Principalities and Powers

‘Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

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do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

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that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

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the eyes of your understanding

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being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

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and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

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which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

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far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

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And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

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which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all’.

‘Ephesians 6:10-20 is the peroration (long speech characterized by lofty and often pompous language) that brings the letter to a rhetorical conclusion

‘Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ– who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

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But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

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For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

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casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

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and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

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Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s

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.

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For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us

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for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed–

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lest I seem to terrify you by letters.

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“For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.’

‘lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices’.

dia

ballo

diabolos

diabolos

Satanas

(Bee(l)zeboul

‘It is all too easy for modern Western people, Christian and non-Christian alike, to dismiss mythologies and religious practices such as demons and spiritual-warfare as mythologies and (mere) religious practices to nothing more than ignorant, primitive superstitions. The warfare worldview that comes through in these mythologies and practices simply does not square with either our modern Western materialistic view of the world or many traditional Christian assumption about God.’

‘Hence for all their emphasis on the radical uniqueness, sole eternality and absolute sovereignty of Yahweh, biblical authors generally assume the existence of intermediary spiritual or cosmic beings. These beings, variously termed ‘gods,’ ‘angels,’ ‘principalities and powers,’ ‘demons,’ or in the earliest of writings, ‘leviatan,;or some other cosmic monster, can and do wage war against God, wreak havoc on his creation and bring all manner of ills upon humanity (including evil).

‘We do not war after the flesh.’