BIBLICAL HEAVEN-VIEW VS WORLD-VIEW. To have a biblical world-view means to see each and every issue—personal, local, national, global—through the Word. “All things came into being through Him” (John 1:3). And the Father seeks “through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Because for all things He “made peace through the blood of the cross” (Col. 1:20).
We cannot have a biblical worldview without seeing God’s ultimate purpose to reconcile all things. Not only on earth but in heaven. For He taught us to pray thar “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How can we pray “as it is in heaven” without heaven’s view?
Many forces stand between us and the God in heaven who seeks to reconcile us. For “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him” Col 1:16). In the OT we see glimpses in Daniel 10 of evil angel “princes” of Persia and Greece hindering Daniel’s prayers. But in Daniel 10-12 the holy angels Michael and the narrating angel overcome them by his prayers. The more he “kept looking” into visions God showed him, the more he learned of this spiritual warfare.
During the 400+ years of silence before NT revelation, non-biblical Jewish books explored angelology. This occurred under the influence of Persian and Greek views of heaven populated by spirits or gods. Beyond a biblical worldview, Jewish authors speculated on hierarchies of angels in God’s heavens. Such books as Tobit, 1 Enoch, Jubilees and the Testament of Levi portrayed angelic influences on earth.
Both holy and evil angels rule over the elements
By the time the apostles were writing the NT, angelic hierarches had become fixed in many Jewish minds. In Galatians and Colossians Paul calls them “stoichea” or elemental spirits. Yet he does not deny that angels rule over elements. In Jubilees 2:2 we see angels of the presence, of sanctification, and of the spirit of fire and of the winds. Also, we see angels of the spirit of the clouds and of darkness, snow, hail, voices, thunder and lightning. And “angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer.”
Paul does not endorse that particular hierarchy. But he does say that elemental spirits enslave children until they come of age. In the same way, he says the law is our guardian until we become sons of God by faith. So he says don’t turn back to become slaves of those elemental spirits again. “You observe days and months and seasons and years” according to the law (Gal. 4:1-10). Instead, avoid such bondage to spirits who rule over seasons, Sabbaths and other calendar observances.
In Colossians Paul says much the same. To let no one judge you “in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” He calls them “a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:16-17). Before Christ, God prescribed laws and regulations for His people. Just as parents have rules for children that no longer apply when we are full-grown. Paul says to no longer follow “decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’” (Col 2:20-21). Because we no longer live by laws to please God, we live by faith in Christ.
Our position with Christ in heaven
The law is good when like a tutor it leads us to follow Christ. Holy angels oversee that operation of the law. Once we find Christ, however, evil spirits seek to lure us away from Christ to follow the law again. But they no longer have legal authority over us. For God created all “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” for Christ.
Until we receive Christ, those authorities have the right to keep a record of decrees against us. Just as a tutor keeps a record of all a student’s errors. But Christ does not let that record of sins stand when we turn to Him as Lord. “He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross…He had disarmed the rulers and authorities” of all their accusations against us (Col. 2:14-15).
Our heaven-view comes from being seated with Christ “far above all rule and authority and power” (Eph. 1:20; 2:6). From that position in heaven, we see all things subject to Him. And we can pray “on earth as it is in heaven” with the authority He has given us over them (Luke 10:19).
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constitutional convention, human rights, identity politics, sovereignty, globalism, united nations, woke agenda, Christian revival, constitutional commission, prayer for the world, spiritual warfare, Lord’s Prayer, authority over demons, angelology, Biblical heaven-view, Biblical world-view, global issues
