Which denominations believe in modern angelic interventions?

Question

The Bible has tons of accounts where angelic beings paid a visit to our physical realm to carry out specific assignments. Concerning angels, Satan himself, while tempting Jesus in the desert, cited a promise from Psalm 91:

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

[Matthew 4:5-11, ESV]

In Acts 10 we find another example, when an angel visited Cornelius in a vision:

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. [Acts 10:1-8, ESV]

And the most clear angelic intervention in my opinion took place in the liberation of Peter, in Acts 12:

6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” [Acts 12:6-11, ESV]

Question: Which denominations believe that angels still intervene in our physical realm today?

Answer 1

Most denominations that I know of believe that angels are always involved in human affairs without being noticed by anyone (Heb 31:2) and are almost never physically manifesting themselves to people. Even in the Bible there are many prophets, apostles and great men of faith that have no record of an angelic physical manifestation. Of course, at the time of Christ and during the lives of the Apostles there is a peak occurrence of, not only angelic manifestations, but demonic possessions recorded in the Bible.

Thus it happens to many a man that he will escape fire, water, murder, and other misfortunes because of some insignificant thing that has moved him. Such a thought, or whatever it may be, comes to him so that he does, all at once, the thing that saves him, a thing which he could never have foreseen or thought beforehand but of which he must say, “Indeed, if I had done this or that, I surely should have drowned, been burned to death or murdered, or died or suffered harm in some other way”; or, as someone else might say, “You had your guardian angel with you there.” The Gentiles therefore ascribed such happenings to good fortune and made an idol of fortune. For they saw and learned that such things happened but did not know that the true God had done them through His holy angels. So it happened that St. Augustine, when the heretics were lying in wait to kill him, took a different road without any further thought but undoubtedly because of his angel’s doing. And when Emperor Julius leaped from the ship and escaped his enemies by swimming, he surely was of good courage and confidence;11 yet his counsel and courage had been inspired in him by his guardian angel from without and by God from within. Thus it is with all men when they escape misfortune or have good fortune: it is all the work of God and the angels.( Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 20: Minor Prophets III: Zechariah. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 20, p. 170). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.)

There is no historical denomination over the last two thousand years that urges some sort of recognition that every day Christianity should be somehow more spiritual than the days of Christ, through some odd unexplained manifestation of angelic beings for random purposes. (At least no denomination that I am aware of).

When we look at all the visitations of angels that are in the Bible they almost all seem to be related to spreading the knowledge of the coming Messiah, to directly support the Messiah, or to support the ministry of the Apostles in laying down the foundation of the gospel for the church. There are of course some other instances where angels are involved in judgments of God upon sinners and other miscellaneous interventions.

It only makes sense therefore that if the primary purpose of the angels (with respect to physical representations) is to help promulgate the gospel at key points in the history of the church’s battle against the Devil, individual encounters for the sake of experiences or for some comparatively minor subject, seem not to be expected or to be even claimed by most every believer. I personally have never met a believer that claimed to have an experience with an angel.

To offer a possible answer then to the question of which denominations think angels are running around manifesting themselves to people today, basically none. If asking are angels busy and involved in human day-to-day affairs, I guess about all denominations. If asking is it possible that God could still direct an angels to physically manifest themselves in some important situation for the continued promulgation of the gospel or some other unusual spiritual situation of great importance, I would say again all denominations. Most people do not put a rule on what God can do just because he doesn’t seem to usually.

Answer 2

The Vineyard Movement

The Vineyard Movement is a Protestant denomination that is part of the broader Evangelical and Charismatic movements, and, quoting the relevant sections of the Statement of Faith on their Australian website:

WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.

WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God’s judgement of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgement of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

...

WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgement. Through the preaching of the Good news of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the works of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s Kingdom reign.