The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

by Michael S. Heiser

But why would Paul link the “the full number of the Gentiles” with Spain (Tarshish)? Why did he believe that his life and ministry would not be over until he got there? Because he knew Isaiah 66:15–23. The passage has a number of correlations with the events of Pentecost, not only with respect to Acts 2 but other passages as well.

Paul knew that Spain (Tarshish) was part of the mission of Isaiah 66. He needed Spain so that his “offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

Yahweh’s original intention was that all humankind would be his earthly family, ruling in cooperation with him and his heavenly family. The Old Testament describes the ruin of Yahweh’s desire through a series of primeval rebellions. But the original objective was not defeated, only delayed. After the rebellion at Babel, Yahweh set aside the nations and called Abraham to begin anew.

In Christ, believers are “the sons of God.” The language of inheritance is crystal clear. It derives from and advances the Old Testament idea that humans were meant to be in the family of God all along. It’s no coincidence that the New Testament writers repeatedly describe salvation into Yahweh’s family with words like “adoption,” “heir,” and “inheritance” to describe what the Church really is—the reconstituted divine-human family of God. The believer’s destiny is to become what Adam and Eve originally were: immortal, glorified imagers of God, living in God’s presence as his children.

The idea of the Church being “the body of Christ” reflects the truth that it is through Christ’s physical incarnation, physical death, and physical resurrection that believers—Jew or Gentile—become members of God’s family. Quoting Paul once again: “The Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6).

Paul tells the Ephesians that believers have a glorious inheritance among the holy ones. We’ve discussed the term “holy ones” in the Old Testament before.3 It is used of divine beings in Yahweh’s divine council (e.g., Job 5:1; 15:15; Psa 89:5–7; Zech 14:5). The Hebrew term is qedoshim. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by New Testament writers, translates that term with hagioi, the same word as in Ephesians 1:18. We also saw earlier that the Old Testament uses qedoshim of people—specifically of believing Israelites—those not guilty of worshipping other gods and bringing the disaster of exile to pass (Psa 16:3; 34:8; cp. Lev 26:14–33).

Once the nations are restored to Yahweh through the gospel, believers will displace the divine beings who presently dominate the nations and rule in their place as Yahweh’s children and corulers. As Paul wrote elsewhere, believers will “judge angels” (1 Cor 6:3).4 The apostle John is just as direct in Revelation 2:

Numbers 24:17 was considered messianic in Judaism, completely apart from the New Testament writers.6 In other words, literate readers of John’s writing would have known the morning star reference was not about literal brightness. It was about the dawning of the returned kingdom of God under its messiah. Later in the book of Revelation, Jesus himself refers to his messianic standing with the morning star language: “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev 22:16).

WE ARE THE children of God, destined to displace the defeated, disloyal sons of God who now rule the nations.

It is best to understand the term as “brought forth” in the sense of revealed in a unique way—in this instance, the full incarnation of Yahweh.

Far from being embarrassed before the elohim of his own council at becoming human—becoming lesser for a short time—Jesus revels in it. Standing in the council (“in the midst of the assembly”) he presents us: Behold—look at me, and the children Yahweh has given me. We are all together now—forever.

Scripture is clear that immortality as a divinized human is the destiny of the believer, and that our present lives in Christ are a process of becoming what we are:

the Hebrew Bible uses the term elohim to speak of any inhabitant of the spiritual world.

There are roughly 175 references to angels in the New Testament (aggelos/angelos). Like the Hebrew counterpart (malʾak), the term means “messenger.” Fundamentally, the term describes a task performed by a divine being, not what a divine being is.

The use of the term angelos increased in the Second Temple period on through the New Testament so that its meaning became more generic, akin to daimonion.3 That is, it can be found on occasion outside the context of delivering a message in descriptions of a group of divine beings (e.g., Luke 15:10). This widening of the term’s semantics is shown in Hebrews 1:4–5; 2:7–9.

angelos had become a word deemed appropriate to generally describe a member of the supernatural realm, just as elohim is used in the Old Testament.

In classical Greek literature, which preceded the time of the New Testament, the term daimōn describes any divine being without regard to its nature (good or evil). A daimōn can be a god or goddesss, some lesser divine power, or the spirit of the departed human dead.

