Ancient Folklore vs. Biblical Reality: What Walks Among Us?

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A woman in a village called Endor looked at a
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dead man rising out of the ground and called him
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by the same word Genesis uses for God. That word
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is Elohim and the Bene Elohim, the sons of God,
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have been at the center of everything we've built this
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entire week. That's in your Bible. And 1 Samuel 28
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and most of us have read right past it. If
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you were taught that the unseen world has two columns,
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angels on one side and demons on the other, then
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most of what human beings have actually reported encountering, especially
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in the woods, I've encountered. In bedrooms at three in
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the morning, same, I've encountered. And the folklore of every
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culture on earth has nowhere to go. And when something
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has no place in your theology, it doesn't disappear. I'd
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find a place somewhere else in your life, usually without asking.
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There's a 17th century Scottish minister who wrote that the
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fairies were of a middle nature between man and angel,
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and who, according to the legend of his own parish,
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was taken by them. There's a dead sea scroll that
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lists the bastard spirits of Mamzerim and the Liliths among
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the things its author wanted to drive away. And in
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July of 2023, a former American intelligence officer testified to
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Congress under oath about what he called non-human intelligence. On Monday,
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I opened a questionnaire And promised to hold it all week.
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What did the woman at Endor see? And why did
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she call it Elohim? Today, at the end of this hour,
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we're going to close that. And by the time we do,
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you'll have the last column of the map. The one
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most churches just never draw. Some of you know I
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stepped back from field research this year. No more overnights.
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No more call blasting, no more sitting in blinds. I've
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told you I won't describe what happened that made me stop,
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and I'm still not going to, at least not today.
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But what I will tell you is that it came
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along with dreams and answered prayers that all pointed the
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same direction, and I listened. I'll still cover the subject,
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and I'll still take your reports and talk with the
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people who go out And I still, you know, am
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into the Sasquatch stuff and the woods. Doesn't mean I
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won't go out in the woods. I'm just not going
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out looking for anything. But this is the episode that
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is about those edges. And I want you to know,
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before we start, that I've stood at them. Okay? I've
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been in them. So... Welcome to Broadcasting Seeds. I'm your host,
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Ben Etan, and this is the final episode of the Elohim.
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On Sunday, we looked at the throne. On Monday, the council.
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On Tuesday, we went through archangels. And on Wednesday, the fallen.
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Today is the in-between. Everything that doesn't fit neatly into
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the boxes that we've drawn so far. So this week,
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We've been mapping the divine council theology of the Hebrew Bible,
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the supernatural worldview of scripture that most seminaries skip over.
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And today we are going to finish the map as
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best we can. So this is the episode where I'm
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going to ask the most of you, because it's the
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one where the evidence gets the thinnest and the stakes
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also get highest. I'll keep doing what I've done all week.
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I'll show you the text first. I'll tell you when
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we leave the text and go into tradition, and when
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we leave tradition and go into testimony and speculation, including
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my own. You've given me four hours of your week already.
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I don't take that for granted, and I'm going to
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try to make this one count as well. So, section one.
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the gods who are still out there. Let's start with
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the beings we've already met, because they're the first residents
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of the in-between, right? On Monday, we read Deuteronomy 32,
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the way the Dead Sea Scrolls preserve it. When the
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Mosai divided the nations, he set their boundaries according to
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the number of the sons of God, the B'nai Elohim,
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and he kept Israel for himself. Deuteronomy 4 says the
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same thing from the other direction. The sun and the
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moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven
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are things which the Lord thy God hath divided unto
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all nations under the whole heaven. Every other nation got
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a God. Israel got God. Okay? Let me say it
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again in a different way. Every other nation got a God. God.
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Little G God. Israel got God. Big G God. On Wednesday,
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we saw that those gods were sentenced in Psalm 82,
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but the sentence hasn't been fully carried out. The punishment
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is not there. Ye shall die like men is the verdict.
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It isn't and execution. Isaiah 24 tells us when it
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will be carried out, and it shall come to pass
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in that day that the Lord shall punish the host
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of the high ones that are on high and the
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kings of the earth upon the earth, and they shall
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be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit
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and shall be shut up in the prison. And after
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many days, shall they be visited. The host of the
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high ones on high judged alongside the kings of the
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earth until that day they are still in place. That's
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why Paul, writing to Corinthian, believers who lived surrounded by
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temples could say in 1 Corinthians 8 that there be
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that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth,
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as there be God's many and Lord's many. And then
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two chapters later say plainly, the things with which the
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Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God.
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Paul is quoting Deuteronomy 32, verse 17, almost word for word.
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He didn't believe the idols were the gods. He believed
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there was something behind the idols. and that it was real,
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and that it was not on our side. Okay? And
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these powers are not passive. Daniel 10 shows us that.
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Daniel prays and fasts for three weeks, and the answer
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is dispatched on the first day. But the messenger is
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held up for 21 days by the prince of the
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kingdom of Persia until Michael comes to help. Whatever else
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that chapter teaches, It teaches that the territorial powers resist
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and that the prayers of one exiled old man in
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Babylon were part of the fight. I don't believe you
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have to know the name of the prince over your
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city to pray against what it's doing. Daniel didn't. He
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just prayed and kept praying and heaven actually moved. I
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want to be careful and respectful here because there are
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living religions in the world today with gods and spirits
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of their own, held by people who are sincere and
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who deserve to be spoken to with dignity. I'm not
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here to mock anyone's grandmother, okay? Not here to mock
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anyone either, but I believe... The Bible gives us a
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framework for understanding the powers that stand behind the nations,
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and Paul applied it without apology in Corinth. So do I.
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Doesn't mean I hate you. Doesn't mean I don't like you.
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I just think you're wrong in your religion. That's it.
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And if that's part of your identity, okay. My apologies,
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we'll agree to disagree, but Just, yeah. Now, I'm going
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to step into my own work for a moment. And
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I want to flag it clearly because this is my
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thesis and not settled teaching, okay? In my book, The
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Second Incursion, I argue that after Babel, when the nations
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were handed to these territorial powers, at least some of
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them didn't simply rule. They obviously ruled. repeated the sin
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of Genesis 6 inside their own territories, each in its
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own way. That's my explanation for the giant clan's scripture
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names after the flood, the Anakim, the Rephaim, the Emamin,
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the Zumamin, and that's not all of them. That's just
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what's in the Bibles. each are associated with different regions
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and described in different ways. I don't think one set
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of watchers produced all of them. And when we talk
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about the watchers in 1 Enoch, the text names their leaders. Semyaza,
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also written Semyaza, Semyaza, Semyaza, is the one who first
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proposes the descent. Azazel is the one condemned for teaching
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men the art of war and women the arts of seduction.
