Angels to the Rescue

Angels to the Rescue

A number of contemporary books recount encouraging and inspiring stories of the holy angels at work in the lives of people throughout history and even today. These angels have saved the lives of Christians, provided encouragement during persecution, and helped in the conversion of non-Christians.^[1]

In A Rustle of Angels, evangelical Christian Marilynn Webber relates her story, which was first published in the Ladies Home Journal. One day, despondent over circumstances, she was walking home near some railroad tracks. Slowly crossing over them, she suddenly realized that an oncoming train was so close that “I could see the blue eyes and the terrified face of the engineer.” Paralyzed with fear, she was unable to move. Instead of being struck, however, she was miraculously pushed from the tracks as if by a giant hand, even though “no one was there! There was not a person in sight!”^[2] She survived, to say the least, with a renewed interest in angels.

In Celebration of Angels, we find many stories of deliverance. For example, Walt Shepard was a very depressed non-Christian who had decided to take his own life. He rammed his Sunbeam sports car (at 120 miles an hour) into what he thought was an abandoned car parked on the side of the road. But the car was neither abandoned nor out of gas. It exploded and both vehicles caught on fire. What saved the car’s driver and passenger was that they were outside the vehicle resting.

Walt was catapulted through the windshield and landed on the car’s engine with fire surrounding him. Pinned and trapped, he passed out. Though the heat was so intense no one could get close enough to help, the police watched in amazement as two men suddenly appeared, pulled Walt out of the fire, held him, and helped place him in the ambulance. The police and a hotel manager “confirmed that two figures walked up to the car as though there were no fire at all. People said the searing heat kept everybody else 50-100 feet back. The attending police were dumbstruck by the peculiar rescue.”^[3] Walt nearly died and endured many painful months of hospitalization in a body cast, but he realized he had been saved by angels. He now knew God wanted him to live. As a result, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

Then there is the story of David Moore and his friend Henry Gardner, who were trapped in severe fog in a small plane with only a few minutes of fuel remaining. They radioed the Asheville, North Carolina, airport for emergency instructions but were told the field was closed due to fog and that the airport had no instrument capability for an emergency landing. The pilots were instructed to return to Greenville.

Henry notified the tower that there wasn’t enough fuel to return to Greenville and that they needed to land immediately. After a period of silence, a voice said that they could land and that emergency preparations would be undertaken. They were then given specific and detailed instructions, which allowed the plane to land safely. Once on the ground, in a shaky voice, Henry thanked the air traffic controller for saving their lives. After a moment of silence, the controller responded, “What are you talking about? We lost all radio contact with you when we told you to return to Greenville.” “You what?” Henry asked, incredulous. “We never heard from you again,” the controller said. “And we never heard you talking to us or to anyone else. We were stunned when we saw you break through the clouds.”^[4]

Many stories like these are recounted in modern angel literature. Although lives are saved, many more, obviously, are not. As to why this is, that must be left to God’s will and wisdom. But clearly, angels are more active in our world than many people would suspect. Like Elisha’s servant, if the veil were removed, the average modern would be stunned (2 Kings 6:15-17).

Although Scripture does not explicitly teach that everyone has a guardian angel, many biblical commentators believe that this could be true, at least for believers. Certainly, given the great number of angels and God’s love for His own people, it would be a logical conclusion. Scripturally, it appears that children, at least, do have guardian angels (Matt. 18:10).

Certainly there are “guardian angels,” those angels whom God sends at specific times to guard, encourage, and protect both His own people and unbelievers, whenever He so chooses.

NOTES

1. 1. ↑ Timothy Jones, Celebration of Angels (Nashville: Nelson, 1994), pp. 3-16, 54-61.

1. 1. ↑ In Marilynn Carlson Webber and William D. Webber, A Rustle of Angels: Stories About Angels in Real Life and Scripture (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), p. 16.

1. 1. ↑ Jones, Celebration, pp. 3-4.

1. ↑ Joan Wester Anderson, Where Angels Walk (NY: Valentine, 1992), pp. 23-27.