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<![CDATA[Radix Fidem - All Forums]]> https://radixfidem.org/ Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:31:07 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Ezekiel's Final Vision]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1905 Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:02:51 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1905 Naked Bible 156: Ezekiel 40-48 Part 1 and Naked Bible 157: Ezekiel 40-48 Part 2

If you think of Ezekiel's vision in chapters 40-48 as something more or less literal, you will miss the point entirely.

Heiser punches another big hole in Dispensationalism here. It's common to see Ezekiel's final vision (40-48) as a depiction of the Millennium. That's simply not possible. Given a genuine knowledge of Hebrew prophetic literary conventions, the "millennium" refers to the long period between Christ's Ascension and His Second Coming. Heiser also ties this passage to Revelation 20, pointing out how it's the same event. Revelation is written in cycles, not chronological sequences. What's in Revelation 19 does not come before Revelation 20 in chronology. Further, there is no literal millennium anywhere in Hebrew thinking.

In his previous podcasts on Ezekiel 38-39, Heiser had already shot down the idea that Gog/Magog had anything to do with Russia; it referred to people living in modern Turkey. Heiser talked about how the Valley of Dry Bones (AKA Travelers' Valley) refers to some place on the eastern ridge above the Dead Sea. It's the same place fire and brimstone fell on a previous occasion (Sodom and Gomorrah). The entire eastern ridge above the Jordan Valley all the way up to Mount Hermon is the homeland of the Watchers and the Nephilim clans, but the valley with the bones is a place also dotted with various shrines for death cults. It will become the graveyard of Satan's army. It won't be much of a battle, and nobody who understands Hebrew traditions could possibly take it literally.

The New Earth Kingdom is after the Second Coming, not some alleged Rapture followed by a literal Millennium. That's an interpretive system, not the Bible. There will be no new Temple built in Jerusalem. Ezekiel's description here cannot be taken literally. Why not?

1. The proportions are unbalanced, with the doors being half the length of the room inside.

2. There is no height indicated, no roof.

3. There are no instructions on building this thing, only measurements of something God Himself builds (for Eternity, not some resurrected Jewish kingdom). The whole point of this vision is to record symbols that would convict Ezekiel's listeners of their sins.

4. There are no furnishings for a priestly offering, no place to wash, etc. The water flowing out of the Temple is a mere trickle at this point. This cannot represent a restored OT Temple with sacrifices.

5. After the Cross, there can be no purpose in a sacrificial system in a Millennium. Either Christ paid it all or He accomplished nothing.

Reminder: The OT sacrificial system was never about covering individual sins in the first place. Quoting Heiser --

Quote:People think this is about getting moral forgiveness and having your sins wiped away as an individual. In other words, they're superimposing the talk about Jesus onto the Old Testament sacrificial system. If you have listened to our series on Leviticus, you know that doesn't work because that's not actually what Leviticus says ninety-nine percent of the time. The sacrifices are really about purifying objects and purifying sacred space and that sort of thing.

God would not commission a restoration of the sacrificial system since that pointed to Jesus, who would have already finished His redemptive work before any alleged Millennium. We are the sacred space; we are His Temple until He Returns. We are also the New Priesthood under Christ, who is High Priest under the Order of Melchizedek. Ezekiel does not envision a false Temple to a false worship.

6. You cannot separate the redrawn tribal boundaries from the Temple, and those tribal allotments in Ezekiel are clearly not literal. Indeed, the territory is considerably smaller than what David and Solomon held. Instead, it looks more like what Joshua conquered, minus everything on the East Bank of the Jordan, which land was never part of the promise in the first place.

7. The image of the Prince is not the Messiah if we take this literally. In Ezekiel's vision, the Prince must offer sacrifices for himself; Christ is the Final Sacrifice. In the case of this Prince, there are places off-limits to him in the Temple. He also has a wife and children. There are restrictions on his land holdings, and he has no political authority to "rule the nations with a rod of iron" as the Messiah does. Making this figure the Messiah requires you start from an entirely different thought process, trying to see things the way the exiled Hebrew nobles would have, way before the New Testament imagery.

Saying something like this is a symbol does not mean, "It won't happen." It means what is coming cannot be understood in clinical terms. If you wipe away the awful nonsense of Dispensationalism and return to a genuine Hebrew Second Temple outlook, Ezekiel's description says something totally different. The key here is restoring Eden, not some political-military state on the current earth.

