In my next episode I'm going to go slower and build the case for how Satan came to have the power in our world to answer the question, How did satan become the Prince of this world and the Ruler of all the Kingdoms of Men?
Thanks so much for engaging the material, y'all! It so important that we think and engage and create than just to scroll and listen passively. I appreciate your effort.
It is good reasoning and really makes one think. Thanks so much for your answer. God bless you and Sherry and your work for the kingdom, you are on our prayer list!
As ever you encourage and inspire through your podcast. I think I’ve mentioned before, but it’s so rare to find the big story being taught. I’m trying to make that difference! People are interested, they experienced the war out there! So thank you! I’m also reading through Michael Heiser’s books, which are great.
Hi Edward, Thanks again for your comment. I can't help talking about the big story because I am captivated by it. The more carefully I unpack it, the more the Bible makes sense to me. I'm so glad you are teaching it. Michael Heiser's books are done with scholarly attention. Its odd, but some of his most ardent followers are people in the UFO community who connect aliens with demons and see the Bible and ancient religions in agreement, and trying to convey to us the earliest history of our world.
Hi Wendy, there's a passage in Isaiah 14 and another Ez 28 that are directed against human kings, but seem to have a bigger meaning. Once we clearly understood that there was a senior figure among fallen angels, it was easy to see some comparison between these kings and the angel that came to be known as Satan.
I think that's where we started trying to build a backstory. We knew that he had fallen from God's inner circle, we just weren't really told when. Some people then hypothesized that Genesis chapter 1 verse one and chapter 2 had a long gap of time between them. It's basically just different attempts to build a broader story to give us some context to the question of who is this Satan and how did he come to be so powerful in our world?
"Spiritual wickedness in High places.", includes the church in my humble opinion. Have you ever taken a deep dive into the Kingdom Parables (I'm sure you have)? Jesus was warning us that Satan and his minions were going to infiltrate His Kingdom here on earth, i.e. the church. Paul, Peter, and Jude warned us in their epistles also.
Here is just one example from Jesus, Matthew 13:31-32, the parable of the Mustard Seed. The church, in my opinion, has incorrectly interpreted this parable to mean that the church will grow in great faith (mainly because of the mustard seed illustration found in Matthew 17:20). But the contexts of the Kingdom parables are not faith but, sin (leaven) and enemies. In Mark 4, where the Kingdom parables are taught, Mark gives us a much-needed clue; "And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13 NKJV). With that clue, we are now instructed to understand the symbols Christ used in the first Kingdom parable, i.e. the "Birds of the air". The Birds of the air that nest in the branch of the Mustard Seed is none other than Satan and his minions. If Spiritual Wickedness rest in the church, how much more the world! Just my two cents:-)
Hi Wade, Thanks for the comment. I agree that Satan is always at work against the church and that the apostles warn us of false apostles and teachers within the church. This is really amazing because they were just a few thousand of us in those days and they were already concerned about darkness to corrupt the Jesus people.
I wonder if this is what Jesus and Paul was warning us about ... "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12 NKJV)
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15 NKJV)
"For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. (Acts 20:29 NKJV)
Right out the gate, and up to this day, the church was/is under major attack!! Thanks for your post, it gets my thoughts going:-)
Enjoying your teaching (here in Loxley, AL). I have never heard this subject presented in this way but it makes so much sense regarding the setup of the powers of this world. A little off the subject but do you think that the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:2 were those angels that God had originally placed over the provinces/areas of the world? My husband and I were recently discussing this and were confused because of the scripture in Matthew 22:30 “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” However, I just realized that this scripture merely says that as the angels we will not marry, it really doesn’t specify that angels have no gender unless there are other scripture to the contrary. Just wondering…. Thanks
Yay Loxley! I'm actually there today :) leaving tomorrow. In my hypothesis (and that's all that it is) the assignment of nations didn't occur until the tower of Babel. "Angels" as we like to call all of them are called "the sons of God" in many places in the OT. I previously called everything heavenly "the spirit world" but no, I'm not so sure. It's not an earthly place, and the people from that dimension are not made of the earth as we are, but as the genesis six story shows, they can manifest in physical form, even to the point of procreating with humans. Michael Heiser says that the reason for the instruction to Joshua to kill everyone in the areas known for giants was an attempt to wipe out the remaining offspring from the genesis six story.
Wild stuff, but the Bible is the Bible, and I would rather let it say what it says, and then rethink my understanding then to modify the translation and make it fit into our accepted ways of understanding.
In my next episode I'm going to go slower and build the case for how Satan came to have the power in our world to answer the question, How did satan become the Prince of this world and the Ruler of all the Kingdoms of Men?
