Project quote:

“My husband has gone home to be another angel in the heavens…He now comes to me as a spirit guide and helps me with my spiritual work.” (M.W., A Wonderful Journey, 2018)

My thoughts:

I’ve struggled in the past with understanding people’s stories of angels, ghosts, and spirit guides. My opinion on this subject has gone through a few changes, so I just want you as the reader to be aware of this. If you’re skimming through the article, realize that some of the thoughts mentioned throughout are not my current opinions. It may not seem significant to each of you, but it’s important to me for readers to know that.

I’m not aware of how every religion and denomination views angels, death and spirits, and I have no desire to know what everyone thinks on the subject. It’s always interesting to learn new information and hear other people’s opinions, but I’m more invested in the truth of the matter. For a person who believes in God in some form, the most relevant question seems to be, what happens to people when they die? Specifically, those who aren’t being punished or going to hell or wherever you believe God sends someone who isn’t saved.

I was raised being taught that one of three things happen when humans die: They either stop existing completely, or sleep until they are brought back to life as humans on a cleansed earth or die and join a select few who will rule in heaven over humans on the cleansed earth. These three eventualities left no room for dead loved ones becoming angels that communicate with the living.

Fast forward to my late twenties, and I started thinking differently. I started doubting God even existed, yet still wondered about people’s accounts of ghosts or communication with angels. I was not ready to discount all of these persons’ experiences simply because I didn’t know how to explain them. I also felt that it was certainly possible that other beings, what most people would call aliens, could be the culprits. Every option was on the table because I clearly didn’t know either way and couldn’t possibly know everything there was to know.

Fast forward to my early forties, when I explored another view which I won’t go into because I never believed it at any point. I was simply testing a theory.

Fast forward to more recently. Now I definitely believe in God—Jesus. When it comes to angels, however, I believe that they are separate beings from humans, and humans never become angels. I believe people who are saved—”a great multitude”, not a small percentage of people—go to heaven and will be in the presence of angels and Jesus. I believe that there are only two sources for superhuman communication: God or Satan/fallen angels. When it comes to individuals having guardian angels, I’m not clear on that yet. I doubt it, but I haven’t done enough research to say. But I definitely believe that people who have died do NOT begin appearing to and communicating with humans on earth. So, for legitimate cases of communication from a ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’ that claims (or is claimed by someone else such as a medium) to previously have been a human, the source seems clear to me: Satan or one of his fallen angels.

If angels—guardian or otherwise—currently choose to communicate with humans, then they wouldn’t pose as a dead loved one, because this would be lying. I don’t know whether they actually do communicate with humans or not (yet), so I’ll leave it at that.

I think it is easy for many good-hearted people to be fooled by personalities and celebrities who claim to hear messages from dead loved ones. Especially if they are given knowledge or messages they couldn’t possibly have learned on their own. Especially if the messages are positive and rewarding. I also think that for those who are open to non-traditional explanations for supernatural phenomena, it’s easy to make up an explanation or subscribe to various popular beliefs such as astrology, crystals, paganism, and new-age concepts of god. I’ve fallen in these traps myself at one time or another. While I appreciate the variety of people’s personalities and ideas and I enjoy talking with open-minded individuals, I am grateful to finally have gained clarity about our reality.

I’ll cite just a few verses of many from the KJV that relate to this discussion (angels). Please keep in mind that I’m stating what I believe based on the information I have up to this point. If I ever find evidence to contradict or clarify any of it, I’ll be sure to add to the article later. Of course, the best thing would be to do your own research and not rely on my opinion or the opinion of any other man or woman.

All verses are from the King James Bible; (NOT the New King James Version, which is a modern ‘translation’, therefore, not the actual purified words of God)
Genesis 2:1, Deuteronomy 18:9-12, Matthew 13:47-50, Matthew 18:5-11, Luke 6:18, Luke 24:39, 2 Corinthians 11:13,14, Revelation 7:9-14

A little background: I believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the only true English bible because it was/is never revised or rewritten, whereas all other versions change every year, for various reasons, either monetary or to fit with a church’s particular interpretation. This is a whole other conversation which could last for hours, but briefly I’ll mention that almost all modern bibles come from a couple English manuscripts which are considered older than the KJV manuscript. However, they were clearly inferior and full of errors and found in the Vatican’s storage room (as you would expect an inferior copy full of mistakes to be). In contrast, the KJV is a compilation of hundreds of copies that were compared and checked for accuracy and agreement and approved by a King. The ‘original’ Hebrew and Greek manuscripts don’t exist, obviously.**

If a person is to believe in God as all powerful and all knowing, then clearly it would stand to reason that this God would have the capability to preserve his exact words as he said he would. That is why I feel the KJV holds the actual words of God, because they haven’t changed since they were translated into English and published in 1611. The KJV has been corrected for printing errors and spelling standardization, but the text has not been changed. Anyone who believes that God would allow humans to change his words/doctrines constantly, as they do in the myriads of modern translations and versions, doesn’t believe in his power or infallibility, or in his actual words on the subject.

**I have likely explained this process somewhat incompletely or incorrectly, which I apologize for and I hope that anyone who is curious about it will look into it themselves, as it is a very intriguing and enlightening story.

Editing projects for weeks ending April 15, 2018:
Eulogy article, Academic research articles, Nonfiction inspirational book, College assignment proofreading
Client countries:  US, China, UK