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Foreign welcome to the Project 28 podcast. I'm Scott. I'm going to be your host today. Thank you for joining us. As always, we would love to hear from you. If you've got questions that are on your heart, things that are on your mind that have been tried troubling you, things that you wish you could have somebody to talk to, we would love to hear from you. That's really easy to do. All you need to do is click the link that's in the description, leave us a note, and we will talk about the things that are on your heart on air here. Hopefully we'll be able to give you some encouragement with a solid biblical foundation, help you understand a little bit about what the Lord has going on in your life right now. But for today, I'm really going to take us down a different path than what we've been doing. I'd like to lay some foundational work that's going to serve as the basis for several upcoming episodes where together I think we can begin to explore what I call the supernatural content of the Bible. And basically what I mean by supernatural content is anything the Bible communicates about stuff that we can't see. What does the Bible say about things that are like God going on behind the scenes, so to speak? Let me see if I can give you a couple of real life examples of things that I've seen and things that are going on in the world to help explain what I'm talking about here. On more than one occasion, I've had some very strange encounters where I've come face to face with what seems like evil, unseen powers. Like I was in a very remote part of Liberia, West Africa once, and there's a village shaman that would go out and he would summon snakes out of the forest to himself, which quite frankly was really unnerving to me. But I've also seen and then heard countless stories more about people who display impossible human abilities and speak with inhuman voices at times. And I'm not even going to get in to try to explain just the sheer evil that can be felt in some of the dark areas of the world. But maybe you've experienced something like that too. Like I was in a temple in Delhi, India once that had about an 80 foot statue of one of the gods called Hanuman. It's a human body with a monkey head and surrounded by this huge court of other idols and things. And you could just like literally feel how dark that place was when you walked into it. But then again, on the other hand, I've Seen several videos and I have some in my archives of people who let us record their testimonies in different parts of the world that have seen miraculous healings, deliverance from sudden harm. You know, they're walking along and something saved them from an accident. And we have stories of people even that have been dead and have come back to life. I mean, what do we do with that? Seemingly there are benevolent forces that want to help us rather than harm us as well. So what's going on here? I mean, in order to find this answer, we need to also ask, you know, what did the people believe about these things back in the Bible days? Did they believe in the existence of unseen forces? And does the Bible tell us anything about this as well? The key to finding some of these answers today is to understand what they knew in the ancient times, because that's the historical context in which the Bible was written, and that's the historical context that God chose to communicate the truth to the world about who he is and what he's up to. It is also our framework to apply the Bible today. And exploring the Bible has to include comprehension of its supernatural background. Like how Matt Chandler put it once, it said, it can't mean for us what it didn't mean for them. Let me give you a couple of book recommendations on this whole subject as we begin to explore it a little bit. The first is a book entitled the Origin of Evil Spirits. The subtitle to that is the reception of Genesis 6:1 to 4 in early Jewish literature. It's written by a guy named Archie Wright out of Fortress Press. Pretty academic book, but it really gives insight into this whole subject. Then we have one called the Unseen Realm. What the Bible Teaches About Unseen World and why It Matters to Us by Michael Heiser. And then a less academic book that covers the same content of the Unseen Realm is called Supernatural with the same subtitle, what the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World and why It Matters. This is also by Heiser. Both of those are Lexham Press. And then for just an overall understanding of what we call Second Temple Literature, this is books that were written about the same time as the Bible in between the time that the Israelites go into exile and the demolishing of the Temple, roughly that time period. It's a great book called Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period. It's by a guy named Larry Hellier. H E L Y E R It's out of InterVarsity Press. It's one of the academic books, but that will give you insight as to the minds of the people of what they're thinking back in ancient Judaism and during the time when Jesus walked on earth. But our pack, our podcast today, then I think it's just going to be part one of, like, who knows how many parts? Because this is going to lead us into a field of study that helps us to understand and answer some of the bigger questions that are directly related to unseen things. I mean, questions like, how is the afterlife described in the Bible? What is heaven? What's hell? What are demons? What powers do they have? Are there other evil things like them out there? Maybe things that are more powerful? Were the ancient gods of the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks real? Or how about angels? What are angels? Why were they created? And can they help me today? Like, the stories have been told, like, we have guardian angels, but also not just answering these curiosity questions, but practical questions, like, what is spiritual warfare? How does God help me in the battle of my life? Can supernatural beings actually help or harm me? And if so, what does the Bible say I should do about it? Why are there places in the world that seem to be spiritually darker than other places? So then, if you find any of that or similar subject matter intriguing, I hope you'll stay with us through the next several episodes. And again, if you have any specific questions along these lines, please reach out and share