St. Michael and All Angels

Today is the feast day of St. Michael and All Angels!

Revelation 12:7-12 :

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back,  but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.  Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"

Collect:

O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant that, as thy holy angels always serve and worship thee in heaven, so by thy appointment they may help and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

I had wanted to use this oppurtunity to blog on guardian angels, but got busy with school, perhaps later.

Web Link -55% of Americans believe in Angels

According to the Washington Times (Here) a survey conducted by Baylor University found that 55% of Americans believe in angels. 

Here are some quotes from the article:

A big dose of irony:

"theological liberals are more apt to believe in the paranormal and the occult - haunted houses, UFOs, communicating with the dead and astrology - than do conservatives." 

Not too surprising:

"Atheism is a “godless revolution that never happened,” the survey said, adding that irreligion often is not effectively transmitted to children who, when they reach adulthood, often join conservative religious denominations."

How would Apotropaics work?

In an earlier post there was a comment about the seeming “relic-nonsense” in the Catholic Church, yet that appears to be confirmed by scripture in such cases as Acts 19:12 where we apparently have relics of St. Paul (here they are technically 2nd degree relics) healing people who touch them. In the Catholic Church there is the idea of “sacramentals”, things such as Holy Water and Oil that become, like sacraments, channels of divine grace. 

Many movies play off of this idea during encounters with the demonic. At times holy water will burn them, or a cross/crucifix will repel evil. When sacramental objects are used in this manner they are called “apotropaics” or things that act as a repellent for evil (technically even prayers such as Pslam 91 would fall in this category). 

At this point the more Protestant one is, the more likely they are to use phrases such as “superstition”, “magic”, or the dreaded “popery”. It this fair?

First, there is some scriptural support for God working through physical objects in really unusual ways. Second there is already the precedent of the sacraments where God works his power through physical reality and third…

Third, I wish to propose a way that some apotropaics might work without even needing to accept all of Catholic theology on the sacramentals. This would not mean they do work, but it would provide some conceptual framework to determine if it is possible.

The argument runs like this:

1. Demons are spirits and so are simple creatures

This does not mean they are “simplistic” but that they are non-complex. In terms of emotion they experience it different from humans. For humans emotions are tied up with physicality. When we love or hate, we do so as a physical creature with material chemicals in our brain. This is proven by the way drugs can alter emotions. Angels and Demons, however, do not have this physical connection to their emotions like we do. So when they experience “love” or “hate” or “fear” they do so as a matter of volition more then passion. This also means that they would experience this “emotion” at a higher core part of their being, and perhaps cannot express the complexity of emotion that we can.

2. Symbols create emotional responses

To many people a Nazi flag brings up images in the mind of war and terror. To even more people (Hindu) in brings to mind feelings to good luck. Either way the fact is that the symbol produces a certain response in the brain. To a Jew, especially one who lived though the holocaust, the Nazi flag would bring up images and feelings of hate, fear, ect. Same with people who have had a horrible experience with water, they are truly terrified on a deep level of water sometimes. An event can cause a phobia, which in turn even symbolic representations of that phobia can create strong reactions. 

3. The Cross (and maybe others) act as a symbol of fear in the demonic

St. Paul said that the Cross is where Christ disarmed the powers of evil (Col 2:14-15), the crucifixion of Christ is the focal point where Christ triumphed over the demonic. This event not only is the ultimate defeat of the demonic but also signals their eventual banishment to the abyss of hell. Now consider that the sign of the Cross would have to have some reaction on the part of the demonic. Perhaps it brings to their mind images of defeat and future punishment. Now because they are simple spirits, these are not just chemical reactions but connected to their very wills. So when a demon comes into “contact” with a Cross/Crucifix they are repulsed by the overpowering images on their wills that the symbol brings.

Now also combine this with ideas from scripture of sacred objects and with God’s omnipresence and omnipotence and the testimony of Church history, and we have a strong possibility for the reality of apotropaic sacramentals. Perhaps these same principles even apply to Holy Water and Oil. It is hard to say just how the physical and spiritual worlds effect each other. Perhaps blessings make a symbol out of a non-symbol and can have the same effect. Or maybe not?

Marian Apparitions?

Being more protestant then my catholic brethren, I tend not to put allot of stock in claimed visions and apparitions of the Theotokos (I term I do use at least). However these are relevant to this blog in some ways.

As such Here is a link to an article about the Pope and Marian apparitions. Apparently he is having the rules revised and made more critical of claimed encounters and revelations. 

I'm undecided on appearances of saints and angels in the modern world. I don't think I can say it is impossible for at least angels to continue to appear. It would be highly absurd to think we have recorded in scripture all angel appearances ever made, and then that afterwards there have been none. Saints like Mary are a bit trickier. The closest in scripture to an occurrence like this was the Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah appeared on the mountain with Jesus, but they didn’t deliver a message and it seemed unique. Now a Reformed theologian will then say that is enough, if God didn’t have a saint appear in scripture delivering a message, then a saint can’t do this. This is an epistemological issue with the use of scripture that is beyond this blog (see Moreland’s article on evangelicals being over committed to scripture for more) and so I don’t think we can go that far.

Does this mean that they are legitimate? Not necessarily, just that they should be critically examined by trained theologians and investigators, and not believed because they become popular places to visit. The Pope is right to enforce some standards of investigations and emphasize that “No apparition is indispensable to the faith”.

The new guidelines have not been drawn up yet, but I would think they would be along the lines of:

1) Are there any possible natural explanations for the visions?

2) Have they been witnessed by more then one person over a length of time?

3) Do the messages given conflict with the Christina faith?

4) Do the people who flock there leave encouraged to live a life of faith and virtue?

5) Does the entire event glorify God?

I’m sure some more could be added, and it would be interesting to see what the Papal commission comes up with, as it could be applied to any supernatural visions such as modern angel encounters within both catholic and protestant circles.