Sunday Sermon 6/17/12

"Heavenly Realms" appears four times in the New Testament, all in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. At the time Paul was discussing the relationship between the Gospel, the Church, the Jews and the Gentiles.

At first the phrase "Heavenly Realms" seemed to mean heaven, with Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenly realms. Then it seems as if it is metaphorical. But quickly it is obvious that it means more than that, that "Heaven" itself is too provincial for the phrase, just as the Jews are too provincial a target for the New Testament.

This "Heavenly Realm" is the spiritual world that exists as a parallel universe with the physical one, throughout all creation. This realm must be infused with the wisdom of God which has been hidden from everyone, even the Jews, until Christ. The conflict in life is not with "flesh and blood" but with the negative spiritual forces. Negative spiritual forces. This implies a very Eastern-like conflict between God and real opponents--not just the uninitiated or the ignorant--but entities that oppose the wisdom of God.

Often evil is expressed as the misuse of a good trait, satiation vs. gluttony or sensuality vs. lust. Here evil seems more concrete and more alien.