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Two leaders, two streams of corruption, and the book of
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giants found at Qumran preserves the memory of what their
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offspring became. The text gives me at least one hook
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to hang on that on, okay? Genesis 6 verse 4
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says the Nephilim were on the earth in those days
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and also after that. Little shameless product placement. After the flood,
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the word shows up again when the 12 spies came
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back from Canaan in Numbers 13 and 10 who were
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afraid say, there we saw the giants, the Nephilim, the
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son of Anak, which come of the giants. The word
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for giants there? was Nephilim. The flood was supposed to
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have ended them, and yet, there they were, in the
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land God promised Abraham, exactly where Israel was about to go.
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Something happened after the flood. And in 2 Peter 2,
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verse 4, Peter tells us what happened to the angels
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who sinned first. He uses the Greek word tartarus, The
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only time it appears in the whole New Testament to
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describe a place, they're chained and waiting for judgment. The
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prison Isaiah 24 describes on the other end has its
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New Testament name, and Peter knows it. I think the
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rebellion was franchised, okay? This is what I think. You're
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free to disagree, and many careful readers do. That is fine.
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but it's the frame I bring to everything else in
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this episode, and you deserve to know that, okay? Section two,
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the djinn and the fair folk, okay? Now, let's go
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to two traditions that between them account for a huge
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share of the world's encounter stories. One comes from the
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Middle East, and one comes from the British Isles, and
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they have more in common than than you could ever imagine.
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In Islamic tradition and in the pre-Islamic Arabian world before it,
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the jinn are a third class of being distinct from
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both angels and humans. The Quran says in its 55th
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chapter that God created the jinn from a smokeless fire
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flame of fire. They are normally invisible to us, but
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they share our world. According to Islamic teachings, they have
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free will, as we do. So some of them are
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believers and some are not. The 72nd chapter of the
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Quran is named after them. And in it, a company
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of jinn listens to the recitation of the Quran and says,
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Among us are the righteous and among us are others.
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They marry, they have communities, they will be judged. And
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in folk practice among the Muslim world, a great deal
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of what Christians would call oppression or possession is attributed
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to jinn. There's a detail in the Quran that will
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sound familiar if you were with us on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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It's the account of Solomon. The Quran says that God
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made the jinn work for him, building whatever he wished,
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palaces and statues and great basins, and that they kept working,
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unaware he had died, until a creature of the earth
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gnawed through the staff he had leaned on and his
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body fell. Solomon, master of the spirits, forcing them to build,
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It's the same picture the Testament of Solomon paints with
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Michael's ring and the same picture the Talmud paints with
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Ashmedei and the temple. Three traditions, three different religious communities,
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and all of them remember Solomon as the king who
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commanded the spirits. That's a memory we're noticing, even if
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none of those stories are in the Bible, okay? From
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A biblical point of view, I'd read the jinn the
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way Paul read the gods of Corinth. Something real has
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been encountered and described for a very long time. But
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the Bible doesn't recognize a morally mixed third race of spirit,
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some of whom are on God's side and can be trusted.
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It recognizes the holy ones who serve God and the
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powers and the spirits who do not. A being that
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presents itself as a friendly spirit of fire is precisely
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the kind of being Paul would tell you to test. Now,
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travel about 300 miles northwest and roughly a thousand years forward,
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Robert Kirk was a Presbyterian minister in Scotland, and he
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translated the Psalms into Gaelic. He was a serious, educated,
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believing churchman, and in 1691 he wrote a little book
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called The Secret Commonwealth. Describing what, his parishioners told him
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about the fairies, which in Gaelic they called the Sith. S-I-T-H.
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Kirk recorded that they were of a middle nature, betwixt
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man and angel with light, changeable bodies, somewhat of the
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nature of a condensed cloud. He described their dwellings inside hills,
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their habit of taking people away, the danger of eating
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their food, and the second sight that let certain people
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see them. In 1692, Kirk died at the age of
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about 48 and was buried in his churchyard. But the
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story his parishioners told was different. They said he had
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collapsed on a fairy hill near his manse, Dune Hill,
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and that what was buried was not him. They said
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the fairies had taken him into the hill because he
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had revealed too many of their secrets. His book wasn't
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printed until more than a century later. You can still
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walk up Dune Hill today and people still tie ribbons
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to the tree at the top. Middle nature, Beck's wit,
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man and angel. That's not a fantasy novelist talking. That's
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a Presbyterian minister in the 1600s trying to describe something
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his whole parish believed was real. And in the most
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precise theological language he had, the in-between isn't a modern idea.
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It's one of the oldest ideas in the world. The
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question of what the fairies were troubled Christian Europe for centuries.
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One of the most common answers in Irish and Scottish
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folklore was that they were fallen angels. None of the
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worst of them. The ones bad enough for hell. But
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the ones who... during the rebellion in heaven, wouldn't choose
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a side, and so were cast down to earth instead
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of into the pit. Dante, in the third canto of
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the Inferno, places a group of angels just outside hell
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in the vestibule, who were not rebellious nor were faithful
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to God, but were for themselves, and neither heaven nor
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hell would have them. Whether or not that's what the
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fairies are, I find it striking that the folk instinct
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of Christian Europe was to put them inside the story
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of the fall rather than... outside it. So the traits
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in fairy lore are worth knowing because you'll hear them
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again in a moment. Lost times. People taken and returned,
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changed or not returned at all. Children swapped for something else.
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The changeling, a taboo on eating their food. Strange lights.
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Beings that are small one moment and tall the next.
