Do We Really Have Guardian Angels?

This is CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And, of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Bill, you had a lot of gusto coming out of the gate there. I like that. Thank you.

I tried to have a lot of energy today. I thought we'd go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners earlier this week. This is Nathaniel. We're going to talk about the comings of Christ. He says the Second Coming happened in 70 AD, and then where it says soon, near, far, all of those words, sir, doesn't mean way over in the future.

And the main thing is, it says that the disciples would see him coming in the clouds. He says, this generation. I wanted to clarify, did that consider another coming?

Thank you. Hey, Nathaniel, thank you for that question. And for those who are not familiar with this discussion, we're talking about the last things, and in particular the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Christ already come? The full Preterist view is this view that basically all the prophecies that you have in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation have already been fulfilled, and that they were fulfilled specifically at 70 AD, the destruction of the temple. Now it is clear to me in Matthew 24 that that is one of the things that's being discussed, the destruction of the temple, because the disciples were looking at the temple, marveling at the temple, and Jesus said to them in Matthew 24, verse 2, Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And as he sat at the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

So I think there's two things that are being talked about in Matthew 24. One, the destruction of the temple, and Jesus prophesies about it, 70 AD, it's coming. It's going to be terrible, it's going to be this terrible persecution and tribulation, but also the second coming, which I believe is still yet to come. And at that time, God is going to judge the whole world. That's when we're going to enter into the eternal state, if you will, the resurrection of the dead, the life of the world to come.

So those things have not happened. And that's one of the things that I think is really problematic with the full, preterist view. Now, this was a question that was coming up in the days of the New Testament. There were some people that were saying the resurrection has already happened or Christ has already come. I think of what Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Listen closely to this. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And so, you know, this is when Paul's writing to the Thessalonians, but I bring that text up to highlight that this was a question that people had even in those days. People were saying the day of the Lord has already happened, the resurrection has already happened, Christ has already come back, and Paul says no, when that happens you'll know it. I think that's the case for us as well, and so Matthew 24 does talk about a number of things that have already happened and were fulfilled in 70 AD, but there's more to come, namely the final judgment, the resurrection, the second coming, the bodily second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we look forward to. We actually have a great Bible study on the book of Revelation, and if you want to check that out, you can go to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation and pick that up. It's a really great study in that it helps us clear up some of the confusion about that very important book, the last book of the New Testament.

Well, let's go to James calling in from Nashville, Tennessee. James, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Okay, a lot of the Bible is precious, and I'm sure that there are no words that are frivolous, but in the book of Mark, when Jesus is arrested, it speaks of a young man who is set upon by the crowd, and they grab him and he runs away naked, leaving his robe behind. Does the robe or the young man appear again, or is this just kind of a, I don't know, that's my question. Okay, now you're referring to Mark chapter 14, is that right, verse 51?

I believe so, yes. Okay, yeah, so this is the betrayal and arrest of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 51, and a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. So, I mean, this really happened, right, this is a historical account, and I think one of the things that Mark is doing is he's just recording the events as he knew them happened, as he knew that they happened. But what's interesting is you say, you ask the question, does this guy appear again, and there are some people who say he does, at the end of the Gospel, in Mark chapter 16, in verse 5. I'll start verse 4, I mean, this is the resurrection of Jesus, looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, it was very large, and entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. Now, there are some people who will say there's this sort of baptismal imagery embedded in the Gospel of Mark here, where you have this guy during the persecution, the suffering of Jesus, as he's in the garden being betrayed, and he flees, and he's naked. It's this moment of darkness, of fear, and then, potentially, this character appears again at the resurrection, clothed in a white robe, after the resurrection of Jesus, so there are some people that will point to that connection there.

