TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL?...OR BY WHAT?
This article appears here with the kind permission of Let Us Reason.Org to whom we are grateful.
Our society has become increasingly aware of the supernatural
realm through the psychic network and channeling of spirits. The
Occult has become popularized by movies such as Ghost, Close
Encounters, Independence Day, and Lion King. TV programs on
occultic phenomenon include the X-files, Sliders, Dark Skies and
many others.
Angels recently have become very popular, being more than just an
ornament on a Christmas tree. Over the last few years they have
appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek and numerous other
magazines. Some New Age music is even developed from spirit or
angelic contact. Now there are angel magazines, crystals, shirts,
stuffed angels, tea sets, key chains, earrings and jewelry with
angels on them. Angelic activity is the primary theme on some
movies and TV programs. There are Angel websites, Angel Times
newspaper and angel seminars for those who are serious enough to
learn how to contact their own guardian angels.
A recent Gallup poll found 69% of Americans believe in angels,
50% believe they have had a presence of a guardian angel in their
life (Time magazine found similar results; 68% believe in angels
and 32% have one in their life). There are over 200 books on
angels, the majority written from non-Christians such as 'One
Hundred Ways to Attract Angels'. There are also numerous
Christian books on encounters with angels such as 'The Rustle of
Angels' and a Life Guide Bible Studies curriculum. Some Christian
books are accurately well written such as 'All the Angels of the
Bible' by Herbert Lockyer, 'Angels Elect and Evil' by Fred
Dickason, 'Angels; God Secret Agents' by Billy Graham and 'Angels
Among Us' by Ron Rhodes. Recently NBC aired a special on angels
which was quite fascinating, approximately 17,000 people
requested this program. Over 2,000 web sites on the Internet are
angel related. It is obvious that our generation is intrigued and
awed by these "Messengers from Heaven."
"Touched by an Angel" is one of the most popular programs on
today (11th in the ratings), many people claim that their lives
have actually been changed by simply watching it. This program is
centered around three angels, two women and a man. They are on a
mission to earth to help mankind out of it's messes and spread
the message that God loves them.
This program has become a media phenomenon in which 10,000
letters are received every week from people who share how the
show has changed their outlook and lives. John Dye who plays the
angel of death says many of these letters are about how people no
longer fear death. Recently the cast of this program were hosted
as guests on the Oprah Winfrey show. They talked about how the
show has changed people's lives. Dela Reese related one story of
how she met someone who came up to her and said "your show saved
my life", "my husband died 6 months ago and I didn’t know
how to handle it because I was a wreck, I saw a man on your show
having a good time when he died so I related it to my husband."
Roma Downey who plays Monica says, "sometimes the end is just the
beginning. Dela added, " The end is usually the beginning, it
hurts so awfully bad when a beautiful life is taken away from us
but it never really is taken away." The message being emphasized
is that we are not to fear death if we are 'good people'. We hear
continually today about people drawing their erroneous theology
from TV evangelists , and some talk shows are equally
destructive. Their influence over America is enormous.
Before I focus on the underlying message or the portrayals that
are being promoted, there are a few things that need to be
clarified. I happen to agree with the critics that TV needs a
face lift, there are far too many programs with a worldly message
and the promotion of sin in our society. The message in most
shows is to eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we all die.
The common denominator for this kind of broadcasting is the
philosophy that there really is no God to consider.
In "Touched by an Angel," we have a program that centers upon the
fact that there really is a God! What a needed and
refreshing message! Moreover, this God wants to communicate with
man and He really cares about us!
The stories are often times emotionally moving with moral lessons
that show how we should learn from our mistakes in life. But we
need to recognize that there is a price to pay when commendable
truth is united with an unbiblical message. Instead of upholding
the teachings of the Bible, it actually conflicts with biblical
teachings, and can be disastrous for those who embrace its
message. You see, the poisonous theology is, 'everyone who is
good, goes to heaven'. How wrong! All one has to do is reform
their life and they are accepted. God loves you, He will forgive
you and with His help you can change. All that is required is
faith in God. Regardless of the religion people identify with,
love is what sets them free.
