Spiritual Forces in the Heavenly Places

If there are no supernatural evil beings, how do we understand Paul’s language when he references “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”?

For many Christians, the spirit realm is a place alive with all manner of forces of evil. The devil lives in this realm along with his demon cohorts. And if there’s one passage that has proven most difficult for Christadelphians when talking to their Christian friends about the topic, it’s Ephesians 6:12, with Paul’s reference to “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”1 

What are we to make of this passage, which also mentions “cosmic powers over this present darkness”? The context is the exhortation to “Put on the whole armor of God” (v. 11) that we might face and fight against these foes. It sure sounds like there are invisible forces of evil. For the Christadelphians who don’t accept the idea of a supernatural devil and demons, we can have a hard time coming to grips with Paul’s language. 

Paul tells us we need the armor of God to “stand against the schemes of the devil.” (v. 11). Why does Paul use this language? If the devil is a term denoting human nature or sinful desires, then why doesn’t Paul just say that—“to stand against the schemes of sinful flesh?” If the devil doesn’t exist as a powerful supernatural force of evil, then why use such terminology, and follow it up with talking about cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil? 

Human Cunning 

There is perhaps a clue to how we can understand Paul’s words in his use of the word “schemes” in verse 11. The Greek word, methodeia, used here is rare in Scripture, and in fact only used one other time. It is in the same epistle where Paul counsels us to come to the knowledge of Christ “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes [methodeia].” (Ephesians 4:14). 

In this verse, Paul describes methodeia as “human cunning,” using the common word for human beings, anthropos. An argument can be made, therefore, that the unambiguous mention of human beings in Chapter 4 informs us regarding the identity of those he mentions in Chapter 6. 

However, even if we are right in this assessment, the question persists: why does Paul use the language of “devil,” “cosmic powers,” and “spiritual forces,” if he’s just talking about human cunning? 

Rulers and Authorities 

To begin answering this question we can look at some of the other terms Paul uses in Chapter 6. As well as cosmic powers and spiritual forces, Paul tells us, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities.” (v. 12). These terms certainly sound like spirit beings because Paul says they are not flesh and blood. However, in his seminal work on powers in the New Testament, Walter Wink highlights the fact that the Greek terms for rulers and authorities—arche and exousia—are almost always used in the New Testament, Septuagint (LXX), and Jewish writings such as in Philo and Josephus, for human agents. For instance, regarding arche and its related term archon, Wink writes: 

The normal use of both terms is for human power arrangements. Apart from four passages in Philo, in the LXX, Philo, and Josephus, archon is used exclusively for an incumbent-in-office and, with the sole exception of Daniel 10 and 12, for human agents.2 

Likewise, for exousia, “The vast majority of references are to human arrangements of power.”3 

However, if it is the case that these terms refer to human power arrangements (thus confirming the parallel with Chapter 4) then why does Paul say we are not wrestling against flesh and blood? 

Heaven and Earth

To answer this question, we need to turn back time and read the Bible through the Ancient Near East (ANE) worldview. Paul tells us that the spiritual forces of evil are in “heavenly places,” so how would the original readers of Ephesians understand that? 

In today’s world, we can roughly divide people into accepting one of two basic worldviews regarding heaven and earth. The religious worldview is that these reference two separate realms. We inhabit the earthly realm, and God and the angels, as well as evil spirit beings such as the devil, inhabit the spirit realm or heaven. On the other hand, the materialistic worldview rejects the existence of heaven altogether, along with the notion of supernatural powers. Christadelphians tend to sit awkwardly between these worldviews. 

However, things were understood differently in the ANE. Instead of heaven and earth being two separate and distinct realms, it was supposed that heaven and earth are intimately connected. The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament puts it like this: 

For antiquity the term gives expression to the unity of the world, of the cosmos which is not only physical but also psychical and metaphysical.4 

In essence, this means that for every earthly phenomenon, there is a corresponding heavenly aspect. Think, for instance, of the simple example of a chair. The earthly aspect of a chair has to do with things like what material it is made of and its dimensions. The heavenly aspect of the chair is its meaning. Let’s say it was your grandma’s chair, which she always used to sit in when you visited her at her home. Therefore, the chair has a meaning that goes beyond what it is made of, and when you look at the chair, you see that it brings back memories of your grandma. In that sense, the chair has what we might call spiritual power. 

In the Bible, the Tabernacle is a classic example. In Exodus, when we read about the various furniture of the Tabernacle, we learn about their materials and dimensions. However, the real power of the furniture is in what it all means. The writer to the Hebrews brings out the principle, calling those meanings “heavenly things” and “true things.” (Hebrews 9:23-24). 

For people in the ANE, “heaven” was something very real because of the power behind phenomena. Thinking about grandma’s old chair might evoke powerful emotions as you sit in it, something that the chair on its own could not do; it’s the meaning behind the chair that holds that power. These emotions were so powerful that things took on a personality, and people imagined that real personal beings were controlling those things. This assumption led to belief in the gods of antiquity, and many ANE civilizations believed in the actual existence of personal powers of good and evil in the various phenomena of life. 

