00:00:00.960 Hello, everyone, and welcome to MilMac Musings, where Allison Miller and Gerard MacLellan reveal the intersection between God and science for living wholeheartedly. Hi, everybody, and welcome to Destin for Glory. Today's session is going to be about evil, the unseen realm.

00:00:23.400 And we are very blessed to have Gerard MacLellan to explain to us from a scholarly perspective about evil and how it came into the world and how we address it. Well, thank you. I just want to mention that I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Dr. Michael Heiser's School, the Awakening School of Theology. And during that, the course is there, we talked about Unseen Realm, and I believe you have the book as well.

00:00:53.280 And we just want to go over, really, just kind of elaborate on the unseen realm and why we're doing that because there's much more to it than most people think. Or you're taught even as far as from a past or not all pastors. A lot of them know this too. But we just want to bring this up because we're talking about evil quite a bit during our podcast, and we're going to be doing another follow-up podcast that will be mentioning evil as well. So there are a number of scriptures that we're going to follow through on this.

00:01:23.580 And again, this isn't me. This is the biblical scholarship of the Hebrew and also from the Hebrew Bible. And they have connected the dots. And one of the things Michael did, and he taught us, was that it's the connection of the data. Yeah. And then they go back to the Hebrew because that's what they were speaking then, and that's what the people then understood. Exactly. And they knew this. And if we say it once, we're going to say it 100 times.

00:01:52.200 When you're reading the Bible, you have to read it in their context, the writer's context, at that time. So as we move forward, one of the questions that was outlined is when most people think about how sin entered the world, people most generally think of Genesis 3. And there's more to it than that. And that's when the fall of man. Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve. Correct. Who ate the apple? And she gave it to her husband who didn't protect her. So that's it.

00:02:21.720 It's another rabbit trail. But anyways, we move forward. So when we're talking about three, we just mentioned what happened there. And then at six, we're talking about the Nephilim. And that's something that really is important to understand as well. I'm just going to bring that up. And so I'm going to read the scripture here too. Okay, this is Genesis 6:1. And it's going to go through to four. When men began to multiply in the face of the land and the daughters were born to them, the sons of God and that's a key word, sons of God.

00:02:55.440 I'm just going to interject something here that a lot of people and a lot of people within the body of Christ think that the Sons of God is really Israel, and it's not. The Sons of God is really a divine council, and it's a spiritual realm because they're a spiritual family, and they're a human family. We're obviously a human family. But the spiritual unseen realm, and there's a lot to it, and it's really important to understand that in the face of evil and what they've done to God's beautiful creation.

00:03:25.140 So when man began to multiply in the face of the other land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive. And they took as their wives any they choose, "Then the Lord, my spirit shall not abide in them forever." That's what he said. "For He is flesh. His days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim, and that's a key word for when we're dealing with the unseen realm were on the earth in those days, and those afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them, they were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

00:04:03.300 And if you know your Bible, you do understand that the Philistines, there were Nephilim, and when Israel crossed over into the Promised Land, they were to drive out these giants and to actually kill them. And that's where a lot of the violence comes in because of the evil that they had. And they had perpetrated on the children of God, and they overstepped the spiritual boundaries. So when they came in, they also brought the spiritual realm of understanding of bringing evilness that was just horrific.

00:04:38.760 I mean, we saw what happened with the evil just the other day in the war, but they brought these type of things. The man didn't know this. They brought in and taught them this. So when you're looking at that, you have to understand that that's the second part of why we have such evilness in the world, even till today. And when the next one is in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel, and I'm going to read that. So just bear with me as we looked at that.

00:05:08.940 And let me just bear with me on that. Okay. So at the Tower of Babel, you may or may not know. That's when they came and they were building this tower up to the heavens. And they said, "This is what God said." Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city in a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the Lord came down to see the city in a tower, which the children of man had built.

00:05:37.800 And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language. And this is only the beginning of what they can do. And nothing that they purpose to do will now be impossible to them. Come, let us go down and let us go down in there, confuse their language so that they may not understand one another, one another speech. So this is key. The Lord dispersed them over the face of the earth, and they left off, begin building the city.

