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 i