Day 2706 – Theology Thursday – “The Great Reversal” – Supernatural

Welcome to Day 2706 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – “The Great Reversal” – Supernatural Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2706 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2706 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Today, we continue with the 13th of 16 segments of our Theology Thursday lessons. I will read through the book "Supernatural," written by Hebrew Bible scholar, professor, and mentor Dr. Michael S. Heiser, who has since passed away. Supernatural is a condensed version of his comprehensive book, ‘The Unseen Realm.’ If these readings pique your interest, I would recommend that you read ‘The Unseen Realm.’ Today, we will read through chapter thirteen: “The Great Reversal” Aside from stories about Jesus in the Gospels—such   as accounts of his birth, death, and Sermon on the Mount—perhaps the most familiar passage in the New Testament is Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit rushes upon the followers of Jesus at the day of Pentecost. It marks the launch of the fledgling church and the beginning of global evangelism in the name of Jesus. As familiar as the passage is, there’s a lot more going on in it than most realize. Acts 2 is in fact designed to telegraph the campaign to reverse the post-Babel cosmic geography of the Old Testament, in which the nations other than Israel were under the dominion of lesser gods. What happened at Pentecost was a battle plan for infiltrating all the nations disinherited by God at Babel with the gospel of Jesus—an ancient strategy for spiritual war. Pentecost What Acts 2 describes as happening on the day of Pentecost was certainly unusual: And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in the same place. And suddenly a sound like a violent rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And divided tongues like fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability to speak out. Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one was hearing them speaking in his own language. And they were astounded and astonished, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how do we hear, each one of us, in our own native language?” (Acts 2:1–8 leb) Some of the things that take us into the supernatural worldview of the Old Testament in that remarkable passage aren’t obvious in the English translation. The “rushing wind” associated with the arrival of the Spirit is a familiar description of the presence of God in the Old Testament (2 Kings 2:1, 11; Job 38:1; 40:6). Fire is also familiar in descriptions of God (Ezek. 1:4; Isa. 6:4, 6; Dan. 7:9; Ex. 3:2; 19:18; 20:18). It’s clear from those references that God was present at the event and behind what was going on. His intention was to launch his campaign to take back the nations from the lesser gods he assigned to the nations (Deut. 4:19–20; 32:8–9) but who became his enemies (Ps. 82). God’s tool for doing that was the words of the disciples—hence the imagery of tongues. God enabled the Jewish followers of Jesus to speak...