them. Will still be broadcasting other episodes to answer other deep questions sprinkled alongside of this supernatural content. As well, as we go forward, we have some interviews lined up where we're going to talk to some people who are struggling with cancer, struggling through some things to understand what the spiritual component of their life is and how they trust the Lord to get them through things. But okay, for today, then, let me just lay the groundwork with some very foundational ideas about what the Bible tells us about God and this lesser category of created beings that are primarily, like, unseen. We don't see them for the most part. So let's start at the beginning. The very first words that you read in the Bible are found in a book named Genesis, where we find in chapter one, verse one, this is what's written. It says in the beginning, and God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible is a book that declares the existence of only one eternally existent God. And the Bible is a story, especially how God interacts with humanity. That's the huge part of the story. This includes the creation of the entire cosmos, and it's planned for us to interact with it. The Bible answers the greatest question of why in our life, like why are we here? Why is our purpose? What is our purpose? What's going on? Why we created? Why were we born? That type of large answer is answered in scriptures. It's also very clear, however, that this one God alone holds creative power. I mean, he's it. There are no unseen things in all of the cosmos or all of the universe that are eternally existent and have the power to create. This is going to be important to remember and I'll mention it often as we learn more, because. Because our universe does not have multiple, all powerful entities in charge, only God alone. The scriptures also reveal to us that we were created to have a relationship with this one true God. And he invites us to share in his love. In fact, a few pages later in the Bible, we read about some rebellions that take place against God. And they are recorded alongside passages of hope based on the massive love of God that He has for us. And they describe how hard he works to fix the results of those different rebellions. And that's what the story of Jesus is all about. The story of Jesus is God coming to earth as a baby to take upon himself the death penalty of our sins and then raising from the dead after three days to prove his sacrifice was sufficient. That's the good news of God's story as found in the Bible. And there's so much more to it as well. It's part of what churchy people call the Gospel, which literally means the good news. Now, in addition to understanding the relationship between God and humanity, we soon discover that there are other created beings in the Bible. And they have many names and many descriptions. And so like, I'm not talking about animals here either, but what I'll refer to as these supernatural beings, or in other words, like we said, created beings that are for the most part unseen. We can't put them under a microscope. They primarily inhabit an invisible space, even though they hold great influence in the world in which we live. Okay, so far so good. Is this making sense? We don't often talk about things this way in the United States, but the ancients understood this reality and they never questioned it. They knew there was unseen beings around them and there's interaction between them and humanity. Let me go a step further then. These lesser supernatural beings fall into two categories. There are faithful and good created beings, and there are also some who rebelled and are evil. And both categories have behind the scenes roles that influence humanity. Let's take a look at some of the passage in the Bible to help explain what I mean. Let's go to the middle of our Bibles in a book called Psalms. And we'll stop at chapter 82. Psalms 82, chapter chapter 82, verse 1 says, this God stands in the divine assembly. He pronounces judgment against the gods. All right, so what is this divine assembly? The Hebrew wording here is important to the answer. I think the psalm was recorded first in Hebrews, so we need to understand what it was talking about. Here's how Michael Heiser explains this in his book Unseen Realm that I mentioned before. If you grab that book and you go to page 26, you'll find he writes this. You no doubt notice that I pointed out in chapter one the word Elohim, which occurs twice in this verse. In Psalm 82, you recognize the Elohim as one of God's names, despite the fact that the form of the word is plural. In English, we make words plural by ending S E s or I E s, like rats, horses, and stories. In Hebrew, plurals of masculine nouns end with I am. So Psalm 82:1 is especially interesting since Elohim occurs twice in this single verse. The first Elohim must be singular since the Hebrew grammar has the word as a subject of a singular verb form. The second Elohim must be plural since the presupposition of it is in front of or that means it requires more than one. You can't be in the midst of one. In other words, the preposition calls for a group, as does the earlier noun assembly. The meaning of this verse is inescapable. The singular Elohim of Israel presides over an assembly of, of lesser Elohim. So let me just pause right here for a second. If you're familiar with any Hebrew at all, you've heard that God is Elohim. And so right now you might be thinking, well, okay, now there's multiple gods. And I don't think that's exactly what this verse is saying in this whole chapter. What it's saying is we have the one true God, the eternally existent God, the all powerful creator God, standing in the midst of other Elohim, other lesser type of created beings, and something's going on. They don't have equal power, they don't have equal status. And so in that sense, they're not God. The problem comes when we always associate that word Elohim with Yahweh, the one true God of Israel. But what's being telegraphed here is simply the fact that Elohim is more of a class of unseen creatures. So God is the Elohim, but not all other Elohim are God, if that makes sense. So what's going on here is we have a picture painted for us by the Psalmist that shows the one true, powerful God in the midst of all these other created beings. And something's going on. So who are they? I mean, what are they doing and why are they created? Does