Daniel 12:1-4
Matthew 24:21-22
1 Corinthians 2:3-8
Ephesians 2:1-2
Ephesians 3:4-10
Ephesians 6:12
John 1:12
John Lennox “Against the Flow”
“Michael has already been introduced to us. He is the mighty angelic prince who stands up to protect Israel in a realm beyond this world. Just as Michael was involved in bringing the vision to Daniel long ago, he will arise in the future to defend Israel in her final trial. It is described as a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.
It is hard to get one’s mind around this grim statement. The time of Antiochus was horrendous, as was the period around the later fall of Jerusalem. The Holocaust beggar’s description. But Daniel indicates that there is even worse to come at the time of the end.”
Michael Heiser “Unseen Realm”
“In the distant past, God disinherited the nations of earth as his co-ruling family, the original Edenic design, choosing instead to create a new family from Abraham (Deuteronomy 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 (Psalm 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 Best (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 the 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.
How do you describe the indescribable?
Paul grasped the problem clearly. I still like the King James Version of his sentiments for their rhythmic, almost lyrical quality: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV).”
Michael Heiser “Unseen Realm”
“The Hebrew word for “prince” used throughout Daniel 10 and 12 is SAR. In Daniel 10:13, where Michael is called “one of the chief princes”, the Septuagint refers to Michael as one of the chiefs “archonton”. In another Greek translation of Daniel, a text many scholars consider even older than the Septuagint currently in use, the prince of Persia and Israel’s prince Michael, are both described with the Greek word “archon”. These are the terms Paul uses when describing the “rulers of this age”, the rulers “in heavenly places”, and “the rulers of the authority of the air”.
Michael Heiser “Unseen Realm”
“Paul often interchanged these terms with others that are familiar to most Bible students”
• “principalities” (arche)
• “powers” / “authorities” (exousia)
• “powers” (dynamis)
• “dominions” / “lords” (kyrios)
• “thrones” (thronos)
“These terms have something in common – they were used in both the New Testament and other Greek literature for GEOGRAPHICAL DOMAIN RULERSHIP. This is the divine dominion concept of Deuteronomy 32:8-9. At times these terms are used of humans, but several instances demonstrate that Paul had spiritual beings in mind.
The first three terms are found in Ephesians 6:12.
John Lennox “Against the Flow”
“Daniel was a man who, though he lived in this world, lived for another world that would outlast this one, a supernatural realm that from time to time had unmistakably manifested itself to him and his friends. God had intervened to protect their witness, save their lives, and reveal to them things to come, with such power and precision that even pagan kings could not fail to recognize the invasion of the supernatural.
This passage on the resurrection near the end of Daniel’s account is consistent with that supernatural dimension. The God that spans history in his knowledge, and can reveal things to come, is the God who will raise the dead. Daniel did not, of course, know what we know; that the molecules in our bodies are in constant flux, so that they undergo total replacement every seven years or so, while each one of us remains the same person. There is a pattern somewhere that defines and holds each individual human in existence. And if we grant the reality of God and the supernatural, it is surely not hard to think that God himself holds those patterns in memory. He can reuse each pattern to fashion a resurrection body in the future.”
Michael Heiser “Unseen Realm”
“Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:20-21 that when God raised Jesus from the dead, “he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (ESV). It was only after Christ had risen that God’s plan was “made known….to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). These cosmic forces are “the rulers and the authorities” disarmed and put to shame by the cross (Colossians 2:15).
The incident at Babel and God’s decision to disinherit the nations drew up the battle lines for a cosmic turf war for the planet. The corruption of the ELOHIM sons of God set over the nations meant that Yahweh’s vision for a global Eden would be met with divine force. Every inch outside Israel would be contested, and Israel itself was fair game for hostile conquest. The gods would not surrender their inheritance back to Yahweh; he would have to reclaim them. God would take the first step in that campaign immediately after Babel.”
“I am going to start with the truth. Deuteronomy 22:5 states: “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”
Now, this verse isn’t concerned about clothing styles but with people determining their own sexual identities. It is not clothing or personal style that offends God but, rather, the use of one’s appearance to act out or take on a sexual identity different from the one biologically assigned by God at birth. In this wisdom, God intentionally made each individual uniquely either male or female. When men or women claim to be able to choose their own sexual identity, they are making a statement that God did not know what he was doing when he created them”.
Rep Greg Steube (R-FL)
In response, Rep Nadler (D-NY) stated: “Mr. Steube, what any religious tradition ascribes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.”
The Equality Act passed the house 224 -206 on February 25, 2021.
The battle is still ongoing. In the spiritual realm though, victory is determined by God. Those Elohim will be taken from their position of power and so will those humans who are ruled by them.
Those who are wise accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has the power to transform them from defeated enemies of God into sons and daughters of God Almighty.