Ezekiel's verbiage here is the same as the ancient cosmic Mountain of God, the place where He resides and from which He reigns over Creation. The Garden of Eden is attached to that as His private space away from the courts. Ezekiel's map of the future land of Israel is geographically impossible with earth as it now exists. The whole thing is realigned so that Jerusalem stands in the center of the territory, not in the south where the site stands now.

Ezekiel echoes the language of the global navel, the center of the universe, etc. The altar is at the "bosom of the earth" (literal Hebrew translation of 43:13). Nobody takes that literally. Instead, the description of the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, as well as the construction of each, echoed the language of Creation. That's not apparent to us from English translations, but Heiser digs into the details to show how this is all tied together in symbolism that would be obvious to an ancient Hebrew mind. Don't think about a physical structure, but metaphorical construct that speaks the language of Edenic paradise.

As part of this symbolism, Ezekiel's temple is loaded with images of the Jubilee. Everything about his vision is in terms of 25 (half-jubilee) and 50, the Year of Liberation. The whole vision in chapter 40 opens with a notice of the date: 571 BC, the 25th year of captivity (half-jubilee), on the tenth of the first month.

Side note: Israel had used two calendars at the same time for several centuries. The original was the "religious calendar" (Nisan Year, first month at Passover) starting in the spring. However, King David was crowned the first of Tishri. His son Solomon began organizing his reign under a "civil calendar" (Tishri Year, seventh month). When the Kingdom split, Israel went back to Nisan Year calendar, while Judah retained the Tishri Year. Ezekiel was using the Tishri Year calendar, so his first month was Tishri, and the tenth day was the Day of Atonement.

The only other mention of a tenth day in the Torah was the start of a Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:8ff). Ezekiel is giving us a clue here -- God is hitting the reset button. The numerology here would be kindled in a Hebrew mind, starting to watch for the Passover Lamb. Everything was here except the Lamb. That Jesus was born on the first of Tishri matters a lot here; we get that from Revelation 12. But Ezekiel's audience didn't know that yet, so we realize that it's left hanging intentionally. The idea was to pre-load the Hebrew awareness of a Messiah yet to come on King David's Coronation Day (in the ANE, this was a king's "birthday").

It was left hanging intentionally because God was keeping the Messiah a secret from His rebellious staff. Paul said, "If they had known..." Jesus had to explain it repeatedly, so it wasn't obvious, but the existence of this huge blank spot in Ezekiel's message was meaningful in itself. Heiser goes on to mention other obscurities, but you get the point. Even the dimensions of Ezekiel's new map of Israel is offered in multiples of 50. The coming of the Messiah would be the Final Jubilee.]]> Naked Bible 156: Ezekiel 40-48 Part 1 and Naked Bible 157: Ezekiel 40-48 Part 2

If you think of Ezekiel's vision in chapters 40-48 as something more or less literal, you will miss the point entirely.

Heiser punches another big hole in Dispensationalism here. It's common to see Ezekiel's final vision (40-48) as a depiction of the Millennium. That's simply not possible. Given a genuine knowledge of Hebrew prophetic literary conventions, the "millennium" refers to the long period between Christ's Ascension and His Second Coming. Heiser also ties this passage to Revelation 20, pointing out how it's the same event. Revelation is written in cycles, not chronological sequences. What's in Revelation 19 does not come before Revelation 20 in chronology. Further, there is no literal millennium anywhere in Hebrew thinking.

In his previous podcasts on Ezekiel 38-39, Heiser had already shot down the idea that Gog/Magog had anything to do with Russia; it referred to people living in modern Turkey. Heiser talked about how the Valley of Dry Bones (AKA Travelers' Valley) refers to some place on the eastern ridge above the Dead Sea. It's the same place fire and brimstone fell on a previous occasion (Sodom and Gomorrah). The entire eastern ridge above the Jordan Valley all the way up to Mount Hermon is the homeland of the Watchers and the Nephilim clans, but the valley with the bones is a place also dotted with various shrines for death cults. It will become the graveyard of Satan's army. It won't be much of a battle, and nobody who understands Hebrew traditions could possibly take it literally.

The New Earth Kingdom is after the Second Coming, not some alleged Rapture followed by a literal Millennium. That's an interpretive system, not the Bible. There will be no new Temple built in Jerusalem. Ezekiel's description here cannot be taken literally. Why not?

