Angelology: Archangel Michael accompanies souls to heaven

Angels visit all people when they die, believers say. The leader of all angels - the Archangel Michael - appears shortly before the moment of death to those who have not yet connected to God, giving them one last chance of salvation before their time to decide ends. The guardian angels in charge of taking care of each person's soul throughout their lives also encourage them to trust God. So, Michael and the guardian angels work together to escort the souls of those who are saved to paradise immediately after their death. .

Michael presents one last chance to salvation
Shortly before the death of someone whose soul is not saved, Michael visits to present them with one last opportunity to put their faith in God so they can go to heaven, believers say.

In his book, Communicating with Archangel Michael for orientation and protection, Richard Webster writes:

"When someone is dying, Michael appears and gives each soul a chance to redeem himself, frustrating Satan and his helpers as a result."

Michael is a patron saint of dying people in the Catholic church because of his role which encourages the dying to trust God.

In his book The Life and Prayers of Saint Michael the Archangel, Wyatt North writes:

“We know that it is Saint Michael who accompanies the faithful in their last hour and on their very day of judgment, interceding on our behalf before Christ. In this way, he balances the good deeds of our life against the bad ones, embodied by the stairs [in a work of art depicting Michael who weighs souls]. "

North encourages readers to prepare to meet Michael whenever their time to die comes:

“Daily devotion to Michael in this life will ensure that he is waiting to receive your soul at the hour of your death and to lead you to the Eternal Kingdom. […] When we die, our souls are open to last-minute attacks by Satan's demons, yet invoking Saint Michael, protection is guaranteed through his shield. Upon reaching the seat of Christ's judgment, St. Michael intercedes on our behalf and will ask for forgiveness. [...] Trust your family and friends and invoke his support every day for everyone you love, praying above all for his defense at the end of your life. If we truly desire to be led into the Eternal Kingdom to reside in the presence of God, we must invoke the guidance and protection of St. Michael throughout our lives. "

Guardian angels communicate with the people they care about
The guardian angel of each dying person (or angels, if God has assigned more than one to that person) also communicates with the person as he is facing the transition to the afterlife, believers say.

In his book The invisible world: understanding angels, demons and spiritual realities around us, Anthony Destefano writes:

“[You won't be] only when you die - because your guardian angel will be there with you. [...] The whole purpose of his mission [of your guardian angel] was to help you with the ups and downs of life and to help you get to heaven. Does it make sense to abandon you right at the end? Of course not. It will be there with you. And even if it is a pure spirit, somehow mysterious you can see it, know it, communicate with it and recognize the role it has played in your life. "

The most important argument that guardian angels must discuss with people who are about to die is their salvation. Destefano writes:

“At the moment of death, when our souls leave our bodies, all that will be left is the choice we have made. And that choice will either be for God or against him. And it will be solved - forever. "

Guardian angels "pray with people and for people and offer their prayers and good works to God" throughout people's lives, including eventually, writes Rosemary Ellen Guiley in her book The Encyclopedia of Angels.

While Michael talks spirit-to-spirit with every unsaved person who is about to die - prompting them to believe in God and to trust God for salvation - the guardian angel who took care of that person supports Michael's efforts . People who die, whose souls are already saved, don't need Michael's last minute urging to connect with God. But they need encouragement that there is nothing to fear as they leave Earth for heaven, so their guardian angels often communicate that message to them, believers say.

Ever since Adam, the first human being, died, God has assigned his highest ranking angel - Michael - to escort human souls to heaven, believers say.

The life of Adam and Eve, a religious text considered sacred but not canonical in Judaism and Christianity, describes how God attributes to Michael the role of bringing Adam's soul to heaven. After Adam's death, his wife still alive, Eve and the angels in heaven pray that God will have mercy on Adam's soul. The angels beg God together, saying in chapter 33: "Holy, forgive because it is your image and the work of your holy hands".

God then allows Adam's soul to enter heaven and Michael meets him there. Chapter 37 verses 4 to 6 says:

“The Father of all, sitting on his holy throne, stretched out his hand, took Adam and handed him over to the archangel Michael, saying: 'Lift him up to heaven to the third heaven and leave him there until that terrible day of my reckoning , which I will do in the world. 'Then Michael took Adam and left him where God had told him. "

The role of Michael who accompanies the souls of people in paradise inspired the popular folk song "Michael, Row the Boat on land". As someone who guides people's souls, Michael is known as a psychopump (a Greek word meaning "guide of souls") and the song alludes to an ancient Greek myth about a psychopump who carried souls across a river that separates the world of live from the world of the dead.

Evelyn Dorothy Oliver and James R. Lewis in their book, Angels from A to Z, write:

“One of the most familiar psychopumps of antiquity was Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology responsible for transporting the spirits of the dead across the River Styx and into the realm of the dead. In the Christian world, it was natural for angels to come to function as psychopumps, a job that Michael is particularly associated with. The old evangelical melody "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is an allusion to his work as a psychopomp. As the images of the rowing suggest, Archangel Michael is represented as a sort of Christian Charon, who transports souls from earth to heaven. "

Guardian angels help escort souls to heaven
Guardian angels accompany Michael (who can be in multiple places simultaneously) and the souls of people who died as they travel through the dimensions to reach the entrance to paradise, say believers. "They [guardian angels] receive and protect the soul at the time of death," writes Guiley in the Encyclopedia of Angels. "The guardian angel guides him to the afterlife ...".

The Quran, the main sacred text of Islam, contains a verse describing the work of the guardian angels that transports the souls of people to the afterlife: "[God] sends guardians to watch over you and when death surpasses you, the messengers take away your soul ”(verse 6:61).

Once Michael and the guardian angels arrive with the souls at the entrance to heaven, the angels of the rank of Dominions welcome the souls to heaven. The angels of domination are "what we might call the" heralds of incoming souls ", writes Sylvia Browne in Sylvia Browne's Book of Angels. "They stand at the end of the tunnel and form a welcome door for those souls who pass over it."