Investigating the Bible: Does each child have an angel?
By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR
Children surprise us. A young child had a school assignment. She asked her mother where she came from. Her mother said, “A stork brought you.”
She then asked, “Where did you come from, Mommy?” Her mother said, “I was found in a cabbage patch.”
Then she went to her grandmother and asked the same question. The grandmother said, “I was found in a rose bush.” This was the first sentence in her report: “In three generations there has not been a natural childbirth in my family.”
Jesus surprised his disciples when they questioned him and he answered them using a child.
Even after more than two years with Jesus, the disciples worried about status. “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:1-4, English Standard Version used throughout). This is the paradox: become important by abandoning the struggle for importance. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5).
Children keep us humble. In the Reader’s Digest, Sue Struthers reported delivering her son to his military base for basic training. She heard him say in a halting voice, “I’m going to miss you.” She was near tears when she turned to him and saw he was addressing a can of Pepsi he’d just opened.
In this section of Scripture, Jesus continued illustrating with a child: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea…See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:5-6, 10).
In the New Testament, “little ones” are children and other times they are disciples. Both meanings are acceptable. God’s angels watch over both children and believers. While there is no clear assignment of one angel for each “little one,” one-on-one guardianship isn’t required. Angels, who see the “face of God”, have access to the power of God to protect in life and in death.
God sent an angel to Elijah, one of the two men mentioned in the Bible who never died. At the end of his life, Elijah walked with his disciple Elisha, “…when chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” (2 Kings 2:11). However, even this great prophet suffered despair. Threatened with death by the soldiers of Jezebel, he fled to a wilderness. Hungry, exhausted, he said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life ...”. He laid down and fell asleep. Then, “…an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Arise and eat’ And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.” (1 Kings 19:4-6).
Dr. David Jeremiah wrote of a family whose baby boy had just died. His little sister asked her mother where her baby brother had gone. “To be with Jesus,” said the mother. Several days later, the mother was sharing her great sadness with a friend. “I am so grieved to have lost my baby.” Her little daughter overheard this and asked: “Mama, is something lost when you know where it is?” “No, of course not,” her mother answered. The child then asked, “Well, how can a baby be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?”
David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)
Comments
fiddler
Part I
A missing gospel: Peter
Four gospels in the NT are the only surviving ones out of maybe 20. The other 16 were either discarded, destroyed for some reason, or lost. Some of those 16 lost gospels have been found in the last 1.5 centuries, in Egypt and the Dead Sea area, and some have been authenticated. To be authenticated, the gospel would have to have been written within 100 years of Jesus’ death. If the gospel is written more than 100 years later, it’s unreliable because the gospels were word of mouth spread from person to person.
One such recovered gospel is the Gospel of Peter dated to the early to mid-2nd century CE, which makes it authentic. Part of the gospel relates Jesus’ Passion and resurrection. Christians still read it at the end of the 2nd century, until Serapion, bishop of Antioch, declared it heretical and discarded it. So went the other gospels; deemed heretical and either discarded, lost or rewritten.
The Peter Gospel overlaps with earlier gospels, which indicates it may draw on a common pool of earlier oral traditions, adding to its authenticity. Take verses 29 and 30, “The elders became fearful and went to Pilate and asked him, ‘Give us some soldiers to guard his crypt for three days to keep his disciples from coming to steal him. Otherwise the people may assume that he has been raised from the dead and then harm us.’” Compare this with verses 62-64 of chapter 27 in Matthew’s NT gospel (the original according to Jerome was The Book of Hebrews; the NT version was written to mirror Mark). In verses 31 and 38, Peter recorded that the guards, the elders, went with the soldiers and stayed at the tomb for 3 days. Crowds came out to visit the tomb on the Sabbath.
fiddler
Part II
Like the case of Matthew’s gospel, the Peter gospel was considered heretical and discarded. Some discovered gospels, like the Gospel of Mary, were written a couple hundred years after Jesus’ death, so its content is unreliable….but then, the whole NT is unreliable because of its creation by bishops who had personal agendas to create a religion based on what the Roman emperor wanted and what the powerfully political bishops wanted.
There’s an abundance of information about the other found gospels; research into the NT has been a hot topic for at least 50 years, pointing out the errors in the NT. What will happen when Christians wake up to the truth of the NT? One Catholic priest in WA had a premonition that by 2050 we will not be able to practice religion. Perhaps events in the past 2 months point the way to that reality. When the politics of a country become a dictatorship, religion is lost prohibited (as in the case of Russia when it became the USSR) or discarded. A dictator cannot stand people worshiping anyone but him. Some of us will be around to see if the premonition comes true.
But prayer can change that outcome (there’s that quantum mechanix thing again). IF people are not lazy when it comes to things like praying day and night with all their soul for God’s will on Earth. It’s in our power to change the outcome of the future. We can do it with prayer.
Lulu
No, we can't do it with prayer but with education.
Otis
"Don't be bad or god will send you to hell"
This has been a great way to control people for hundreds of years.
It scares the poor just enough to keep them from rising up and destroying the rich.
Lulu
"He sees you when you're sleeping; he knows when you're awake; he knows if you've been bad or good: so be good for goodness sake."
For some inexplicable reason, I notice a definite correlation here between God and the jolly old elf.
Six million children under the age of 15 die annually from malnutrition or diseases easily treatable. You classify that as love?
fiddler
Lulu, prayer can work for the concern you brought up.
Here's an example: when Billy Graham started his ministry in Chapel Hill, NC, reportedly, he was lousy at it. A group of women in the congregation took it upon themselves to meet every day and pray for him. They prayed that he would get better at preaching. The rest is history.
A mother awoke in the middle of the night knowing her son, who was far from home, was in danger. She immediately prayed her heart out. The next day she checked in with him and he told her he was in a situation where he was going to be murdered, but something happened and the men suddenly turned and left.
Prayers are effected said aloud (vibration). Get some friends together and try an experiment. See if it works. It may not be immediate, like over night, but if you pray in earnest things will shift. I don't know how long those women prayed for Billy Graham, but it wasn't long -- maybe a few months.
Won't know until you try!
Lulu
Fiddler--you personify one of the reasons people avoid attending church.
Maybe you can beat religion into them with a big stick. For their own good, of course. Another Inquisition.
What precisely is your point?