1. The proportions are unbalanced, with the doors being half the length of the room inside.

2. There is no height indicated, no roof.

3. There are no instructions on building this thing, only measurements of something God Himself builds (for Eternity, not some resurrected Jewish kingdom). The whole point of this vision is to record symbols that would convict Ezekiel's listeners of their sins.

4. There are no furnishings for a priestly offering, no place to wash, etc. The water flowing out of the Temple is a mere trickle at this point. This cannot represent a restored OT Temple with sacrifices.

5. After the Cross, there can be no purpose in a sacrificial system in a Millennium. Either Christ paid it all or He accomplished nothing.

Reminder: The OT sacrificial system was never about covering individual sins in the first place. Quoting Heiser --

Quote:People think this is about getting moral forgiveness and having your sins wiped away as an individual. In other words, they're superimposing the talk about Jesus onto the Old Testament sacrificial system. If you have listened to our series on Leviticus, you know that doesn't work because that's not actually what Leviticus says ninety-nine percent of the time. The sacrifices are really about purifying objects and purifying sacred space and that sort of thing.

God would not commission a restoration of the sacrificial system since that pointed to Jesus, who would have already finished His redemptive work before any alleged Millennium. We are the sacred space; we are His Temple until He Returns. We are also the New Priesthood under Christ, who is High Priest under the Order of Melchizedek. Ezekiel does not envision a false Temple to a false worship.

6. You cannot separate the redrawn tribal boundaries from the Temple, and those tribal allotments in Ezekiel are clearly not literal. Indeed, the territory is considerably smaller than what David and Solomon held. Instead, it looks more like what Joshua conquered, minus everything on the East Bank of the Jordan, which land was never part of the promise in the first place.

7. The image of the Prince is not the Messiah if we take this literally. In Ezekiel's vision, the Prince must offer sacrifices for himself; Christ is the Final Sacrifice. In the case of this Prince, there are places off-limits to him in the Temple. He also has a wife and children. There are restrictions on his land holdings, and he has no political authority to "rule the nations with a rod of iron" as the Messiah does. Making this figure the Messiah requires you start from an entirely different thought process, trying to see things the way the exiled Hebrew nobles would have, way before the New Testament imagery.

Saying something like this is a symbol does not mean, "It won't happen." It means what is coming cannot be understood in clinical terms. If you wipe away the awful nonsense of Dispensationalism and return to a genuine Hebrew Second Temple outlook, Ezekiel's description says something totally different. The key here is restoring Eden, not some political-military state on the current earth.

Ezekiel's verbiage here is the same as the ancient cosmic Mountain of God, the place where He resides and from which He reigns over Creation. The Garden of Eden is attached to that as His private space away from the courts. Ezekiel's map of the future land of Israel is geographically impossible with earth as it now exists. The whole thing is realigned so that Jerusalem stands in the center of the territory, not in the south where the site stands now.

Ezekiel echoes the language of the global navel, the center of the universe, etc. The altar is at the "bosom of the earth" (literal Hebrew translation of 43:13). Nobody takes that literally. Instead, the description of the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, as well as the construction of each, echoed the language of Creation. That's not apparent to us from English translations, but Heiser digs into the details to show how this is all tied together in symbolism that would be obvious to an ancient Hebrew mind. Don't think about a physical structure, but metaphorical construct that speaks the language of Edenic paradise.

As part of this symbolism, Ezekiel's temple is loaded with images of the Jubilee. Everything about his vision is in terms of 25 (half-jubilee) and 50, the Year of Liberation. The whole vision in chapter 40 opens with a notice of the date: 571 BC, the 25th year of captivity (half-jubilee), on the tenth of the first month.

Side note: Israel had used two calendars at the same time for several centuries. The original was the "religious calendar" (Nisan Year, first month at Passover) starting in the spring. However, King David was crowned the first of Tishri. His son Solomon began organizing his reign under a "civil calendar" (Tishri Year, seventh month). When the Kingdom split, Israel went back to Nisan Year calendar, while Judah retained the Tishri Year. Ezekiel was using the Tishri Year calendar, so his first month was Tishri, and the tenth day was the Day of Atonement.