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Encounters at the edges, at boundaries, at thresholds, in the
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liminal spaces, in the wild places, in 16 areas. In 1969,
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the French-American computer scientist and astronomer Jacques Vallée published a
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book called Passport to Magonia. He laid fairy encounters from
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European folklore side by side with modern reports of UFO
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landings and their occupants and argued that they were describing
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the same phenomenon in different costumes. lost time and abduction
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and strange food, shape-shifting beings, lights. And Vallée is not
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a Christian apologist and he doesn't argue from scripture. But
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he was one of the first serious researchers to say
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out loud that the modern alien encounter looks a great
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deal like the old fairy encounter. A church noticed the
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pattern long before Vallée did. Augustine of Hippo, writing, the
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city of God in the early 400s. Paused in his
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discussion of Genesis 6 to mention something he said was
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reported so widely and by so many people of good
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character that it would be imprudent to deny it. Beings,
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the country, people called sylvans and fauns, which were commonly
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called incubi, were said to have made assaults on women
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and lain with them. He didn't build a theology on it.
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He said he wouldn't venture to determine whether some spirits
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with bodies of air could do such things. He said
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it right next to the sons of God and daughters
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of men because he saw the resemblance. The medieval church
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kept those words incubus and succubus for centuries. The incubus
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attacking women, the succubus attacking men, both understood as demonic
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entities exploiting human bodies in the night. Wow. And when
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modern abduction reports began describing beings who take people at night,
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perform procedures on them, and seem fixated on human reproduction...
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A lot of children, Christian researchers, felt like they'd heard
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the story before, right? Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman picked
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up that thread from a biblical direction in their book,
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Alien Encounters, published in 1997. Missler spent decades arguing the
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biblical categories, including the Watcher tradition, the Nephilim, and the demonic,
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gave a more coherent framework for the UFO phenomenon than
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the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Their argument was that the UFO phenomenon
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is real, that it is not what it claims to be,
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and that it fits better within a biblical framework of
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deception by fallen spiritual beings than within the framework of
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visitors from other planets. That's close to the position I
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take And the second incursion about fallen beings, giants, and
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territorial powers, where I argue that alien is simply the
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current cultural mask on something that has worn the faces
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of the fae, the changeling, and the incubus and succubus before. Again,
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that's my view. I'm telling you so you can weigh it.
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And there's one more body of testimony I want you
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to hear about. In the 1990s, a group of Christian
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researchers in Florida called themselves the CE4 Research Group. CE4
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standing for Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. They began
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collecting accounts from people who reported alien abduction experiences. What
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they reported finding was a pattern. A number of those
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experiencers said that when they called on the name of
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Jesus during an encounter, it stopped. How do I grade that? Testimonial,
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collected by people with a point of view, impossible to
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verify independently, but it's consistent across a lot of people.
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who had no reason to coordinate their stories and or lie.
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It's consistent with Luke 10. Even the spirits are subject
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unto us through thine name. Right? So what should a
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believer do if something from the in-between shows up in
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their life? The same thing the experiencers in those testimonies did.
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And the same thing the 70... disciples, the 70 disciples
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did in Luke 10. Don't bargain with it. Don't ask
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its name. Don't try to learn from it and don't
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take its gifts. Whether that's information or comfort for the
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thrill of being chosen, right? The fairy lore itself has
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a rule that you must never eat their food. And
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there's wisdom in that even as folk lore, Whatever they
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offer you, whatever they offer you binds you. Call on
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the name of Jesus, submit yourself to God, resist, and
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then get yourself into the company of other believers who
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will pray with you. The name is not a magic word, okay?
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It's an appeal to the one every one of those
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beings answers to. And it's not only fringe researchers anymore.
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In July of 2023, A former American intelligence officer named
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David Grush testified, he was just on Rogan too, testified
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under oath before a subcommittee on the House Oversight Committee
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that the government possessed what he described as craft of
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non-human origin and what he called non-human biologics. His claims
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haven't been proven, and you should hold them loosely, okay?
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But.
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For the first time, the phrase non-human intelligence was being
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said out loud in the halls of Congress. And the
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church has had a category for non-human intelligence for 3,000 years.
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The only question is whether we'll use it. That's the
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territory I've spent years researching for a book of my own.
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And I want to tell you about it. Okay?
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Okay?
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It's called The Second Occursion, Fallen Beings, Giants, and What
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Walks Among Us Still. With a forward by my Saturday
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co-host for testing the series, Laura Baker, it's where I
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lay out the full framework I flagged all week. The
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territorial powers, the giant clans after the flood, why I
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don't think giant is an adequate translation of Nephilim, And
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how the old fairy and challenging traditions connect to what
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people report today. It's built for people who take scripture
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seriously and won't settle for easy answers. And it's the
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deepest version of this conversation I know how to give you. Okay?
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You'll find it at Benettonbooks.com and the link is in
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the description. Section 3. The Names in the Dark. Now,
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let's go back inside the Hebrew Bible because it has
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its own in-between vocabulary and most English translations hide it. So,
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start with the word we've already met, Shedim. In Deuteronomy 32,
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verse 17, Israel sacrificed unto devils, not to God. Psalm 32.
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106 verse 37 says it more horribly. They sacrificed their
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sons and their daughters unto devils. The word both times
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for devils is Shedim. It's related to the Akkadian word Shedu,
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which in Mesopotamia often referred to protective spirits, the kind-carved
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as great winged bulls with human heads at palace gates.
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In Israel's mouth, the same word meant demons. The protector
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of one culture was the devil of another. So, then
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there are the serene, S-E apostrophe I-R-M, the hairy ones.
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Leviticus 17, verse 7, commands Israel to stop offering sacrifices
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unto devils after whom they have gone a-whoring. The word
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in Hebrew is serim. Say it with me. Serim. A
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word that normally means goats. 2 Chronicles 11 says that Jeroboam,
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after the kingdom split, ordained him priests for the high
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places and for the devils and for the calves which
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he had made. Devils. there is serim again. And in
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Isaiah 13 and 34, when Babylon and Edom are left desolate,
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the King James says that the satyrs shall dance there
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and the satyr shall cry to his fellow. Satyrs is serim,
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goat-like beings that haunt ruins and wilderness. Whatever Israel understood
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them to be They were worshipped by some people. I mean,
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the pan, the God called that worship spiritual adultery, right?
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That's what he called it. God called it that. The
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same verse in Isaiah 34 has another name hidden in it.
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The screech owl also shall rest there and find for
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herself a place of rest. The word translated screech owl
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is Lilith.
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Lilith.
