Do I believe in angels? Well...yes; but why am I so reluctant to say so? Could it be that angels are a little like Tinker Bell? Because they have wings and do magical things? Or perhaps it isn't respectable to believe in such magical beings. Have angels gotten bad press?

It seems to me that angels were the victims of 19th and 20th century rationalism. They were pulled down in the whirlpool along with spontaneous generation, ecclesiastical authority, jinns and familiars, the flat earth, earth-centered cosmology and a legion of other ancient ideas. They may also have lost appeal due to the Protestant revolution. The austere founders may have objected to the frothy cherubim and seraphim of the Catholic Church. But recently there has been a surge of interest in angels. Time magazine conducted a survey for a recent article, Angels Among Us. The article reported that 69% of the people surveyed believe in angels, and 46% believe that they have their own guardian angel. Is this just another New Age fad, or are people tired of rationalism and now searching for the spiritual? Will we return to the good old days when people accepted angels as part of the natural order of things?

All major western religions--Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism--have hierarchies of angels. The Christian concepts of angels were inherited from Judaism. The Old Testament mentions specific angels at the time of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Jewish Talmud speaks of seven archangels as the leaders of seven heavenly hosts. Rabbinic literature speaks of higher and lower angels. The prophet Mohammed said that he received the Koran over a 23 year period from the "angel" Gabriel. Moslem theology speaks of two angels, one on each shoulder. One records our good deeds while the other records our bad deeds. In the New Testament we learn of the "angel" Gabriel's visit to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Even today there are people who feel they have encountered an angel at some time. The Bible mentions angels about 300 times, but doesn't give much specific information about them. The Urantia Book does.

Seraphim are mentioned 240 times in The Urantia Book. There are 8 papers devoted entirely to the various orders of angels, and there are numerous other places in the book which mention their ministry to mortals and others. Obviously, the authors of the book felt that it was important for us to know about the ministry of angels; perhaps part of the reason was to correct our distorted ideas about the nature and mission of angels. but I suspect that an even more important reason  for making us aware of their ministry is to encourage conscious co-operation with our unseen friends.

No doubt most of us would like to see an angel, but very few people say that they can see angels. This is no doubt fortunate, because much of the angels' work would be hampered  if we could see them. And we would certainly be nervous if we were aware of their constant attention to us, especially when our motives are less than honorable. The angels can be made visible to us if there is a reason to do so. The Urantia Book states that the tradition of angels having wings got started when mortals were allowed to observe transport angels being readied for takeoff from our planet. The energy fields around them appeared to be wings to the mortal observers.

Students of The Urantia Book soon realize that angels are some of the unsung heroes on our world, especially guardian angels. Consider their challenges: they have to guide reluctant, lazy, materialistic mortals into situations that promote spiritual growth. And to make their task more interesting they can influence us only by manipulating external circumstances. It's sort  of like playing ping pong by remote control. Furthermore, it appears that they must work at least 12 hours per day, seven days per week, since there are two who take turns being on duty. One does the guardian's job and the other records the proceedings. But like mortals who run down and need to sleep, the guardian angel must take time periodically to spiritually recharge. The guardian's complement takes over the guardian tasks and a cherubim takes over the recording duties.

The job of guardian angel must be demanding and arduous because the seraphim are required to spend a long time qualifying for this job. Their training is as follows:

• Noncommissioned observers of Salvington - 1 millennium
  
• Salvington seraphic training school - 1 millennium
  
• Observers on evolutionary planets - ? millennium
  
• Advanced studies, constellation level - ? millennium
  
• Further training, system level - ? millennium

Following the final training, the Seraphim are commissioned as ministering spirits to mortals like us. Of course, seraphim have many other types of occupations; guardian is only one possible avenue of service for them.

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I suspect that most students of The Urantia Book accept the existence of angels; angels and their ministry to us are a significant part of the book. Our acceptance puts us in some unusual company. While many liberal Christians may regard angels as Christian mythology or even pleasant fairy tales from the distant past, more conservative Christians regard angels as real since angels are referred to often in the Bible. Dr. Billy Graham's book, Angels, provides a conservative Christian, Bible-centered, view of the angels. He tells us that the angels fulfil the role of messengers, executors of God's will, sometimes as avengers, proclaimers, observers, praisers, protectors, comforters, rescuers, but never evangelists. He claims that they can't be evangelists because they never sinned (except the fallen ones), therefore were never redeemed by Jesus' death on the cross and are therefore unqualified to preach the good news.

But angels are making a comeback even among the liberal Christians; there is currently a surge of interest in angels, at least in the U.S. where several recent books on angels are popular. But some people are decrying the way angels are being portrayed in these books. They complain that the angels described sound more like cuddly puppies than like the fierce cherubim that guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden with flaming swords. I believe that many people will find The Urantia Book image of angels as enablers more believable and appealing than as either divine messengers or cuddly puppies. Wouldn't it be interesting if the angelology of the book suddenly became popular? Perhaps this will provide a path into the book for some people. Of course, some people may not like everything the book has to say about guardian angels.

A popular idea about guardian angels is that they are protectors. In Dr. Graham's book about angels and in many other books and articles, many cases are cited to show an angel came to someone's aid in a desperate situation. But if the angels' primary task is to protect us, then I must say they are incredibly inept or they are usually out on coffee break when a crisis arises. For the hundreds who have had miraculous interventions, there are millions who suffer disaster. The Urantia Book says that the main task of these angels is to lead us into situations that will stimulate our spiritual and social growth. Regarding intervention in our affairs, the authors have this to say, "They do not (ordinarily) intervene in the routine affairs of human life... .They do not, therefore, intrude into the picture of human drama except in emergencies and then usually on the direct orders of their superiors....Seraphim are able to function as material ministers to human beings under certain circumstances, but their action in this capacity is very rare." (1246) The authors give at least one example of angelic intervention to rescue someone, telling us that angels freed some gospel teachers from prison. (837) The authors tell us that while Peter was also set free from prison, it was a secondary midwayer who did it. But later on, Peter died a nasty death by crucifixion. Why was he rescued the first time, and not the second?

My understanding of angels is that we are rescued by angels or other spiritual agencies only when it might be beneficial to our spiritual growth or if we have an important role to play in the spiritual growth of others. I'm sure that the angels must have very specific guidelines that they follow in such matters. And of course there is one situation in which they really do guard us; when they transport our souls to the mansion worlds.

Despite a naturally skeptical nature, due possibly to my engineering training, The Urantia Book has made angels as real to me as the folk next door. Nevertheless, having a relationship with someone you can't see, hear, or detect in any way isn't quite the same as a relationship with neighbors. After all, you see the neighbors mowing the lawns, weeding their flower beds, and pretending they don't see their dog when it comes over to decorate your yard. But since the angels don't have yards to mow, gardens to weed, or dogs to walk, we don't observe them at work or play. In a sense, we are the gardens that they tend, but the gardener's touch is so light that we seldom feel it. Because we are generally unaware of their work, angels are among the unsung heroes of our world. I believe we should pause once in a while to remember and appreciate all of the things they do for us. Of course, we may not at the time appreciate some of the growth provoking experiences they lead us into, but eventually we know that they have our best interest at heart. As the authors of The Urantia Book tell us, they are our friends and only good can come from trying to love and understand them. (419, 1243)

Dick Bain, USA