Praise the Lord…Pass the Ammo (Part 6)

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
thy angels watch me through the night,
And keep me safe till morning’s light.

(Childhood prayer)

For four hundred and fifty years, angels were seldom mentioned by Evangelical Christians, except as guardian angels for children. The reason? It was considered too Catholic by Protestants because there were so many Catholic prayers, referring to angels in one way or another.

Then the Charismatic Movement arrived on the scene in the late 1960s with its spirituals gifts, lively praise music, and visions/dreams, some of which were about angels. Charles Capps wrote Angels: Knowing Their Purpose, Releasing Their Power. His book sold 250,000 copies and helped to open our eyes to the importance of angels once again.

Frank Peretti followed up by writing This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, which have sold over 3.5 million copies to date. These two books opened up a new realm of thought for us: spiritual warfare, involving God’s angels versus Satan’s demons.

So, we know a little more about angels than we did fifty years ago, but still, what were God’s angels doing for four hundred and fifty years? Watching I Love Lucy reruns?

One preacher stated that he had a vision of God’s angels standing around and eating chocolate bonbons and pizza. They were fat and getting fatter while they waited for us Christians to put them to work.

We Christians can put angels to work? How do we do that?

(Continued in Part 7)