I believe in angels!

ANGELS:
When Heaven Meets Earth
By Tim Chester
Christian Focus. 94 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 527 108 868

What a wonderful little book! Billy Graham’s 1994 book on angels runs to 288 dense pages. This one from Tim Chester clocks in at 94 short easy-read sides.

That’s entirely appropriate because one of the things to love about Chester’s book is that it doesn’t speculate: it sticks to what the Bible says, explains and applies it. A longer book would misrepresent the Bible’s emphasis. Yet, more than this, Chester’s book is simply very helpful. It steers the middle ground (the Bible ground, we might say!) between nay-sayers and angel-obsessives. He is clear and thoughtful. Perhaps not everyone will agree with his Old Testament analysis of ‘the Angel of the Lord’ (though I am wholly persuaded), but even a different view will not diminish this great little read.

The book’s climax is a focus on Jesus – wholly appropriate and wonderfully uplifting. The ending was quite abrupt, I felt – almost as though a few extra pages were expected. But perhaps having brought us to Jesus and His saving work, that is not so quite out of place as I first thought.

In a nation where, as Tim tells us, a third of all Brits believe in guardian angels, here is a book to help and encourage Christians and perhaps even provide a starting point in conversations with friends.