How often to angels enter into your view when considering the Christian life? If you’re like me, hardly ever. In fact, the subject of angels at first glance seems to be one of those topics that more fantastical and subjectivistic Christians like to dwell upon–and by which they are swept away into manifest follies and fantasies (i.e. books like this one).
While to our collective shame as Christians much folly surrounds the topic, the Holy Scriptures do tell the church at least some things about angels. And those things are encouraging! For example, listen to Calvin in his Institutes describe the chief duties of angels:
But the point on which the Scriptures specially insist is that which tends most to our comfort, and to the confirmation of our faith, namely, that angels are the ministers and dispensers of the divine bounty towards us. Accordingly, we are told how they watch for our safety, how they undertake our defence [sic], direct our path, and take heed that no evil befall us. There are whole passages which relate, in the first instance, to Christ, the Head of the Church, and after him to all believers. “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.” Again, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” By these passages the Lord shows that the protection of those whom he has undertaken to defend he has delegated to his angels. (Quoted from Calvin’s Institutes, 1.14.6, CCEL version.)
Calvin has some other great insights on the topic of angels, and the whole of chapter 14 is worth reading. Perhaps all of us (but especially us Reformed Christians) need to be more aware of the full magnitude of God’s works in creation (both natural and supernatural); isn’t it amazing to consider that angels are a means God uses to minister His bounties?
Besides enlarging our considerings about the Christian life, another area Calvin’s angeology may have some application for us is in Reformed missiology. For example, a topic Calvin does not deal with (at least directly) is one which comes up frequently in Muslim evangelism (and perhaps Eastern Christianity more broadly): What role, if any, do angels play in a person’s conversion? Many Muslim converts to Christianity claim to have visions of angels and/or visions of Jesus, etc. (I.e. watch Afshin’s testimony, or read Into the Den of Infidels.) Do Calvin’s reflections have anything to offer us as we Reformed Christians consider the issue?
I don’t have the answers, but my small experience thus far leads me to conclude that questions like the following are at least worthy of the church pondering together as she comes more and more in contact with her Muslim neighbors:
- Am I even open to the idea that God uses angels as “the ministers and dispensers of the divine bounty toward us”?
- Can the Scriptures help us embrace the supernatural works of God through angels while guarding our sinful lusts for fantasy and folly and keeping our focus on Christ?
- Does a rigid focus on the “ordinary means of grace” tend to limit/forget God’s freedom to use “extraordinary” means?
- And does a rigid focus on “extraordinary” means tend to pour contempt upon the “ordinary” means?
Subscribe by e-mail
