powerful angel to always help us, protect us and keep us from harm. It’d be like each of us having our own personal “celestial big brother” wouldn’t it? Or maybe our own private “genie”to grant us wishes. Wow!
In Daniel 10:21 and 12:1 in the Old Testament the Bible does record that God did assign the archangel Michael to the nation of Israel to watch over it and protect it. Maybe that’s where the idea of “guardian angels” first started. But, while the Bible does record this plus several instances where God “sent” angels to visit certain people, no where does the Bible ever say that any angels were at any time ever “permanently assigned” to each and every person … or even assigned permanently to a few specific people. I believe that this remains true until even today. Listen, this is important. We are admonished throughout the Bible to go directly to our Father God for our needs … not to some other spiritual being. We are also admonished not to worship any other spiritual being than God.
But the idea of “guardian angels” does persist and has become so accepted and so wide-spread in our culture that folks who are unfamiliar with the Bible mostly believe that there are indeed guardian angels. Just a few decades ago a non-profit organization named itself “The Guardian Angels” and was chartered. It is made up of volunteers who patrol the streets of high crime neighborhoods to assist the police in fighting crime. The volunteers don’t carry guns, just flashlights and radios to contact the police in case of trouble. There is now also a very successful nation-wide for-profit company called “The Visiting Angels” that provides much needed in home care for elderly and disabled people. Nothing wrong with legitimate organizations capitalizing on the name, “angel” in my opinion.
The Bible does teach that angels are real … that they are God-created, spiritual beings loyal to and obeying only God … and, that they possess supernatural abilities and powers that enable them to carry out their assignments from God. According to the Bible, angels may from time-to-time actually even walk among us unrecognized as they carry out their assignments. See Genesis 18:1-21 and Hebrews 13:2. Be careful … that neighbor who plays loud Christian music might be an angel on assignment in disguise.
Basically, angels work only for God and function only under his orders, not ours. Hebrews 1:14 very strongly implies, however, that God’s children can pray to God for him to send his angels to help us. Besides helping God’s children, angels also … reveal to us information and messages from God, Acts 7:52-53; Luke 1:11-20 … they give God’s instructions and guidance to us his children, Matthew 1:20-21; Acts 8:26; and, also, they may provide for our needs, Genesis 21:17-20; I Kings 19:5-7.
So it is both scripturally correct and desirable for us to cry out to our Father God to, “Send an angel to help me Father … send him now!” This is one of the most powerful prayers we can pray.
Do you have a question? Send it to me at paulmassey@earthlink.net and I will try to answer your question in the paper.
Father Paul Massey is pastor emeritus of Church of the Holy Cross in Fayetteville, Georgia … “The Ancient Church For Today’s Generation.” Visit us at www.holycrosschurch.wordpress.com for service times, directions and more information.
