Heaven and Earth

What if every earthly event has a hidden heavenly counterpart—revealing a deeper, invisible war shaping history and faith?

In my article, Spiritual Forces of Evil in the Heavenly Places (March 2025), I referred to the ancient Near East worldview regarding heaven and earth. According to that worldview, every earthly phenomenon has its heavenly counterpart, the power that lies behind it.

One intriguing example concerning heaven and earth comes from Isaiah 24, a chapter about God’s judgments on the earth. Read through the chapter and see how often the word “earth” comes up. We’re told, “The LORD will empty the earth” (v.1), “The earth shall be utterly empty” (v. 3), “The earth mourns and withers” (v. 4) and so on (see vv. 5-6, 12-13, 17, 19-20 for other uses of the word “earth”).1

Based on this prevalence of “earth” throughout the chapter, it is verse 21 that really stands out:

On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.

This is the last time the word “earth” is used in the chapter and forms a summary of the judgments “On that day.” But it also says that God is going to do something else—punish the host of heaven, in heaven.

What does that mean? In a chapter all about the earth, why suddenly mention other judgments in heaven of all places? 

Except that these aren’t other judgments at all. Instead, what we see in verse 21 is an intriguing Hebrew parallelism. The “host of heaven, in heaven” refers to the same people as “the kings of the earth, on the earth.” What we’re seeing here is a war on earth paralleled with that same war taking place in heaven.

To understand what’s going on, consider a passage a little earlier in Isaiah where God brings judgments against Egypt in the form of civil war— “I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another.” (Isaiah 19:2). The prophet says that because of this war “the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out.” (v. 3). In other words, there’s more going on here than a physical battle with people dying. The verse says the spirit of Egypt is broken because of the war. 

The word translated “emptied out” is rare but we’ve already met it in Chapter 24, where we read the words “the LORD will empty the earth” (v.1), “The earth shall be utterly empty.” (v. 3). The only other time the word is used is in Jeremiah 19:7, which says, “And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies.” 

What we see in each of these references is the heavenly counterpart to the earthly judgment. The kings of the earth, Egyptians, and people of Judah and Jerusalem die in battle, but the real purpose of these judgments is emptying out of the spirit of Egypt and voiding the people’s plans. Or, to put it in the language of Isaiah 24:21, “The LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven.”

Visible and Invisible

In any battle, there will be an earthly and heavenly aspect. Earthly things are visible, like the number of troops and the type of weapons they use. When comparing two armies, we might note that one army has more troops and better weapons. But that doesn’t mean the physically bigger and better army wins because we have to consider the heavenly aspect, which is invisible. This hidden factor might be something like the ideology of the smaller army or its will to fight that might override the fact that the other army seems bigger and better. 

The Dragon Cast Out

Perhaps the Bible’s most famous war in heaven is recorded for us in Revelation 12:7-9.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,  but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Historicist scholars have identified this battle as the end of pagan Rome. Its earthly counterpart was the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, when Constantine fought against Maxentius. This encounter is thought to be the beginning of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Constantine won the physical battle and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire, but from a heavenly point of view the real battle was against the ideology and philosophy of paganism.

Angels of the Ecclesias

Have you ever wondered who are the angels of the seven ecclesias who received letters as recorded in Revelation 2-3? Various ideas have been put forward, such as referring to guardian angels or elders in the ecclesias.

However, if we look at the letters through the lens of the Ancient Near Eastern concept of heaven and earth, we see something rather intriguing. 

Let’s take the letter to Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) as an example. When addressing the ecclesia, we read in verse 2, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.” What is surprising about these references is each time the word “you” or “your” is in the singular. In Greek, like in many modern languages, words for “you” can be either singular or plural. But why address the members of the ecclesia in the singular? Because Jesus is addressing them as a group.

However, when we turn to the next letter, to Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), there’s a change from the singular use of “you” to the plural. In verse 9, we read, “I know your tribulation and your poverty,” with the word “your” in the singular. But in verse 10, where it says, “the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,” the word “you” is now plural. That makes sense because only some members of the ecclesia are going to suffer in this way, so the plural “you” identifies a subset of the whole.

Bearing in mind the use of the singular “you,” read the letters again like this: “To the angel of the church… I know your works.” It reads as if Jesus knows the angel’s works with the singular “you” matching the singular “angel.” 

Furthermore, the expression “the angel of the church” uses a Greek expression that could identify the angel as the church! It’s like saying “the land of Israel” in the sense of the land that is Israel rather than the land that belongs to Israel. So, it’s not that the angel belongs to the ecclesia; the angel actually is the ecclesia. 

What is possibly going on here is that Jesus is addressing the personality of the ecclesia. Remember, according to the concept of heaven and earth, every earthly phenomenon has its heavenly counterpart, so much so that the ancients thought of those phenomena as having personalities, even for inanimate objects, but especially for institutions. The angel of the ecclesia can thus be seen as the invisible personality of the institution which is the ecclesia. Jesus addresses that personality as a whole with the use of the singular “you.”

Angels of Nations

The explanation above regarding the angels of ecclesias might also account for this strange passage in Daniel 10:10-14.

And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.  And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.  Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,  and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” 

Who is “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (v. 13) who can withstand an angel? Notice there is only one prince, but at the end of the same verse, he is dealing with “kings” plural. We can, therefore, view the “prince” as the combined spirit or personality of those kings and the nation as a whole. It was that spirit that was getting in the way, not their military might, to fight a literal battle against an angel of God.

Later in the chapter, we read:

Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.  But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.” (Daniel 10:20-21).

The fact that it’s an angel fighting against the prince of Persia identifies it as a heavenly battle—a battle of wills. Then, the prince of Greece comes along, and a new spirit is added to the mix. Perhaps the mention of Michael, another prince whose name means “one like God,” represents the spirit of those who represent God in their dealings with these nations.

Conclusion

The concept of heaven and earth, as understood in ancient times, focuses our attention on the individual spirit of institutions. Contrary to the belief among many Christians that the devil and demons exist as real personal beings, these spirits have no corporeal existence and only exist within the context of the institutions themselves, although they can be transferred in the way in which the dragon of Revelation 12 gives his power to the beast of Chapter 13. Another way of saying that is the spirit of paganism lived on in the developing Roman Catholic system. 

Today, we intuitively understand the idea of an institution having a personality or spirit without using the same language as people in the Ancient Near East. But when we tap into the language of Bible times, we can better appreciate some of the harder passages of Scripture, some of which I have highlighted in these two articles.

Richard Morgan,
Simi Hills Ecclesia, CA