I think we could just say, this is just one of the Gospels, they're historical accounts, but if you want to go a little bit deeper, I think you can take it that way, this sort of nakedness prior to the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and then being clothed in the white robe after the resurrection of Jesus. And so, hey, thanks for that question, James, one of those really sort of interesting scenes in the Gospels that a lot of people wonder about. James, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity. We want to mention that we have a wonderful resource on the issue of repentance that a lot of people call in on this program on a regular basis, and they say, have I really repented? What do I need to do to repent? What does repentance really look like? Is my repentance genuine?

And this particular resource will help clear some of those things up for you. Yeah, brothers and sisters, we are all called to live lives of repentance every single day. I mean, we sin against God in thought, word, and indeed, and we need to turn to the Lord every single day, repenting of our sins, drawing near to Him. And so as you do that, we've made this resource, Seven Things Everyone Should Know About Repentance, that will help you continue to draw near to the Lord, to understand what repentance is.

I mean, it's a biblical word, and so it's important for us to understand what the Bible is talking about when it talks about repentance for our own good. And so get ahold of this resource. It's the perfect resource to help ground your faith in the work and love of Christ.

The Core. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Katie. I feel like this is kind of a childish question, but do we really have guardian angels? And if we do, are they family or friend has already passed on?

Or I just don't understand at all. And I thought, okay, thank you. Hey, Katie. Well, the first thing I'll say is, no, guardian angels are not friends or loved ones who have passed on. Friends who have passed on in Christ are in the presence of the Lord, worshipping Him. You get this picture in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, the church triumphant, as we sometimes refer to it. There's one church, right? There's a church militant here on earth. We're serving the Lord. We're seeking the Lord. We're fighting our sin, if you will, proclaiming the gospel. And then there are our brothers and sisters who have gone before us who are now in the presence of the Lord, who have trusted in Jesus Christ. And they're in heaven around the throne of God, worshipping Him. And that's where our loved ones who know Christ are.

And so guardian angels are not family members, but there are angels, angelic beings that God created, who I think do keep watch over and guard God's people. And there are a number of passages that we can point to for this. I'm actually preaching right now through the book of Genesis. I'm going to be preaching on that scene, Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 18 and 19. And it's really interesting because you have a couple of angels that go to Lot and basically rescue him from Sodom. He's there.

The destruction is coming. He's sort of tearing, doesn't want to leave. And the angels basically grab him by the collar and drag him out. I think that's a great example of a guardian angel. But you also have the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 18, verse 10.

Listen to what He said there. 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. Isn't that beautiful? And we hear Jesus is talking about caring for even the littlest among us, and He talks about the angels who watch over them. Now, another passage of scripture that we could look at in terms of understanding the role of angels today is in Hebrews chapter 1. There, in particular, the author of the Hebrews is explaining how Christ is superior to the angels.

He's the eternal Son of God. The angels of God worship Him. And yet, the author of the Hebrews also says, when he talks about the role of angels in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? And so there are angels that keep watch over God's people, that serve the people of God for the sake of those who are going to inherit salvation.

And I think that there are passages like the ones that I mentioned that we could point to to make that case. I don't know that every person has one guardian angel that they're stuck with for life, that kind of a thing. The Bible isn't that clear on that specifically, but we do know that angels do serve and guard at times the people of God. Thank you for that question. And how many angels can dance in the head of a pin?

Have you ever figured that out? The biblical answer is 17, I think. You really have to dig deep into the Hebrew there to get that answer, but no, I have no idea. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question, maybe a question about theology, doctrine, church life, something happening maybe in the culture, we'd love to hear from you. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE. You can also join us on YouTube live.