The only other mention of a tenth day in the Torah was the start of a Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:8ff). Ezekiel is giving us a clue here -- God is hitting the reset button. The numerology here would be kindled in a Hebrew mind, starting to watch for the Passover Lamb. Everything was here except the Lamb. That Jesus was born on the first of Tishri matters a lot here; we get that from Revelation 12. But Ezekiel's audience didn't know that yet, so we realize that it's left hanging intentionally. The idea was to pre-load the Hebrew awareness of a Messiah yet to come on King David's Coronation Day (in the ANE, this was a king's "birthday").

It was left hanging intentionally because God was keeping the Messiah a secret from His rebellious staff. Paul said, "If they had known..." Jesus had to explain it repeatedly, so it wasn't obvious, but the existence of this huge blank spot in Ezekiel's message was meaningful in itself. Heiser goes on to mention other obscurities, but you get the point. Even the dimensions of Ezekiel's new map of Israel is offered in multiples of 50. The coming of the Messiah would be the Final Jubilee.]]> <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 6/10/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1903 Wed, 10 Jun 2026 02:06:22 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1903 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> <![CDATA[Not Bound by Lies]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1902 Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:22:06 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1902 The Drama Behind the Darkness"

Jack Bowers addresses a frequent objection people make to the gospel message:

Quote:Ask almost anyone why they find it difficult to believe in God, and the answer will come quickly: just look at the world. Childhood cancer. Genocide. The slow disintegration of a mind swallowed by dementia. If a God of unlimited power and perfect goodness exists, why does evil not merely persist but often appear to go unchecked, senseless, and grotesque?

The problem is that Bowers tends to be pedantic. Oops; I said that the way he would. Bowers uses academic language far too much and too often, alienating a lay audience. He uses too many words and, if you ask me, only touches on one kind of answer. That's what "pedantic" means. The quoted sample above is pretty tame, but the rest of his post is too much saying too little.

Basically, he says that if you understand the Divine Council Worldview (thesis of the Unseen Realm) you should have no trouble recognizing the problem with the common secular answer. There's a lot of players in the question besides humans and God. They have free will, they have power over us, and God has said they are doing a bad job of managing humanity.

He does raise the interesting issue that an expectation that God be accountable to human reasoning is way off the mark. Referring to the Book of Job, he points out that this is morally childish. God is under no obligation to satisfy our curiosity about what He's up to.

This opens the door to something that he apparently does not address: Human existence is supposed to suck. We've been saying that for decades. Living in a mortal form is inherently awful and we should expect it so. This is not what God had in mind when He made us. We belong in a wholly different situation, but this is where we are now.

Thus, the only proper question is, "How do we get where we are supposed to be?" The answer is simple: die.

Of course, that answer is both symbolic and literal. It's the symbolism part that most people refuse to discuss in this context. We are obliged to separate our conscious awareness from the fleshly nature. You must recognize that your mortal flesh is not the real you, but a burden you must drag around until you have accomplished the purpose God had in putting you here. You must learn to disregard the childish demands of the flesh and strive to live like someone who belongs in Eden.

And after a lifetime of fighting that war, your reward is to finally ditch that fleshly nature and go to a resting place in the afterlife until God is finished with the rest of the human race.

One thing you need to remember is that most people who complain about the apparent contradiction between our claims of a good God with unlimited power versus His apparent lack of concern for human suffering is that we aren't confined by their definition of God. If they have the wrong concept of Him, we should point that out. No one can justify demanding that we discuss a God that doesn't exist.

It's simple; tell them, "You have the wrong ideas about God." Proceed to explain the truth about who He is and what He does. You aren't bound by some other "Christian" declaration about Him. We stand outside the church mainstream.]]> <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 6/3/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1901 Wed, 03 Jun 2026 03:08:18 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1901 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> <![CDATA[Test post]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1899 Sat, 30 May 2026 16:16:52 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1899 <![CDATA[Burning in Hell?]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1898 Sat, 30 May 2026 13:43:49 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1898 Lake of Fire

It has become trendy among American evangelicals to question whether Hell actually exists. Some go so far as to slip into universalism, but most just kind of edge away from historical evangelical theology about Hell, what it is, and who ends up there.

Review: The Hebrew language itself is first and foremost symbolic. Thus, no one should be surprised when Hebrew discussion of eternal truth is in terms of parables. It started out using expressions common across the Ancient Near East, but as the Lord continued revealing more about His realm and His ways, the Hebrews developed their own imagery. Sometimes they captured the ideas of competing religions and claimed all glories for Jehovah. At other times, they reworked the ANE concepts more thoroughly, along with having their own unique expressions.

