Dr. Michael Heiser Speaks At Grace Church!

so our guest has an earned doctorate in Hebrew and somatic studies if I have that correct he's taught the university level for years he did work for the Lagos I say Lagos it's probably not long it's probably logos or something like that which is a premier translating organization Bible translation he's author of many many books he's never been with us but by the last three weeks everybody knows about him because we've been really drilling down on some of his material really happy to have him coming I had no idea he was that tall because usually in the youtubes you're sitting down and it's like man I'm looking I died of this guy so anyhow I want us to stand and give dr. Michael Heizer a great welcome this morning would you come on I will say this he says there's one condition that you can give me control of the and I said no problem well we just got that figured out last week and it's working well thanks for inviting me and I've been warned that you've been exposed to my contents you know I don't I don't speak in church that often because there's it's kind of hard for me to funnel there's a lot that I like to say but I'm sort of a big picture framework guy and that takes a long time to sort of unpack and so it's a good idea you know as you proceeded to spend a few weeks kind of setting the stage but one of the things that that is easier to sort of drill down on is what we're going to go through today and honestly it's one of the more fundamentally important concepts in biblical thought biblical theology and that is imaging God I already noticed in the first slide I've made it a verb okay not image of God but imaging God and that's actually not a typo although you may see type but that's actually not a typo but it's it's intentional and of course deliberate and I'll explain why as we go through but this is a really really important topic and I like it because people are familiar with the basics of the idea but there's a lot to unpack here that is sort of under the surface that has really really significant ramifications for how we think about ourselves really how we think about God how we think about everybody else how we think about what we do believe it or not the you know as I go around I especially you know younger people generally but younger believers I think really struggle with two things fundamentally and that is an you know I've isolated to younger people but you know lots of Christians struggle with us and that is identity who you actually are and mission what in the world are we here to do now you might think that those are self-evident things as a Christian but trust me a lot of believers really struggle with it we have you know lots of people that go to church and they go to church and it's sort of an activity it's a it's a respite place and that's good I mean we need respite places from the world but a lot of churches just sort of lack a sense of mission and then they're unable to transmit that to people and it's really something that that's kind of lacking which it's one of the reasons why people go elsewhere to get a sense of why are we here we have to be here for more than just you know the coffee and the occasional activity and you know meeting people that we like and the person next to me in in church and so on and so forth there's kind of a lack of mission mindedness and that actually begins in Genesis 1 in God's head with his intention so this is a familiar passage and I don't know if you can see that you can see the colors I've I've colorized a few things here because this is where I want to funnel down on very familiar God said let us and that's colorized for a reason let us make man you know a Dom in Hebrew mankind humanity in our image in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea the birds of the air over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground so God created man in his own image you'll notice it switches back to singular language it was plural us our and now it switches back to singular his his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them this passage again is one that we sort of think you know we know but when you look at it that's kind of odd I mean have you ever wondered why there's plurals and why when you get the plurals you know we slips back into this singular so I want to talk about that the plurals number three but before and you know in the course of getting there I also want to talk about what the image of God is and what does it mean for us so defining the image again most of you would probably be able to quickly rattle these things off the image of God in Scripture is referenced here Genesis 1:26 27 it's referenced in Genesis 5 ok with the offspring of you know Adam and Eve and Seth and so on and so forth the real language is repeated and it's also referenced in Genesis 9 that's the verse that says verse 6 whosoever sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed because in the image of God he made man but it's actually something that ripples through Scripture in lots of other ways but those are the three that we kind of think of because that's where the phrase is repeated and if you look at that we have you know taken that collectively we've got male and female equally possessing or having something to do with the image in the images is spoken of both genders it's equally possessed distinct from all earthly creatures the image of God whatever that is is the thing that makes us different and distinct from everything else that God makes in Genesis 1 that's important this one is especially significant it's neither incremental nor partial there's no hint when you read about human creation in Scripture there's no suggestion that you get the image in stages incremental II partially you have it have some of it now and then you got a little bit more of it there's nothing