You can watch Adriel as he does the program every day in the studio, and you can message us through YouTube. And we have a question from Mrs. P. who's watching on YouTube, and she wants to know, are gospel tracts biblical? Yeah, so gospel tracts, right, like the little booklets that sometimes people will hand out. I guess the answer, the real answer to that question is, what is the content of the gospel tract? If it's biblical content, then yeah, I've heard someone say this, I forget who said it, but they said, look, the best kind of evangelism is whatever kind you're actually doing. Because I think a lot of us, you know, we can critique the different forms of evangelism, say, oh, that's just, it's better to do it this way. And frankly, I do think in terms of efficacy, I think the best way to share the love of Jesus is to build relationships with people and to serve the neighbors around us, and to get into real conversations about Christ, his death, the resurrection of the dead within the context of relationship. But I don't think that there's anything wrong with gospel tracts so long as they are biblical in proclaiming the gospel. If they're not biblical, if the content is not helpful, if it's all law and condemnation and never gospel, the forgiveness of our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then I would say, yeah, not so helpful. I remember, boy, when I was just probably a freshman in high school or maybe even younger hanging out with some friends and a man walking up to us and handing all of us a gospel tract. And I read it later that day, and I remember being convicted.

Now, at that time, I didn't give my life to Jesus, but that memory has never left me. And so I don't think there's anything wrong with that so long as the content is good. But I think as believers, we should really strive also to build relationships with our non-Christian friends so that we might share the love of Jesus with them.

So thank you for that question. You know, and that comment you made about content is so critical because there are groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses who will leave little tracts on your doorstep, and you start reading that. And if you're not biblically informed, you might start to believe some of what they've written there. So you want to make sure, as you said, it's always solid biblical material.

Absolutely. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez, and we'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Let's go to a voicemail that came in from Jim. If I understood correctly, you explained that the church would go through the tribulation. And if I'm wrong on that, please correct me. But if that's your feeling, then could you please explain why Christ would do that to his bride? We're told over and over in scripture we're the bride of Christ as the church. And I find it hard to believe he would put his church through the judgments of the tribulation. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Well, thank you for that question. Of course, at the end of the day, we want to be biblical, so we need to say, what does the scripture say about tribulation and the church experiencing tribulation? I think of the words of our Lord Jesus in his upper room discourse where he's talking to his disciples and he says, look, this is John chapter 16 verse 33, in this world you will have tribulation. And he's talking to the church, if you will, the bride of Christ, and he's letting her know there is persecution, there is suffering, there is tribulation that you are going to experience in this world at the hands of the wicked, at the hands of sinners.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world. Now, God is the one who's sovereignly in control of our suffering even, and that's something that we can be comforted by. I think of the language that we see in Daniel chapter 7. This is a prophecy that was given, and it's given about essentially the suffering that the church is going to experience.

John in the book of Revelation also picks up this language throughout the book of Revelation. Let me just begin in Daniel chapter 7 verse 10. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the former ones and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law, and they shall be given into his hand, that is the saints, for a time, times, and half a time. The courts shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.

His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. But there's a time, Daniel sees, that the saints are given into the hands of wicked rulers, if you will, of the wicked. There's this period of tribulation. I think you do see this also throughout the book of Revelation. The saints of God are gathered together after that time of tribulation. That's what we see in the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew chapter 24. I believe it's verse 29.

That's the saints being gathered together, God's elect, gathered together from the four corners of the earth after this great tribulation. The question of, well, why would God allow his people to suffer like that? Is God being cruel? Does he not love his bride, that kind of a thing?

Well, no, not at all. As the bride of Christ, we follow in the footsteps of Christ. That's one of the things that you see throughout the book of Revelation, is Christ conquered through his suffering and death. Death was transformed by him.

It's now a coming into life, if you will. John talks about this throughout his writings. The Church, following in the footsteps of Christ, taking up her cross, experiences tribulation and suffering as well for a period of time. Now, I think that the times that are listed in places like the book of Revelation and even here in Daniel, this time, times, and half a time, or in the book of Revelation, it's sometimes referred to as a period of three and a half years or 42 months.