Immanence 

However, one thing in common with these personal beings, whether good or evil, is they are all immanent rather than transcendent. Immanence describes how these gods of antiquity only had meaning within the phenomenon connected with them. So, for instance, the Sun god Ra of Egypt only had meaning within the context of the Sun. He did not exist outside the Sun; he was intimately tied to it. 

This idea of immanence is important because it limits the power behind a phenomenon to the phenomena itself. Take, for example, the idea of a mob spirit. That spirit only exists within the context of a gathering of people. So, individuals who might otherwise be ordinary, law-abiding citizens gather together and are whipped up into a frenzy, called a mob spirit. However, once the crowd dissipates, the mob spirit ceases to exist. Therefore, the question is whether that mob spirit really is a personal being at all if it only exists within the confines of a gathering of people. 

Thrones, Dominions, Rulers, and Authorities 

In another passage where Paul mentions spiritual powers, he talks about things “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” (Colossians 1:16). Notice his use of the words “heaven,” “earth,” “visible,” and “invisible.” What he then lists can be thought of in terms of both earthly and heavenly aspects. 

To understand what Paul means by thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities, we can use the analogy of the greatest power in our present world, the United States of America. 

The word thronos (thrones) means the seat of power. Here, we might think of the Oval Office as the thronos of the USA. The word for dominions, kyriotes, means a sphere of influence, and in the case of the USA, its sphere of influence is the union of its fifty states. “Rulers” and “authorities” are the words we met in Ephesians—arche meaning the office and exousia meaning the legitimation or authorization of that office. In the USA, the main arche is the office of the President, and the exousia could be the American constitution or laws. 

Consider these four things from a purely earthly perspective. The Oval Office is otherwise just like any other room in any other building, albeit oddly shaped. It has a carpet made of the same materials as other carpets. It has walls, a ceiling, and furniture, just like any other room. However, when someone stands in the Oval Office, it ceases to be any other room and commands a sense of emotion that leaves people in awe of its power. That power is the invisible spirit or heavenly aspect of the room. 

If you look at a topographic map of the USA, it looks like anywhere else in the world. There are shorelines, mountains, rivers, farmland, and many other features shared across the globe. However, looking at a political map, one can see that the same area emits a power that is only present because it is the United States of America. 

The same can be said of the office of the President. Trump and Biden before him are two doddery old men; mortal like the rest of us. But give them the title POTUS, and they become the most powerful men in the world. And they have exousia, the various laws that wield their own power. 

Consider a Biblical example from the Book of Acts: 

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2). 

What is the throne, dominion, ruler, and authority in these verses? The throne is the city of Jerusalem, and the temple is at its center. Otherwise, just a city like any other city and a building like any other building, in the context of the New Testament, they wield enormous power. The dominion is the network of synagogues that stretched outside the land of Judea to Syria and the City of Damascus. The ruler is the High Priest, and the authority the letters he could give to Saul of Tarsus to bring Christians bound to Jerusalem. Like the POTUS, the High Priest was just an ordinary man until he received his title, and suddenly, he became the most powerful man in Jewry. 

The Ruler of this World 

That last example is key to understanding the New Testament’s use of the language of power. The office of the High Priest wielded such enormous power that it enabled otherwise ordinary human beings to put the Son of God to death. Jesus said, in the context of the impending crucifixion, “Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31). The word for ruler here is archon, but Jesus is thinking about more than just the present incumbent of the office of the High Priest. It is the office itself that his death and resurrection will deal with so that power will be lost forever. Notice how the ruler is to be “cast out,” a term used throughout the New Testament for the casting out of demons. 

But before he was cast out, a mob gathered and cried out, “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21). Such was the power of this mob spirit that “their voices prevailed” (v. 23) over Pilate, Caesar’s representative. 

If you were the Apostle Paul writing at the time when the ANE worldview was extant regarding heaven and earth, how would you describe the phenomenon of how such men could persecute and kill Jesus, his apostles, and the Christian church? There was something about how otherwise law-abiding individuals could gather together and do such things. There was a spirit about them that could be termed “the devil,” “cosmic powers,” or “spiritual forces of evil.” 

There is a reason why we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, even though these powers are human beings sitting on thrones, having a sphere of influence, being invested with high offices, and having authority to act. Ultimately, it is the power behind them that we fight against—their ideas, ideologies, philosophies, and antagonism to truth. 

Christian belief about the existence of evil supernatural beings misses the entire point of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. They make the same mistake as the ancients, who thought that the invisible powers emanating from phenomena were persona beings. The real danger we face, and why we must put on the whole armor of God, is what happens when people in positions of power abuse that power to thrust their ideologies and influence over others. They can rightly be termed the devil and Satan, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

Richard Morgan,
Simi Hills Ecclesia, CA