like that it's sort of an is or isn't a kind of thing and it's passed on generationally that's where Genesis 5 comes in that's where Genesis 9 comes in in Genesis 9 the like the capital punishment you know idea in Genesis nine because in the image of God made he meant well there's lots of people on the earth by the time you know your you know your you know we've had the flood so you're limited then but you've had lots of people precede that and God is offended at the intentional taking of life because of this reason image of God and it's another suggestion that everyone everyone that's human is part of this thing so it's not a subset of humanity it's everybody male and female equally possessed not incremental now here's where we get a little bit controversial what fails these criteria again here the criteria equally possessed by male and female makes us distinct from every other earthly creature it's neither incremental or partial and it's passed on here's what the image isn't if we look at the biblical criteria it's not consciousness it's not sentience that's a word that means self-awareness it's not intelligence rationality emotions the soul or spirit conscience a sense of morality or the ability to communicate I just drew this grocery list from systematic theologies this is the way they'll talk about the image of God you say well what what do you mean it's none of these things let me just illustrate it with a little story I used to when I taught Christian ethics I used to love it's gonna sound weird but I used to love abortion day you say well that's just kind of weird that's just kind of twisted I loved it because I knew it would be a day that students would find memorable and ultimately theologically significant because what I would do is I would have everybody every kind of it's a Christian school so I'd say hey how many of you are pro-life you know of course like every hand goes up which is the expected response and then I would say I mean explain that to me why and invariably would take like 30 seconds you know somebody's gonna you know payable life human life is sacred and I would say why and again another minute or so somebody's gonna land in Genesis 1:26 27 because we're creating the image of God and then I would say well what does that mean what is that and then I'd get the grocery list and when I would navigate students through the grocery list I would say do you realize you've just given me biblical justification to abort especially in the first trimester and they look at you like what some would some would give you the look like I'm gonna go tell my mom I'm gonna run down the hall and tell the Dean I'm gonna call my pastor it's like look you know if they're connected with a school they know what day this is they're waiting for your call okay it's not gonna faze them they know what's going on and I would say well you know that if life begins at conception the moment of fertilization then that little 2 or 3 or 4 celled thing the contents of the woman's womb that's not communicating with anybody it's not conscious it has no self awareness it has no intelligence or rationality if they can't express emotions you say well a soul spirit you're gonna have done that one just hold off on that one it has no conscience or sense of morality it's not praying it's a clump of cells so if this is the image if one of these things are the image and I'll lay my hand on soul spirit the Bible those two words soul nephesh spirit Ruach actually assigns those things to animals in Genesis both of those terms so it's not unique if you're going by biblical terminology you know I'll give you I'll show you some examples in a moment but I would I would go through the list and you know again in longer form and and just track through it and I'd say do you see you see if the image is one of these things then you've just given me a pro light or pro-choice position pro-abortion position at least in the first trimester but at least before brain formation and it's biblical and again they you know you could sort of feel the hostility in the air and I would say look you know I'm not doing this to you because I believe that I don't believe that I do think life is sacred from the moment of fertilization I'm doing it to use so someone else doesn't because you're gonna you're gonna run into somebody out there in YouTube land or the Internet where this is going to be articulated and you're gonna be flummoxed I'm gonna tell you now what the problem is and then how to fix it because I'm your friend whoever you run out to in the real you know the real world or YouTube or whatever they may not be your friend in fact they might be really hostile to what you believe and so you're just a sitting duck because this is the way we usually talk about the image of God so again to review why they fail none of those things can be said to be present equally among all humans okay and just think of the little multi-celled contents of the womb they can't be said to be present actually what I would usually get is well Mike oh of course the little cellular thing that inside a woman's womb of course that can't you know think and reason and but it will and I'd say thank you you've just given me what a potentially sacred life it's not sacred yet but it will be so thank you again for bolstering my pro-abortion position from the you know this is again where they'd get you get the impulse like you know I'm gonna go call my mom or somebody yeah I loved it because it's one of the few times when you have a bunch of undergrads and they're actually paying attention okay sometimes you have to shock them a little bit and and this is this is a really important topic so they were there some of these aren't even unique to humankind there is a whole field of animal cognition animal intelligence and this is sort of a little hobby of I I kind of am interested in