Some of their lore was published as Scripture. A substantial amount of it remained oral for a time, then was eventually committed to writing during the Second Temple Period. Some of that lore was heavily embellished, and so those books were not accepted into the canon. Yet those materials was still either referenced or even quoted in the New Testament. Thus, we have Jude and Peter echoing some wording from the 1 Enoch.

Once you become aware of the core themes in 1 Enoch, you can find them echoed in more Scripture. As Heiser explains in the linked video, the notion that Hell is a place of fiery punishment first appears in Hebrew writing in Enoch. It's not in the Old Testament at all, but it shows up in Enoch. Jesus Himself echoes the theme of fiery punishment when He mentions the term gehenna, pointing to the flaming trash heap in the Valley of Hinnom to defile the old shrine to Moloch.

We have other terms from Hebrew and Greek, translated into English words that may or may not come very close to the same ideas -- Tartarus, Hades, Sheol, the grave, etc. There seems to be very little differentiation between them. To the Hebrews, Mount Hermon in particular, and the Bashan region in general, were somehow connected to this dark realm. Indeed, the entire eastern ridge above the Jordan Rift Valley was considered the home of the Rephaim and other clans of Nephilim, marked by all sorts of death cult shrines, plus Sodom and Gomorrah.

The writers, and many readers, of the New Testament are clearly familiar with the Second Temple literature in general, and 1 Enoch in particular. We don't get wholesale copying from it, but certain core ideas that appear to represent the older, unembellished oral lore included within the ancient tale of Enoch.

The primitive notion of the underworld was depicted as a dark and foreboding place that was connected to the world we know. You can go there from here, but can't come back. The whole concept was symbolic of everything people don't like: dark, inside the ground with no fresh air, etc. Hebrews used various terms for such a place, including Sheol, with which we are most familiar. Only much later, in the Second Temple Period, does the theme of fiery torment get added.

In theory, Hell exists solely for the Devil and his allies. It was not made for humans; it was made for the elohim class of beings who had rejected God's commands to His staff. It is not eternal. The space/time limitations apply there in some sense, likely as part of the punishment effect for the confinement of eternal beings.

In broad general terms, Heiser tells us that the Watchers are confined in the same realm, but it seems in their own peculiar dungeon within that realm. We get the concept that the Nephilim come and go, but we have no idea on what terms. Recall that the Legion of Nephilim infesting the Gadarene madman didn't want to be sent back to the Abyss, as if it were hard for them to get back out.

However, there are no sharp definitions for any of this. In general terms, the Devil is Lord of the underworld, but he also seems free to wander this world. He reports to God on a regular basis regarding his new mission after demotion. If you recall the Fall in the Garden, the Devil was allowed to go there and make his bid for human submission. Once that submission was secured, humans were ousted from the Garden and forced to live in a world that has not been conformed to God's image as the Garden is. East of Eden is not a pleasant place in symbolism, and one of Satan's titles is Prince of This World.

One thing for certain is that Hell is virtually nothing like common American conceptions. Western mythology is alien to the Bible. The western notions include the skin-tight red suit, horns, tail and trident for the Devil. And strictly speaking, the Lake of Fire is not Hell, but the symbol of the final destruction of Hell, death, the Devil and his allies, both human and elohim.

Part of the problem with common understanding is the western concept of retributive justice. It presumes without saying so that humanity starts in a more or less neutral situation instead of already belonging to the Devil. It goes all the way back as early as Eusebius reasoning that sins create a debt to be paid due to misreading of the New Testament -- "wages of sin" became "debt of sin". It depersonalized our standing before God, introducing an intervening system of justice between us and God. That's another rabbit we've chased often enough before. But it produced an image of Hell as a punitive prison, rather than a simple continuation of one's default slavery to the Devil and his realm.

At it's most primitive conception among Hebrews, Sheol was simply the grave. While there were exceptions, people there did not come back to this life. They were confined, constrained, not in a position to operate with any degree of freedom as we do here in this world. But it wasn't exactly Hell, either. It was a sad confinement from which a faithful servant of the Lord would hope to be freed, redeemed by God as His family.

