What we’re about
God's Word blazes to life when we explore the worldview and understandings of the original authors and readers of scripture. Uncovering the truths of these ancient writers can have a life-changing impact! Uncover the ancient manuscripts and writings that can show us how the original authors knew and understood the world around them. Join us for interactive group meetings week after week, where we discover these timeless truths.
AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE WILL LEARN
NOTES FROM YOUTUBE
I had the great pleasure and honor this morning of finding a YouTube video from Dr. Heiser doing an overview of the Divine Council Worldview. This talk was given as a precursor to an extended class on the topic. I listened to the entire 45 minute talk and decided to go through it—bit-by-bit—and take copious notes. This post is of those notes and represent the first 8 minutes of his presentation. As you can see (below) the notes are growing larger and larger. So, I thought to find a jumping off point and save more for later—if anyone finds these notes useful and wants me to continue. If not, then I will stop. Please, let me know!
## THE DIVINE COUNCIL WORLDVIEW
Cosmic Geography & Salvations Plan in Biblical Theology
Q: What is the Divine Council?
A: God's Rule through His heavenly hosts (divine beings, archangels, angels, et al).
Q: What are His Heavenly Hosts?
A: His divine non-human imagers.
Q: What are or is an "imager"?
A: An entity designed, create, and built by God for the purpose of acting in God's stead over a given purpose and territory (i.e., realm - like the unseen or seen).
NOTE: We are human-imagers (i.e., created in the "image of God") here on earth. We inherited this trait and role as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. Therefore—do not think of being created in the image of God as a noun, but as a verb, where you as the image of God is not what you are, but what you are called to do! This also applies to the divine imagers (e.g., divine entities created by God in the unseen or heavenly realm).
Q: What is the arc of the storyline of the Bible?
A: The biblical story is really about the restoration of God's rule in heaven and on earth through His imagers, both non-human and human—literally—to restore Eden (pre-fall earth and universe). This includes a shaking out, identification, and destruction of all disloyal and rebellious imagers—both non-human and human. The entire story culminates in the removal of every last vestage of the disloyal and the setting up and eternal perpetuation of Eden and bliss forever for the unshakable loyal imagers—both non-human and human.
NOTE: Based on all of the above, the Divine Council is inextricably intertwined with us as human imagers of God. It is the least understood and most neglected part of the biblical story and the overall arc of history. Without understanding this arc, one's understanding of the story of God that we are playing a role in—your understanding will be stunted and muted; you will not get the fulness of what is going on—both the dangers and the rewards.
## CORE VERSE: DEUTERONOMY 32:8-9, 43 (ESV)
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders [a] of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God. [b]
9 But the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
[a] or Territories (of the peoples)
[b] Dead Sea Scrolls/Septuagint benai elohim (plural) (
(vs later Masoretic texts "sons of Israel")
Q: When in scripture did God (the Most High) divide mankind?
A: Tower of Babel.
Q: Why is "sons of Israel" not logical?
A: First—because Israel did not exist at the time of the Tower of Babel. Second—Israel is not listed in the Table of Nations recorded in Genesis 10. On this basis (and more), the notion of "sons of Israel" simply does not work. However, "sons of God" fits nicely and cohesively.
NOTE: vs 9—"the LORD's portion", where portion is inheritance, but why the reference to Yahweh (יְהֹוָ֖ה)? As we shall see in further study, there is a duality in Yahweh (יְהֹוָ֖ה)—Father and Son. It is the Father who has fathered the human-imagers. He portions (gives and inheritance) to His Son, Christ Jesus. Thus, the use of LORD (in place of Yahweh) is eluding to this Father-Son apportionment. Thus, the "his" in "Jacob his allotted heritage" is the Son, Jesus Christ!
Q: Refer to note [b] above: The DSS (Dead Sea Scrolls/Septuagint - which are earlier than Masoretic) have "sons of God" (Benay elohim). Why does the Masoretic text have "sons of Israel"?
A: This is an example of not knowing the ANE (Ancient Near East) or DCW-view on the story of God and trying to shoehorn in human understanding with Jewish traditions at the time of translation, which results in misrepresentation and camouflaging instead of digging for the truth. English translators rinse-and-repeat for the same reasons.
