I’m nosy to a fault. It also didn’t help that the woman talking on her phone was in the same room at the medical center as I, and in close proximity. While a nurse connected IVs to me and the other patients, I overheard the caller’s conversation.
The woman on her phone and the person on the other end of the call must have been people of faith because they spoke of guardian angels. However, doubts as to the existence of such beings quickly surfaced, coming from the woman who sat a few feet from me.
She said something to the effect of, “I won’t believe in guardian angels. Show me the verse. If it’s not in a verse, I’m not going to believe it.” She was talking about verses in the Bible, the inspired and inerrant written word of God.
Before I endeavor to make an apology for guardian angels, I will first say that I have my own reasons for believing. Walking away unscathed from a few crazy car accidents makes it personal. Also, I direct this argument in favor of guardian angels to people who may not be Catholic, who may not accept an answer from the Catechism as reliable and sound. In other words, I write this especially for those who, like the woman I overheard some years ago, demand proof or some reason to believe in the existence of such companions.
While I write this for someone wary of papist views, I nevertheless bring a distinctly Catholic flavor to my analysis. The Catholic believer is called to wed together the realities of faith and reason and not abandon either. Or rather, faith and reason are the two necessary ways to perceive the one reality in existence.
We will look at the claims of Scripture to appeal to those grounded in a sola scriptura mindset (this supplies the fides). We will also look at secular and pagan (non-Christian) claims that have some bearing on the question of guardian angels (this may be considered the ratio).
Guardian Angels Appear in Scripture
Existence for angels who guard individual people (and not just significant figures) first appears in the Old Testament. A few prominent verses are found in Psalm 91:
“No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:10-12, NAB, emphasis added).
These verses, unlike other prophetic writings, do not refer exclusively to Jesus. These words of comfort from the psalmist’s hand are meant to console all the faithful. Another passage referencing people’s angels comes straight from the lips of our Lord in the Gospels:
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10, NAB, emphasis added). This implies that God’s children have angels of their own. The Christian tradition, as it has matured under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, believes that all the faithful have guardian angels and that these guardians are gifted to each of us at the moment of conception. So, if you ever notice a pregnant woman, know that two guardian angels attend to her safety and that of her unborn child.
Belief in guardian spirits in ancient times was not confined to Scripture only. We find such beliefs elsewhere, as in certain veins of Greek philosophy.
The “Guardian Deities” of Epictetus
Living in the first two centuries after Christ’s Death and Resurrection, Epictetus was a pagan Stoic philosopher. Many of his beliefs sound somewhat monotheistic or, at least, smack of the concept of a deity more powerful than any others.
Among his beliefs regarding the supernatural, Epictetus taught the existence of a personal “guardian deity.” He says, “[God] has provided each of us with an individual guardian deity, which stays by our side and is in charge of looking after us — a guardian who never sleeps and is impossible to distract. Is there any guardian to whose care he could have committed us that is better or more vigilant?”
While we have to discredit the notion of guardian angels being “deities,” or being divine, Christians do believe angels reflect God in their nature as being spiritual creatures typically invisible to human eyes, as God is also spiritual and invisible. Epictetus, who is usually systematic in his reasoning, doesn’t give a cause for this belief but states it matter-of-factly.
The study of anthropology suggests that acknowledging and seeking a being higher than ourselves is an innate human aspiration, the signs of which span from antiquity to the present age. Perhaps humanity’s shared religious experiences, even those set apart from the divine revelation gifted to God’s chosen people, provided reasons for people to believe in the existence of such guardians. Such experiential knowledge is not limited to the ancients, however.
The “Third Man Factor”
The “third man factor,” sometimes called “third man syndrome,” describes a recorded phenomenon occurring to explorers and others who find themselves in life-threatening or high-stress circumstances. Caught in such a situation, those who experience the phenomenon feel the presence of an invisible being who steps in at a decisive moment to provide help or support.
John Geiger’s book The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible (2009) shed light on this modern experience shared by numerous people and popularized the concept. Can we say with certainty that all these experiences are the direct influence of guardian angels? No. But these experiences, like those of the ancients, suggest that there are things beyond sight, beyond measure, beyond scientific observation. In the realm of faith, the invisible is not hard to explain at all.
Holy Guardian Angels, pray for us!
Additional Sources:
“That God Supervises Everyone.” Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings, translated by Robert Dobbin, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2008, pp. 39.