The Danger of Belief Without Truth
We are still discussing the book Angels by Dr. David Jeremiah. Jumping right back in, he makes a point that I’d like to share. “Because belief in God is no longer “popular” in America, it is possible to believe in anything. People are searching for spirituality-but not if it involves God.” I heard it said recently that, “People will believe anything - as long as it is not in the Bible.”
When Heaven Comes Near
Jeremiah quotes part of the 1975 book Angels from Billy Graham, where he speaks of his maternal grandmother’s death. “The room seemed to fill with a heavenly light. She sat up in bed and almost laughingly said, ‘I see Jesus. He has his arms outstretched toward me. I see Ben [her husband who had died some years earlier] and I see the angels.’ Then she slumped over, absent from the body but present with the Lord.”
Now modern ‘angelism’ or spiritualism would have spared her life - not watched her cross over. As I have tried to point out time and again, this world is temporary! To a Christian, going to be with Jesus is a glorious thing, not something to be saved FROM!
You might have heard me point out in my previous teachings and writings that in mainstream media, death is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. Hurting someone, stealing from them, lying to them - these are all bad, but death? Well that has to be the worst, right?
Matthew 10:28 NIRV — Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but can’t kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
To paraphrase my pastor, “If Christians spent as much effort in prayer trying to keep lost people out of hell as we do saved people out of Heaven, it would be a much better place!”
And there’s also the fact that God heals in many different ways. Sometimes it’s with an earthly healing that no one sees. Maybe a doctor gives the right diagnosis; maybe someone prays for healing and they receive it; maybe they are healed to go and be a witness.
But every one that has ever been healed has either died, or still will die. The only TRUE and ULTIMATE healing comes in the presence of God when we are given Glorified bodies. Until then, it’s temporary, so don’t get hung up on that.
This truth reminds us: healing is a gift, but eternity is the goal.
Angels as Messengers
But we were discussing angels. Before I continue, just understand that angels are messengers and they don’t always have a message of healing. God knows, not us, what is best in the long run.
Graham continues, “as an evangelist, I have often felt too far spent to minister from the pulpit to men and women who have filled stadiums to hear a message from the Lord. Yet again and again my weakness has vanished, and my strength has been renewed. I have been filled with God’s power not only in my soul but physically. On many occasions, God has become especially real, and has sent his unseen angelic visitors to touch my body and let me be his messenger for heaven, speaking as a dying man to dying men.”
Let me ask you something. Can God speak it, or think it, and it be so? Yes! Does He use human messengers to sow the seeds? Yes! So it would make sense that He would use His angelic messengers to carry out His instructions as well.
Heaven is ‘somewhere else.’ God became human to walk, talk, teach, die, be resurrected… And to ascend. To do these things, He had to limit Himself. He had to remain God the Creator, but take on the form and flesh of a human man. Perhaps He limits Himself in other ways, to use angels - messengers - to help facilitate free will for us.
God’s Protection Through His Messengers
I think a perfect example of this is brought up next in the book. I’ll paraphrase it here. A man and wife missionary team were surrounded by hostile natives one night. The natives were intent on burning them out and killing them. The missionaries prayed all night that God would deliver them and when the morning came the attackers had left!
About a year later, the chief was converted to Christ and the missionary asked the chief what kept the natives from burning down the house. The chief said they were afraid of the “hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords in their hands.” So it was obvious that God had sent angels to protect him and his wife!
Now again, God could have struck down the natives with a thought, but He didn’t. Could the angels appearing have been part of a bigger plan? Part of the plan of converting the chief? I believe they were there for a PURPOSE and a much bigger purpose than just protecting life; they were there as witnesses of the power of God.
Let me be clear - life is sacred. God does not look favorably on those that would murder. Jesus even said if you have hatred for your brother in your heart you’re already guilty of murder. In the old testament the Hebrews were warned not to let their children pass through the fire.
I believe we are to value life! We are to protect the unborn and the born in equal measure. But once someone has given themselves to Jesus? They are no longer home here. It’s not an excuse to end their life, but their life is no longer the most important commodity they have.
1 John 3:15 NIRV — Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life.
Deuteronomy 18:10 NIRV — Don’t let anyone among you offer a son or daughter as a sacrifice in the fire. Don’t let anyone practice evil magic. Don’t let them explain dreams or get messages from the dead.
Mark 8:36 NIRV — What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses their soul?
Faith and Action: Digging into the Word
Jeremiah goes on to give other examples and even mentions that we can learn about angels in the Scripture. He points out that the Holy Bible contains “rich and inspired messages” that tell us about angels. I would say that it does more than that, of course, but the focus on this book is angels. “Through careful study, anyone who truly seeks the Lord with a good and honest heart can find these riches.”
God’s Word is rich, but it isn’t surface-level. He invites us to dig. I have heard it said, you don’t lean on a shovel and pray for a hole - you have to dig!
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