In my last letter we did some wondering about a part of God’s creation which we found quite marvel­ous. That was the world of spirits. We thought of the differences between the Human World and the Spirit World. We wondered about Satan, the Prince of the fallen spirit world and all the devils who are his servants. We wondered if whenever we were tempt­ed to sin if it were by one or more of these wicked spirits. They do not always come to us directly, but sometimes through our own sinful natures; sometimes by our companions; sometimes by what appears on the T.V. screen. But, either way we believe that Satan’s demons tempt us to sin. That isn’t so bad that we are tempted, but yielding to that temptation is very bad. Remember Eve’s temptation? She yielded to it; she herself tempted Adam; and when he yielded to his wife’s temptation he sinned and was punished for it by death. That spiritual death we inherited from him. Now you can see that yielding is very bad. It has awful consequences.

Now then are you ready to join me in some further wondering about that part of the Spirit World that did not fall from their original sinless state? The un-fallen spirits we call angels. So, let’s go to the Bible to learn about them. Each one is a “being”. A being is one who has a personality; can will, can think, can make decisions. A human being can do all these things too, but because an angel has no body we cannot see him operate. That is, we cannot unless he takes on a visible form, which countless of them have done on important occasions.

Scripture tells us that they are neither male nor female and do not marry and have children like our parents did. Millions of people came from the first pair, Adam and Eve, but all the millions of angels were created “in the beginning”. Hebrews 8 and Psalm 2 say they were created in a higher order than ours. We are earth-bound; we must live off the produce of the earth; we must breathe the air of this earth. But the angels are free from all those restrictions; they can come and go as they please, not bound to earth’s gravity. And even in their ranks there are lower and higher beings, Romans 8:38 and Ephesians 6:12 speak of principalities and powers in the spirit world. It makes us think of presidents, congressmen, judges, sheriffs and policemen of our human world. How I wonder about that angelic hierarchy! In the Book of Job and of the Psalms they are called, holy ones. That means they are sinless and set apart for service. In fact, the word, angel, means a messenger. That is the work God has for them. He sends them to give earthmen messages, and sometimes even uses them to send pestilences and earthquakes. Among their ranks there are some called, arch (ark) angels. I Thes. 4:6 and Jude 9 reveals that to us. They are the very chiefest of them all. There are two special kinds of angels called, seraphim and cherubim. In the Prophecies and again in the Book of Revelation they are pictured as having wings. In Isaiah 6 he records a vision of angels which were seraphim and who had six wings. Two of the wings were used to cover his face, two were for covering the feet, and two were used for flying. We could wonder about that sight for a long while!

Remember we said that spirits could not be seen by us unless they would take on a form to reveal themselves to us. When three angels came to visit Abraham, they looked exactly like three men. And were so much like men that they could walk the dusty road in their sandals; could eat and drink the food prepared for them by Sarah. The two that went to Sodom to warn Lot even dragged Lot and his two daughters out of the city by force. Wondering wonderful, don’t you think? In II Sam. 24:15 they brought pestil­ence to Israel. In II Kings 6:17 Elisha prayed that his servant could see the protection they had from the armies which threatened them. And God showed the young man that the mountains were full of angels in the form of horses and chariots. That servant needed not to be concerned when those angels encamped round about them for their protection.

Then think about the time when an angel come to Manoah, the father-to-be of Samson. The angel “did wondrous­ly” by leaving Manoah in the flame that went up from the sacrifice on the altar. Oh, how I wonder about that!

And when Paul was aboard the ship on the way to Rome in a terrible storm at sea, the sailors wanted to toss Paul overboard to appease their gods to still the storm which threatened their very lives. Paul told them that an angel of God stood by that night to say that no life would be lost even though the ship would suffer shipwreck that day. We can clearly see that God saved Paul’s life for the work that he was called to do.

And when Peter was in prison with his hands chained to the wall, an angel awakened him, removed his chains, opened the locked doors, and led him out of prison and through the streets of the city to go to a friend’s house.

So Paul had a guardian angel; Peter had one; many people believe that everyone has one. Do we? I don’t know, but I wonder, why not? We are sure that thousands of angels guard all of those for whom Christ died. So, even if it should be true that we do not have a certain angel who has been assigned to us, we know they are all concerned about our salvation. In Psalm 91:11, 12 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” That textual promise even bothered Satan, because he quoted it to Jesus, tempting Him to test that promise of safety.

We do know that the angels were especially interested in our Lord Jesus. They sang for joy when they announced His birth. They ministered unto Him after the temptation by Satan. They strengthened Him after He had prayed so earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane before that awful crucifixion exper­ience. The angels’ concern did not end with His death, but were in the tomb to announce to His disciples and women that He was risen from the dead. Those two angels appeared as men, and they wore shining garments to show that they had just come down from heaven to give them that important message. That wonderful ministration of angels began with the message to Mary that she would be the mother of Christ, and came to the climax when they told the disciples who were staring up into the clouds where their Lord had vanished, and told them that He would surely return in Judgment Day to judge the living and the dead.

I don’t know if angels have appeared to men since that time, but I wonder! I don’t think I have ever seen one, but how can one tell if they take on the appearance of a man? Of course one would know if he were an angel if he would give a direct message from heaven, or if he would show me in some wondrous way that he were a spiritual being. I also know that some men have claimed experiencing such a vision. But I wonder!

Love, Gramp.