The origin of demons in Jewish texts outside the Bible (such as 1 Enoch) is attributed to the events of Genesis 6:1–4. When a Nephilim was killed in these texts, its disembodied spirit was considered a demon. These demons then roamed the earth to harass humans. The New Testament does not explicitly embrace this belief, though there are traces of the notion, such as demon possession of humans (implying the effort to be re-embodied).

Recall our earlier discussion of the original rebel of Genesis 3 who was cast down to “earth” (Hebrew: ʾerets, a term that can refer to the ground or Sheol). It would be understandable to see that particular divine rebel as lord (first in rebellion and thus authority) of earth. This lordship could even extend to the “air” (the heavens), since that space was considered in ancient Israelite cosmology to be beneath God’s domain, which was above the waters of the earth (Job 22:13; Amos 9:6; Pss 29:10; 148:4).

stoicheia. That Greek lemma can refer to one of four things: (1) basic principles of religious teaching (e.g., law); (2) rudimentary substances of the physical world; (3) astral deities (astrological myths); (4) spiritual beings in general.

Paul’s warning about fellowshiping with demons (daimonion) in 1 Corinthians 10:20–21 by eating meat sacrificed to idols. In that passage Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:17. The clear implication is that Paul considered these beings real and dangerous.19 This is why, in his earlier discussion of the issue of eating such meat, he acknowledged that there were other gods (theoi) and lords among people who did not belong to Yahweh and Jesus (1 Cor 8:1–6).20 Paul was well aware of the divine council worldview that had the nations under lesser elohim and considered them a threat to believers, as they had been to Israel.

Taking Paul’s comments in both 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 together (the subject matter is the same) helps us see that, for Paul, there was an overlap between the words daimonion and theos (“god”).21 The word theos was used of high-ranking spiritual beings who had authority both in pantheons and geographical domains on earth. The word theos, then, has some conceptual overlap with those divine beings who were set over the nations.

It is clear that Satan is leader of at least some of the powers of darkness. As the original rebel, he likely ranked first (or worst) in terms of example in the minds of ancient readers. The fact that he is the one who confronted Jesus in the desert, an account we considered earlier, and offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world suggests as much. The lack of a clearly delineated hierarchy leaves the possibility that there are competing agendas in the unseen world, even where there exists the common goal of opposition to Yahweh and his people.

The New Testament portrays the Christian life—even the very Christian existence​—as prompting a spiritual turf war. But we often don’t pick up on the messaging. Sacred space and realm distinction are not just Old Testament concepts. We talked at length about these two concepts in earlier chapters in regard to the Israelite tabernacle and the temple. But New Testament language about them takes the reader in fascinating directions. Believe it or not, you are sacred space. Paul in particular refers to the believer as the place where God now tabernacles—we are the temple of God, both individually and corporately. This is most transparently seen in English translations in two passages where Paul tells the Corinthians, “You are God’s temple” (1 Cor 3:16), and, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19). The former speaks of the church corporately as the temple; the latter focuses on each believer individually.

We have all likely heard the verse where Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). But put in the context of this other New Testament language, which in turn is informed by the Old Testament imagery of the tabernacle and temple, it means that wherever believers are and gather, the spiritual ground they occupy is sanctified amid the powers of darkness.

1 Enoch 6–15 describes how the sons of God (called “Watchers” in that ancient book) who committed the offense of Genesis 6:1–4 were imprisoned under the earth for what they had done. That imprisonment is behind the reference to the “spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3:19.2 Recall that the prison to which the offending divine beings were sent was referred to as Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4–5.

In the 1 Enoch story, the Watchers appealed their sentence and asked Enoch, the biblical prophet who never died (Gen 5:21–24), to intercede with God for them (1 Enoch 6:4). God rejected their petition and Enoch had to return to the imprisoned Watchers and give them the bad news (1 Enoch 13:1–3; 14:4–5). The point to catch is that Enoch visits the spiritual world in the “bad section of town” where the offending Watchers are being held.

Peter saw a theological analogy between the events of Genesis 6 and the gospel and resurrection. In other words, he considered the events of Genesis 6 to be types or precursors to New Testament events and ideas. Just as Jesus was the second Adam for Paul, Jesus is the second Enoch for Peter. Enoch descended to the imprisoned fallen angels to announce their doom. First Peter 3:14–22 has Jesus descending to these same “spirits in prison” to tell them they were still defeated, despite his crucifixion.