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Lilith has a long and dark history in Mesopotamia. The Lilithu, Lilitu,
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were winged and night spirits, dangerous especially to women in
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childbirth and to infants. The Babylonian Talmud warns that a
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man should not sleep alone in a house, lest Lilith
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sees him. Hundreds of Aramaic incantation bowls buried outside down
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under the floors of houses in Mesopotamia in the centuries
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after Christ are inscribed with spells to bind Lilith and
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keep her away from mothers and babies. The story, most
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people know, that Lilith was Adam's first wife who refused
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to submit and fled comes from a medieval text called
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the Alphabet of Bensera. Written many centuries after the Bible,
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that story is late legend. The night spirit is way older.
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That's way older. The Dead Sea Scrolls tie this straight
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back to Wednesday, right? Our episode on Wednesday. One of
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the texts found at Qumran called the Songs of the
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Sage is a set of protective hymns. That author says
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he recites them to frighten and terrify all the spirits
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of the ravaging angels and the bastard spirits, demons, Lilith, howlers,
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and yelpers. The bastard spirits. In Hebrew, the mamzerim. The
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spirits of beings born of a forbidden mixing.
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Right?
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The community... that preserved the Book of Enoch and the
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Book of Giants, wrote hymns to drive away the spirits
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of the giants, and listed Lilith right next to them.
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The Mamzerim, the Serim, the Lilith. All three clustered in
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the same breath, in the same Qumran hymn. That's not coincidence, folks.
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That's a community with a detailed and consistent map in place.
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of the in-between. One more word about the serim before
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we go on. It's because it touches something many of
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you write to me about. And it lives right here
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in the in-between. The hairy ones. Some Christian researchers have
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suggested that the serim of Leviticus and Isaiah, the hairy
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goat-like beings that haunt the wilderness and ruins, are an
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ancient description of the same kind of thing people now
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report as Bigfoot or the dog man or the wild
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man of the woods. I want to be honest with you.
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That is speculation. Of course, it's speculation. And I'd file
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it in the speculation column. The Hebrew word means hairy
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ones or goats and the context of worship. And the
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context is worship, okay? But I will say this much.
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The Bible's wilderness is not empty. It's haunted. And Isaiah's
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ruins have things living in them that are neither ordinary
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animals nor ordinary men. And whatever people are seeing out
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there now, Scripture doesn't leave us without categories for it.
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And it doesn't tell us to go looking for it either.
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And then there's the most layered word of all. Rephaim.
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In one set of passages, the Rephaim are a people.
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And Deuteronomy 2 says the Emim and the Anakim were
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accounted giants. And the word Rephaim, Deuteronomy says, says that Og,
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king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants. Rephaim again.
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And that his iron bedstead was nine cubits long, about
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13 feet. Some of you will remember our episodes on
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Aga Bashan in last week. And last week we stood
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in his country with Jesus. His kingdom sat in the
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region around Mount Hermon, the same region where Enoch says
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the watchers came down. And in the Canaanite text, Bashan
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was associated with the entrance to the underworld and a
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temple of Pan. Just saying. The last king of the
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Rephaim ruled at the foot of the mountain of the rebellion,
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at the gate of the realm of the dead. That's
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not a coincidence. The biblical writers missed. Moses mentions Og's
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bed in the middle of a military report because his
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readers would have understood what it meant to defeat him.
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But in another set of passages, the Rephaim are the dead.
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Isaiah 14 says, The same chapters with Lucifer, son of
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the morning, says the king of Babylon, Hell from beneath
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is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming.
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It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the
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chief ones of the earth. The dead is Rephaim. Isaiah 26,
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verse 14, They are dead, they shall not live. They
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are deceased. They shall not rise. Deceased is Rephaim. Proverbs
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22 says, The man who wanders from understanding shall remain
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in the congregation of the dead. Rephaim. The giants and
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the dead share a name. And the archaeology of the
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ancient city of Ugarit on the coast of Syria shows
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us why. A text found there, a liturgy for the
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funeral of a king calls on the Arpum, the Rephaim,
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the ancient ones, the defied dead kings and warriors of
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old to receive the dead king among them. In the
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Canaanite world, the Rephaim were the mighty dead, the heroes
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of the past, who had become something more than human
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in the underworld. Demons, maybe? In the Hebrew Bible, they're
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the giant clans that had to be destroyed and the
464
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:31.440
shades and sheol that shall not rise. Same word, two meanings.
465
00:38:32.059 --> 00:38:36.090
And the Bible's message is unmistakable. The great ones, the
466
00:38:36.210 --> 00:38:42.960
nations revered as divine heroes are dead. They are staying. dead.
467
00:38:45.639 --> 00:38:52.019
Section four, the dead. So now we come back to Endor.
468
00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:57.849
Saul is the king of Israel. He has already disobeyed
469
00:38:57.909 --> 00:39:02.530
God and been rejected. Samuel the prophet, the man who
470
00:39:02.610 --> 00:39:07.010
anointed him, has died. And Saul himself had driven the
471
00:39:07.409 --> 00:39:10.900
mediums and the necromancers out of the land just as
472
00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:14.320
the law commanded. Deuteronomy 18 says, Now, the Philistines are
473
00:39:14.340 --> 00:39:23.769
gathered together. or a necromancer for all that do these
474
00:39:23.869 --> 00:39:29.400
things are an abomination unto the lord now the philistines
475
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:33.739
are gathered for war and saul is terrified he prays
476
00:39:33.980 --> 00:39:38.260
and god didn't answer him not by dreams not by
477
00:39:38.380 --> 00:39:43.260
the urim not by prophets so he disguises himself goes
478
00:39:43.320 --> 00:39:46.920
by night to a woman at endor who has a
479
00:39:46.980 --> 00:39:51.829
familiar spirit and asks her to bring up Samuel. And
480
00:39:51.929 --> 00:39:55.969
then the text says something that has fascinated readers for
481
00:39:55.969 --> 00:40:01.489
3000 years. First 12. And when the woman saw Samuel,
482
00:40:01.550 --> 00:40:06.889
she cried out a loud voice. She screams, whatever she
483
00:40:06.949 --> 00:40:11.559
normally did, whatever she normally saw, whatever this wasn't it. Okay.