this and it's not some of you know I have pugs okay it's not because I have bugs pugs are honestly not very bright which makes them endearing but you don't get me started on pugs but you can I can actually show you studies where people in in the field of animal cognition will give the same intelligence tests to chickens and toddlers example chickens can be trained very quickly in fact we didn't we had a chicken it just died a couple weeks ago our chicken finally died it's like we had this eternal chicken you know my wife had this thing for chickens I did I still can't figure we started with four we were down to one and I just figured it's never gonna die but this chicken we would we didn't we made no effort to train it in any way you would open the coop it would scamper out run around the yard for the day and then at night guess what it would do it would go back into the coop try that with your toddler are you gonna trust your toddler to do that but the toddler's human created in the image of God but the chicken is actually smarter efficient you know this is why I like the field because they come up with these funny experiment so when you think about it's like oh boy we really are kind of dumb aren't we but I mean you have artificial intelligence discussions now you know if someday in the future we find out that there's like extraterrestrial intelligence there are people who believe that if that's ever found out that that destroys the Bible it destroys the idea of the image of God the sanctity of human life the idea of humanity being the apex of creation because people have been trained to think of the image of God as intelligence see we're not unique in fact we're like we got just got knocked down a few pegs and people talk about this in the scientific community about artificial intelligence about matching the human brain and then exceeding it and so on and so forth to sort of put us in our place thinking that if we achieve this we've just undermined the Bible this biblical idea it's actually kind of dangerous to define the image of God as any quality because it's not going to be equally possessed it's not going to be present actually in all human beings and it applies to other things as well you know how about you know if the image of God is intelligence or self-awareness what about Alzheimer's patients do they have less of it now are they losing it incrementally did it just drop off no of course not but again we often hear these things and we don't think about the implications of them so you know we have real problems here here are the examples with soul you know humans are animated by the breath of God in Genesis 2:7 the nephesh Kyah again nephesh is the word for soul that is applied to human beings here and animals get the same description Genesis 1:21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature every nephesh haha that moves it's the same description it's not unique animals also have a rule a spirit according to Ecclesiastes 321 what it really means is animate life it's an inanimate life-form a breath of life Genesis 7 the nish mot Khayyam again all land life has that that's the way humans are described when God breathes into the man okay and he becomes a living soul it's the same terminology so you can't even retreat to that so invariably in my ethics class somebody would pipe up and say in not perhaps not these terms okay smart guy what is it I would say I'm glad you asked because that's the whole point of the class now the key here is actually and I'm not trying to sound like a politician here the key is to focus on the preposition in believe it or not in English we use the word in in a number of ways we don't always mean the same thing by in every time we use it example if I say or my wife says to me put the dishes in the sink what does she mean she's describing what a location in the sink if I say I broke that vase in pieces I'm not describing a location anymore I'm talking about the result of some action something that was done to the vase the result of which is it is now in pieces if I say I wrote the note in pencil I'm not talking about location I might still be talking about result but I could also be talking about instrumentality how something was done it all depends on the context here's the important one for our purposes if I say I work in menace three I work in education I work in law enforcement I work in you know whatever accounting what do I mean it means I work as a pastor you know church worker physician PA nurse whatever accountant teacher principal whatever I work as it describes a role or function and in Hebrew grammar the some of you I know have read I'd seen around I actually go into the details here and give people nuts white nice information in footnotes that if they're having trouble sleeping again recommend read the footnotes that'll put you out there is actually a a rule of Hebrew grammar called the bet essentia the bet of identity bet is that little one letter in Hebrew the second letter of the alphabet it's the preposition in and grammarians will tell you that sometimes that letter is used to denote function or role and this Genesis 1:26 is a good example so when God says that we're created or when the text says we're created in that God's image what it really means is we're created as God's image and that's why I think it's it's helpful to think of it as a verb and not a noun we are created to image God to be him as it were as if he were here we are God's representatives we are God's proxies on this planet that's what we are now for us to be God okay to be God's representatives to be his partners because you notice in verse 27 and verse 28 in Genesis 1 God gives his imagers a task actually several tasks he wants the world to be made you know essentially like Eden go out and you know subdue the earth Malta be fruitful and multiply subdue the earth