00:06:06.360 So what happened at that point is God dispersed them, as mentioned. Because they were building this tower for themselves instead of to God's glory. Right. Absolutely. So he understood that it dispersed him. He hadn't had enough. He dispersed them to the nations around at that time. And at that point, when he did that, again, we're talking spiritual room. There are sons of God. So he gave authority for the sons of God to come over and rule over those and they say it's 70 nations, to rule over the nations at that time.

00:06:38.460 So now we're going to go to Psalm 82. And this is really important as well. This is exciting to me because we're really getting an understanding from my perspective of what happened. And it's a much bigger picture. So those are the three things that really show us what happened with the evilness that came into the world. So as we go down here, and this is the Divine Council.

00:07:07.740 This is something I don't think we really brought in. The Divine Council is there too. And if you know what Paul had mentioned that we are going to be judging angels. So after I read this, I'll go further into that too. So God has taken his place in a divine counsel. In the midst of God's He holds judgment. Now this, again, is the sons of God, and this is in the divine counsel of the spiritual realm. In the midst of God, He holds judgment.

00:07:36.060 How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needed. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk around in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, "You are God. Sons of the Most High, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die." And that's exactly what happened.

00:08:08.280 And he also mentioned too and fall like any print. So really, at that point, all of those people, the sons of God, that were given authority over the nations, they, in turn, did evil. They just brought more evil into the nations. And so instead of, like you were saying, glorifying God, following God's truth, they didn't. They took it upon themselves to bring all this misery into the world over and above what we've talked about in Genesis 3, 6, and 11.

00:08:39.780 So this is a key scripture that mentions the Divine Council. So while the Divine Council is created by God it's God's select that He has. Some of those that he selected had free will. And they chose not to be subservient and not to follow God's way. They had their own way.

00:09:03.900 And so that's why he dispersed them into the 70 nations, and then they brought evil in because they were not subservient to God. Right. Just to follow up just a bit more on that. When he gave the sons of God the ability at that time, he didn't see evil at that time. But they had the free will like we do. And so they chose to do evil, bring in evil because people were glorifying them and worshiping them. That's not the way it was supposed to be.

00:09:34.500 So as you see, it was we outlined what they did for not protecting the widows or the fatherless or that's what God has wanted all the time. And we keep saying, "We are his hands and feet. That's what he wants." And again, we have the free will too to go one way or the other. So that was a good point. So thanks for bringing that up. But anyway, we're talking about the unseen realm here, and that is absolutely the part where, again, if you can imagine, I'm going to say this again.

00:10:04.380 We have the free will. They did too. They do as well. So when they chose to do this, they brought evil into those 70 nations. But God has judged them in this thing. And this is in a divine counsel. He has judged them saying, "You're going to die like men." So at this point, what they're doing because of their hatred to God, is to try to keep everybody that they can in their realm instead of us glorifying God.

00:10:32.520 Now, God wants everybody with him. Everybody belongs to God. It's just our choice to follow him. To have the we call it loving, believing loyalty. And it works both ways, as we've mentioned before. So the evilness that has been perpetrated upon the earth has come from that dimension, that realm. And that is really something that most people really don't understand.

00:10:57.960 And I'm not saying that not everybody does, but when you look at scholarship, biblical scholarship, and that's what's really important to understand that they don't have an agenda. They're just digging deep into the word. Some scholars have an agenda, but when you're going in there doing it correctly, that's when you learn about how in God's Word. We always say God's Word is true, and it has stood the test of time.

00:11:23.280 So with the evilness that comes into the world, we are talking about that in this particular segment to go forward with our next segment on the evil that is a part of the abuse and other things as well. Before we move on in this, do you have any other questions? Just to bring some clarity around the nephilium. Sure.

00:11:46.260 In Genesis 6, when the sons of God went into the women to create children, those were actually, again, just like they were in Genesis 11, part of the divine council, and those who chose not to follow God, and they were bringing their own evilness into the world through us as humans. Exactly. And you know following up on that, we didn't have the understanding of that realm.