It was the basic concept carried over from the Mesopotamian roots of Hebrew culture. The Egyptian mythology didn't think of the grave as a bad place; it was privileged a existence for some. That's why we have the symbolism of great figures buried in pyramids with what they might need in the afterlife. But the concept of afterlife as paradise waited until Persian exposure (Zoroastrianism). Regardless of the source, Jesus reaffirmed that concept (using a Persian word) from the Cross, telling the confessing thief they would meet together in paradise that very day.

The key was that the dying thief confessed Jesus as innocent and appealed to Him in submission. Not everyone declared their allegiance to Jesus. The New Testament flatly says that certain types of people would never see paradise after death. However, the portrayal is not that people failed to do certain things, but that they did those things because they weren't the right kind of people to submit to God. The underlying cause was a matter of loyalties.

In other words, people end up in Hell because they never left the Devil's domain in the first place. The route out is open to anyone who claims it. As previously noted, we use the Doctrine of Election to help us set our expectations for the kind of response we get from our efforts to portray what freedom from slavery to the flesh looks like.]]> Lake of Fire

It has become trendy among American evangelicals to question whether Hell actually exists. Some go so far as to slip into universalism, but most just kind of edge away from historical evangelical theology about Hell, what it is, and who ends up there.

Review: The Hebrew language itself is first and foremost symbolic. Thus, no one should be surprised when Hebrew discussion of eternal truth is in terms of parables. It started out using expressions common across the Ancient Near East, but as the Lord continued revealing more about His realm and His ways, the Hebrews developed their own imagery. Sometimes they captured the ideas of competing religions and claimed all glories for Jehovah. At other times, they reworked the ANE concepts more thoroughly, along with having their own unique expressions.

Some of their lore was published as Scripture. A substantial amount of it remained oral for a time, then was eventually committed to writing during the Second Temple Period. Some of that lore was heavily embellished, and so those books were not accepted into the canon. Yet those materials was still either referenced or even quoted in the New Testament. Thus, we have Jude and Peter echoing some wording from the 1 Enoch.

Once you become aware of the core themes in 1 Enoch, you can find them echoed in more Scripture. As Heiser explains in the linked video, the notion that Hell is a place of fiery punishment first appears in Hebrew writing in Enoch. It's not in the Old Testament at all, but it shows up in Enoch. Jesus Himself echoes the theme of fiery punishment when He mentions the term gehenna, pointing to the flaming trash heap in the Valley of Hinnom to defile the old shrine to Moloch.

We have other terms from Hebrew and Greek, translated into English words that may or may not come very close to the same ideas -- Tartarus, Hades, Sheol, the grave, etc. There seems to be very little differentiation between them. To the Hebrews, Mount Hermon in particular, and the Bashan region in general, were somehow connected to this dark realm. Indeed, the entire eastern ridge above the Jordan Rift Valley was considered the home of the Rephaim and other clans of Nephilim, marked by all sorts of death cult shrines, plus Sodom and Gomorrah.

The writers, and many readers, of the New Testament are clearly familiar with the Second Temple literature in general, and 1 Enoch in particular. We don't get wholesale copying from it, but certain core ideas that appear to represent the older, unembellished oral lore included within the ancient tale of Enoch.

The primitive notion of the underworld was depicted as a dark and foreboding place that was connected to the world we know. You can go there from here, but can't come back. The whole concept was symbolic of everything people don't like: dark, inside the ground with no fresh air, etc. Hebrews used various terms for such a place, including Sheol, with which we are most familiar. Only much later, in the Second Temple Period, does the theme of fiery torment get added.

In theory, Hell exists solely for the Devil and his allies. It was not made for humans; it was made for the elohim class of beings who had rejected God's commands to His staff. It is not eternal. The space/time limitations apply there in some sense, likely as part of the punishment effect for the confinement of eternal beings.

In broad general terms, Heiser tells us that the Watchers are confined in the same realm, but it seems in their own peculiar dungeon within that realm. We get the concept that the Nephilim come and go, but we have no idea on what terms. Recall that the Legion of Nephilim infesting the Gadarene madman didn't want to be sent back to the Abyss, as if it were hard for them to get back out.