484
00:40:12.179 --> 00:40:17.300
This was something she didn't expect and couldn't control. Saul
485
00:40:17.739 --> 00:40:22.539
asks her what she sees, and she says, verse 13,
486
00:40:22.539 --> 00:40:28.860
I saw God's ascending out of the earth, Elohim. He
487
00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:33.599
asks what form it has, and she says, an old
488
00:40:33.699 --> 00:40:38.139
man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle.
489
00:40:38.719 --> 00:40:43.769
And Saul perceives that, that it is Samuel. Then Samuel speaks.
490
00:40:44.349 --> 00:40:48.909
He tells Saul that the Lord has departed from him,
491
00:40:49.050 --> 00:40:52.650
that the kingdom has been given to David, and that
492
00:40:53.050 --> 00:40:58.360
tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The
493
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:03.340
next day, Saul and his sons die on Mount Gilboa.
494
00:41:04.079 --> 00:41:09.820
The prophecy is exact. Christians have argued about this passage
495
00:41:09.860 --> 00:41:13.099
for a very long time. Some of the early church
496
00:41:13.139 --> 00:41:19.090
fathers include Origen held that it really was Samuel allowed
497
00:41:19.150 --> 00:41:23.630
by God to appear. The book of Sirach in the
498
00:41:23.889 --> 00:41:31.039
Apocrypha says of Samuel that after his death, he prophesied. Others,
499
00:41:31.119 --> 00:41:35.400
including Tertullian and later, many of the reformers held that
500
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:40.469
it was a demon impersonating Samuel because surely, a prophet
501
00:41:40.510 --> 00:41:44.340
of God would not come at the call of a necromancer.
502
00:41:45.019 --> 00:41:49.380
Augustine went back and forth, okay? Here's what I'll say
503
00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:53.219
about it. And I'll try to stay inside the text.
504
00:41:55.349 --> 00:42:03.230
The narrator calls it Samuel, repeatedly, without qualification. The woman
505
00:42:03.289 --> 00:42:07.429
is shocked, which suggests that whatever happened was not her doing.
506
00:42:08.570 --> 00:42:11.530
The message is a true word of judgment from God,
507
00:42:11.989 --> 00:42:16.349
consistent with everything Samuel said in life, and it comes true.
508
00:42:17.349 --> 00:42:21.889
And 1 Chronicles 10 tells us that Saul died for
509
00:42:21.949 --> 00:42:27.219
his transgression, including for asking counsel of one that had
510
00:42:27.260 --> 00:42:33.579
a familiar spirit. So, the Bible holds two things together. God,
511
00:42:34.179 --> 00:42:39.050
in judgment, may have allowed Samuel to to speak one
512
00:42:39.190 --> 00:42:44.630
last time. And Saul was condemned for seeking him. The
513
00:42:44.690 --> 00:42:50.050
appearance didn't justify the method. It seals the sentence. That
514
00:42:50.090 --> 00:42:54.260
has a direct implication for us. And I want to
515
00:42:54.300 --> 00:42:57.719
be honest about them because ghost stories are a big
516
00:42:57.760 --> 00:43:01.139
part of what this channel's audience has experienced, okay? And
517
00:43:02.820 --> 00:43:04.840
I know some of you have lived in houses where
518
00:43:04.940 --> 00:43:09.809
something happened. I have. I've been to Gettysburg and walked
519
00:43:09.829 --> 00:43:14.070
those fields with you multiple times. The Bible is clear
520
00:43:14.659 --> 00:43:19.019
that the dead are not gone. Jesus tells of the
521
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:26.300
rich man and Lazarus, both conscious after death. Moses, who died,
522
00:43:26.929 --> 00:43:32.369
appeared with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. Revelation shows
523
00:43:32.429 --> 00:43:35.929
us the souls of the martyrs under the altar crying out,
524
00:43:37.010 --> 00:43:41.070
Death is not the end of a person, okay? But
525
00:43:41.590 --> 00:43:44.670
the Bible is equally clear that we are not to
526
00:43:44.909 --> 00:43:51.460
seek the dead. Isaiah 8, verse 19, should not a
527
00:43:51.539 --> 00:43:56.460
people seek unto their God for the living to the dead,
528
00:43:57.340 --> 00:44:01.010
and gives us a strong reason to be suspicious of
529
00:44:01.090 --> 00:44:05.070
what presents itself as the dead. If there are spirits
530
00:44:05.150 --> 00:44:08.510
roaming the earth, then Enoch calls the spirits of the
531
00:44:08.590 --> 00:44:13.349
giants and Jesus called unclean spirits and they want a
532
00:44:13.469 --> 00:44:18.579
house and know your names and our histories. Then a
533
00:44:18.639 --> 00:44:23.360
voice that sounds like your grandmother is not necessarily your,
534
00:44:23.860 --> 00:44:27.010
your grandmother. I'm not going to tell you every ghost
535
00:44:27.030 --> 00:44:30.829
story is a demon. Okay. I'm going to tell you
536
00:44:31.030 --> 00:44:34.030
that the one time in Scripture the dead clearly speak
537
00:44:34.090 --> 00:44:38.840
to the living through a medium is an act of judgment.
538
00:44:38.860 --> 00:44:42.099
And the man who asked for it died the next day.
539
00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:47.840
Just saying. And notice how the dead appear when God
540
00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:52.489
sends them, as opposed to when people summon them. On
541
00:44:52.510 --> 00:44:56.849
the Mount of Transfiguration, nobody called up Moses. He appeared
542
00:44:56.889 --> 00:45:01.000
with Elijah talking with Jesus. about the death he would
543
00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:05.989
accomplish at Jerusalem. And then they were gone. And the
544
00:45:06.070 --> 00:45:11.030
disciples saw no man save Jesus only. That's what a
545
00:45:11.090 --> 00:45:14.849
God-sent appearance does. It points to Jesus and then gets
546
00:45:14.969 --> 00:45:19.070
out of the way. Jesus himself told a story about
547
00:45:19.130 --> 00:45:21.929
a man who wanted the dead to visit the living
548
00:45:22.650 --> 00:45:27.909
in Luke 16, the rich man in torment. begs Abraham
549
00:45:27.949 --> 00:45:32.210
to send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers. Surely,
550
00:45:32.449 --> 00:45:35.510
he says, if one went to them from the dead,
551
00:45:35.650 --> 00:45:40.340
they would repent. And Abraham answers, if they hear not
552
00:45:40.420 --> 00:45:44.539
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through
553
00:45:45.260 --> 00:45:49.619
one rose from the dead. The living already have what
554
00:45:49.679 --> 00:45:55.570
they need, okay? messages from the dead aren't how God
555
00:45:55.650 --> 00:46:00.179
intends to reach anyone. And a few chapters later, of course,
556
00:46:01.389 --> 00:46:06.739
one did rise from the dead, and many still weren't persuaded. So,
557
00:46:08.239 --> 00:46:10.260
I told you at the top of this hour why
558
00:46:10.460 --> 00:46:13.579
I've stepped back from going out after these things, and
559
00:46:13.659 --> 00:46:17.159
I've told you before about my own two sightings in
560
00:46:17.179 --> 00:46:23.150
the woods. I'll add this, only this. The more I've
561
00:46:23.190 --> 00:46:27.650
learned about the in-between, the more convinced I've become that
562
00:46:27.710 --> 00:46:31.349
the safest place to stand is not out at the
563
00:46:31.449 --> 00:46:35.699
edges looking in, it's in the center at the throne
564
00:46:36.420 --> 00:46:46.079
looking out. Make sense? So, section five, back to what dischanges.
