Reply To: Angelology Discussion Board 1

[Ben]

The roles played by angels in the life of the early Church as seen in the book of the Acts of the Apostles are as follows:

1. Encouragement. During the ascension of Jesus into heaven, his disciples were left bewildered seeing him go from them a second time (Acts 1:10-11). As they stood there gazing steadfastly into heaven, two angels appeared to them and encouraged them with words of assurance. That Jesus was going to return from heaven again. In Acts 5:19-20, we see a divine intervention through an angel who opened the prison doors of where the apostles were imprisoned; and the angel encouraged the apostles to keep preaching after releasing them from prison.

2. Rescue and delivery from danger. We see in Acts 12:1-19, that Herod who had killed James and saw that it pleased the people, went on to take Peter and put him in prison. He sought to do the same as he did to James, to Peter. But there was divine rescue and delivery through an angel and Peter was not killed neither did he remain in prison. In this case also, it is clear that this angelic intervention was an answer to the prayers of the church who had engaged in prayers upon hearing that Peter had been imprisoned by Herod. So God answered the prayers of his church by sending an angel.

3. Divine guidance. In Acts 10:1-8, God brought divine guidance through an angel to Cornelius who wasn’t a believer as at the time. God had seen the devotion and generosity of Cornelius and through an angel gave him directions on how to reach for the apostle Peter who would preach the gospel to him for his salvation. Through this angelic visitation resulting to guidance, Cornelius and his household got saved after they had heard the gospel from the lips of Peter.

Also, in Acts 8:26 we see another provision of divine guidance and this time around, it was to Philip. The angel guided Philip to a man that needed to be saved. When Philip followed that guidance, he actually met with a man who he preached and explained the word to and the man was saved.

In summary, angels carried out supportive and intervening roles in the lives of believers, the apostles and even an unbeliever for the benefit of the early Church. They aided the work of the Church and the apostles and brought about the will of God in which men executed to the glory of God.