‘Angels,’ Heppe tells us, ‘are appointed to glorify God, to serve as messengers, to watch over the elect, to support them in bodily and spiritual need, and to bring their souls to eternal rest.’1Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Revised and ed. Ernst Bizer, trans. G. T. Thomson (Wakeman Classics, 2000), 211.
So what does any of that mean for an ordinary Tuesday?
‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’
Protection You Won’t Notice
Instances of release from prison through angelic assistance are exceptional (Acts 5:19-21; 12:6-11). Yet the ongoing deliverance and protection of believers may be assumed today, and in every age (Psa 34:7; 91:11).
From biblical attestation ‘we can conclude that, since the fall, God has used his angels’ to protect us from harm, to announce his blessing and judgment, to appear ‘when God is about to begin some new, great … work,’ and to ‘carry on their work of preservation even when they do not appear openly.’2Bray, God is Love, 258.
That last item is the one that touches daily life. Most of what angels do for you, you will never see.
A Bigger, More Personal Universe
‘The doctrine of angels rebukes the smallness and impersonalism of our cosmology. Modern worldviews typically claim to have discovered a much larger universe … But they have a much smaller view of the universe of persons, having abandoned belief in God and in angels.’3Frame, Systematic Theology, 777.
That’s worth turning over. Far from the universe being basically impersonal, there are human persons, Divine persons, and angelic persons. Angels are personal observers who witness God’s work first-hand (1 Tim 3:16) and are aware of human belief and behaviour (Luke 12:8-9; 1 Cor 4:9; 11:10).
The unseen spirit world is not one of cold, blind, impersonal forces. The invisible world is not less personal than the visible one — rather the opposite. And the angels demonstrate that moral agency, personal identity and individual character are constitutive of ‘all things’ across both realms. ‘[R]evelation presumes a spiritual world above and behind this visible world from which we receive communication. Believing in angels expresses conviction about a world beyond our senses, about transcendence, miracle, and revelation.’4Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 276.
Do You Have a Guardian Angel?
Two texts have been taken to imply that specific angels guard specific individuals (Matt 18:10; Acts 12:15), and this belief has a long tradition.
Yet a ‘problem with the doctrine of guardian angels … is that it leads to veneration and worship.’5Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 284. Other statements indicate that numerous angels — plural — attend God’s people (2 Ki 6:17), and concrete evidence for individually assigned guardians is lacking. Calvin remarks:
‘Whether individual angels have been assigned to individual believers for their protection, I dare not affirm with confidence. … [T]he care of each one of us is not the task of one angel only, but all with one consent watch over our salvation.’6Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.7; Battles trans., 167.
Neither Obsession Nor Denial
Biblically informed awareness of angels avoids two extremes: super-spiritual over-interest, and sub-spiritual denial.
Angelic appearances cannot be publicly verified and are the opposite of routine. Yet there’s no explicit biblical warrant for flat denial. It is arguable that from the apostles’ time ‘they cease their extraordinary ministry and will only resume a public role at the return of Christ.’7Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 282. But that argues cessation from inference, and whether it follows necessarily is debatable.
The distinction that matters here is between angelic appearances and angelic activity. The bigger biblical picture assumes constant ongoing activity: a strong case can be built that the conspicuous aspects have ceased, yet nothing indicates their invisible role has changed.
‘Some of us may have had experiences highly suggestive of the intervention of angelic powers, but we cannot be precise or speak with authority.’8Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Crossway, 2019), 299. Indeed, ‘we cannot possibly distinguish between an event brought about by angelic instrumentality and one caused by the direct, unmediated action of God.’9Letham, Systematic Theology, 304.
Either way it is God who has acted for our good — and that ought to be the centre of attention.
Comfort for Weakness
It isn’t that God has to care for his people with angelic assistance. The Lord Jesus is often said to act directly towards us and for us.
Yet ‘God makes use of the angels, not for his own sake, but for ours … to comfort our weakness.’ It is ‘out of his immeasurable kindness and gentleness’ that he commissions angels to care for us.10Calvin, Institutes, 1.15.10; Battles trans., 171. Doing so, he is purely concerned to banish our fear, to keep us from being overly frightened by the evils we face, and to reinforce our trust in his boundless goodness.