Thanks so much for engaging the material, y'all! It so important that we think and engage and create than just to scroll and listen passively. I appreciate your effort.
It is good reasoning and really makes one think. Thanks so much for your answer. God bless you and Sherry and your work for the kingdom, you are on our prayer list!
Thanks Teresa/! Keep praying for us regularly, oK?
We will daily. Love you guys, God bless you and your ministry!
As ever you encourage and inspire through your podcast. I think I’ve mentioned before, but it’s so rare to find the big story being taught. I’m trying to make that difference! People are interested, they experienced the war out there! So thank you! I’m also reading through Michael Heiser’s books, which are great.
Hi Edward, Thanks again for your comment. I can't help talking about the big story because I am captivated by it. The more carefully I unpack it, the more the Bible makes sense to me. I'm so glad you are teaching it. Michael Heiser's books are done with scholarly attention. Its odd, but some of his most ardent followers are people in the UFO community who connect aliens with demons and see the Bible and ancient religions in agreement, and trying to convey to us the earliest history of our world.
Loved this! I always thought satan was cast out of heaven before creation, thus appearing as the serpent in Eden.
Hi Wendy, there's a passage in Isaiah 14 and another Ez 28 that are directed against human kings, but seem to have a bigger meaning. Once we clearly understood that there was a senior figure among fallen angels, it was easy to see some comparison between these kings and the angel that came to be known as Satan.
I think that's where we started trying to build a backstory. We knew that he had fallen from God's inner circle, we just weren't really told when. Some people then hypothesized that Genesis chapter 1 verse one and chapter 2 had a long gap of time between them. It's basically just different attempts to build a broader story to give us some context to the question of who is this Satan and how did he come to be so powerful in our world?
"Spiritual wickedness in High places.", includes the church in my humble opinion. Have you ever taken a deep dive into the Kingdom Parables (I'm sure you have)? Jesus was warning us that Satan and his minions were going to infiltrate His Kingdom here on earth, i.e. the church. Paul, Peter, and Jude warned us in their epistles also.
Here is just one example from Jesus, Matthew 13:31-32, the parable of the Mustard Seed. The church, in my opinion, has incorrectly interpreted this parable to mean that the church will grow in great faith (mainly because of the mustard seed illustration found in Matthew 17:20). But the contexts of the Kingdom parables are not faith but, sin (leaven) and enemies. In Mark 4, where the Kingdom parables are taught, Mark gives us a much-needed clue; "And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13 NKJV). With that clue, we are now instructed to understand the symbols Christ used in the first Kingdom parable, i.e. the "Birds of the air". The Birds of the air that nest in the branch of the Mustard Seed is none other than Satan and his minions. If Spiritual Wickedness rest in the church, how much more the world! Just my two cents:-)
Hi Wade, Thanks for the comment. I agree that Satan is always at work against the church and that the apostles warn us of false apostles and teachers within the church. This is really amazing because they were just a few thousand of us in those days and they were already concerned about darkness to corrupt the Jesus people.
I wonder if this is what Jesus and Paul was warning us about ... "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12 NKJV)
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15 NKJV)
"For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. (Acts 20:29 NKJV)
Right out the gate, and up to this day, the church was/is under major attack!! Thanks for your post, it gets my thoughts going:-)
Enjoying your teaching (here in Loxley, AL). I have never heard this subject presented in this way but it makes so much sense regarding the setup of the powers of this world. A little off the subject but do you think that the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:2 were those angels that God had originally placed over the provinces/areas of the world? My husband and I were recently discussing this and were confused because of the scripture in Matthew 22:30 “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” However, I just realized that this scripture merely says that as the angels we will not marry, it really doesn’t specify that angels have no gender unless there are other scripture to the contrary. Just wondering…. Thanks
Yay Loxley! I'm actually there today :) leaving tomorrow. In my hypothesis (and that's all that it is) the assignment of nations didn't occur until the tower of Babel. "Angels" as we like to call all of them are called "the sons of God" in many places in the OT. I previously called everything heavenly "the spirit world" but no, I'm not so sure. It's not an earthly place, and the people from that dimension are not made of the earth as we are, but as the genesis six story shows, they can manifest in physical form, even to the point of procreating with humans. Michael Heiser says that the reason for the instruction to Joshua to kill everyone in the areas known for giants was an attempt to wipe out the remaining offspring from the genesis six story.
Wild stuff, but the Bible is the Bible, and I would rather let it say what it says, and then rethink my understanding then to modify the translation and make it fit into our accepted ways of understanding.