565
00:46:46.940 --> 00:46:50.360
So let's close the loop and close the week. Before
566
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:53.110
we do, let me lay out the whole map in
567
00:46:53.210 --> 00:46:56.329
one place, because it's what this week has been building towards.
568
00:46:57.010 --> 00:47:01.010
At the top, above every category, the one God, species unique,
569
00:47:01.889 --> 00:47:05.050
the creator of every other being in the unseen realm
570
00:47:05.230 --> 00:47:09.889
around his throne, his counsel, the B'nai Elohim, the sons
571
00:47:09.929 --> 00:47:13.469
of God, and the holy ones, and the watchers who
572
00:47:13.530 --> 00:47:17.739
stayed loyal, the cherubim, and the seraphim, and the living
573
00:47:17.800 --> 00:47:22.110
creatures who guard his presence, the archangels, whose very names
574
00:47:22.190 --> 00:47:26.610
point back to him, on the other side, the adversary
575
00:47:26.690 --> 00:47:31.150
from the garden, the watchers of Genesis 6, led by
576
00:47:31.230 --> 00:47:35.900
Semyon and Azazel, now chained and Tartarus, as Peter describes it,
577
00:47:36.090 --> 00:47:40.090
the gods of the nations still in place under sentence,
578
00:47:40.469 --> 00:47:45.659
and the Mamserim, the unclean spirits who roam looking for
579
00:47:45.719 --> 00:47:50.949
a house. And between them, In a place most churches
580
00:47:51.030 --> 00:47:55.489
never map, the beings the nations remembered as djinn and
581
00:47:55.610 --> 00:48:02.139
fairies and night spirits, the sharim, the shadim in the ruins,
582
00:48:02.239 --> 00:48:06.440
the mighty dead the Canaanites worshipped as Raphaim, and the
583
00:48:06.500 --> 00:48:12.070
human dead waiting. That's the unseen Rome the Bible describes.
584
00:48:13.030 --> 00:48:16.130
It is crowded. And that's only some things, folks. It
585
00:48:16.329 --> 00:48:19.960
could be so much bigger because In our humility, we
586
00:48:20.019 --> 00:48:22.659
have to understand that there's things that we don't know.
587
00:48:24.480 --> 00:48:28.989
It's crowded and it's not neutral and it is all
588
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:35.250
accountable to one throne, period. Why did the woman at
589
00:48:35.329 --> 00:48:40.829
Endor call Samuel Elohim? On Monday, I gave you Michael
590
00:48:40.869 --> 00:48:44.650
Heiser's definition. Elohim is not a word about rank or
591
00:48:44.730 --> 00:48:50.630
power or worthiness of worship. It's a word about where
592
00:48:50.750 --> 00:48:54.909
a being lives. It describes a resident of the spiritual
593
00:48:55.030 --> 00:48:59.309
world as opposed to a resident of the embodied world.
594
00:48:59.690 --> 00:49:04.070
God is an Elohim, uniquely and above all others. Big
595
00:49:04.110 --> 00:49:09.380
G God, right? The members of his council, the B'nai Elohim,
596
00:49:09.659 --> 00:49:14.860
are Elohim. The gods of the nations are Elohim. The
597
00:49:14.940 --> 00:49:20.500
Shedim are called Elohim. Even human beings are made a
598
00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:25.880
little lower than the Elohim. And Samuel, on that night
599
00:49:25.920 --> 00:49:29.920
in Endor, was no longer a resident of the embodied world.
600
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:33.429
He was dead. He had crossed over. He was, in
601
00:49:33.730 --> 00:49:37.760
the most literal sense, dead. a resident of the spiritual realm,
602
00:49:37.900 --> 00:49:41.690
and when the medium saw him rising with a glory
603
00:49:41.869 --> 00:49:45.269
or a presence she didn't expect, she reached for the
604
00:49:45.329 --> 00:49:51.530
only word her language had for a being from that realm, Elohim.
605
00:49:52.829 --> 00:49:56.960
That's the answer. The word that covers God, the sons
606
00:49:57.000 --> 00:50:00.579
of God, the gods of the nations, the demons, and
607
00:50:00.659 --> 00:50:04.760
a dead prophet, is not a word about what those
608
00:50:04.840 --> 00:50:10.599
beings deserve. It's a word about where they live. Okay?
609
00:50:11.119 --> 00:50:15.199
And once you understand that, every page of your Bible
610
00:50:15.619 --> 00:50:22.940
that seemed to contradict itself about other gods actually starts
611
00:50:22.980 --> 00:50:27.650
to make sense. There is one God of His kind
612
00:50:27.789 --> 00:50:31.460
in a crowded realm of beings He made. who live
613
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:36.659
where he lives. Some serve him, some rebelled, and some
614
00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:40.460
like Samuel are human beings who have passed through death
615
00:50:40.739 --> 00:50:45.579
and are waiting. I want to thank Ed Mabry for
616
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:48.179
a bunch of this stuff, because he's the one that
617
00:50:48.219 --> 00:50:53.489
really opened this door to me about the term Elohim. Uh,
618
00:50:53.690 --> 00:50:57.389
that was like two years ago. So Ed, I know
619
00:50:57.429 --> 00:51:00.940
you probably aren't listening, but you might, uh, So thank you.