Let's identify one of the major problems! The audience never
finds out who this God is! So one can make one up on their own if
they like.
The program sounds Christian on the surface, but looking beyond
the beautiful music and the emotionalism birthed through the
actors, we find a message of universalism! This should not be
surprising, since this is the message of the Unity Church of
which has some influence in the program's theology. Take for
example on a recent episode a little girl tells about her
goldfish who died and was flushed down the toilet and said it
went to heaven. The mother was disturbed by this but Tess said to
her, "that’s all right there’s a lot of ways to
heaven."
"Touched by an Angel" is filmed on real location in Salt Lake
City Utah. Being in Mormon country does not affect it's message,
because it is coming from a whole other influence. In real life,
Dela Reese is an ordained Unity minister who married Roma (who
plays Monica on the show) to Davi Ansba. Dela’s mentor is
Johnny Coleman, one of the most famous of Unity ministers. As a
religion, Unity accepts all books of scripture, thinking Christ
is within all people and we can all be Christ. Unity denies evil,
pain, sickness, and poverty. Death is not real so it is not to
have mastery over a person's life.
God is not a being or a person having life, intelligence, love or
power…It does not matter what we call this power.
Salvation is believed to be attained by at-one-ment with God and
that reincarnation is the provision by the father for humans to
obtain immortality. The false and fallacious Unity influence is
the sandy foundation for the underlying spiritual message
throughout the show, "Touched by an Angel."
Dela has her own church, started in 1983 called 'Understanding
Principles of Better Living'. Its logo, a hot-air balloon,
symbolizes "understanding; the principles of positive thought."
She describes seeing God, not "in the sky with a beard like
Neptune's sitting on a throne watching me", but as one "spirit
and he disperses himself in various bodies…. There's a
piece of God in you. That's how you can breathe."
Dela certainly has much to say in the way God is portrayed on the
program. She believes this show is a God thing and Roma agrees.
She states "You can’t say to someone every week on TV that
God loves them if you don’t mean it or believe it." This
idea has resonated throughout her own life. Each person feels
very deeply in the message they are acting out on the show. They
claim that they are merely giving people more information for
their choice.
Unita Belk Writing for Angel Times Magazine interviewed Della
Reese and asked, "is there anything you would like to share with
our readers?" Here's her answer and solution to the problems in
the world. "That all of us need to adopt the code: I am one with
God, I am one with all men, I am one with all life," answered
Della, exposing the universalistic faith that characterizes all
proper models for the new global spirituality 'needed to unify
the world'. "Until we get there, there will be Bosnia, there will
be homelessness…. Until we understand that we are all one,
we got a big problem."
Tess and Monica drive an old 1970 Cadillac on their angelic
adventures to help mankind. This is similar to the Lone Ranger
and Tonto or to the Batman and Robin shows. They are there for
the rescue! These similarities of heroes in our TV past are not
the unsettling part. What is disturbing is how they portray
angels. When they are given case assignments they will take on
different jobs among humans. So you watch these angels comfort
the people and try to give them understanding about the puzzle of
the twists and turns of life; However these angels don’t
have any halos. They can make some serious messes; and can even
do wrong, just like humans. These angels can take the free will
of man away and manipulate them when they are not ready to
respond. They can do so much wrong that it is hard to understand
how they could be much help since they often don't seem much
better than those they are trying to help!
These TV "Angels" wear wedding rings, admit their mistakes and
(incredibly!) need God’s forgiveness. One episode featured
a head angel who came to give them a 'pep talk' saying they
messed up but God can handle it even when they do wrong. Monica
in one scene, has such bad judgment that another angel tells her
that her existence as an angel is in jeopardy because she lied.
Another time when corrected, she asks the angel over her to send
her back to the choir!