That's really symbolic. You think of the three and a half years of Christ's earthly ministry while he was on earth suffering at the hands of sinners. Again, we're following in his footsteps, and the Church on earth today experiences great tribulation. I was just reading a statistic, I think it was from Open Doors USA, that says every day, 13 or so Christians are martyred. That's probably a really low number because we don't know about what's taking place in countries like North Korea and other sort of war-torn countries where many believers are put to death and nobody ever hears about it.

Nobody knows about it. The Church, brothers and sisters, is still today facing great tribulation and suffering just like our Savior did. We're called to follow him faithfully, to walk with him, and we have the hope that he has conquered death and that in him we have eternal life, and that even death for the believer is an entering into life.

I really appreciate your question. Those are some of the reasons I think, as I do, pertaining to the Church experiencing suffering and tribulation in this world today. Hopefully that helps you, and may the Lord bless you.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our number, if you have a question, is 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can always leave a voicemail question at that number 24 hours a day.

We do our best to check our voicemails every day, so give us a call even later in the day or overnight at 833-THE-CORE with your question. Let's go to Heath in Florida. Heath, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, sir. My question is that since I moved down to Florida 12 years ago, I've been trying to find a church to go to that really supports and believes in the full power of the Holy Ghost. Every church I've been to, they mostly want to discuss about the love of God, but they never mention about the healing power of the Holy Ghost. I have a question towards the church world.

Are they downplaying the third power of God, the third part of the Godhead? My question is that Simon Peter was approached by a man, and he was asked to purchase his gift of healing. He told the man, he said, I am an uneducated man, and the only way that people are healed is when the Holy Ghost comes upon me, and then through the Holy Ghost they're healed. My question towards the church world is, are they forgetting about that? Because when I go to church, I don't see anybody coming forward to be healed.

Heath, thank you for that question. You're referring to a couple of passages in the book of Acts. There's the passage in Acts 4 where they do heal a lame beggar outside of the temple. But then also in Acts 8, you have Simon who wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit from the disciples, and the disciples say, hey, you're in the gall of iniquity. You're lost. You need to repent. You can't buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is a really important question, I think a big question.

Let me just say one thing. I do think that today we minimize the power of the Holy Spirit. And I think part of the way we do it is going to be a little bit different than what you're getting at. Because I think, yes, I think we can have a low view of the power of the Spirit today, the power of God today to do extraordinary things, like heal someone. But the reality is, I feel like too often today what we do is we focus on that being the primary work of the Spirit, and so we minimize all the other ways that the Spirit of God is working in our midst. The primary job of the Holy Spirit today is to reveal Christ to people and to apply the benefits of what Christ has accomplished for us to us. It's the Spirit of God who unites us to Jesus Christ, and it's through the Spirit that we grow in our understanding of Christ. The Spirit of God is bearing fruit in our lives, the fruit of the Holy Spirit described in places like Galatians chapter 5. That's not to minimize the fact that the Spirit can work in extraordinary ways, but they're just that. They're extraordinary. They're not what we experience every single day of the Christian life.

They're miraculous. And the reality is in the Book of Acts, you know, sometimes we can read the Book of Acts and think this is just the ordinary Christian life, what we're supposed to be looking at. And we have to distinguish between what's descriptive in the Book of Acts and what's prescriptive. The Book of Acts is describing the acts of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the early churches. The gospel was getting kicked off, if you will, into the world, and it was spreading like wildfire there early on. And so you had these redemptive historical events like the Day of Pentecost where all these miracles are taking place.

And those are descriptions of what was taking place in the early church, but I don't think that they're all prescriptive for the ordinary Christian day-to-day life. And we realize that, you know, the true growth in grace isn't always like this explosive experience. It's growing closer to Jesus through his word, through Christian community, through repenting of our sins, through prayer. Are there moments of, you know, supernatural joy, excitement, even healing? Yeah, there can be because God is able to do all things. He's the God of the impossible, so we don't want to minimize that, but we don't want to minimize the other ways the Spirit is working today, too. The main ways, revealing Jesus to us, the gospel to us, and applying the work of Christ to our lives. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.