When the movie Angels in the Outfield debuted in 1994, I was 12 years old and remembered being enamored with the idea that angels could be involved in sports. The plot centered around a young boy in the foster care system who prays that God would help the Angels win the pennant. To his surprise, he begins seeing angels helping his team win games. While everyone else dismisses the extraordinary plays, the boy can actually see the help angels are providing to the players throughout the game. 

The existence of angels and their potential role within the context of sports still fascinates me. Do angels help athletes? If so, what does that help look like? 

As we explore this topic, we need to stay tethered to God’s Word. As a point of reference, I am relying heavily on Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology for definitions and the appropriate Bible passages pertaining to angels. Grudem’s chapter on angels is varsity-level theology. This is a junior varsity (at best) understanding, explanation, and pontification about them and their potential interest in sports. 

What are angels?

Let’s start with what the Bible tells us about angels. 

Angels have not existed for all of eternity alongside God. They were created by Him. In Nehemiah 9:6, the prophet Ezra describes angels as the “host” or “host of heaven” that God created along with the heavens.  

They also exercise moral judgment (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6) and have high intellect (Matthew 28:5, Acts 12:6-11). 

Angels ordinarily move around as unseen spiritual beings (Hebrews 1:14), they occasionally take on physical bodies (Hebrews 13:2), and on rare occasions, God gives people the ability to see them (Numbers 22:32, 2 Kings 6:17, Luke 2:13).

With this biblical groundwork, Grudem defines an angel as, a created spiritual being with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without a physical body.

What is their purpose?

Grudem gives five reasons why angels exist.

1. They show the greatness of God’s love and plan for us (Hebrews 1:14).

2. They remind us that the spiritual realm is real (2 Kings 6:17).

3. They are examples for us (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 5:11-12).

4. They carry out some of God’s plans (Luke 1:11-19, Acts 8:26, 2 Samuel 24:16-17, Matthew 16:27, Zechariah 1:10-11, Daniel 10:13).

5. They glorify God directly (Psalm 103:20, 148:2, Isaiah 6:2-3).

With some biblical backdrop for who they are and what they do, we can now cautiously move forward with answering questions about angels and their potential involvement in sports. 

If the question is broadly asked “Do angels assist athletes in sports” I think the answer is yes, they do. The logical next question is, “how”? 

Angels protect us

I think angels help athletes by protecting them from injury.

And I think that based on a few passages in the Bible. The first is from Psalm 91:11-12: 

“For he will command his angels concerning you 

to guard you in all your ways. 

On their hands they will bear you up, 

lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

These two verses teach us that part of angels’ role is to sometimes protect us. We also see angels shutting the mouths of the lions to protect Daniel (Daniel 6:22). We see them ministering to Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11) and helping the apostles escape from prison (Acts 12:7-11 and Acts 5:19-20). 

Grudem points out that “When a car suddenly swerves from hitting us, when we suddenly find footing to keep from being swept along in a raging river, when we walk unscathed in a dangerous neighborhood, should we not suspect that God has sent his angels to protect us?” 

I think, tethered to a biblical understanding of angels, it’s not a stretch to believe that at times they might be responsible for helping us prevent an injury. It seems to me that would fall into a category of their responsibility. If part of their purpose is to carry out God’s plan—and if part of God’s plan is for us to stay healthy, I think angels may play a role in that. 

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: God’s plan does not always align with injury-free seasons.

But do angels help us win? 

This leads to the question that I am most curious about: If one of the reasons angels exist is to carry out some of God’s plans—and it’s within His plan for a certain team to win (or for an athlete to have success), would it be a stretch to believe that angels would help assist in that process? 

I would lean towards no on this question. I’m not saying they have zero involvement in the outcome of a competition. They might. And while it wouldn’t surprise me to learn in heaven that God ordered his angels to make sure the Detroit Lions never won a Super Bowl during my lifetime, I don’t think the Bible supports a stance of angelic involvement in this way. 

It seems we can make a biblical argument for angels intervening to save, protect, and minister—not to secure victory. 

What other ways can angels potentially help athletes?

While talking about Hebrews 13:2, Grudem says the author of Hebrews “suggests that angels can sometimes take human form, apparently to make ‘inspection visits,’ something like the newspaper’s restaurant critic who disguises himself and visits a new restaurant.”

Hebrews 13:2 reads “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

The culture of sports seems like it is ripe for “inspection visits.” Much of the focus is on self. It’s easy to get tunnel vision as an athlete and lock in on our goals, our training, our wants, our needs, and our desires. Is it a stretch to believe, based on Hebrews 13:2, that God may send angels on rare occasions to cross our paths to see if we will notice somebody who needs hospitality and serve them towards that end? In this understanding, angels help us by giving us opportunities to put our faith to the test in tangible ways: seeing others and serving others.

It’s both interesting and challenging to think about how the truth of that verse could play out in our athletic environment.

Should athletes ask angels for help?

If it’s true that angels help keep us safe at times, should athletes specifically ask angels for protection before competition? 1 Timothy 2:5 is clear that there is one mediator between God and man. It’s Jesus, that’s it. We should not pray to angels as that would attribute them with God-like status. Nor should we worship them. 

Paul was clear in his letter to the church of Colossae that angel worship was not permissible (Colossians 2:18). 

Grudem even argues that “scripture gives us no warrant to seek for appearances of angels to us. They manifest themselves unsought. To seek such appearance would seem to indicate an unhealthy curiosity or a desire for signs of spectacular events rather than a love for God and devotion to him and his work.”

So then, what are we to do about angels? Nothing, really. We can appreciate their existence. We can thank God for the unseen realities of the world. And we can trust God is going to use whatever he has at his disposal (which is everything!), including angels, to “work all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).