00:12:16.800 They did. So they understood that their evilness and understanding the power in that realm, they brought it forth into our realm. And again, there was supposed to be boundaries there. God's whole desire was to have a spiritual family and a human family, and we all worked together. But unfortunately, again, because of free will, and the reason is free will. You don't want robots. There's no need for God, I guess. Exactly. They don't have free will. Right.

00:12:45.840 And then when you love God, it's true love, yeah you know and it's just something that he wants. We all want relationship. I mean, we desire that. Someone to have different types of relationships, meaning your temperaments come into play here where you know one person is really outgoing, may not be the best fit for somebody who's more of a loner, but you know whatever. But I wanted to bring that into this segment here because it's so important for us to understand that.

00:13:15.000 And when you look at, say, Dr. Lambert, Dr. Perry, so many other doctors out there we've mentioned, and other organizations and ministries, they're helping to combat this evil. And so even you, when you're taking that journey to walk out of that, how did you word it? I said prison, but you said shell. Right. Which really is something that the evil wants to keep you in.

00:13:41.280 And we always say, "You have to bring things to light." Well, the overview of this is to really, truly, truly understand that it's a much bigger thing than you think you know. And then when you're dealing with it, we can't do anything on our own. Jesus came and defeated evil. So evil is defeated, but they still have the ability to keep the veil over the eyes of people if they choose to do that.

00:14:08.520 If they don't go looking, or if they don't If They don't have a clear understanding of what really happened. A great way to put it, you know a clear understanding. So that's what we wanted to do. Bring this into it. And I know we're going into this subject matter, and I felt it important. Is there anything else you want me to bring into this particular segment? No. I think that was great. And I appreciate you going back and clarifying those things because I think for people who've never heard of this before, it's like, "What?" Because I remember the first time I ever heard it.

00:14:43.020 And it was many years ago. And I was like I just started searching because I wanted to understand exactly what that meant and what I really learned how it can have such a hold on your life if you don't understand this. So that's why we're bringing it forward. Right. Exactly. Paul did the same thing, right? He did. Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that in. Alice and I were talking before the show, and we were talking about how Paul, he had this vision of exactly what's mentioning here.

00:15:15.120 And you can see it in Ephesians 6 when he writes out that we when he writes that we how does he word it in Ephesians 1, if I put on the whole armor of God? We don't fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers. So he understood that. But his vision was at the time we talked about the dispersing of the nations, in his area generation, it was the 70 nations. And as you can see in the Bible, he wanted to get to Spain. And that was the last destination that he felt that was part of the 70s nations.

00:15:47.580 And again, that was something that Paul really understood as far as the evilness in the evil realm. And we do fight against that, but we have our Savior who is our divine warrior who fights for us. And that's what we have to do. Embrace that. We can't do anything by ourselves. No. So that's really important. Thank you for bringing that in too. And it's our relationship with him. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So all of this is just to help understand the vastness of evil and what we're up against.

00:16:17.760 But again, we are freed from that. And it's not anything we do. It's just embracing what Jesus did for us and His love for us to get us from here to the other side. And we just walk with Him all the way because He's our king warrior, and he's fighting for us every second of every day. And he loves us. And we are in we have eternal life here and now, but as I mentioned before, it's here and now, but not yet. So we just move forward, and we're just hoping that this will help enlighten you regarding the vastness of evil.

00:16:51.180 And again, we are the ones who are loosed. So I just wanted to bring that in too. Well, thank you for that. Thank you. Is there anything else? What a great message for all of us to glean from. Right. It was great to put that out there so that others can really understand this. Yeah. It's good. No, I don't have anything else on that topic. If you want to, we can take a break and then move into the next?

00:17:24.060 Sure. That would be a great thing to do. I know this may not be as long as the others we've done, but it's an important one to give an overview. Yeah. So thanks for joining us. Connect with us at DestinedforGlorymin.org with any comments or questions.