the Bible give us any insight from other books? To help us explain this scene in Psalm 82, we continue to read in this chapter how God is pronouncing judgment against these lesser Elohim, and in fact, capital punishment is the penalty that must be paid, which I think presupposes and tells us that they were likely created to be immortal. And Psalm 82, if you go a little bit farther in verses 6 to 8 says this. I said, you are gods. You are all sons of the Most High. However, you will die like humans and fall like any other ruler. Rise up, God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. So, again, can we understand what's going on here from other parts of the Bible then? Well, the answer is yes. In fact, there are many parts of the Bible that can help us understand. And when we dig into these passages, we will have a fuller understanding of who God is and who these other supernatural created beings are. Let me show you a couple of examples. Let's go back to Genesis, and this time we'll start in chapter six. In Genesis chapter six and verse one, down to verse four, we have an interesting story. Here's how it reads. It says, when mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any that they chose for wives for themselves. And the Lord said, my spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the Earth both in those days and afterwards, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore children to them, they were the powerful men of old, the famous men. Again, even if you grew up in a church, chances are you didn't spend much time on these four verses. They kind of jump out at you with some unusual names and events. You have the sons of God and then you have something called Nephilim. I mean, what's this passage all about? It's included in the Bible because it's important. And we're going to get into what these verses are talking about and the possible connection to Psalm 82 soon. But in the meantime, let's go to another passage to again begin to formulate a picture about what the Scriptures have for a supernatural background. This time we're going to go to First Kings, chapter 22, verses 19 to 23, as we see an interesting scene unfold here. Here we have God pronouncing judgment against evil King Ahab of Israel. He's like, okay, his time has come and he seems to be in the midst of that same group as Psalm 82 or a similar group of lesser created Elohim. And here's the conversation that takes place then. Micaiah said, therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and the whole heavenly army was standing by him at his right hand and as left hand. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab to march upon and fall at Ramoth Gilead? So one was saying this, another was saying that. Then a spirit came forward, stood in the Lord's presence and said, I will entice him. The Lord asked how? He said, I will go and become a lion spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets. Then he said, you will certainly entice him and prevail. Go and do that. You see, the Lord has put a lying spirit into the mouth of these prophets and yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you. So again, you know, like, what's going on here? This sounds similar to Psalm 82 in that God is described in a scene surrounded by other beings and they are allowed by him to enact his decision that he declared about the fate of evil King Ahab. And there's literally dozens of other references in the Bible that are talking about angels, demons and other higher level unseen powers. And I promise you, we're going to talk about these passages and other passages. But for our episode today, I just want to tap the brakes here, pause a little bit, and I want to leave you with a word of encouragement to bring this all home. So it's real. And you understand where we're going with this as well. The Bible is a story of the one true God. And he alone is the all powerful Creator God of the universe. He alone has the authority, like it says in Matthew 28:18 in the New Testament, a portion of the Bible that we often call and scholars often call the Great Commission. Here's what it says there, and maybe you've never noticed this, but Jesus came near and he said to them, he's talking to the apostles here. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. That part of that verse where it says he has all authority is crucial to understanding who he is and who we are today, the things that he wants us to do. Because his authority is the one that we get to image. We are the ones who get to understand what that looks like. We have his authority in us with His Holy Spirit. And as we encounter things in this world, this unseen forces that seem to overlap with our own reality from time to time, we need to look at that from the framework of we are servants of Christ, we are followers of Jesus, and therefore we have the authority, authority of the One who created whatever it is that we're running up against. And so if you're listening today, and it seems like there are forces in your life that are stronger than God, I mean, I love you, but you're wrong. Jesus is greater than anything else that can ever influence you, even your own sin nature. And that's what we're going to be talking about more in the next episode. I'm going to leave you with a verse from the book called Second Corinthians. In Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 3 to 5, we have a powerful reminder of just, you know, who's who on the battlefield. We read here. For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God. For the demolition of strongholds, we demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ. So again, my friend, if you are there and you're struggling with this, I appreciate that and I want to hear from you. Please connect with us. We can pray with you and we can understand how to help you in even deeper ways. And we're ready to do that. But for now, I just want to thank you for joining us today. And I promise you as we go forward in this study, I'll offer more practical application. We won't just have an academic exercise to understand more about who demons are, what angels are doing, all of those type of things. We're going to be able to encourage you every day with the episode on what that all means to you personally in your life. So again, thank you for joining us today. God bless you and take good care. I hope to hear you. See you here next time. Take care.