43 “Rejoice with him, O heavens [heavenly hosts]; [i]
bow down to him, all gods [elohim], [j]
for he avenges the blood of his children [k]
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him [l]
and cleanses [m] his people’s land.” [n]
[i] 43 Dead Sea Scroll/Septuagint;, vs. Masoretic Text Rejoice his people, O nations
[j] 43 Masoretic Text lacks bow down to him, all gods
[k] 43 Dead Sea Scroll/Septuagint;, vs. Masoretic Text servants
[l] 43 Dead Sea Scroll/Septuagint;, vs. Masoretic Text lacks He repays those who hate him
[m] 43 Or atones for
[n] 43 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew his land his people
Q: What was the reason behind the division of mankind?
A: Post-Flood, God reasserted His "divine mandate" to "be fruitful and multiply" (i.e., the Divine Dominion Mandate of God to mankind - human imagers). The post-Flood people failed to obey this mandate and instead attempted to "bring God down" by building a ziggeraut (temple-mountain-garden like Eden) in violation of God's mandate.
Q: How did God respond to this disobedience?
A1: Part One: God literally "gave them up" (see Romans 1) and divorced Himself from humanity as a whole, giving them over to other "gods" (members of His Divine Council) to rule them both as people, as languages, and as territories (i.e., see the "Table of Nations" - about 70). In other words—He gave up humanity as His inheritance (humanity was the Father's gift to the Son).
A2: Part Two: Immediately after the division of mankind, God institutes a new means of forging His inheritance by selecting Abraham leading to Israel by which He would regain His inheritance from the nations. His inheritance are the unshakeable and proven loyal imagers out of every nation, starting with the Jews and on into the Gentiles.
NOTE: As you read these notes, you need to acquire a keen sense of "His land, His people". It's not just about the human imagers. It is also about the land (i.e., from which the bodies of the imagers are created). The spirits of the imagers are paramount, but the bodies (and the land they own e.g., dominion mandate) and the derivative land are also crucially important!
OVERVIEW SO FAR: There are a number of high-level takeaways for you to hold in your mind, setting the stage for the story of God and your place in it.
1. When God divides the nations and apportions each of 70 nations to an elohim (god)—this becomes the basis for ancient paganism and their pantheon of gods. These gods always have a high god (the "prince" assigned by God) as well as lower/lesser gods. Q: Why do these gods intermarry, having children? A: This goes back to the pattern set by the sons of God coming down to earth and taking the daughters of men and having children or Nephilim (men of renown). This pattern is both spiritually and physically continued post-Flood and post-Tower of Babel. It truly and rationally explains the machinations of gods and goddesses in the Ancient Near East (ANE).
2. When you read your English translation bible, you ought to now be keenly aware of a very real and large lack of understanding on the part of the translators. This lack results in mistranslation which minimizes the supernatural story of God and the inclusion of gods—both heavenly hosts (loyal) and fallen (disloyal).
3. This God-created notion of an "imager" (both non-human and human) plays a critical role in the arc of the story of God. It is nearly impossible to appreciate the power and magnitude of what God is up to without having a solid understanding of what an imager is and that YOU are one of those! You are being tested by God for your loyalty or your disloyalty, which will result in either salvation through Christ and IN Christ or your destruction forever.
4. You ought to be getting an initial sense of the arc of the story of God and that it includes not only the spiritual aspect but has direct linkage to geography and territory. Why? Because God not only divided the nations by people (spirit) and language, but by geography, thereby assigning people and their prince (god) as a package.
5. God not only split or divided the people physically, spiritually (gods), and by territory, but also by language. Why? To further alienate them as "not His" (e.g., God speaks a language). The language God would use with Abraham and the Jews to follow would start with a paleo-Semitic Hebrew that would grow into biblical Hebrew and has further become modern Hebrew. This language of Hebrew further separates God's allotment from the nations. Therefore, this becomes the reason that God "confused" the languages. It is perhaps even possible that Hebrew (or some paleo version of it) was the original language of Adam and Eve, down to the Tower of Babel.
6. As a foretaste—God split or divided the nations into 70, giving each of them over to the rule of a god (e.g., divine spirit or prince, hence a principality). What you may already guess is that Jesus sent out the 70 and that they came back with the statement: Luke 10:17 states, “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons [gods] are subject to us in your name!’”. Moreover—Jesus has a response: Matthew 9:37-38 states, “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest [nations with gods of old].’” Where are they laboring? In the nations! God is sending harvesters to each nation with a language, a territory, and an overarching god or prince. Why? To reclaim His loyal imagers who will respond to and remain loyal to His calling IN Christ Jesus!
## MORE TO COME (IF YOU LIKE AND WANT)