To doubly assure us, God not only promises to help us himself, ‘but tells us he has innumerable guardians whom he has bidden to look after our safety; that so long as we are hedged about by their defense and keeping, whatever perils may threaten, we have been placed beyond all chance of evil.’11Calvin, Institutes, 1.15.10; Battles trans., 171.
Although most of the time believers are unaware of angelic care, Scripture presents it as a solid spiritual reality. Far from being mere ideas, ‘qualities or inspirations without substance,’ the angels are actual and concrete beings, ‘spirits having a real existence.’12Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.9; Battles trans., 169.
As Elisha understood: ‘those who are with us are more than those who are with them’ (2 Ki 6:16-17).
This is Augustine:
‘By the church … we are to understand the whole church, not just the part that journeys here on earth … but also that part which, in heaven, has always from creation, held fast to God, and which never experienced the evils of a fall. This part, composed of the holy angels, remains in blessedness, and it gives help, even as it ought, to the other part still on pilgrimage.’13Augustine, Enchiridion, 15.56; 372. Augustine’s observation points to the Biblical texts supporting angelic membership of the church (Rev 4-5; Heb 12:18-24). Local church gatherings, then, express the consummated gathering around Christ (who does not just have a body, but is a body, us – 1 Cor 12:4) of which we are an integral part, are in the company of the angels who serve us and our departed fellow believers as we join them honouring and rejoicing in the person and work of God: ‘“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”’ (Rev 5:12-13). And that applies to our humble family Bible readings and prayers around the breakfast table too! (Thanks to Rob Doyle for pointing out some of these things. See Robert C. Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church: The Church and the Kingdom Communities of Those Who Belong to the Lord; Lexington/Fortress, 2022.)
The War Is Real
Awareness of angels sharpens sensitivity to the unseen conflict in which all human life is caught. Believers are not left alone in their ‘good fight’ (1 Tim 6:12). Angels are vigilant ‘for our safety, take upon themselves our defence … [and] fight against the devil and all our enemies.’14Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.6; Battles trans., 166-67.
Two armies of angels are up in arms, fighting ceaselessly, either for us or against us. And while the Bible doesn’t contain the expression ‘spiritual warfare,’ the idea properly grasped is a constant theme: ‘life is not like war, life is war.’
Yet this warfare is the warfare of Almighty God — and victory is inevitable. The LORD of hosts will prevail.
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- 1Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Revised and ed. Ernst Bizer, trans. G. T. Thomson (Wakeman Classics, 2000), 211. ↩︎
- 2Bray, God is Love, 258. ↩︎
- 3Frame, Systematic Theology, 777. ↩︎
- 4Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 276. ↩︎
- 5Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 284. ↩︎
- 6Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.7; Battles trans., 167. ↩︎
- 7Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 282. ↩︎
- 8Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Crossway, 2019), 299. ↩︎
- 9Letham, Systematic Theology, 304. ↩︎
- 10Calvin, Institutes, 1.15.10; Battles trans., 171. ↩︎
- 11Calvin, Institutes, 1.15.10; Battles trans., 171. ↩︎
- 12Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.9; Battles trans., 169. ↩︎
- 13Augustine, Enchiridion, 15.56; 372. Augustine’s observation points to the Biblical texts supporting angelic membership of the church (Rev 4-5; Heb 12:18-24). Local church gatherings, then, express the consummated gathering around Christ (who does not just have a body, but is a body, us – 1 Cor 12:4) of which we are an integral part, are in the company of the angels who serve us and our departed fellow believers as we join them honouring and rejoicing in the person and work of God: ‘“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”’ (Rev 5:12-13). And that applies to our humble family Bible readings and prayers around the breakfast table too! (Thanks to Rob Doyle for pointing out some of these things. See Robert C. Doyle, The Evangelical Doctrine of the Church: The Church and the Kingdom Communities of Those Who Belong to the Lord; Lexington/Fortress, 2022.) ↩︎
- 14Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.6; Battles trans., 166-67. ↩︎