Do We Each Have A Guardian Angel? (Part 2)

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Supposed Scriptural Evidence for Guardian Angels

I mentioned in my last post that the church father John Chrysostom believed in guardian angels. In his homily of “The Synaxis of the Archangels” he wrote this defense of their existence, “But besides being worthy of these great honors, don't [the Angels] also help our lives? For not only are angels placed to protect each nation, as the word cries: ‘When the Most-high divided the nations, he placed among the nations a number of Angels of God’ (Deuteronomy 32:8). But also each man was granted an angel. This is not our word, but that of the Divine Scripture. The child Rhoda, who recognized the apostle Peter before the gates as he was fleeing from Herod's prison, was disbelieved, and they thought that it was his Angel (Acts 12:15). And the Savior Himself bears witness to this, as he says of the life of the small ones of this life: ‘Do not look down on one of these little ones. I tell you that their angels always behold the face of my Father in the heavens.’ (Matthew 18:10) In each Church also, Christ has placed a guardian Angel, as John reveals: ‘Say to the angel of the Church of Smyrna: I see your poverty and your sorrow, but you are rich …' (Revelation 2:8).” Chrysostom clearly points out that there are some verses in the Bible that appear to suggest that we each have a guardian angel.

Upon closer inspection, however, Chrysostom and other interpreters may be reading more into each passage than they actually assert. We must take a closer look at each passage purported to support guardian angels.

One passages is Psalms 91:11-12 “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone.” This is a general promise of protection from the angels God gave to Israel. Satan used this promise to tempt Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple with the supposed result being a dramatic angelic protective catch of His body before He crashed on the stone far below. The verse does indicate that angels guard believers and protect their lives until the time God has appointed for the believer to die. However, the term “angels” is plural in this passage. Therefore, it contains no specific promise or teaching regarding one guardian angel for each believer. Yes, the verse states that angels in general guard believers, (in this case in Israel) but this verse does not prove we are each assigned one guardian angel. It is a stretch to use this verse to prove the existence of guardian angels for individual believers.

Another important verse is Matthew 18:10 where Jesus warned the people of Israel, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” The “little ones” in that context refers to children. Every parent and grandparent knows that children get into so much mischief and trouble. They can fall into danger quickly. From this fact and from this verse, the thought is that each child must have guardian angels. How else will they be safeguarded against so many potential accidents? Surely, children need some extra special care to make sure they don’t run into the road while pulling away from Mommy or slip down an embankment when out hiking or swallow poison when Mommy is not looking.

However, this verse may simply mean that angels in general are assigned the task of caring for children or even to care for younger disciples. In fact, this passage does not say the angels guard, nor does it say they are assigned to each little one. It actually says they exist in heaven. They are attentive to the Heavenly Father and wait for His commands. Only God in His omniscience can know the needs of everyone on earth, including children. The angels, in whatever task they are assigned, would only learn of the need of believers from an all-knowing God. God would then dispatch them to serve the children or whoever else needed their aid. So this verse also fails to prove guardian angels.

Personal Assignment

Concerning the idea of a personally assigned guardian angel, Wayne Grudem makes this point in his Systematic Theology, “To use an athletic analogy, the angels may be playing ‘zone’ rather than ‘man-on-man’ defense” (p. 400). So again, we can see God uses angels to guard us, even children, but one angel is not necessarily assigned to us. Though it does not seem to matter. If the angels work together as a protective army, one wonders why it is important to have just one angel watching over each of us for a lifetime. The goal is protection, and however that goal is accomplished by God using angels seems to be the most important point.

Acts 12:15 is another pertinent and fascinating verse in this discussion. It records something interesting that happened, early in church history, during the prayer meeting for the Apostle Peter after he had been imprisoned by King Herod. When Peter was delivered from prison, he came to the door of the house where people were praying for him. When the door was opened, and they saw Peter standing there, notice their reaction. “They kept saying, ‘It is his (Peter’s) angel.’” But, of course, we know it wasn’t Peter’s angel, it was Peter himself.

What does this reaction by the early believers reveal? This historical report is not meant to teach the doctrine of guardian angels. It is meant to record a reaction.

A Belief As Old As Time

What one concludes from that reaction depends on other Bible teachings. Acts 12 does reveal to us that the idea of a guardian angel was prevalent in the minds of these Jewish believers in Jesus. It illustrates that the idea of guardian angels was a common belief back then as it is today.

Some in the early church did believe in guardian angels, but Acts does not directly teach that the doctrine is true. Again, that is reading too much into the verse. It could be that because Peter was imprisoned, God had assigned an angel to guard Peter for this special circumstance until he was delivered. Indeed, the previous verses indicate it was an angel who delivered Peter. Maybe this was a temporary guardian angel for the sake of a very present danger. James the Apostle, who was also in prison with Peter, had no angel sent to release him, and thus was put to death as the first Apostolic martyr. That was God’s will for James.

Another point to make is that from this verse comes the idea that the guardian angel resembles the person, since those in the prayer meeting thought Rhoda had mistaken Peter’s angel for Peter himself.

 Continue with me next time as we examine more scriptures that seem to speak to guardian angels and then draw a biblical conclusion.