Angels: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Written by Sue Bohlin

I was about thirteen years old when I had my first encounter with an angel. I was going upstairs to my room, pulling my entire weight on the handrail, when it suddenly came off in my hand. I fell backwards, head first. Halfway into a terrible fall, I felt a strong hand on my back push me upright. There was nobody there--well, nobody visible!Angel stories are always fascinating, and in this essay I address angels: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good angels are the holy ones, the bad angels are the evil ones, which the Bible calls demons, and the ugly angels are demons disguising themselves as good angels. These ugly angels have deceived many people in a culture that has embraced "angel mania."

The Good Angels

Guardian Angels Watching Over Us

By Dr. Bill Bright

"For the angel of the Lord guards and rescues all who reverence Him" (Psalm 34:7).

For many years my travels have taken me from continent to continent, to scores of countries each year. I have traveled under all kinds of circumstances, not a few times faced with danger. But always there was peace in my heart that the Lord was with me and I was surrounded by His guardian angels to protect me.
In Pakistan, during a time of great political upheaval, I had finished a series of meetings in Lahore and was taken to the train station. Though I was unaware of what was happening, an angry crowd of thousands was marching on the station to destroy it with cocktail bombs.

The director of the railway line rushed us onto the train, put us in our compartments and told us not to open our doors under any circumstances - unless we knew that the one knocking was a friend. The train ride to Karachi would require more than 24 hours, which was just the time I needed to finish rewriting my book Come Help Change the World.

Do We Have Guardian Angels?

Dr. Roger Barrier, Preach It, Teach It

Editor's Note: Pastor Roger Barrier's "Ask Roger" column regularly appears at Preach It, Teach It. Every week at Crosswalk, Dr. Barrier puts nearly 40 years of experience in the pastorate to work answering questions of doctrine or practice for laypeople, or giving advice on church leadership issues. Email him your questions at roger@preachitteachit.org.

Dear Roger,

Recently I attended a funeral service for one of my long-time friends named Randy. There came a moment in the service where the minister invited people to share testimonies of how Randy had touched their lives and what he had meant to them.

The first one to speak was Randy's brother, Will, who proceeded to share that he had a guardian angel named Ralph, and that Ralph had a message of love for all the people. Will then shared Ralph's message that God loved them. It all seemed a little quirky to me that Will had a guardian angel named Ralph.