Supernatural Session 12 (THE SPIRITS IN PRISON & INTELLIGENT EVIL)

First Peter 3:14–22 is one of the more puzzling passages of the New Testament. Set against the backdrop of the divine council worldview, however, it’s actually quite comprehensible.

14 But even if you might suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their intimidation or be disturbed, 15 but set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for an accounting concerning the hope that is in you. 16 But do so with courtesy and respect, having a good conscience, so that in the things in which you are slandered, the ones who malign your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil.

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins,

the just for the unjust,

in order that he could bring you to God,

being put to death in the flesh,

but made alive in the spirit,

19 in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

20 who were formerly disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was being constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through water. 21 And also, corresponding to this, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, with angels and authorities and powers having been subjected to him (1 Pet 3:14–22).

The overall theme of 1 Peter is that Christians must withstand persecution and persevere in their faith. That much is clear in this passage. But what’s with baptism, the ark, Noah, and spirits in prison? And does this text say that baptism saves us?

typology

To understand what Peter is thinking, we have to understand a concept that scholars have called types or typology. Typology is a kind of prophecy. We’re all familiar with predictive verbal prophecy—when a prophet announces that something is going to come to pass in the future. Sometimes that comes “out of the blue,” with God impressing thoughts on the prophet’s mind that the prophet then utters. The prophecy is spelled out. Types work differently.

A type is basically an unspoken prophecy. It is an event, person, or institution that foreshadows something that will come, but which isn’t revealed until after the fact. For example, in Romans 5:14 Paul tells us that Adam was a

typos

of Christ. This Greek word means “kind” or “mark” or type—it’s actually where typology comes from. Paul was saying that, in some way, Adam foreshadowed or echoed something about Jesus. In Adam’s case, that something was how his act (sin) had an effect on all humanity. Like Adam, Jesus did something that would have an impact on all humanity—his death and resurrection. Another example would be Passover, since it prefigured the crucifixion of Jesus, who was called “the lamb of God.” The point is that there was some analogous connection between the type (Adam) and its echo (Jesus), called the

antitype

by scholars.

Peter uses typology in 1 Peter 3:14–22. Specifically, he assumes that the great flood in Genesis 6–8, especially the sons of God event in Genesis 6:1–4, typified or foreshadowed the gospel and the resurrection. For Peter, these events were commemorated during baptism. That needs some unpacking, since the points of correlation aren’t apparent.

In an earlier chapter we saw the tight connections between Genesis 6:1–4 and the epistles of 2 Peter and Jude. We discovered that 2 Peter and Jude communicated something about the flood and the sons of God that wasn’t found in Genesis, but which came from the Second Temple book of 1 Enoch. Specifically, 1 Enoch 6–15 describes how the sons of God (called “Watchers” in that ancient book) who committed the offense of Genesis 6:1–4 were imprisoned under the earth for what they had done. That imprisonment is behind the reference to the “spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3:19.

Recall that the prison to which the offending divine beings were sent was referred to as Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4–5. The Greek behind the terms is often translated “hell” or “Hades” in English, but those renderings are a bit misleading. Tartarus of course has no literal geography. This is the language of the spiritual realm. Tartarus was part of the underworld (biblical Sheol), a place conceived as being inside the earth because, in ancient experience, that is where the dead go—they were buried. Broadly speaking, the underworld is not hell; it is the afterlife, the place or realm where the dead go. That “place” has its own “geography.” Some experience eternal life with God in the spiritual realm; others do not.

In the 1 Enoch story, the Watchers appealed their sentence and asked Enoch, the biblical prophet who never died (Gen 5:21–24), to intercede with God for them (1 Enoch 6:4). God rejected their petition and Enoch had to return to the imprisoned Watchers and give them the bad news (1 Enoch 13:1–3; 14:4–5). The point to catch is that Enoch visits the spiritual world in the “bad section of town” where the offending Watchers are being held.

As was the case with 2 Peter 2:4 and its mention of being imprisoned in Tartarus, this story from 1 Enoch was on Peter’s mind in 1 Peter 3. It is the key to understanding what he says.

Peter saw a theological analogy between the events of Genesis 6 and the gospel and resurrection. In other words, he considered the events of Genesis 6 to be types or precursors to New Testament events and ideas.

Just as Jesus was the second Adam for Paul, Jesus is the second Enoch for Peter. Enoch descended to the imprisoned fallen angels to announce their doom. First Peter 3:14–22 has Jesus descending to these same “spirits in prison” to tell them they were still defeated, despite his crucifixion. God’s plan of salvation and kingdom rule had not been derailed—in fact, it was right on schedule. The crucifixion actually meant victory over every demonic force opposed to God. This victory declaration is why 1 Peter 3:14–22 ends with Jesus risen from the dead and set at the right hand of God—above all angels, authorities and powers. The messaging is very deliberate, and has a supernatural view of Genesis 6:1–4 at its core.

So how does this relate to baptism? Our focus for answering that question is two terms in verse 21, that baptism is

“an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The two boldfaced words need reconsideration in light of the divine council worldview. The word most often translated

“appeal” (eperōtēma)

in verse 21 is best understood as “pledge” here, a meaning that it has elsewhere. Likewise the word

“conscience” (suneidēsis)

does not refer to the inner voice of right and wrong in this text. Rather, the word refers to the disposition of one’s loyalties, a usage that is also found in other contexts and Greek literature.

Baptism, then, is not what produces salvation. It “saves” in that it reflects a heart decision: a pledge of loyalty to the risen Savior. In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty oath, a public avowal of who is on the Lord’s side in the cosmic war between good and evil. But in addition to that, it is also a visceral reminder to the defeated fallen angels. Every baptism is a reiteration of their doom in the wake of the gospel and the kingdom of God. Early Christians understood the typology of this passage and its link back to the fallen angels of Genesis 6. Early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels for this very reason. Baptism was—and still is—spiritual warfare.

INTELLIGENT EVIL

(Excerpt from Naked Bible Podcast Episode 129)

The deliverance ministry approach that is practiced in many charismatic movements today, assumes that some problems are with a demon. These people do not need exorcism. They need truth—the truth of Scripture about who they are in Christ. People have to stop believing certain lies and an enduring long‐term re‐introduction to the love of Christ. People will not be helped by denouncing demons or even Satan. There is a greater intelligent evil that must be dealth with (greater than a demon). So who are we talking about and what do they do? This is a where applying a divine council worldview becomes important. Deliverance ministry has a simplistic, even cartoonish view of demons. When we reads Scripture in its ancient (original) context, demons are put in their place—which means they are no longer a distraction. [MH: In other words, they’re seen to be the low‐level things they are and you can move on to the real problems—the more powerful ones.] The real enemies—defeated by the cross as they are— come into focus, along with their destiny. Let’s unpack that a bit before we jump into the questions. Demons are low level. They are, to quote the Dead Sea Scrolls, “bastard spirits.” The biblical text read in its ancient context tells us that demons are the disembodied spirits of dead Nephilim/Rephaim [MH: the giant clan thing]. That means they are, by definition, second generation divine beings. They are not their fathers, the Watchers, the fallen sons of God (although they might get that designation in pseudepigraphal texts like Enoch]. They were produced by the first‐generation Watchers—they are lesser in rank and power, though both generations (the originals and these derivatives) are spiritual beings. To understand this, we need to get away from traditional Christian demonology. {MH: This is where traditional deliverance ministry lives, in Pentecostal, Charismatic settings. They have a very traditional, simplistic demonology in which every evil spirit gets lumped into one category.] What’s needed is the perspective of the Hebrew Bible. Laying this out will correspond to the

THREE reasons why the world is the way it is.

1. There is the original rebel of Eden, the one who becomes known as Satan.

He has priority of place in the evil hierarchy not because he is inherently greater than the rest, but because he was the first rebel and became lord of the dead—he owns the souls of humankind because humans followed him in rebellion. Defeating him means defeating death, pure and simple. This was accomplished at the cross for all who believe. Resurrection is his defeat. The curse of death is reversed by resurrection. But ultimately this means the work of Christ is about more than paying the penalty for guilt [MH: This makes me think of N.T. Wright’s teaching that the cross is about much more than guilt]. It is restoration to God’s family as he originally planned in Eden. This is the truth survivors need to embrace if they will be healed. Satan has no legal claim on anyone in Christ at any point for any moment, as they are united to him—and he is at the right hand of God, a full member of the divine family. [MH: If you’re united to him, you’re in as God originally wanted it to be. This should be normal. The Fall broke it, and now it’s being restored.]