Our focus for answering that question is two terms in verse 21, that baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The two boldfaced words need reconsideration in light of the divine council worldview. The word most often translated “appeal” (eperōtēma) in verse 21 is best understood as “pledge” here, a meaning that it has elsewhere.4 Likewise the word “conscience” (suneidēsis) does not refer to the inner voice of right and wrong in this text. Rather, the word refers to the disposition of one’s loyalties, a usage that is also found in other contexts and Greek literature.5 Baptism, then, is not what produces salvation. It “saves” in that it reflects a heart decision: a pledge of loyalty to the risen Savior. In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty oath, a public avowal of who is on the Lord’s side in the cosmic war between good and evil.

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. Apparently some in the Corinthian church had gone beyond eating the meat to actual participation, assuming that since an idol was just a piece of wood or stone, their participation wouldn’t offend God. Paul had to teach them that this wasn’t true, and used the Lord’s Table as an analogy (1 Cor 10:14–18).

The Lord’s Table commemorated not only Jesus’ death (1 Cor 11:23–26) but the covenant relationship Yahweh had with the participants.

Paul often used the word “flesh” (sarkos) to refer to the physical body, but he sometimes used it to refer to the self-deception of trusting in our own works to merit God’s favor, or an ungodly manner of life.

The kingdom of God establishes a permanent beachhead at the foot of the cross and the door of the empty tomb.

The kingdom spreads slowly but relentlessly, one new believer at a time. 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.

Old Testament prophecy for the messianic solution to the salvation of humanity and restoration of Eden was deliberately cryptic.1 So it is with prophecy yet awaiting fulfillment. The biblical text is riddled with ambiguities that undermine the certainty of modern eschatological systems. The New Testament writers who speak about prophetic fulfillments didn’t always interpret Old Testament literally. Much is communicated through metaphor framed by an ancient Near Eastern worldview. Consequently, our modern expectations about how a given prophecy will “work” are inherently insecure.

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.

But instead of overspreading the earth, humanity had congregated at Babel (Babylon).

The thrice-holy worship takes us back to Isaiah 6:3, an obvious divine council scene. Other points of similarity to other council visions include the creatures (cf. description of cherubim in Ezek 1; 10); wings on the creatures (cf. seraphim of Isa 6); God enthroned (Isa 6; Ezek 1; Dan 7), multiple thrones (Dan 7); the gemstones, colors, and sea of glass (Ezek 1); divine spirits (1 Kgs 22). John’s vision in fact combines earlier divine council features in this one vision.

The choice of “elders” to describe the council derives from Isaiah 24:23, a passage that, not coincidentally, is apocalyptic in genre like the book of Revelation.

In 722 BC Assyria conquered the ten tribes of the northern Israelite kingdom and deported them to many corners of its empire. In a series of three invasions from 605 to 586 BC, Babylon destroyed the southern kingdom, comprising only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Both Assyria and Babylon invaded Canaan from the north, since they were both from the Mesopotamian region. The trauma of these invasions became the conceptual backdrop for descriptions of the final, eschatological judgment of the disinherited nations (Zeph 1:14–18; 2:4–15; Amos 1:13–15; Joel 3:11–12; Mic 5:15) and their divine overlords (Isa 34:1–4; Psa 82).

Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The incident brought not only physical desolation but psychological and theological devastation.

Baal’s home was a mountain, now known as Jebel al-Aqraʿ, situated to the north of Ugarit.

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.

One of the great misconceptions of biblical study is that the return of the Jews from Babylon in 539 BC and the years following solved the problem of Israelite exile. It didn’t. The prophets had envisioned the return of all twelve tribes from where they had been dispersed.

Jews living in the time of Jesus saw the nation as still being in exile.

The Gog invasion would be the response of supernatural evil against the messiah and his kingdom. This is in fact precisely how it is portrayed in Revelation 20:7–10.

Gog would have been perceived as either a figure empowered by supernatural evil or an evil quasi-divine figure from the supernatural world bent on the destruction of God’s people.12 For this reason, Gog is regarded by many biblical scholars as a template for the New Testament antichrist figure.

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.”

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!

Does magedon point to Jerusalem? It would seem that it has to, in light of (1) the term har-magedon, which describes this final battle, and (2) Zechariah 12:9–11, which plainly sites the conflict at Jerusalem.