620
00:51:02.909 --> 00:51:08.469
But that's where this story ends. The in-between is not
621
00:51:08.710 --> 00:51:14.300
our destiny. Samuel and Endor was a disembodied man, a shade.
622
00:51:15.019 --> 00:51:18.320
In the Old Testament's language, that's what death does to
623
00:51:18.380 --> 00:51:22.719
a human being. It separates what God made to be together.
624
00:51:23.739 --> 00:51:26.909
And the whole hope of the gospel is that this
625
00:51:26.989 --> 00:51:32.719
separation isn't permanent. 1 John 3, verse 2, Beloved now
626
00:51:33.380 --> 00:51:36.119
are we the sons of God, and it doth not
627
00:51:36.199 --> 00:51:40.579
yet appear what we shall be, but we know that
628
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:45.489
when we shall appear, we shall be like him, for
629
00:51:45.570 --> 00:51:50.869
we shall see him as he is. Romans 8 says
630
00:51:51.050 --> 00:51:56.449
the whole creation waits for the manifestation of the sons
631
00:51:56.670 --> 00:52:04.090
of God. Hebrews 2 says Jesus is bringing many sons
632
00:52:04.329 --> 00:52:10.030
unto glory. Sons of God, B'nai Elohim. That's the same
633
00:52:10.090 --> 00:52:13.630
title we've been tracing all week. The B'nai Elohim, the
634
00:52:13.750 --> 00:52:18.550
members of the council. On Monday, we read Psalm 82,
635
00:52:18.550 --> 00:52:22.250
where the original sons of God failed and were sentenced.
636
00:52:22.670 --> 00:52:27.559
And we read Jesus. with stones in the air, quoting,
637
00:52:27.780 --> 00:52:31.530
Ye are gods. On Sunday, we heard the angel at
638
00:52:31.590 --> 00:52:37.949
Patmos call himself John's fellow servant. And now John, the
639
00:52:38.010 --> 00:52:42.409
same John, tells believers that we are the sons of
640
00:52:42.489 --> 00:52:47.269
God already, and that what we will become hasn't been
641
00:52:47.570 --> 00:52:51.469
revealed yet. I want to be very careful here because
642
00:52:51.550 --> 00:52:54.650
there are religious movements that take this idea and turn
643
00:52:54.710 --> 00:52:59.010
it into a claim that human beings become gods in
644
00:52:59.050 --> 00:53:02.809
the sense of becoming equal to God. That is not
645
00:53:03.650 --> 00:53:06.010
what I am teaching and that is not what scripture
646
00:53:06.070 --> 00:53:10.159
teaches and it's not what anyone is saying. The line
647
00:53:10.199 --> 00:53:14.019
between the creator and every created being, angel or human,
648
00:53:14.679 --> 00:53:20.059
never moves. He is species unique. We will never be
649
00:53:20.139 --> 00:53:25.039
what he is, but we will be with him. Not
650
00:53:25.099 --> 00:53:28.460
as ghosts, not as shades rising out of the ground
651
00:53:28.559 --> 00:53:31.699
to frighten the medium or witch, whatever you want to
652
00:53:31.760 --> 00:53:36.389
call her. Not as residents of some fairy hill between
653
00:53:36.469 --> 00:53:42.050
heaven and earth, as resurrected, embodied, glorified sons and daughters,
654
00:53:42.210 --> 00:53:47.250
seated as Jesus promised in Revelation 3 with him on
655
00:53:47.510 --> 00:53:53.010
his throne. The seats the corrupt Elohim lost in Psalm
656
00:53:53.010 --> 00:53:57.570
82 are going to be filled by the family God redeemed.
657
00:53:58.769 --> 00:54:02.570
That's what the in-between is waiting for, whether or not
658
00:54:03.010 --> 00:54:08.460
it knows it. The gods of the nations are waiting
659
00:54:08.500 --> 00:54:12.320
for the day Isaiah 24 describes. The spirits that roam
660
00:54:12.579 --> 00:54:16.500
are waiting for the time they begged Jesus not to
661
00:54:16.559 --> 00:54:20.630
bring early. The dead in Christ are waiting for the
662
00:54:20.710 --> 00:54:25.210
voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And
663
00:54:25.590 --> 00:54:30.050
all of creation, Paul says, is leaning forward on its toes,
664
00:54:30.650 --> 00:54:34.659
waiting for the sons of God, the B'nai Elohim redeemed,
665
00:54:35.739 --> 00:54:39.699
to be revealed. The woman at Endor saw a man
666
00:54:39.780 --> 00:54:43.920
who had crossed into unseen Rome, and she called him Elohim.
667
00:54:44.280 --> 00:54:48.199
The Gospel says, promises that one day you'll cross into
668
00:54:48.280 --> 00:54:52.250
it too, not as a shade, but raised. And the
669
00:54:52.309 --> 00:54:56.809
beings who once looked down on humanity, including the ones
670
00:54:56.969 --> 00:55:01.300
who fell because they couldn't stand to serve us, will
671
00:55:01.380 --> 00:55:10.599
see the image of God restored in you. Thank you
672
00:55:10.619 --> 00:55:13.099
for walking all the way through the Elohim with me.
673
00:55:13.460 --> 00:55:17.300
Five episodes, one week. and every one of them was
674
00:55:17.400 --> 00:55:20.539
made with you in mind. If this series meant something
675
00:55:20.579 --> 00:55:25.139
to you, the best way to support it is on Patreon.
676
00:55:25.139 --> 00:55:31.530
$ 5 a month gets you every episode of Broadcasting Seeds
677
00:55:31.630 --> 00:55:35.869
ad-free and audio. $ 10 gets you audio and video, plus
678
00:55:35.889 --> 00:55:39.969
some bonus stuff. It's how we keep going seven days
679
00:55:40.030 --> 00:55:43.039
a week, and the link is in the description. The
680
00:55:43.119 --> 00:55:45.860
music you're about to hear was written for this episode,
681
00:55:45.920 --> 00:55:51.840
and you'll find it on every major streaming platform on
682
00:55:51.909 --> 00:55:56.070
Broadcasting Seeds. Tomorrow, Laura Baker and I are back with
683
00:55:56.110 --> 00:55:59.469
Testing the Spirits, and after this week, you'll understand why
684
00:55:59.489 --> 00:56:06.679
that title matters. And on Sunday, we gather again. I'll
685
00:56:06.699 --> 00:56:08.360
see you then. Have a great weekend.
