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Today\u2019s post is written by Tim Chester and is sponsored by <\/em>Christian Focus Publications<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Tim is a senior faculty member of Crosslands Training and the author of over 40 books, including <\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Angels: When Heaven Meets Earth<\/a>. <\/em>He has a PhD in theology<\/em>, a PgDip in history and 25 years\u2019 experience of pastoral ministry.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy grandma\u2019s house is full of angels.\u201d<\/p>\n I must have looked a somewhat quizzical, so she clarified: \u201cStatues and pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs she a Christian?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cOh no. It\u2019s angels that she\u2019s into.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoes she believe in God?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI guess so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJesus?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut angels \u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh yes. She\u2019s really into angels.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps you\u2019ve had conversations like this. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen angelic figurines or angel prayer cards in a neighbour\u2019s home. There\u2019s every chance your local bookshop has a section for accounts of angelic encounters. People are interested in angels.<\/p>\n My own hunch is that, in the midst of a scary world, angels offer a sense of other-worldly protection. We\u2019ve lived for the past two years in a time when death has stalked unseen through the air around us \u2013 in the form of the coronavirus. So perhaps its unsurprising that many people long for an unseen protector to linger in the air around them. The big attraction of angels \u2013 or so it seems to many people \u2013 is that they offer this protection without<\/em> the demands that organised religion is perceived to make. People want protection without obedience, comfort without allegiance.<\/p>\n Whatever the reasons, people are interested in angels.<\/p>\n Many of us have assumed we are living in a post-religious era where superstition has been replaced by science. The people of our day, we assume, are rationalists who value rational enquiry and empirical evidence. And they are materialists who believe the world we can see and touch \u2013 the world that science can investigate \u2013 is all there is. And we\u2019ve prepped apologetic ammo accordingly. We know what to say when people question miracles or point to suffering. We can explain how science need be no enemy of faith.<\/p>\n This version of our times is true. But it\u2019s only half the picture. There is another side to modernity. It\u2019s a side populated by superstition, tarot, spiritualism, horoscopes, mediums \u2013 and angels. The supernatural is alive and kicking over on this side of modernity\u2019s fence. And the people who live in this terrain are asking different apologetic questions that require different answers.<\/p>\n They want to know about angels. So what will we tell them?<\/p>\n In the past I\u2019ve tended to steer clear of angels. Not in life, of course \u2013 I\u2019m not sure what one might do to avoid an angel! No, I\u2019ve avoided angels in conversations with unbelievers. It\u2019s felt like too much of a weird place to start. I\u2019ve assumed I was talking to rationalists and so angels would get the conversation off on the wrong foot. I\u2019d rather get on to safer ground \u2013 like creation (lots of overlap with science), or sin (plenty of empirical evidence for that), or resurrection (a bit trickier, but a clear and central claim). By contrast angels are a bit spooky. In a rationalist\u2019s mind they\u2019re in the same category as ghosts. If I start here, I\u2019ve assumed, then I\u2019ll lose people straight away.<\/p>\n But it turns out that angels are a good place to start with many people. Nearly eight in ten Americans believe in angels. Even among those who never attend church it\u2019s four out of ten.[1]<\/a> In the United Kingdom one in three people believe they have a guardian angel.[2]<\/a> Every tenth person in your street or workplace thinks they may have seen or heard an angel in some way.<\/p>\n Even among die-hard rationalists and materialists angels are a route into a conversation about heaven, souls, spiritual realities and eternity. It\u2019s a short step from there to a conversation about the God who entered our world from outside at the incarnation. Life beyond physical matter and life after death go hand in hand.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s talk about angels. But of course let\u2019s not stop at angels. Perhaps the longest sustained passage in the Bible on angels is Hebrews 1. Here the writer repeatedly compares angels to Jesus, and every time Jesus is shown to be superior. Angels point us to Jesus. That\u2019s their job. Indeed the word \u201cangel\u201d is actually a job title \u2013 the word means \u201cmessenger\u201d. Angels are God\u2019s messengers. Most famously they were the messengers who heralded the news of Christ\u2019s coming on the first Christmas day. They filled the skies with the sound of song when Jesus was born. What is their message? The angel who appeared to the shepherds said:<\/p>\n \u201cDo not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.\u201d (Luke 2:10-12)<\/p>\n Their message is Jesus<\/em>: a Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord.<\/p>\n The angelic host then sing: \u201cGlory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.\u201d (Luke 1:14) \u201cPeace on earth,\u201d we often say, as if this was a lame exhortation to get on with one another. But this is peace from<\/em> God coming to<\/em> humanity. When we rejected God, we declared war on God. We made him our enemy. But now God has declared peace \u2013 peace through the mediation of the child in the manger who will became the Lord on the cross. The death and resurrection of Jesus are our only hope. This is want angels declare and this is what fills their songs.<\/p>\n So angels are a great starting point. But let\u2019s makes sure the end point is Jesus.<\/p>\n Get your copy of <\/em>Angels: When Heaven Meets Earth here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cNearly 8 in 10 Americans Believe in Angels,\u201d CBS News, 23 December 2011, https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/poll-nearly-8-in-10-americans-believe-in-angels\/; accessed September 8, 2021.<\/p>\n
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