you know bring it under Dominion you know you realized that the whole world was not Eden Eden was just a little slice of the planet it actually has geography in Genesis 2 it's a defined space it's not the whole world so the mission is go out multiply because you're gonna need kids it's a big task bring the earth into submission so that it's more like this wonderful place Eden where I and you live it needs maintenance it need it needs it needs restraint it needs mastering and I could do that myself God can do anything himself and just a you know of the flash of time but God likes to create beings like himself and make them partners so that they can participate in doing the task and enjoy the results so we are God's representatives now to pull all that off and animals can't do that because they don't have first of all they're not assigned that status only humans are assigned the status of being God's imager what God decided to do was to share his attributes with us in theology if you were taking a theology class this would be called the communicable attributes attributes of God that are shared with humans that we possess in lesser form okay things like intelligence creativity compassion you know emotions that those sorts of things we get those things it there they are they are tools which we use according to God's will to represent him as we should now what that means is that the abilities are the means to fulfilling the role of imaging they are not imaging itself in the image is not a quality the qualities are the things that we that God gives us so that we can be his representative and that in turn means that to be human is to be God's image that is why life is sacred from the moment of fertilization the contents of the womb are by definition human that's the only qualification that matters that's why it's passed on through birth okay through generations so again in the Christian ethics class you know I would make this point to say look you you're right your conclusion was right about the sanctity of life it's just that your argument in defense of it was a weak it was easy to exploit it was easy to destroy you got to think of the image a little bit differently and it really matters and it's based in the Hebrew text and Hebrew grammar it's a text based argument I like text based arguments because this is the thing we claim that is inspired so we ought to get our theology from the thing we say is inspired not just you know our imagination so again think of it as a verb what does imaging mean for life well to image God again means to represent him and I actually like the fact that this is tied in to again this is one of these things that you wouldn't really see on the surface it's tied in to the commandment in that in the Ten Commandments to when God says thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain now we think that means cursing verbal cursing which of course is not a good idea to use God's name that way but the verb take there is in Hebrew and Nessa it means to carry to pick up to lift up you know like like you're carrying a burden that kind of thing you carry the name of God with you don't do it lightly or dismissively or in a way that drags down God's reputation bearing the name now if you have a job and you work for a company I like to straight this way but I could say the same thing about your family and your church when you go out among people that you know you're in the community you are a representative of your family of your church of your company you bear the family name you bear the company name if you're kind of a jerk or screw up you know that's going to reflect badly on people with whom you are associated with by name whether it's family church company get the idea that's what that commandments actually talking about don't live in such a way where you represent God poorly don't do that and it's part of the logic we don't have time to get into it but the commandment you know all the commandments but that one especially as part of a of a wider biblical theological logic that Israel was supposed to be distinct from the nation's there were lots of reasons for that but not only were they supposed to be distinct they were supposed to attract the nation's back to the true God well one of the ways you don't do that is to misrepresent the true God that's a poor strategy so it's actually again part of the bigger picture you know the identity of this was pretty short-lived again we know the story we are living post-fall so in a fallen world you know it's true every human being is to be an imager of God and has been assigned that status by God that is part of God's you know initial desire to have a people to have a family on earth but after the fall the only people who really sort of can do that with reasonable facility sort of do it like it should be done are the ones who are redeemed because we need the spirits help to do that in a post-fall world if we're to imitate God we need assistance because of our flesh our corruption you know again this is this is something that you all understand but again linking it to the image idea you know this is what what the task is so what if you ask me well do i define imaging what does that even mean you know how do I represent God how do I bear the name we actually have a template and this language is deliberate in Scripture and that would be Jesus imaging language is used of Jesus that's not an accident when the New Testament writers do that they're assuming by the way when the New Testament writers do anything when they write anything they're assuming an acquaintance in their audience with the Old Testament Jew or Gentile feared you you're probably reading Hebrew or one of the Aramaic targets targum as a translation if you're a Gentile you know the Old Testament anyway because of the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament