Angels
How could anyone pass up an offer like this one?
We have reserved in your name a FREE issue of ANGELS ON EARTH, an inspiring magazine about God's messengers and their work in the world. And when you accept it, you also get a FREE GIFT—the 2018 ANGELS ON EARTH CALENDAR!
Ooh, wafu, wafu! Had I acted quickly enough to be one of the first 100 to respond, I could have also received a FREE angel afghan! The magazine claims to contain accounts "of tragedies averted and destinies altered." Some of the contents deal "with profound mystery," yet they radiate "faith-affirming hope!" So, what is wrong with such a positive publication?
For the most part, they will be subjective stories that cannot be corroborated, and they seldom draw any of those helped closer to God. How does anyone know that? Just read some of the stories in books or magazines. A sample one will be reviewed shortly.
The Scriptures
Paul implies that angels care about mankind in 1 Corinthians 4:9, where he talks about himself being made "a spectacle to the world, both to men and to angels." The angels are watching and observing what is happening in the lives of great servants like Paul. The writer of Hebrews tells us even more. Angels are described as "ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14). A passage like this one must be the premise upon which the magazine is built.
But they are not sent just to help, period. Where would such a supposition lead to? A Christian needs to get to an important meeting; is God going to instruct an angel to get that 18-wheeler holding him up on a two-lane road out of his way? A Christian's boat runs out of fuel in the middle of Lake Pontchartrain; will an angel be sent with a gas can, or will a current suddenly take him ashore? Life is full of complications; are angels sent to help smooth the way?
In the first text mentioned above, the angels were observing the work of an apostle in the spreading of the gospel, noting how they were often treated. The angels did not prevent Paul and Silas from being beaten and put in prison in Acts 16. In other words, their service does not include keeping people from harm, embarrassment, punishment, or death. The only thing we know for certain is that they want us to emerge victorious over Satan, but we do not know what they are doing or when they are helping us. The entire thrust of Angels on Earth is to show that angels are constantly helping mankind—and often in ways that have nothing to do with salvation.
Some of the book titles that people have been buying are listed below:
Angels in America: a Divine messenger ministers to a man with AIDS by Tony Kushner, who won a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his efforts.
Where Angels Walk—Joan Wester Anderson (more than half a million copies).
Ask Your Angels—Alma Daniel, Timothy Wyllie, and Andrew Ramer. The book blurb assures us that this book "vividly chronicles how they are currently reaching out to every one of us in a totally new way, bridging our physical reality with their pure spiritual energy. The authors show us how we can draw on the power of angels to reconnect with our lost inner selves and to achieve our goals, whether they be better relationships, healing an illness, or recovery from addiction." Wow! How can anyone pass that one up?
Angels: God's Secret Agents—Billy Graham. (This book sold more than a million copies in the first three months after its release and is estimated to have sold more than 4 million copies since 1975.)
In 1994 Ron Rhodes wrote a book evaluating the angel phenomenon: Angels Among Us: Separating Fact from Fiction. He presented five reasons why angels have become so popular. Even 23 years later, these still seem plausible.
Angels are popular today because they allegedly offer humankind a form of spirituality that does not involve commitment to God or the laws of God. As Time puts it, "for those who choke too easily on God and His rules … angels are the handy compromise, all fluff and meringue, kind, nonjudgmental. And they are available to everyone, like aspirin" (29-30).
Joan Anderson: "Angels are a gateway to spirituality for people who find the Judeo-Christian image of God too threatening" (30).
John Ronner, author of Do You Have A Guardian Angel?: "People find a great deal of satisfaction in the thought that something larger than themselves and benevolent may be looking out for them" (33).
Terry Lynn Taylor: "What happens to us when we ask angels into our lives? Life becomes more meaningful. These angels 'make life worth living,' so to speak. They provide us with unconditional happiness, fun, and mirth. They also help out with romance and wealth. And they help us extinguish worries that plague our lives" (34).
Angels are popular today because they allegedly give assurance to all people regarding life after death (34).
These assessments are accurate. Angels do not show up to punish people; they are always helpful. If anyone subscribes to the magazine, he will surely not find any stories in which an angel takes a character to task for not reading the Bible or being a moral louse. They provide assurance of life after death, and they show that God is benevolent—looking out for us. So, let's look at the sample story included for the type of reading one might expect from the magazine.
