So, the question is how has God used angels in the past? Firstly, angels are God’s message carriers. Did you know that the Greek word, angel, means “messenger”? Angels are God’s spokespersons, so to speak. In the Old Testament, an angel carried God’s message to direct Abraham’s maidservant, Hagar, to return to her mistress, Sarai. Two angels carried God’s message to Abraham and told him about God’s plan to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. An angel carried God’s message to confront the disobedient Balaam. In the New Testament, Gabriel carried God’s message and told Zechariah he and his wife were going to have a child in their old age. The same angel carried God’s message to Mary and announced she would be the mother of the Messiah. Finally, an angel carried God’s message to warn Joseph to relocate his family to Egypt, and to remain there until Herod died. God used angels as his message carriers to his people.
Secondly, angels are God’s helpers. They perform a variety of things to carry out God’s plans. In the Old Testament, God used an angel to stop Abraham from taking the knife to slay his son at the last second. God used an angel to protect the Israelites along their way to the Promised Land. God used an angel to touch the Prophet Elijah, and to minister to him so he would have enough strength to carry on his journey to Mount Horeb. In the New Testament, God used angels to minister to Jesus after he was led into temptation in the wilderness. God used an angel to roll back the stone at Jesus’ tomb entrance. After the apostles were thrown into a public prison by the Sadducees, God used an angel to open the prison gates for them. As you can see, angels performed different tasks in the Bible, but they all help God to execute his plans.
Exodus 23.23
For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.
Hebrews 1.14
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
If these accounts in the Bible show the ways God had used angels in the past, can there be reasons for God to use angels today? I believe the answer is Yes. Even though God may not send messages to his people using angels in quite the same way he used them in the Bible, it is possible he is still using angels as his message carriers today. God may not use angels to help his people in the same ways he did in the Bible, but it is all quite possible he still uses angels to help us today.
Before I go, I have one more point I want to make. While it may be a hot topic among Christians whether or not angels exist in our midst today, we must not forget that angels will appear again in the future. Why do I say this? Because it says so in the Bible. When our Lord Christ returns to earth, he will come with his mighty angels in “flaming fire”, as it says in 2 Thessalonians 1.7. It says also in the Book of Revelation angels will return in the end times. Angels are mentioned twenty times in Revelation. God is not done with angels.
Matthew 25.31
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
Revelation 5.11–12
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
Revelation 7.1–2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God;
Revelation 7.11–12
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
My point is if it is true that angels will reappear in the Last Days (and I do believe they will), then I think it is likely God uses angels in the world today. We know that God is always at work among his people. He remains the sovereign God today, and he has angels at his disposal. No one can say for sure if there are or there are no angels in our midst today. But if I had to guess, I would say Yes. I am not sure if I would call them “guardian angels”, but it is very likely angels are active, even today. It makes little sense for me to think that God had work for angels to do in times past in the Bible, but he has no work for them to do today, only for them to return to work in the End Times.
What remains more important than whether or not there are angels in our midst today is that we have a God who cares for us, through and through. As we saw in the Bible, many times God cared for his people using angels. God still cares very much for each one of us today, and that has not changed. He will carry on to completion the work that he began in us, and care for us, with or without angels.