the whole world spoke Greek so if you're a literate person of any variety in the ancient world this is going to be a text that is widely known and distributed and used and referenced so when they use the word like imaging they expect a lot of people who are gonna hear the Epistle or read it a copy of it their mind is going to be taken back to imaging language in the Old Testament again it's not an accident it's very intentional scripture is intelligently designed so we have here in 2nd Corinthians 4:4 the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God I mean he is the ultimate example he is the ultimate imager he is there is no no better you no better illustration of how to represent God it's interesting and in Jesus high priestly prayer he says I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world I'll tell you what he didn't mean ok when you read something like that Jesus didn't show up and you know hey gather around here I've got an important message you know a big crowd assembles he goes I just I've come here to tell you something that you all need to know God's name is Yahweh thank you very much they would have looked at him like he was an idiot it's like well yeah we can read that like a few thousand times in our Bible you know what why is that it's not a revelation he's not talking about telling them what the name of God is manifesting the name is what he that has seen me has seen the father okay it's in the same it's in the book of John it's the same book in the New Testament manifesting the name is showing people what God is like that's imaging that's what we're supposed to do you know I have made known to them at your name and will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them and it's not about vocabulary training it's about living okay in such a way God has predestinated that all who believe will ultimately be quote conformed to the image of his son you know ultimately what what imaging is is discipleship as we become disciples of Christ we image him and he in turn is the image that the ultimate image of the Father we fulfill our roles as human beings when we are like Jesus that's why the language is used to connect and tie all of those things together to be in Christ again post-fall is to have a not only a chance but but the the opportunity and the role and the privilege of actually being the kind of person we were supposed to be from the very beginning and this is like at least these thoughts are connected believers have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator oh look at that you know more in language we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another its conformity to Christ be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your and we know these verses but but these passages have they have a place to take in the flow of a biblical idea they're connected old to New Testament it's a it's a it's a it's a breadcrumb trail from Genesis all the way through Genesis to your ultimate sanctification God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal the Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity well that would make sense we can't like be in iniquity or be characterized by iniquity if we're supposed to be imaging God bearing the name being his representative being his proxy so imaging God is representing God again everyone high every human has this status the fall Mars our ability to do that and Jesus is our perfect example so again we imitate we image God when we imitate Jesus in one sentence that's where it what it's about we image God when we imitate Jesus when we are disciples we are conformed to him when we are like him now why the plurals why the plurals this is a really interesting thing because it what we talked about conceptually to this point is actually not unique to us in a certain way it is unique as part of the earthly creation but there are other beings that God has created and existed before for us that are also his representatives in the spiritual world who are his partners with him to get things done that he wants done in that realm there's a symbiotic relationship between at least they're supposed to be this is God's intention as in heaven so on earth okay this is Lord's Prayer language okay the plurals again refer to the members of the heavenly host and now you know this is often controversial because we are taught typically that the plurals there are the members of the Trinity the other two members of the Trinity theologically there are problems with that in standard trinitarianism and I'm a boring standard Trinitarian guy okay in Orthodox trinitarianism the members of the Trinity you have three persons and one essence the members of the Trinity are Co eternal Co omniscient okay if they're Co eternal and Kalam Nishant God doesn't need to announce anything to them they already know so what would the purpose be of God announcing this idea this declaration this intent hey let's make humankind in our image and our likeness and it also doesn't answer why it goes back to the singular then what's really happening in the passage and again if you've read unseen realm you you know you can trace the academic bunny trail for this if you like what's really happening is God single God is speaking to a group in in scholarship the fancy term for this is the plural of exhortation so God is announcing something to a group he's telling them his intent it'd be like me saying hey let's go get pizza which I am want to do free let's go get pizza but if we get in my car and I pay and I get to pick what's on the pizza but I let you eat it you have the idea of Genesis 1 God is announcing his intention to a group and the group is somehow linked to what's going to happen what's going to follow but they're not doing the creating it switches back to the singular to make it clear that only the God of heaven the God of