Presuppositional Spirituality

Spiritual realms continually operate adjacent to our physical realm and have a significant impact upon world events. Terrestrial minds reject the idea that God exists and deny the existence of spiritual realms. To those with a secular worldview, who are spiritually dead, the Bible is foolishness because scripture is spiritually discerned. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 that spiritual truths revealed by the Holy Spirit cannot be understood by people who do not have the Spirit within them.

Paul also penned that we are continually surrounded by spiritual warfare and that these spiritual battles impact our physical realm (Ephesians 6:12). Furthermore, there are more players interacting in the spiritual realms than just angels, demons, Satan and God. Psalm 82:1 reveals “God presides in the great assembly; He gives judgement among the gods.” and Psalm 89:7 says “In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; He is more awesome than all those who surround Him.”

These spiritual beings were created by God and when the Bible speaks of the heavenly host it conveys that they assist God in ruling the nations of the world (1 Kings 22:19-23). In Genesis 1:26 we read, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,”. It is counterintuitive that He would need to consult himself or within the context of the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit since God is omniscient and would know his own thoughts and intentions. Therefore, God must have been discussing his plans with the members of His council in the great assembly.

Spiritual beings also have free will

The book of Job confirms that God was not alone at the creation event (Job 38:4-7). Furthermore, Job 15:15 tells us that God does not trust His holy ones which most certainly reflects His experience with Satan (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14, 17; Revelation 12:7-10; Job 1:6-7). These spiritual entities were created with free will similar to humans and their choice to rebel against God’s authority parallels mankind’s.

The garden of Eden witnessed the spiritual warfare that was already occurring in heaven as it spilled over into the physical realm and Satan lied to Eve by twisting God’s words, causing her and Adam to sin and be cast out of the garden just as he had been cast out of heaven.

The Bible says the spiritual sons of God later came to earth and interacted with humans, resulting in unfavorable outcomes that included having children with human women which produced the Nephilim (Genesis 6:2, 4). This was a driving force that spawned the evil that was prevalent in early human society and a major reason God deluged the world with the flood of Noah, thereby destroying all humanity other than the eight souls on the ark.

2 Peter 2:4-6 records the correlation between these events and Jude 6 adds, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home – these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” Amazingly, other obstinate celestial gods repeated the same offense as those before them and Nephilim once again walked the earth after the flood.

Understanding God’s rationale

Herein lies the logic of why God instructed Joshua to completely destroy certain populations during the Israelites’ conquest of the promised land. Numbers 13:31-33 tells us that the offspring of the Nephilim were gigantic in size and the spies who reported back to Israel were frightened by them. Goliath, the giant that David faced as a boy was a descendant of the Nephilim as were his brothers (2 Samuel 21:18-22; 1 Chronicles 20:4-6; 1 Samuel 17). The Nephilim personified evil, multiplied it and magnified it, resulting in unimaginable depravity in the societies where they lived. Because of the spiritual rebellion of the fallen angels who precipitated these Nephilim populations, it was necessary to annihilate them or risk the continued spiritual and physical threat to humanity.

Yet another major historical event that illustrates spiritual struggles influencing earthly affairs is God’s confusing of the language of the people building the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Interestingly, when God caused humanity to disperse into isolated groups, he also appointed spiritual governors to rule over these nations while God himself maintained rule of Israel.  Deuteronomy 32:7-9 alludes to this and Psalm 82:1-2 reveals these rulers did not rule justly.

Supernatural conflict regarding earthly nations is depicted by the prophet Daniel in the tenth chapter, verses 12-13, of his prophecy, where Daniel is told how the angel was detained by the prince of Persia and required the assistance of Michael the arch angel to overcome him and again in verse 20 where the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece are mentioned as spiritual adversaries of holy angels.  Michael is recognized as the guardian of Israel.

Jesus was also impacted

The breech of the heaven-earth interface by spiritual transgressors exemplifies the interconnectedness of the spiritual battles that continue to rage today and events that have played out on earth throughout history. Nothing is more demonstrative of this relationship than the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

From the time Jesus was born, his life was in danger (Matthew 2:13-16) necessitating his brief exile to Egypt.  God’s angels instructed Mary and Joseph when to leave Israel in order to avoid Herod’s wrath and when to return after Herod’s death to Nazareth in Galilee.

It was incumbent upon Jesus to be ambiguous concerning His identity until the appropriate time in order to preserve His life until He could carry out His divine mission. Once the demons knew who Jesus was (Mathew 8-28-29), it became crucial that His strategy remain a secret so the powers of evil could not undermine God’s plan. In 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 Paul discloses why. “No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

In addition to being convoluted regarding His Messiah status so that the spiritual principalities and powers would not know His plan for the atonement of sins, He needed to be evasive with the religious leaders in order to keep them from derailing His mission. As it turned out, the physical enemies of Christ and their spiritual influencers did exactly what God required for the success of His redemptive game plan.  They never saw Christ’s resurrection coming and inadvertently were the catalysts that brought about His sacrifice and ultimately the salvation of the world and judgement upon themselves.

Because sin entered the world through one man (Adam) and brought with it death, sin had to be overcome by conquering death, which required the death of the only one who could not be held by the constraints of death (Jesus). This is what Paul explains in Romans 5:12-19. Jesus laid his life down.  No one took it from him. This was the plan all along and the spiritual forces aligned against him were completely bested by Christ and were complicit in facilitating His crucifixion.

John 12:31-32 chronicles Jesus saying, “Now is the time for judgement of this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”  Jesus was serving notice upon the spiritual principalities and powers that govern the world and namely Satan, that he was about to circumvent their strategy to sabotage God’s plan.

Victory through Christ

What appeared to be the defeat of Jesus was actually the greatest victory over the spiritual powers of darkness in history.  Jesus resurrected on the third day, thereby conquering death and paving the way for eternal life, not only for Jesus but for all those who believe in Him.  The original design that was apparently lost in the garden of Eden was regained on Calvary. 

Furthermore, the scrambling of language at Babel was reversed on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrived and enabled the disciples to preach the gospel in the languages of the foreigners present, thereby commencing the delivery of the gospel to all nations. In Mathew 28:18-19, Jesus tells the disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This continues today as the gospel is being translated and spread globally. What drove the nations apart at Babel is now bringing them back together through Christ and is an integral component in the culmination of all things (Matthew 24:14).

Undertones of the spiritual victory are concealed in the plan for Christ to return for his Church. In similar fashion to how Jesus became like us (manifested as a man), He has promised to make believers like Him when we will be resurrected as He was with immortal bodies like His. Satan knows this will happen but he has no idea when.  Just as the identity and the planned sacrifice of Christ was veiled and secretive, so is the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven. In the same way that the powers of darkness played into God’s plan regarding Christ’s atonement for sin, they will do so again by following the antichrist in an all out rebellion against God that will bring about their complete destruction.

God’s magnificent masterplan dovetails both spiritual and physical agendas perfectly into one beautifully designed strategic initiative that enables freedom of choice and freedom to love while administering justice.  Evil is exposed for what it is and the righteous are rewarded with eternal life.  All we can say is thank you God for your immeasurable love and mercy.