686
00:56:10.300 --> 00:56:16.369
They gave them names in the darkness. Gods of the nations.
687
00:56:20.210 --> 00:56:28.519
Spirits in the wilderness. Whispers from the grave. Different names.
688
00:56:30.420 --> 00:56:35.559
Different centuries. Same questions.
689
00:57:01.130 --> 00:57:04.260
Ancient stones, old bones, names carved in the dust. Kings
690
00:57:04.300 --> 00:57:06.590
built their temples while their kingdoms turned to rust. Been
691
00:57:06.719 --> 00:57:10.019
an Elohim, nations divided by the throne. Princes over Persia,
692
00:57:10.039 --> 00:57:11.760
but the Most High stands alone.
693
00:57:11.880 --> 00:57:14.420
Watchers in the mountains, giants in the land.
694
00:57:14.760 --> 00:57:18.119
Judgment in the heavens, God is sitting still at hand.
695
00:57:18.159 --> 00:57:21.139
Psalm 82, hear the courtroom shake. You can claim another kingdom,
696
00:57:21.159 --> 00:57:22.659
but this judgment you can't break.
697
00:57:22.679 --> 00:57:24.139
Shadim in the.
698
00:57:24.019 --> 00:57:26.699
Scriptures, Seiram in the wild. Lilith in the legends where
699
00:57:26.719 --> 00:57:28.039
the night becomes defiled.
700
00:57:28.099 --> 00:57:30.599
Repaim in the shadows, mighty death beneath the ground.
701
00:57:30.940 --> 00:57:35.650
Heard the whispers nobody could trace the sound I can
702
00:57:35.690 --> 00:57:40.909
hear them through the silence like an echo underneath but
703
00:57:40.929 --> 00:57:45.320
the darkness has no kingdom that the king cannot.
704
00:57:44.880 --> 00:57:49.199
Defend in the in between where the shadows rip a
705
00:57:49.239 --> 00:57:51.800
thousand names.
706
00:57:50.900 --> 00:57:56.940
Where the ancient power Yeah.
707
00:57:57.000 --> 00:57:57.360
Yeah.
708
00:58:26.050 --> 00:58:26.929
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
709
00:58:27.449 --> 00:58:30.429
Fair folk in the hillside, gin inside the flame. Ancient
710
00:58:30.449 --> 00:58:33.710
stories crossing borders, different faces, different names. Strange lights in
711
00:58:33.730 --> 00:58:36.929
the tree line, footsteps where there's none. Everybody chasing answers
712
00:58:36.969 --> 00:58:37.369
when they.
713
00:58:37.289 --> 00:58:38.210
Should be asking one.
714
00:58:38.610 --> 00:58:41.219
Saw winter and dawn when the heavens wouldn't speak. Found
715
00:58:41.280 --> 00:58:43.659
a woman in the darkness when his kingdom had grown weak.
716
00:58:47.980 --> 00:58:50.559
the places in between was it samuel was it judgment
717
00:58:50.599 --> 00:58:52.719
here the warning in the text you can summon all
718
00:58:52.739 --> 00:58:54.909
your questions but you can't control what's next don't go
719
00:58:54.969 --> 00:58:57.329
hunting in the shadows for a voice beyond the grave
720
00:58:57.510 --> 00:58:59.690
the living have the scriptures and the savior.
721
00:58:59.369 --> 00:59:03.190
Who can save all the names we gave the darkness
722
00:59:03.250 --> 00:59:06.869
all the things we thought we'd seen cannot change the
723
00:59:07.150 --> 00:59:10.510
one who's reigning over everything unseen in.
724
00:59:10.550 --> 00:59:10.909
The in.
725
00:59:12.590 --> 00:59:18.599
Between where the shadows wear a thousand names where the ancient.
726
00:59:18.400 --> 00:59:23.599
Powers hide but the throne.
727
00:59:23.139 --> 00:59:24.159
Of heaven stays the same.
728
00:59:25.860 --> 00:59:26.980
Let the mountains fall let.
729
00:59:26.920 --> 00:59:29.739
The kingdoms disappear every knee will bow.
730
00:59:42.900 --> 00:59:47.960
I don't need their secrets.
731
00:59:48.780 --> 00:59:50.699
I don't need their names.
732
00:59:50.840 --> 00:59:51.719
I don't need.
733
00:59:51.880 --> 00:59:52.639
To chase the.
734
00:59:52.579 --> 00:59:56.110
Darkness just to prove it isn't tame.
735
00:59:56.289 --> 01:00:00.449
I have seen enough of shadows. I have heard enough
736
01:00:00.530 --> 01:00:05.300
of lies. The grave is not my kingdom.
737
01:00:05.320 --> 01:00:08.159
Christ is risen. It is the.
738
01:00:07.619 --> 01:00:11.340
Spirit to bow to the unknown.
739
01:00:11.599 --> 01:00:14.860
One king, one Lord, one ever.
740
01:00:18.030 --> 01:00:22.590
With the darkness, no fear of what we see. The
741
01:00:22.610 --> 01:00:26.989
name above all names, Jesus Christ.
742
01:00:26.130 --> 01:00:28.800
Has the victory.
743
01:00:28.820 --> 01:00:34.860
Beyond the in-between, there's a kingdom that will never fall.
744
01:00:34.880 --> 01:00:36.900
Not a shadow, not a break. He carries us, the
745
01:00:36.980 --> 01:00:41.840
one who's Lord of all. When the final trumpet sounds,
746
01:00:42.119 --> 01:00:46.090
when the dead in Christ arise, we will stand before them.
747
01:00:53.010 --> 01:00:59.210
No dominion he can't see Jesus Christ is Lord Of
748
01:00:59.309 --> 01:01:08.210
the seen and the unseen Of the seen and the unseen.
749
01:01:09.949 --> 01:01:12.170
The unseen world is crowded.
750
01:01:15.530 --> 01:01:21.940
But the throne is occupied And the king is coming
751
01:01:24.159 --> 01:01:29.510
Jesus Christ is Lord.