The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

by Michael S. Heiser

the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, the theological creed of Israel, was worded in such a way that the existence of other gods was not denied (“the Lord our God is one”). Paul’s wording in 1 Corinthians 8 has the same feel. In fact, most scholars believe that Paul specifically has the shema in mind.9

The book of Deuteronomy, in which the shema occurs, of course has several references to other gods as real entities, considering them to be demons (Deut 32:17). If the writer of Deuteronomy did not really believe there were other gods, then he would have to deny the existence of demons as well. The writer knew there were other real gods, and so the shema was demanding loyalty to Yahweh (“our God”), not denying the existence of other gods.10

For Paul the pagan gods were demons.

It’s pretty clear that Paul was worried about sacrificing to demons with respect to the whole issue of meat sacrificed to idols. The meat wasn’t really the issue; being involved in the sacrifice was.

For Paul there was no middle ground. Participation at the Lord’s Table meant solidarity with and loyalty to Yahweh. The Lord’s Table commemorated not only Jesus’ death (1 Cor 11:23–26) but the covenant relationship Yahweh had with the participants. Violating that relationship by participating in sacrifices to other gods was tantamount to siding with the gods of the nations.

Baptism and the Lord’s Table were rites of allegiance. The family of Yahweh was to keep itself whole and faithful to Yahweh, and those rites expressed that faithfulness.

But what about “handed over to Satan”? Recall that the Israelites viewed their land as holy ground and the territory of the non-Israelite nations as controlled by demonic gods. Israel was holy ground because that was where the presence of Yahweh resided. The opposite was true everywhere else.

The Corinthian church was therefore “holy ground”; outside that gathering was the demonic realm. To be expelled from the church was to be thrust into the realm of Satan.

There is salvation in no other name—the name of Jesus, who was and is the Name, the presence of Yahweh, who tabernacled on earth (John 1:14) in flesh for the salvation of the nations.

Every church is a new pocket of resistance, every baptism another pledge of allegiance to the Most High, every celebration of the Lord’s Supper a denial of fellowship with lesser masters and a proclamation of the success of Yahweh’s mysterious plan.

The lines are drawn. The stakes are high. The enemy desperate. The fullness of the Gentiles will come, all Israel will be saved, and the Deliverer will come from the heavenly Zion. It’s just a matter of time.

Though the kingdom story of the Bible is rarely taught with it in mind, the divine council plays an important role throughout that story’s unfolding. The scriptural pattern is that, when God prepares to act in strategic ways that propel his kingdom forward, the divine council is part of that decision making. The council is the vehicle through which God issues his decrees.

Yahweh’s rule on earth is progressing and advancing against unseen powers of darkness and humanity enslaved to those powers. The kingdom has a clear goal: the reclamation of the nations and restoration of Eden on a global scale. The result of accomplishing that goal will be the fulfillment of God’s original intention of having a family-council of divine and human imagers. Humanity will become divine and displace the lesser elohim over the nations under the authority of the unique divine son, the resurrected Jesus.

God is surrounded by twenty-four enthroned elders. The identification of these elders has produced much debate. It has been proposed that the twenty-four are •heavenly beings, either cosmic counterparts to the twenty-four priestly divisions of Israel or divine representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles; •glorified human believers representing all believers; •Old Testament believers (cf. Heb 11); or •nonhuman members of the divine council.16

The most obvious example is Bashan. We’ve devoted a good deal of attention to the connection of that place with the realm of the dead and with giant clan populations like the Rephaim, whose ancestry was considered to derive from enemy divine beings. Bashan was also associated with Mount Hermon, the place where, in Jewish theology, the rebellious sons of God of Genesis 6 infamy descended to commit their act of treason.

when an Israelite thought of the north in theological terms, he or she thought of Bashan, Mount Hermon, and Baal. Later Jews would have made connections to the great adversary of Genesis 3.

But there is another, similar thought trajectory in ancient Judaism and the early church that has been noted by scholars: The antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan, located in Bashan.14

Dan is referred to as a serpent, fitting imagery for Bashan, who “judges” his own people. Deuteronomy 33:22 picks up the theme: “Dan is a cub of a lion; he leaps from Bashan.” Dan is an upstart inferior, who will attack from Bashan. Dan is thus an “internal outsider,” an enemy of Yahweh’s people. Those who interpreted these references in this way were also quick to point out that Dan is omitted from the list of tribes that yield the 144,000 believers in Revelation 7.