Recently the movie "Michael" featured Dianetic graduate John
Travolta. He supposedly plays Michael the Arch Angel who is
portrayed more sinful than we are. This angel likes seeing the
strange quirks of mankind, smokes cigarettes, likes women, and
fights in bar room brawls. The producer of this movie took the TV
theme to its natural end. We can hope this will be the last of
this type of portrayal and not prompt Hollywood to make another
TV series of a swinging Angel.
In the show, spiritual insight is portrayed as given to the
public through angelic wisdom. For instance, Monica says she
figured out why faces are on the front ‘its so we can see
where we are going and not where we’ve been." Or when Tess
says "A tomato is like a human soul; it takes a long time to
ripen and bruises real easy."
Martha Williamson, the executive producer, claims to be a
Christian and also believes in angels. She related a story of
when they were signing every one up for insurance on the show,
the nurse came in and said "Dela has a problem, she would not
sign the paper". She is supposed to write 6 months in the space
but she would not sign because God told her they would be on for
10 years. As she states God said, "Do this for me. and you can
retire in ten years." Della claims to like the message of the
show because it is different, saying "God needs you, not we need
God." The Biblical message is we need God and he chooses to use
us, making us vessels of honor to bring glory to Himself. This is
definitely not the message sent. Della states "The angels on the
show don't come to fix people in trouble. they come to teach them
how to fix themselves." Oprah asked the actors "do you believe
people in human form are angels to other people" "Absolutely,"
all agreed. Oprah also likes the show because "you see God
through your experience and feeling in your life. Its not just
some "words written in a book" its about experiencing truth, the
higher part of yourself". They are not talking about the "old
time religion" of the Bible, but spirituality of a new kind.
Oprah has been promoting this type of New Age nonsense for years.
It's a message of tolerance and acceptance for all. Dela
comments, "we're not Catholic, Methodist, New Thought, there is a
supreme being whatever name you got for him is fine." Oprah in
response says "a supreme being doesn’t get jealous of one
thing or another." So we can see the underlying theme of
acceptance and tolerance for all is at the heart of the approach,
but biblically there is one way to God, indeed, The God of the
Bible reveals his name is Jealous! To call on God as if His word
about His character has no meaning shows disrespect!
The message of "Touched by an Angel" is, God loves you. Yet the
program denies the very One that God sent to show His love.
Rather, the message is that God loves them unconditionally and
forever, "God wants only the best for them, yet can't make them
do anything. Human beings have been given free will, and the
choice is always ours." (Ladies Home Journal p.183) While this is
true, it insinuates that we have the free choice to do exactly
what God asks of us, that we can be forgiven without Christ's
work. The incarnation of Jesus is God reaching out to the human
race. The name of Jesus is the only name given for salvation! His
name is the very expression of God's nature. To deny the biblical
revelation and say, God can be called whatever anyone wants is an
affront both to His name and to His nature.
At the end of every program a dove flies by ending the episode
giving the impression that God is expressing His approval.
Instead of the Spirit of God flying by on the screen how much
better if He should take residence in our lives! Then this whole
fantasy show about angels would begin to demonstrate truth,
rather than be a misleading tool for fiction, and false
confidence!
Then it's focus would change to get the real message of God's
love out to the masses. Without Jesus Christ you have no message
from God and neither does "Touched by an Angel." I think we can
generally enjoy the program but be aware of the severely
distorted message behind the show. To be spiritually naive leads
towards anti-biblical understandings of the One True God,
authentic angels and the only hope for mankind.
(This article is Copyright of Let Us Reason.Org to
whom we are grateful).
You may also wish to read
WHAT IS THE
'UNITY' SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY?
WITNESS
TO THE WORD MENU
TAKE ME TO
YOUR MUSELTOF COUNTERCULT AND APOLOGETICS SITE
TAKE ME TO YOUR UK APOLOGETICS SITE