"NO SUCH ANIMAL"
The story is written by Carter Allen; it concerns him and his girlfriend Dawn and their experience in a Minnesota blizzard. As is the case with so many such episodes, we do not know why this story is occurring. The author says that they "stayed out late into the night not long after New Year's Day 1996." What does that mean? Were they out on the holiday late into January 2nd—or was it the 4th or 5th?
More importantly, why were they out late into the night? No mention is made of a deadline needing to be kept or any kind of necessity of traveling at this hour. If an angel had actually been involved in this event, he would have told them not to go when it was already "snowing heavily."
They decided to travel only ten miles—to his mother's house, leaving at 1:00 A.M., but still no explanation for doing such a crazy thing is offered. Carter told Dawn not to worry, as he shifted into a lower gear. He assured her they would make it. They did not. They did end up in a ditch, however. Efforts to extricate themselves proved futile; they did not even have a shovel. Now a really helpful angel would have placed one at the side of the road, but none appeared.
He estimated that the wind chill was down to zero, and it just kept snowing furiously. Eventually, the snow blocked the exhaust pipe, and the engine died. Little could be done outside the car because they only had brought with them jeans, jackets, sweaters, and tennis shoes. Why were they so foolish as to not have brought boots and parkas? The author doesn't mention it, but the reader cannot help wondering: "Was there some alcohol involved in this decision to travel ten miles at 1:00 in the morning without proper clothing in a snowstorm." Had they checked the radio or the television? Was there a traveler's advisory? There should have been.
They wisely chose not to attempt the rest of the trip (estimated to be two miles) by foot; they had passed a farmhouse about a half mile back. Dawn tried but could not make it; she got back in the car. Carter made it to the farmhouse and pounded on the door. A porch light came on, and a man opened the door. He was not hospitable even though he received an apology for being awakened. He simply said, "Can't help you." Carter pleaded for help, but the man did not have a phone and said his car didn't work. He closed the door. Okay, so that wasn't the angel.
Making his way back to the car, Carter grew steadily weaker when he sensed something following him (kind of like Shasta does in C. S. Lewis' The Horse and His Boy). He finally acknowledged that only God could save the two of them now. Then he lost consciousness in a snowdrift. When he awoke, it was still dark, and he was covered by what turned out to be a "huge black dog" (or a very furry angel). Reinvigorated, he rose and made his way back to the car, although one wonders how. In these kinds of conditions one can usually only see white in every direction—especially while it is still storming.
Surely, any former tracks would have been covered by then, and it was still dark. The dog did not even volunteer to lead the way to the car; it stayed where it was and watched him leave. He made it somehow, and he and Dawn huddled in the back seat of the car until daylight. Soon they heard a snowplow. Really? Come on! That early in the day, a snowplow was out on a road basically going to a few country houses? They already had all the streets in town done and were able to get out there shortly after daybreak? This story is obviously a work of fiction.
Their car remained in the ditch, but a motorist who just happened to be out on the freshly snowplowed road that morning gave them a lift to Carter's mother's house. If she offered them hot chocolate, it wasn't mentioned. If she chided him for being such a lamebrain as to come out on such a night, that wasn't mentioned, either. No, the topic of conversation was the dog / wolf / angel. They all concluded that whatever had kept Carter warm, it had been sent (cue for goosebumps).
Meaning?
Suppose some of the flaws were not in the story. Suppose the author had explained perfectly why he and his girlfriend had to set out at 1:00 A.M. in a snowstorm to go to his mother's house. (Was she expecting them for a visit at that time of the night? Why didn't she call the police when they failed to arrive?). Suppose all the information made sense and there was a huge black dog that had been seen in the area. What is the point of the story? Unfortunately, the story is the point.
No one said, "This was God's doing; we've been given a second chance. We'd better start reading the Bible, attending worship, and making sure we are saved!" Nobody ever does that in a story involving angels. The "visitation" never produces positive spiritual results. Was the alleged action helpful? It saved their physical lives, which provided additional opportunities to know God, but no spiritual progress ensued. No thought of salvation ever seems to occur.
Some angel stories are much more fantastic than this one, but they all have one thing in common; they are unverifiable. They frequently lack crucial details, and when it is over, it might make for a good Twilight Zone, but no one ever becomes saved as a result of the incident. The world contains a number of strange stories—without inventing more—to no purpose.