Worship of angels according to Justin Martyr: Response to Albrecht and Co.
by Ibn Anwar
Much to the consternation of Christian apologists, Dr. Shabir Ally has successfully demonstrated that Saint Justin Martyr, whom Christians traditionally hold in high esteem, actually called for the worship of angels along with God. This is based on a particular text from Justine Martyr’s infamous First Apology, which reads as follows:
“So, then, we are called godless. We certainly confess that we are godless with reference to beings like these who are commonly thought of as gods, but not with reference to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is untouched by evil. Him and the Son who came from him, and taught us these things, and the army of the other good angels who follow him and are made like him, and the prophetic Spirit we worship and adore, giving honor in reason and truth, and to everyone who wishes to learn transmitting [the truth] ungrudgingly as we have been taught.” [1] (emphasis added)
The purpose of this article is to supplement and further bolster Dr. Shabir’s stance on Justin Martyr’s angelology that has irked many a Christian. What do we make of the above passage from Justin Martyr? A plain reading of the text would have any reasonable reader acknowledge that Justin Martyr is calling for the “worship and adoration” (σεβόμεθα καί προσκυνοϋμεν) of the Father, the Son, the good angels and the prophetic Spirit, which is presumably the Holy Spirit. In response to Dr. Shabir Ally, Christian apologists have claimed that that is a misreading of the text. Is that allegation true? How can that be when Dr. Shabir in his presentations* has correctly referred to the late Dr. Robert M. Grant, who was a respected theologian and ordained priest of the Episcopal Church, in his book ‘The Early Christian Doctrine of God’ which essentially concludes that the passage above does indicate the author’s call for believers to worship and adore the angels. Dr. Robert Grant and Dr. Shabir Ally are not alone in the understanding that they discern from the passage above. That is also the understanding of (Dr) Alfred Walter Frank Blunt, who was the Bishop of Bradford in the Anglican Church. In his ‘The Apologies of Justin Martyr,’ regarding the passage in question, under the heading ‘Angels and Demons,’ he writes: