Introduction 

Over the past few years, I have been listening to Bible teachers on YouTube and their own podcasts. They have brought a revolution to my mind concerning spirituality versus the Christian religion of my youth. I used to simply go to church and practice religious activities then live independently of the spiritual realm. Lately, I have been learning the realities of the spiritual dimension and how it affects the material world. I have been learning about materialism and spirituality.

My Teachers and Their Teachings

Dr. Myles Munroe taught me the difference between the Kingdom of Jesus and the Christian religion, God’s people living as colonists in the conquered territory of Earth, and each person living according to his/ her purpose and creating wealth.

Greg Simas taught that the Greek work ‘ecclesia’ should not be translated ‘church’ as King James I commanded for his Authorized Version of the Bible. ‘Ecclesia’ refers to the assembly of citizens to decide political issues for their city. The Romans adapted the word to mean the assembly of their citizens in a conquered land to hear the words of the emperor and decide how to make that land look like Rome. Their political leader was an apostle.

His students knew this when Jesus said He would build His ecclesia (Matthew 16:18). They did not think of a religious organization when He said those words. The early listeners of Mathew’s and Luke’s versions of the Good News understood this when they heard that Jesus designated twelve men to be His ecclesia leaders (apostles).

Whom Exactly Did Jesus Conquer? 

Tim Mackie taught me the ancient Israelite worldview of the “snowglobe” of the heavens and the Earth. The supreme spiritual being (Elohim) created the heavens and the Earth and fixed the dome/ vault/ “firmament”/ raqia to separate the waters above from the waters on the Earth. (Where else does rain come from?)

The Creator made spiritual beings like Himself to rule in the heavens. The Israelites and other ancients understood these to be the sun, moon, stars, and wandering planets. On Earth, the Creator brought forth a riot of vegetation, teeming sea creatures and monsters, and all sorts of animals on the land. Ultimately, He made a human as a physical representation of Himself. This image, into which He put His breath/ wind/ spirit/ Ruach, was masculine and feminine, like Himself. Finally, He took the feminine side from the masculine side and built male and female humans. 

Together, they were to reign over all the Earth as His viceroys. They were to continue to work with Him, ordering the jungle on the Earth into more and more of the garden He planted in the mountain country of Eden. This was where Heaven overlapped with Earth. This was where the Creator walked with the humans and provided for everything they needed (Genesis 2).

Michael Heiser taught that one spiritual being, a son of God, a member of His divine council, turned against the Creator’s reign and acted to make himself the ruler on Earth. This fiery one/ seraph took the form of a serpent and tempted the woman and man to disobey the Creator. He persuaded them to make moral decisions on their own.

Humanity came under the reign of this enemy/ satan. They became, like him, those who steal, kill, and destroy. Other spiritual beings/ sons of God violated the boundary between the spiritual and the earthly realms. They mated with lovely daughters of Humanity and produced the (Hebrew) nephilim/ (Greek) titans/ (English) giants. These became the men of renown and kings over Humanity. They drew people into cities for mutual protection and led them to steal from, kill, and destroy the people of other cities.

Finally, the humans refused to scatter throughout the Earth and bring the Creator’s order over it all. They built a tower in Babylon to hold themselves together and to invade Heaven and bring its benefits down to themselves without surrender to the Creator.

He predicted that humanity would have no limits on their accomplishments. Without surrender to Him, this would be disastrous. So. the Creator confused (balal) their speech. Those of the same language gathered together into nations/ ethnos and scattered around the world. Michael Heiser taught that the Creator placed these nations under the rule of spiritual beings/ sons of God/ members of His divine council. However, He kept the nation of Israel under His rule. These were the spiritual rulers of darkness, the principalities and powers, Jesus conquered on the Cross.

Jesus Conquered the Spiritual Rulers

All the peoples of the Earth were compelled by their human nature to rebel against Earth’s Creator. They were motivated by their spiritual rulers to war against other ethnos/ nations (James 4:1-3). 