However, there are no sharp definitions for any of this. In general terms, the Devil is Lord of the underworld, but he also seems free to wander this world. He reports to God on a regular basis regarding his new mission after demotion. If you recall the Fall in the Garden, the Devil was allowed to go there and make his bid for human submission. Once that submission was secured, humans were ousted from the Garden and forced to live in a world that has not been conformed to God's image as the Garden is. East of Eden is not a pleasant place in symbolism, and one of Satan's titles is Prince of This World.

One thing for certain is that Hell is virtually nothing like common American conceptions. Western mythology is alien to the Bible. The western notions include the skin-tight red suit, horns, tail and trident for the Devil. And strictly speaking, the Lake of Fire is not Hell, but the symbol of the final destruction of Hell, death, the Devil and his allies, both human and elohim.

Part of the problem with common understanding is the western concept of retributive justice. It presumes without saying so that humanity starts in a more or less neutral situation instead of already belonging to the Devil. It goes all the way back as early as Eusebius reasoning that sins create a debt to be paid due to misreading of the New Testament -- "wages of sin" became "debt of sin". It depersonalized our standing before God, introducing an intervening system of justice between us and God. That's another rabbit we've chased often enough before. But it produced an image of Hell as a punitive prison, rather than a simple continuation of one's default slavery to the Devil and his realm.

At it's most primitive conception among Hebrews, Sheol was simply the grave. While there were exceptions, people there did not come back to this life. They were confined, constrained, not in a position to operate with any degree of freedom as we do here in this world. But it wasn't exactly Hell, either. It was a sad confinement from which a faithful servant of the Lord would hope to be freed, redeemed by God as His family.

It was the basic concept carried over from the Mesopotamian roots of Hebrew culture. The Egyptian mythology didn't think of the grave as a bad place; it was privileged a existence for some. That's why we have the symbolism of great figures buried in pyramids with what they might need in the afterlife. But the concept of afterlife as paradise waited until Persian exposure (Zoroastrianism). Regardless of the source, Jesus reaffirmed that concept (using a Persian word) from the Cross, telling the confessing thief they would meet together in paradise that very day.

The key was that the dying thief confessed Jesus as innocent and appealed to Him in submission. Not everyone declared their allegiance to Jesus. The New Testament flatly says that certain types of people would never see paradise after death. However, the portrayal is not that people failed to do certain things, but that they did those things because they weren't the right kind of people to submit to God. The underlying cause was a matter of loyalties.

In other words, people end up in Hell because they never left the Devil's domain in the first place. The route out is open to anyone who claims it. As previously noted, we use the Doctrine of Election to help us set our expectations for the kind of response we get from our efforts to portray what freedom from slavery to the flesh looks like.]]> <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 5/27/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1896 Wed, 27 May 2026 03:27:55 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1896 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> <![CDATA[No Shortcuts to Faith]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1895 Sat, 23 May 2026 05:12:26 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1895
Those three items are difficult to separate. It won't sound like what anyone else says. I realize that this calls for a bit of explanation that might not easily fit in a tract like the "Four Spiritual Laws" or something similar. The beginning point is simply assuming that most people can understand the notion of kneeling before Christ and declaring Him Lord. That's the foundation of redemption in terms of the individual experience.

Whether or not that can really take hold in the hearer's life is a matter for the Lord to handle. We can help explain what's entailed, but we cannot make it happen, nor can the person trying it. Only the Lord can enable that kind of faith. It's a free gift from Him to His Elect.

We should never get the idea that we can talk someone into this. It's not conversion; it's the birth of a whole new existence.

When the Apostles spread out across their world, virtually everyone shared certain common assumptions about reality. The early believers knew that their message was commonly accepted in form, if not in the specifics. Everyone understood a universe populated with spirit beings as the ultimate powers over human fate. Thus, the terms of their message was already well understood. It was just a matter of announcing a fresh offer from yet another deity. Any miracles were an acceptable proof for their contention that Christ was the ultimate ruler in Heaven.

But the greatest miracle, of course, was that people would respond. It was not always compelling against the testimony of other deities and their alleged miracles. Everyone believed in at least one deity already. The only question was whether they would shift their loyalty to Christ. That such a shift in feudal loyalty was also viewed as a threat by some governments was taken for granted.

That common public understanding is long gone. We aren't dealing with a world where everyone can grasp the deep background of Hebrew cosmology. There are no common elements. Worse, that background is now foreign to just about everyone who claims to follow Christ, as well. Somewhere along the path, the philosophical assumptions shifted dramatically. If you quote English language Scriptures as your gospel message today, it's guaranteed it won't mean what the Apostles were sharing in their day, neither to the speaker nor the hearers.

