Hey guys welcome back to Critical Thinking Aloud’s Spiritual Beings Pt. 6 which is yet another installment in our foundational series What is the Bible. It has been a long time since our last installment in this series so if you would like to review the prior material do so now by clicking here.
We don’t wanna waste any time so lets get right back into it.
How we are going to learn
In this teaching we will be looking at the topic of spiritual beings as one of the Bibles main characters through the worldview of the ancient Near Eastern biblical authors. As I have done in the past with other teachings I want to quote from scholarly sources to make my point. I do this in hope that you will see this isn’t just my interpretation of the Scriptures but that this view is steeped in acadeemia.
We will be using two amazing sources which we highly recommend.
- Faithlife Study Bible: This is an amazing resource that is free if you download the app or use it online. To download the app or use this resource online visit their website here. This resource is also available in print which you can purchase here.
- The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: This is my favorite resource for gaining a better understanding for the ancient Near Eastern worldview of the Biblical authors. This is available in a multitude of variations all of which you can find on our resource page here.
What is the Point?
We have been going through a sub series which is about the Bibles Main Characters. These teachings have been mainly answering the question of what does God want? That answer being
Yahweh wants a big blended family of loyal Spiritual and Human Beings who He shares His authority with to spread His Kingdom, and He accomplishes this in the spiritual realm through His Council.
This is what Yahweh wants and in the end this is what He gets. We believe that if one uses this lenses to interpret the scriptures, a lot of false theology (what is believe to be true about God) would be easily dismissed.
God wants to rule with His creation. This has always been His desire. He is a communal God in His nature and His desire will forever be to rule in community with His creation.
The Divine Council
Over the past installments we have been using the concept of how the ancient Near Eastern cultures viewed the gods residing in a council and learning more about how this idea was not abandoned by the Israelites but transformed. This notion has been the base for our teachings about spiritual beings as one of the Bibles main characters
Here is a quote that we have been using to help ground us in the biblical authors worldview
“The idea that the gods operated in community, however, posed serious problems for the theology of Israel, in which only one being had divine authority. This theology did not eradicate the divine council from the Israelite thinking; instead the council was transformed. Rather than being comprised of various gods, the council featured the “sons of God” over whom Yahweh presided and whose activities he delegated… These council members were not gods who had autonomous divine authority on a par with Yahweh’s, but they were spirit beings given a role in Yahweh’s governance of the world.”
The NIV Culture Backgrounds Study Bible: Article on the Divine Council on Pg. 615
Other Spiritual Beings serving on Gods Council is not in conflict with the Biblical authors ancient Near Eastern worldview. Even though they believed that other spiritual beings exist, Yahweh alone is sovereign over everything including these other deities.
Here on Critical Thinking Aloud we defined Sovereignty not as meticulous control but that of the ability to rule as one pleases.
Yahweh has seen fit to rule by sharing His authority with His Council not by control. This is what Yahweh wants!
Thrown of the council
We have stated in previous installments that the requirement to remain on Gods council is loyalty to Yahweh. The members on Gods council that continue to loyally serve Yahweh are granted a position on His council.
But, what happened when a member of Gods council becomes disloyal? The answer to that is simple: They are thrown off and access to return is denied.
God is Holy (other than all else) and where He abides is Holy, He will not and being good by His nature cannot be in proximity to sin without destroying it.
The Biblical record accounts for beings who were previously on Gods council but because of their faltering loyalty have been kicked out and barred from reentering. Today we want to start our discussion about these misfits.
Free-will
From the first pages of the Scripture to the last the Bible is clear that Spiritual beings and Mankind were created in Gods image. This is not one distinct characteristic or trait that we inherited but who we are as a whole.
Being made in Gods image we are Gods representatives. We reflect who He is to the rest of creation.
God is an autonomous being who makes decisions by His own free will. Spiritual and Human Beings are like wise created to be autonomous by the use of the freedom of their will as well. Animals, plants, insects, do not posses this free will for they are controlled by instincts.
Separate from all creation Spiritual and Human beings possessing a free will which is a unique gift given to them by their creator.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Without the theological anchor, of God wanting a family whom out of their own desire (Free will) continue to remain loyal to Him, some Christian teachers deny that Humans posses a free-will at all.
This is a root for the calvinistic doctrines such as:
Predestination, Total Inability (which we covered last time Click here to see that installment), Unconditional Election (God chooses you for no apparent reason), Limited Atonement (God only chooses a limited number of people to be saved), Irresistible Grace (God makes you want Him), Perseveres of the Saints (once saved always saved), as well as their altered definition of Gods Sovereignty being redefined to mean God’s meticulously control over all things Good and Evil to bring Him Glory.
All of the aforementioned doctrine is false, which we reject as in total opposition to the very thing that God wants and is an affront to His character which is revealed throughout the scriptures.
We have and will continue to teach the truth that if God saw fit to endow certain beings in His creation with a free will then He knew the good, the bad, and the ugly which this decision would entail. Despite the carnage the later has had on the world, God thought it a worthy price to be paid for loyalty steaming from love given freely not coerced.
How Great is C.S. Lewis!
C.S. Lewis famously put it this way:
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can’t. If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible.
Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they’ve got to be free.
Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk. (…)If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will -that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings- then we may take it it is worth paying.”
C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity
Bye, Bye, Bye!
Unfortunately God reaped the greatest reward by paying the ultimate price. While some Spiritual Beings on His council chose to remain loyal with their granted free will, others rebelled, were kicked off of the council, and subsequently banned by the actions of their own free will.
Since by nature these are the same Spiritual beings we have discussed in the five previous installments, we are already informed that not every rebellious Spiritual Being (sons of god) is of the same type nor do they all share the same role. If you would like to review that material click here.
Over the span of the next few teaching we are going to learn how loyal members of Gods council fell from grace and lost not only their positions on Gods council but also their place in Gods family.
Peace and Blessing
Biblical Doctrine Derives From the Biblical Text
Check out this short video series on Spiritual beings by our friends over at The Bible Project by clicking here. They are amazing and super helpful to better grasp what we will be covering in this series.
Citations:
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible Grand Rapids, Michigan USA Zondervan 2016
C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity: A Revised and Enlarged Edition, with a New Introduction, of the Three Books the Case for Christianity, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. New York: Macmillan, 1952.
Call for action: Help us out by learning more
Check out the book referenced above Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness by Michael Heiser for a more in-depth study on these Spiritual Beings who are on Gods council. Get it now by clicking here.
Our Favorite Bible
U.S. Link: NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible- Hardcover Bible, Bonded Leather Bible, Bonded Leather: Thumb Index, Imitation Leather Women’s, Imitation Leather Men’s, Kindle Edition
Our Favorite Book
U.S. Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World And Why It Matters- Paperback book, Kindle Edition, Audiobook
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Let us know your thought about our series in the comment section. If you have any topics you would like to suggest please let us know and we will add them to the list of future subjects we will covered.