John, the author of Revelation, tells us explicitly that “Armageddon” is a Hebrew term. John does that in part because the book of Revelation is written in Greek. There’s something about the Greek word translated “Armageddon” that required, for Greek readers, clarification that the term had been brought into the verse from Hebrew.

the correct (Hebrew) term John uses to describe the climactic end-times battle is harmagedon. This spelling becomes significant when we try to discern what this Hebrew term means. The first part of the term (har) is easy. In Hebrew har means “mountain.” Our term is therefore divisible into har-magedon, “Mount (of) magedon.”

Two options have historically been offered for answering this question. The first is the traditional “Megiddo,” which I mentioned at the start. The meaning of the phrase would be “Mount Megiddo.”

It is crystal clear that the final conflict occurs at Jerusalem, not Megiddo. Megiddo is referenced only to compare the awful mourning that will result.1 Not only does Zechariah 12 place the final battle where the nations see the risen, pierced Christ at Jerusalem, but verse 11 tells us explicitly that Megiddo is a plain, not a mountain!

the term har-magedon, which describes this final battle, and (2) Zechariah 12:9–11, which plainly sites the conflict at Jerusalem.

Psalm 48 is a backhanded smack in the face to Baal. So is Isaiah 14.

Jerusalem is a mountain—Mount Zion. And if Baal and the gods of other nations don’t like Yahweh claiming to be Most High and claiming to run the cosmos from the heights of Zaphon/Mount Zion, they can try to do something about it.

Armageddon is about how the unbelieving nations, empowered by the antichrist, empowered by the prince of darkness—Lord (baʿal) of the dead, prince Baal (zbl baʿal), Beelzebul—will make one last, desperate effort to defeat Jesus at the place where Yahweh holds council, Mount Zion, Jerusalem. Revelation and Zechariah agree.4 Armageddon is a battle for all the supernatural and earthly marbles at Jerusalem.

And he has a name written on his outer garment and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

The incarnate Yahweh has the Name of the Most High. He is the Word of God in human form. He is accompanied by the armies of heaven. The language is obviously drawn from the Old Testament phrase “Lord of hosts,” which refers to divine beings.

The armies of heaven who witness the final demise of antichrist and his hordes are a combination of Yahweh’s elohim and humans made divine:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne (Matt 25:31). So that your hearts may be established blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (1 Thess 3:13). And to you who are being afflicted, rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels (2 Thess 1:7). Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all (Jude 14–15 ESV).

The implication, of course, is that the heavenly armies who return with Christ will be more than just nonhuman members of the divine council. The host will include believers who have been exalted into its membership, returned to displace the gods of the nations. Christian—do you know who you are? The day will come when the elohim will die like men—and you will judge angels (1 Cor 6:3).

IN THE DISTANT PAST, GOD DISINHERITED THE NATIONS OF EARTH AS HIS coruling family, the original Edenic design, choosing instead to create a new family from Abraham (Deut 32:8–9). The disinherited nations were put under the authority of lesser elohim, divine sons of God. When they became corrupt, they were sentenced to mortality (Psa 82:6–8). The Old Testament is basically a record of the long war between Yahweh and the gods, and between Yahweh’s children and the nations, to re-establish the original Edenic design.

The victory at Armageddon of the returning incarnate Yahweh over the Beast (antichrist) who directed the nations against Yahweh’s holy city is the event that topples the elohim from their thrones. It is the day of Yahweh, the time when all that is wicked is judged and when those who believe and overcome replace the disloyal sons of God. The kingdom is ready for full, earthly realization under a reconstituted divine council whose members include glorified believers. The full mass of believing humanity will experience a new Edenic world in a resurrected, celestial state. What was ruined by the fall is restored—and made irreversible—by the incarnation of Yahweh, his atoning death, and his resurrection. But all that is relatively easy to talk about when compared to passages that deal with what comes last and remains forever.