Israel the God of the Bible is doing the creating in the image of God he created them male and female he created them it's not they create its he but nevertheless he told them what he was going to do now why do this what's the point what's the takeaway the takeaway is that God had a family before us he shared his attributes with them he gave them a status as his representatives in the spiritual world God wanted to reproduce that on earth and have families two families connected and actually together in one place because Eden is where God lives right where God lives his family is his entourage is his bureaucracy his home office ok heaven comes to earth in Eden God wants a blended family he wants to make humans and I catch this he wants to make humans fit for sacred space that is unique in the ancient world there's lots of imaging talk like with idols and stuff like that same same languages in the Bible but it's it's always applied to the making of an idol in the ancient world the idea was when you made an idol you had to do certain ceremonies to animate it they're typically they're called the opening of the mouth because yeah you know when breath comes in then something is alive so we do a ritual act and we open the mouth of the idol and and the deity who's some out there somewhere comes and lives and resides in the Idol or attaches itself to it now for a pagan the idea there was to localized the deity to bring it to you so that you can barter with it hey you know I'll give you lots of offerings if you don't like destroy our town or something like that that isn't the biblical idea the biblical idea is we don't have idols the biblical idea is you are God's representation you are God's image and imager and not just the King and the special people that was also a common ancient near-eastern idea pharaohs and kings would be talked about as as the image of God on earth or the proxy of God on earth in biblical thought it's every human it's completely democratized but God wants humans to be with him in his house with his other family in God's mind that's the most normal thing in the world to have humans fit to occupy his presence sacred space now again that doesn't last very long there was one member of the heavenly hosts that heard that and thought that's that just kind of stinks why don't we want these ridiculous embodied things in our house they're inferior they're embodied we're not you know we have you know we're superior you know we were here first okay and again we know the story we know the story of supernatural rebellion in the garden if supernatural being comes to Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent and has a conversation and they get deceived and fall and blah blah we know the story this one being said I will like the Most High I'm the one who makes the decisions here I want autonomy from what God intends to do and chooses a path and deceives humanity thinking that God will just destroy them God doesn't decide to destroy them okay there is like I like to say there is no plan B for God God doesn't destroy he forgives and redeems he expels them from the garden and he extend the the supernatural rebel is cast down to the ground to the earth to the Eretz which is also a word for the underworld the place of the dead okay again we know this story but God doesn't say boy that was a bad idea I should have seen that coming okay no God did see it coming so here's why else this is this is important you know just you just think with me God's intent was God it God has a creative impulse he doesn't create the members of the heavenly hosts or humans because he's deficient in some way we might like to think it but God isn't lonely okay God doesn't need anything ever at any time God creates because that's part of his nature he likes to make things and he likes to make some things to be his partner his children to do other things it's a creative impulse it's not a deficiency God does this in the supernatural realm he does it in the earthly realm the original plan was to have this these two families blend heaven comes to earth earth you know the Eden expands you know through the commands to go out and subdue the earth and we're all one big happy family we're all fit for sacred space we all experience the presence of God together and isn't this awesome again it just crumbles now God knew that this would happen and I hate to keep referencing the book unseen around but a lot of times we're hung up on on the problem of evil and the problem of evil is a serious one as we all know but we tend to think again I'm not going to pick on any specific theological systems here but we tend to think that either God predestined evil he predestined the abuse of that child he predestined you know a mass shooting I think you know happen to you know yesterday that God predestined these things God God wants them to happen he presses them he could have just not done that but apparently he must want that to happen so he predestined that to happen other people saying when I got that goes too far God isn't predestined these things God incorporates evil activity in his sovereign plan so that everything works together in the end in other words God doesn't want these things to happen but he made a plan where he needs them to happen because that's that's now how everything's gonna work out okay I reject both of those options and one of the major reasons I do is I'll tell you a biblical story first samuel 23 you say that's an odd place to go for this this kind of stuff first samuel 23 if you haven't read it i recommend it but i'll just tell you the story david is running from Saul as David basically did full-time okay so he's running from Saul he's out running around the wilderness with a band of men and a message comes to him from a city named Kyla it's Kei lah and the message says hey David can you come over here and