The War Has Begun - Understanding the Spiritual Warfare of the Ancient Texts
You can read the Bible as a historical text, but if you do that, you’ll be hard-pressed to explain several passages that God-fearing people are often pressed with. One such question that often goes unanswered is how a loving God can command the utter destruction of entire races. One such example: Deuteronomy 20:16-18 - However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.
We are early in Season 5 of the podcast, and today’s podcast is titled: The War Has Begun. We deviate from the scriptural text here, not because we think the text is wrong; it’s not. One of the Berean tenets is that there are no contradictions in scripture. We have a well-supported theory that explains the text. It is not doctrine as far as the canon goes, but it is supported by extra-canonical text and by some hefty biblical scholars like Michael Heiser, Author of The Unseen Realm. We present a theory that helps the reader walk through the entire Bible with a consistent theology that helps explain much of the text.
Theories like the one presented here stand only as long as the biblical text supports it. We happily retract any statement if it can be disproven. So far, we have not found any contradictory text and are happy to consider the opinions and contributions of readers and listeners who may think otherwise.
Ultimately, season 5 will lead readers and listeners to an eschatological view that escapes more modern-day interpretations. This journey is to that end. To understand it, we must have a cohesive picture of what is happening in the spiritual realm. Paul states in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
We are still in Genesis and “The War Has Begun”. We don't have to wait for Paul to tell us something we should have known all along.
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