2. There are the fallen sons of God (Watchers) of Gen 6:1‐4 that are different from the original rebel.

They were punished by imprisonment in the Abyss until the end of days (the Day of the Lord). They are therefore not the intelligent evil we’re talking about. Eschatologically, they will be released to unleash chaos (Revelation 9). Biblical theology (informed by the Mesopotamian backdrop of Gen 6:1‐4 and the survival of that material in Enochian texts of the Intertestamental period and in the New Testament) tells us that this particular set of bad guys did two things to disrupt God’s plan:

(a) raise up a seed to oppose God’s people; and

(b) help humanity destroy itself— make human depravity more acute [MH: This is the idea that they taught mankind to use certain technologies or their own abilities—seduced themselves with abberant sexual relationships, all that kind of stuff. They helped humanity in the path of self‐destruction]. Defeating them meant, in part, elimination of the bloodlines raised up to be mortal enemies (the giants). This occurred in biblical times. [MH: How do we know that? The Bible! It tells us very intentionally who the remnant of these individuals were. After the conquest, some of them escaped to the Philistine cities. The rest of those guys get wiped out in David's time. If you have Nephilim beyond this point in the Genesis 6 sort of idea, you are making it up. You don't have a biblical basis for it. So in part, this is how it was dealt with.] The spirits of those dead Nephilim/Rephaim are in the Abyss until the time of the end. [MH: They can still influence people. Apparently, they can be conjured. But they can't be released from their sentence, and they can't be redeemed, either. This is where they are. They are in the realm of the dead/Abyss until the time of the end.] But their defeat means more than their annihilation at the end of days. It means redeeming humanity in a way that transcends the cure for death; it means restoring humanity to Edenic purity. [MH: You can’t just cure Genesis 3 and cure what these guys did. It means a redemption of humanity that transcends just getting a new body. Being restored to Edenic purity is an added element to what happens to us at the resurrection and glorification—being made members of the council, etc.] This is what’s behind presenting the believer spotless and incorruptible to the Father. Depravity is reversed. This is another truth the survivor needs to embrace because the cross was the catalyst for all of this.

3. Third—and this is arguably the most important group of rebels for our discussion—there are the fallen sons of God who were allotted to the nations at Babel (Deut 32:8‐9).

[MH: These are all different groups, folks: Satan, demons (low‐level beings who don't even belong in the Big Three), the Watchers of Genesis 6:1‐4 (and the whole bloodline issue because that's where demons originate), and the sons of God put over the nations who become corrupt. They're not in the Abyss. There's nothing in Scripture that lumps them in with the previous group. They're three different things, three different groups. There's the original rebel, the Genesis 6 rebel group, and the group at the Babel event. They've got to be kept separate, and they are kept separate in Old Testament thinking. In Christian demonology, this is all foreign—and that's where deliverance ministry lives. So you have this third group—the ones who were allotted to the nations at Babel.] Babel is the third reason why the world is screwed up. The appointed sons of God (distinct from the sons of God of Gen 6) became corrupt (Psa 82) and therefore chose rebellion against Yahweh. Instead of being Yahweh’s placeholders, ruling according to the justice of Yahweh until the time when they were brought back into relationship with Yahweh, they abused their charges and seduced them into idolatry. Consequently, the work of Christ had to provide a solution for these fallen beings as well. This, too, was accomplished at the cross. There is a reason why, when Paul thinks of the resurrection it isn’t only about a cure for death (it doesn’t just address Genesis 3)—it’s linked by Paul to the defeat of the principalities and powers. These gods are the focus of intelligent evil. These, not demons, are the real trouble. These lesser elohim were stripped of their ruling authority at the resurrection. They were fired. How do we know? Because Paul (and lots of other NT passages) say so—the gospel demanded that the Gentiles forsake their gods and come back home to Yahweh through Christ, who was Yahweh incarnate. [2]

[1] Heiser, M. S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (First Edition, pp. 335–339). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[2] http://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NB-149-Transcript.pdf

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