I Believe in Angels

‘I believe in Angels’.  It’s the title of an ABBA song but also a statement of personal belief.  I believe in angels!  I do.

I’m thinking about angels today for two reasons.  The first is that I’ve just come across a TV programme from a few years ago called Touched by An Angel.  In this series a group of three angels are tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives.  It’s a challenging programme and one that God used to speak to me.

The other reason I’ve been thinking about angels is that I’ve been reading about Celtic Christian spirituality and several of the books have had chapters or sections on angels.  The accounts of the Celtic saints include stories of encounters with angels.  The early life of Patrick incorporates a tradition that ‘the angel was wont to come to him on every seventh day of the week; and as one human talks with another, so Patrick enjoyed the angel’s conversation.’  Columba was once surrounded by angels as he prayed on Iona, the encounter witnessed by another monk.

The scriptures tell of encounters between human beings and angels.  The apostle Peter, for example, was rescued from a prison cell in Jerusalem by an angel who delivered him from certain death.  The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that the angels “are spirits who serve God and are sent by him to keep those who are to receive salvation.” (Hebrews 1:14)  As we approach Christmas we cannot help but remember the angel Gabriel who visited Mary to announce the good news of the incarnation.  Angels are mentioned in the books of Daniel and Revelations.

I have never seen an angel and so far all the accounts of their presence I’ve mentioned are from the past, from Biblical times or from early British history.  There are modern accounts of encounters with angels too, recounted by people of the highest integrity.  One of these accounts appears in a book by Billy Graham all about angels.  He tells of a missionary who, together with his family, was in fear of his life.  Their house was surrounded by a hostile tribe who vowed to kill them once darkness fell.  They prayed all night and the attack never came.  Some days later the missionary preached ion that tribe’s village and won many converts.  He asked one of them why the tribe hadn’t attacked them and received the reply that they couldn’t because the house was surrounded by an army of men in shining white robes!

A brother minister whose integrity I totally respect tells the story of how his car ran out of petrol one Christmas Eve on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere.  This was in the days before mobile phones so he couldn’t phone for help and he faced a long walk to get home for Christmas Day.  He sat in his car for an hour, wondering what to do and praying.  In the distance he then saw a pair of headlights coming towards him.  An ancient rusty car puttered up and an old man got out and asked if my friend needed some petrol.  He then produced a petrol can, with just enough in it to get my friend home.  After filling my friend’s tank he drove off and quickly disappeared.  My friend swears he hadn’t seen another car on that road that night and didn’t until he reached home.   He has often wondered if the old man was an angel that God sent to help him.

Some Christians dismiss the idea of angels because they feel that in this sophisticated scientific age to believe in the supernatural is at best naïve and at worse deluded.  They might even ask how somebody who calls himself a ‘thinking evangelical’ can believe in anything supernatural.  I cannot claim it is because I have knowingly had an encounter with an angel, though I would dearly love to.

I believe in angels and other supernatural things, including miracles, because of the accounts of honest people of the highest integrity.  I understand and celebrate the achievements and discoveries of science but do not accept that just because something cannot be scientifically proven or accounted for it does not exist.  Science is limited and does not and cannot explain and account for everything.  If I believed that something has to be scientifically proven to be real then I wouldn’t believe in God.

I believe in God and I believe in angels and hope very much that I will one day have the privilege of knowingly encountering one of these wonderful ministering spirits.