Shownotes
Welcome to Day 1597 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Conclusion to Supernatural – Worldview Wednesday
Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! Wisdom is the final frontier in gaining true knowledge. Our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, seek out discernment and insights, and boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend; this is Gramps; thanks for coming along on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Today is Day 1597 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. This week, we will conclude reviewing the book by Dr. Michael S Heiser titled “Supernatural.” The book is an abbreviated version of his more comprehensive book, “The Unseen Realm.” I highly recommend both of these books. Creating a Biblical Worldview based on how the Old and New Testaments connect with God’s overall plan for humanity is essential. This book review will help us understand what the Bible teaches about the unseen world, and why it matters.
Conclusion To Supernatural
We’ve come to the end of our journey. But it’s probably better to say that we’ve only just begun. We’ve considered some fundamental questions: Do other gods exist? If they do, does that make much difference in how we understand the Bible? What does it mean for our faith if we presume the unseen world described in the Bible is real—not just the familiar and accepted parts, but the unusual and often-ignored parts? Once I started catching the drift of the supernatural plotline of Scripture, I realized I needed to think differently about all sorts of things. But I can sum them up in two words: identity and purpose. I hope you have been challenged in both of those areas as we have reviewed this book. First, let’s review:
Our Identity—We Have a Home in the Family of God
What this book has discussed has significant implications for how we perceive what it means to be a Christian—to be “in Christ,” as the New Testament so often puts it. Once we realize the gods of the Old Testament are genuine, then the meaning of God’s command to have no other god before Yahweh, the God of Israel, comes into focus. The command isn’t about not giving attention to money or boats or cars. It’s about God’s jealous love for his people. In other words, the command actually means what it says. The insanity of loyalty to any god other than the God of all gods is hard to miss.
The awfulness of living with the consequences of how God judged the gods and their people (the “nations”) is also pretty obvious. We were once disinherited, enslaved to the corruption and exploitation of other gods. We were, as Paul says, alienated from God and outsiders to his covenant love (Ephesians 2:12). We were lost, enslaved to darkness, enemies of God in the service to unseen overlords (Ephesians 4:18; Colossians 1:21).
Having a grasp of that situation makes doctrinal concepts like adoption and inheritance more meaningful. It gives them context. God was unwilling to void the plan of living on earth with his family, enjoying the created world that came from his own hand. Yes, at Babel, he turned his back on humanity, but in the next moment, he called Abraham to raise up a new family—and to be the conduit through which those disinherited could find their way back to him (Acts 10:26–27).
Embracing the supernatural reality of the spiritual world of the Bible is essential for understanding the Bible. It explains why, as the Old Testament moves forward, the sin of idolatry will not just be like any other sin. It will be the sin. Israel was created to be loyal to God; when she turned to other gods instead, she was sent into exile, cast off like the other nations. This is a central reason why salvation in the Bible is always described in terms of faith. God is not ultimately looking for better behavior. He is looking for faith—for believing loyalty. When we choose to align our hearts with the God of gods, he will save us. When we choose another, we are sowing what we will one day reap.
For us today, believing loyalty means embracing what Jesus did on the cross, because he was God in flesh. Our ethics and behavior (our works) aren’t about becoming loyal enough for God to embrace us. We follow his commands because we’ve already chosen him. And his commands will lead to our happiness and contentment because they steer us away from the destruction of self and others. They provide a glimpse of life in harmony with God and the rest of his family—our family—seen and unseen, in his kingdom, the new Eden. Second, let’s review:
Our Purpose—We All Play a Part in God’s Plan to Restore Eden
Membership in God’s family has only one condition: unswerving faith in the God of gods, come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. That membership not only bestows extraordinary privileges, but also provides us with a clear purpose in life.
The members of God’s family have a mission: to be God’s agents in restoring his good rule on earth and expanding the membership of his family. We are God’s means to propel the great reversal begun in Acts 2, the birth of the church, the body of Christ, until the time when the Lord returns. As evil had spread like a contagion through humanity after the failure of the first Eden, so the gospel spreads like an antidote through the same infected host. We are carriers of the truth about the God of gods, his love for all nations, and his unchanging desire to dwell with his family in the earthly home he has wanted since its creation. Eden will live again.
It’s a scientific fact that the world’s continents move farther apart every year. But the progression of “continental drift” is undetectable to human senses. We only know it occurs because of observations we can make after the fact. So it is with the steady, unrelenting advance of the kingdom of God. We can’t perceive with the naked eye how each day shrinks the domains of the gods, the powers of darkness, or how the gospel liberates, one by one, those held under dominion. But it is an indiscernible certainty.
The key to seeing ourselves in this picture is to firmly grasp that God is still working his plan even when we can’t see it. We cannot genuinely claim to believe in the unseen, supernatural world while not believing that God’s intelligent providence is active in our lives and the affairs of human history. God wants us to live intentionally—believing that his unseen hand and the invisible agents loyal to him and us (Hebrews 1:14) are engaged in our circumstances so that, together, God’s goal of a global Eden moves unstoppably onward.
Each of us is vital to someone’s path to the kingdom and the defense of that kingdom. Each day affords us contact with people under the dominion of darkness and opportunities to encourage each other in the challenging task of fulfilling our purpose in an imperfect world. Everything we do and say matters, though we may never know why or how. But our job isn’t to see—it’s to do. Walking by faith isn’t passive—it’s purposeful.[1]
That will finish our study for this week’s worldview Wednesday. Join us again next week we will conclude our book review of Supernatural in our quest to build our Biblical Worldview. Tomorrow we will ponder another bit of wisdom from Gramps. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’
If you would like to listen to any of our past 1596 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.
Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most of all, your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you Tomorrow!
[1] Heiser, M. S. (2015). Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World—And Why It Matters. (D. Lambert, Ed.) (pp. 163–167). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.