help us because the Philistines are like harassing us you know can you deliver us from the Philistines they're just really a problem and so David says okay it's a distraction why not you know David goes over to Kyla he you know beats up on the Philistines for a while he delivers the city and then he decides he and his men need some R&R so they go into the city saw here's what happened and he hears that David is now in the city and saw things to himself David you idiot I have you now why because Kyla is a walled city david is inside the city so Saul knows all he needs to do is go down there this is classic siege warfare in the ancient world go down there surround the city and just sit there no foods coming in no waters coming in until we get David we're just gonna sit here and starve you out hand him over if you want to go back to normal so saw makes plans to go down to Kyla and finally get David now we're not told how but David gets wind that Saul has found out where he is and David knows immediately the implications I'm in a walled city this is not the place to be it's like just walking into a trap so what David does is he says hey quit bring me the ephod okay the the pie priestly garments and he wants to ask God some questions and he asked God two questions he says Lord will Saul come down and surround me and get me here at kyla will he entrap me and God says yep and then David second question is okay Lord will the men of Kyla surrender me hand me over to Saul and again this is in the Hebrew God says you betcha oh yeah so what does David do anybody remember the story he leaves I mean wouldn't you do that I'm out of here do you see the implication though God foreknew two things that never happen for knowledge does not necessitate predestination he knows two things that never happen and even our even our old some of our oldest Creed's have this language in them God knows all things real and possible well he does but if God knows the possible and there's two categories possible and real if those are two actual categories that tells you as well that God's foreknowledge doesn't necessitate predestination otherwise we'd only have one category the real we wouldn't have the possible because all the possible would be real Kate foreknowledge does not necessitate predestination now let's go back to Genesis and Genesis 1 here when God makes humanity his proxies his representatives and he shares his attributes with them one of those attributes is freedom God is the ultimate free being we cannot truly image God unless we actually have genuine freedom the ability to make an uncoerced decision it is a theological necessity that aligns with the concept of imaging that is why there's evil because we have the freedom to choose and it's the same thing with the heavenly host they're his proxies in the spiritual world he shares his attributes with them it's the same deal now God knew all of that so what does this tell us about gods and I had people you know and I understand you know that they're angry with God because of evil and things that happen to them or somebody else or just generally you know that we live in a wicked world and they want to know you know like you know you know what's your answer to that and I'll say look first of all I understand and and you know if you want to be mad at God you can but me mad at God for the right reason don't be mad at God because you think God will wanted this to happen or that God needed it to happen it happened because God decided a long time ago to share his attributes with us knowing full well you know what if we do this okay yeah because they the heavenly host knows because their job says two times God doesn't trust his Holy Ones he knows what he's was there you know he knows it's a very simple thing God knows that the beings he has shared his attributes with so that they can represent him so they can image him he knows they are either going to make mistakes or rebel why because they aren't him only God has a perfect nature only God has perfected control over over behavior well you know if we can use that word of God okay so God knows that when he makes this decision when we cross this threshold to create human beings he knows what it means so you can be angry with God that God made you knowing that you would encounter evil and suffer you can be mad at him for that but don't miss what it tells you about God it means that God would rather have that set of circumstances than to not have you here at all that's what that means and you know we sort of get lost in the evil talk and we don't realize that God made this choice and people I'd rather be dead well I understand that impulse but you're short-sighted because God's original intent was to have you in his family in sacred space this is the most normal thing in the world in God's mind to have you in his presence and if you believe that if you believe you know because the Gospels link to all this if you're with Christ if you believe the gospel if you're in Christ guess what God also knows that this is not your story this is a Waystation in your story and what you don't realize is that in the end because God never opted for Plan B God stuck with plan a is that God will get his way okay things will come full circle that's why the end of the book of Revelation it's not a coincidence that the world now is described as Eden God gets his way so yes I understand your anger I understand your frustration you know and and you know lots of people have suffered you know more than I have I get it but you have to stop and think about the rest of the things that are part of the picture it's the most normal thing in God's mind to have you with him that is the desire the desire is not that you live a life of pain and suffering and then that that's that that is a short-sighted view and you miss what God really wants you don't want this he