{"id":7538,"date":"2023-08-14T12:04:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=7538"},"modified":"2023-08-15T10:03:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T14:03:48","slug":"new-survey-finds-over-half-of-americans-believe-angels-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/08\/new-survey-finds-over-half-of-americans-believe-angels-exist.html","title":{"rendered":"New Survey Finds Over Half of Americans Believe Angels Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7559\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7559\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/08\/american-believe-angels-04_credit-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Whether calling upon them for divine protection or solace, almost 70 percent of U.S. adults believe in angels, according to a July 2023 poll <a href=\"https:\/\/apnorc.org\/projects\/belief-in-angels-and-heaven-is-more-common-than-belief-in-the-devil-or-hell\/\">conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>. It\u2019s a stat that beats a belief in the devil and even hell.<\/p>\n<p>George Mason, senior pastor emeritus at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, told Fox News Digital, \u201cI think people want to believe that the universe is friendly and benevolent toward them. Angels are consistent with the character of\u00a0a loving God. They are present in our lives in order to communicate that, whether through messages of grace and encouragement somehow received intuitively in human spirit or through human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Dylan Potter, PH.D. and author of the book \u201cAngelology,\u201d Angels\u2019 role in people\u2019s worldview can be attributed to various psychological, religious, sociocultural, and historical factors. He continued, \u201cThe belief in angels is deeply rooted in religious and spiritual traditions, and their significance can differ across different cultures and belief systems.\u201d Angels are part of what Mason calls the \u201cinvisible creation that we call heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mason said, \u201cI think some people think of creation as being only this visible world that we have, but in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and heaven is the invisible realm of creation.\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s where God and the angels and those who are departed, who live with God and the angels, continue to exist.\u201d Potter said comfort is one of the most common reasons people call out to angels, both in biblical and modern times.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mq7hB3d8SYQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cThe belief in angels can provide\u00a0psychological comfort and reassurance,\u00a0especially in times of distress, grief or uncertainty. One sees this in the biblical text quite frequently, where a notable individual is perplexed or in danger, and an angel comes to comfort them, often with the message to \u2018fear not.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People also turn to angels for protection, but Mason said he doesn\u2019t think \u201cguardian\u201d is their role, preferring the term \u201cmessenger.\u201d He said, \u201cIf you believe that angels are in the business of protecting you, then you also have to answer the question of why some people are not protected from tragedies and others are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The word angel is derived from the Greek word \u201cangelos,\u201d which, in this case, means heavenly messenger. Potter said, \u201cThe subtext of the role of angels in the biblical text is complex but generally supports the idea that God is active in the world.\u201d He continued, \u201cSo God dispatches higher-order beings, which we call \u2018angels,\u2019 to intercede in the physical world. Angels in the biblical text are always quick to clarify that they are simply messengers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of those who said they believe in angels, 84 percent claim a religious affiliation, according to the AP-NORC poll.\u00a0Thirty-three percent of those who believe in angels do not claim any religion.\u00a0Also believing in angels are 2 percent of atheists and 25 percent of agnostics who responded to the survey.<\/p>\n<p>The AP-NORC poll also revealed that 60 percent of respondents believe in heaven, more significant than their beliefs in the devil (56 percent) or hell (58 percent).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether calling upon them for divine protection or solace, almost 70 percent of U.S. adults believe in angels, according to a July 2023 poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It\u2019s a stat that beats a belief in the devil and even hell. George Mason, senior pastor emeritus at Wilshire Baptist Church&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1712],"class_list":["post-7538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","tag-angels"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Survey Finds Over Half of Americans Believe Angels Exist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whether calling upon them for divine protection or solace, almost 70 percent of U.S. adults believe in angels, according to a new survey.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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