Can you tell me why Christians today cannot see angels as the apostles did? I realize that only those baptized with the Holy Spirit (the apostles and those they laid their hands on and Cornelius and his household) were able to perform miracles, but Acts 5:19-20 and Acts 12:7-8 show angels talking to some of the apostles.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
It is common to look at the events recorded in the Bible and conclude from the few events that there must have been more similar events that were not recorded. The problem is that it is a conclusion based on a\u00a0lack<\/strong> of evidence. We see two visitations of angels in Acts to protect people critical to the development of Christianity. Then there was the visitation to Philip to have him teach an Ethiopian in Acts 8. We see another visitation to Cornelius to push the teaching of Gentiles in Acts 10. In Acts 12, an angel strikes down Herod. And in Acts 23, an angel comes to give Paul encouragement.\u00a0Were there more? We don’t know but notice that the visitations were not limited to just the apostles.<\/p>\n “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it<\/em>” (Hebrews 13:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How do you know that angels have not been seen since? It is possible that angels have been seen and just not recognized as angels. I often wonder if the things we consider strange coincidences might not be due to the interference of God’s messengers at times. I can’t prove it one way or the other.<\/p>\n What I do know is that God said angels perform tasks on behalf of God’s people. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?<\/em>” (Hebrews 1:14). This doesn’t require direct communication or observation.<\/p>\n\t Thank you. That makes sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Can you tell me why Christians today cannot see angels as the apostles did? I realize that only those baptized with the Holy Spirit (the apostles and those they laid their hands on and Cornelius and his household) were able to perform miracles, but Acts 5:19-20 and Acts 12:7-8 show angels talking to some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1502],"class_list":["post-18580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-angels"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3951,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-angels-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":0},"title":"Do angels preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do angels preach? Answer: \"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45635,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-cornelius-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":1},"title":"When Was Cornelius Saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 11:5-18 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes is it useful to examine the Scriptures in detail, to get more out of an account \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today we will be looking at the conversion of Cornelius, recorded in Acts 10 and recounted in Acts 11. It is also mentioned in Acts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-saying-people-dont-get-baptized-in-the-holy-spirit-anymore\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":2},"title":"Are you saying people don’t get baptized in the Holy Spirit anymore?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are you saying that people don't get baptized in the Holy Spirit anymore? If this is so, then what is it called when people are filled with the Holy Spirit? Like I have seen people get prayed for and they will shake and fall to the ground because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-baptism-of-cornelius\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":3},"title":"The Baptism of Cornelius","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Acts 10:34-48 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Groups who believe in the direct operation of the Holy Spirit in their lives today will cite the conversion of Cornelius and his household as proof \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some will go so far as to state that a person is not really saved unless they experience the baptism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-philip-an-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":4},"title":"Was Philip an apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Bible about baptism. As we were searching through the Scriptures we came across this man called Philip, who was able to perform miracles and stuff. We all know those gifts were given to the apostles only and before anyone can even receive them, an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-spirit-only-given-to-the-obedient\/","url_meta":{"origin":18580,"position":5},"title":"Is the Spirit only given to the obedient?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your study on Cornelius, you indicated that receiving the Holy Spirit did not necessarily indicate that a person believed or was saved. You cited the examples of Saul and Balaam as proof, but doesn't\u00a0Acts 5:32\u00a0contradicts this? Answer: The study being referred to is \"Cornelius Received the Holy Spirit.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n