wants this other thing over here and again it's all tied to this concept of imaging and you know God's original intent so Genesis 1:26 you know teaches us that again what God what God wants in the heavens is a template for what God wants on earth again this blended family idea and eventually heaven will come back to earth it's the end of the book of Revelation part of the picture of the global Eden is heaven returning to Earth the other interesting thing is is how our believers again to illustrate that these two these concepts are tied what the way God thinks about the heavenly host his his you know sons of God you know his divine family as it were and his human family and having that family be a collective again and you know heaven returning to earth and having a global Eden look at how these are two examples of how believers are talked about we are called sons of God and children of God in the New Testament if you look back in the Old Testament where is that vocabulary used of supernatural beings we're called Saints I hate that translation okay our English Bibles take take the Greek term I it means Holy Ones it translates it Saints so I have to you know just tell people and so I'm sorry for the impulse but I hate that translation because it severs the connection between New and Old Testament it completely blind you to the history of the of the term holy ones who are called the holy ones in the Old Testament it's the members of the heavenly hosts it's not an accident God God looks at us in terms of his vision for what he ultimately wants for us and we'll get so it's a good idea for us to start thinking of ourselves the way God thinks about us we are representatives we are fit for sacred space you know and none of this has anything to do with ourselves and our merit and you know we're great again we know this we know this is because of Jesus who is the ultimate imager who died and rose again and ascended to the Father so that we can be united into the family that's the whole point all these concepts again are interrelated so that's what I wanted to present to you today this is what this is my last slide to tell me to shut up if this is information on my websites and whatnot but I'm gonna ask Dave to come up and close with us again thank you for having me and I hope again you you you you go away with something to think about because this is a this is really an important concept that just ripples through life in a lot of ways that was fantastic I don't know if you know how good that was if you could just close your eyes and bow your head for a second dr. Heiser was talking about the family and heaven and family on earth and you're not sure that you're in that family but you'd like to be would you just look up at me and make eye contact with me so yeah I'd like to be in that family I want to know today that if I were to die I would be in the family of God so just look up at me let me know I'm looking all over is there anybody that's ready to come into the family all right everybody's in the family it looks like if you're not would you please consider that that guy's not mad at you when that beautiful when that beautiful God we're so thankful for you and what you've done we thank you for the honor it is to be called your child you're to be a part of your family well thank you for your grace in our lives thank you for your mercy and even though we don't always understand because there is a lot of evil and there is a lot of suffering we know that you're had happy to help us to be representatives of you in this evil world thank you Father for lanius word burn deep into our hearts as we continue to look at these verses over the next few weeks and and hopefully with new insight about our purpose here on earth that we are called to a purpose and it's very very important to image you everywhere we go Jesus name got so good got a free book for you one per family please supernatural dr. Heiser wrote this we've got it on the welcome shack back there I ordered a few and if this first come first or don't rush out and kill each other but one per family if you don't get one we if we run out which probably we will just write your name and address and I'll send you one okay free charge let's go ahead and stand and I want to thank dr. Heiser for coming he's doing a conference in Branson and and I like twisted his arm we're not very far only 20 minutes you know I didn't lie but it's not very I did say that it's not very far and and we're just excited that he come and maybe he's going to go to a different job in Florida real soon moving his family there so if you don't mind we just like to reach out and pray for you right now Heavenly Father we want to thank you for this man and his family in his service to people inside the body and outside and I just want to say thank you God for using him and we pray that you would use him exponentially now and that this new step would go well and that it would increase is influence for your kingdom and and clarity even in the body of Christ to just thank you God for the understandings that are helping us in Jesus name Amen we had prayer for you if you are needing prayer of any kind we got guys people these guys love to pray and ready to pray for you so just come on and make yourself available for that and there's just power in agreement in prayer alright thank you for coming you guys that are visiting thank you for coming in and we love you guys have a great day

Channel: Grace Church of Rolla

Views: 33,584

Rating: 4.8995566 out of 5

Keywords: grace church, rolla, missouri, rolla missouri, sermon, message, preacher, christ, christian, michael heiser, unseen realm, dr michael heiser, michael heiser book, michael heiser unseen realm, michael heiser channel, michael heiser angels

Id: VU0z9U_GuII

Length: 62min 1sec (3721 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 04 2019