Unlike them, Jesus was begotten by Holy Spirit and born of a woman. Because of His divine nature, He was able to overcome the temptations of His human nature and fully obey the Father. Fully relying on the Father’s guidance and the power of Ruach, Jesus lived and taught dependence on the edenic benefits of provision, healthy bodies, and protection from harm. I believe He also taught His students to be naked/ emotionally vulnerable, exposing their flaws to each other so they could be accepted and healed.

Finally, Jesus allowed the morally motivated, religious leaders to condemn Him to death, though He was completely innocent. He allowed the politically motivated Roman leaders to nail Him – shamefully naked – to a cross. 

There He took all the rebellion of all of Humanity onto Himself. He took all the shame deserved by flawed Humanity onto Himself. Finally, because they motivated people to condemn and kill an innocent man, Jesus destroyed the legal reign of the spiritual rulers of darkness. He disarmed the principalities and powers and opened the door for Paul and others to proclaim His Kingship to all the nations.

Scientific Discoveries of Materialism

People lived with this spiritual worldview for thousands of years. It has been only in the last few hundred years that scientific discoveries have created a very different, materialistic worldview. Christian natural philosophers wanted a better understanding of how the Creator had ordered the heavens and the Earth. Men like Copernacus, Galileo, and Kepler discovered that the Earth is not the center of the cosmos and all the paths of the sun, moon, stars, and planets are not perfect circles around us. They discovered that the shining beings in the heavens are not spiritual beings with influence on earthly events.

Others figured out how to classify plants and animals into categories ending in genus, species, even breeds. They discovered the bones of animals and fossils of extinct plants unknown to themselves or to the authors of the Bible.

Scientists decided to remove the actions of God from their understanding of the natural order. They developed theories that explained evolution and astronomy at work over millions and billions of years. Western people now have a fully scientific, materialist worldview of the heavens and the Earth.

War Between Religion and Science

The so-called Scopes monkey trial highlights the utter disagreement between these spiritual and the materialistic worldviews. At first, evolution was not allowed to be taught in American schools. Today, Creationism is not allowed equal time. Most evangelical churches teach a strictly literal six- day understanding of Creation, completed something like six thousand years ago.

Science, of course, teaches that the heavenly objects came from a Big Bang (now being debunked) billions ago. Today’s creatures evolved from single- celled life over millions of years.

Somewhere between these worldviews are Creation scientists that put forth scientific evidence that somehow both are true or that the materialist theories are badly flawed. They are supported by such organizations as The Institute for Creation Research, Answers in Genesis, and Creation Ministries International.

(They apparently reject the perspective that the biblical stories were written for and understood as truth by the people of the ancient, Israelite culture, not today’s materialist- minded Westerners. This perspective is better for understanding the literary nature of the ancient Writings.)

Materialism and Spirituality

I contend that a person can enjoy the materialist theories of astronomy and evolution while believing the spiritual truths of Israelite cosmology. One concerns our worldly, day- to-day existence. The other concerns the spiritual dimension, which has day- to-day effects on our existence.

People struggle with daily work, habits that bring harm to their bodies and relationships, and how to deal with the difficult people around us and around the world. It is good to have a belief and trust in the Creator, who made all things very good and sent His Son to bring all the Earth back under His beneficial reign. It is good to pursue the purpose (work) for which God created each person and thereby create wealth. It is good to look at the problems of society and to join other believers in ecclesia in order to fight the influence of the principalities and powers, who have already been defeated on the Cross (Colossians 2:15).

Thus, we who believe will reign in our lives on Earth (Romans 5:17). We can take advantage of modern scientific methods of healing and disease prevention as well as the healing wisdom of the Bible and the power of Ruach, according to instructions from the Divine Healer. We can use biblical wisdom as well as the voice of Ruach to create and manage wealth (Hearing God in Business).

Eventually, under the reign of Ruach, we will bring Heaven again to Earth, not in renewed Eden but in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).