We are compelled to distinguish our message from the mistaken one already standing everywhere you go now. I would suggest that the starting place is your life under the Covenant, demonstrating the power of your message before you even open your mouth. People need to see that we are different from the rest. They need to see the fire of commitment, AKA faith, to Christ's law of love. Our sense of purpose and aplomb in the midst of any chaos is the strongest testimony we can have.

Should anyone ask, you should be ready to start with the simple message of feudal submission to Christ as Lord. That in itself would probably take some explaining. The primary issue is that you avoid the westernized worries about sin and guilt, and lean more toward the issue of overcoming a fleshly nature that will not play along with genuinely following Christ. It requires conceptually distinguishing oneself from the mortal fleshly nature.

You need to address the issues that hinder the individual to whom you are talking. There's no way we can make this a memorized spiel. Submission to Christ is not democratic; everyone has different struggles with the Devil.

Submission to Christ means you'll pay any price, go anywhere, and do anything He demands -- sight unseen. Serving Christ is a black box before you get inside. The entrance is nailing your fleshly nature to the Cross. There is no peace otherwise, because the whole world is Satan's turf. You aren't entering an institution with rules, but the personal submission to someone who loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. Faith defies human logic. People come to faith because they can't ignore the calling that burns in their souls.

I can't give you a snappy little pamphlet. You need to be able to keep it simple. Let them ask questions and be ready to answer them. Your best answers will always be how you have handled things so far. You can always talk about the Unseen Realm and Three Rebellions later. Not to hide it, but to prevent overwhelming them. Don't be afraid to address those things if anyone asks. They aren't joining an institution for personal growth, but an eternal covenant family to reclaim stolen lives. There are no shortcuts.]]>
Those three items are difficult to separate. It won't sound like what anyone else says. I realize that this calls for a bit of explanation that might not easily fit in a tract like the "Four Spiritual Laws" or something similar. The beginning point is simply assuming that most people can understand the notion of kneeling before Christ and declaring Him Lord. That's the foundation of redemption in terms of the individual experience.

Whether or not that can really take hold in the hearer's life is a matter for the Lord to handle. We can help explain what's entailed, but we cannot make it happen, nor can the person trying it. Only the Lord can enable that kind of faith. It's a free gift from Him to His Elect.

We should never get the idea that we can talk someone into this. It's not conversion; it's the birth of a whole new existence.

When the Apostles spread out across their world, virtually everyone shared certain common assumptions about reality. The early believers knew that their message was commonly accepted in form, if not in the specifics. Everyone understood a universe populated with spirit beings as the ultimate powers over human fate. Thus, the terms of their message was already well understood. It was just a matter of announcing a fresh offer from yet another deity. Any miracles were an acceptable proof for their contention that Christ was the ultimate ruler in Heaven.

But the greatest miracle, of course, was that people would respond. It was not always compelling against the testimony of other deities and their alleged miracles. Everyone believed in at least one deity already. The only question was whether they would shift their loyalty to Christ. That such a shift in feudal loyalty was also viewed as a threat by some governments was taken for granted.

That common public understanding is long gone. We aren't dealing with a world where everyone can grasp the deep background of Hebrew cosmology. There are no common elements. Worse, that background is now foreign to just about everyone who claims to follow Christ, as well. Somewhere along the path, the philosophical assumptions shifted dramatically. If you quote English language Scriptures as your gospel message today, it's guaranteed it won't mean what the Apostles were sharing in their day, neither to the speaker nor the hearers.

We are compelled to distinguish our message from the mistaken one already standing everywhere you go now. I would suggest that the starting place is your life under the Covenant, demonstrating the power of your message before you even open your mouth. People need to see that we are different from the rest. They need to see the fire of commitment, AKA faith, to Christ's law of love. Our sense of purpose and aplomb in the midst of any chaos is the strongest testimony we can have.

Should anyone ask, you should be ready to start with the simple message of feudal submission to Christ as Lord. That in itself would probably take some explaining. The primary issue is that you avoid the westernized worries about sin and guilt, and lean more toward the issue of overcoming a fleshly nature that will not play along with genuinely following Christ. It requires conceptually distinguishing oneself from the mortal fleshly nature.

You need to address the issues that hinder the individual to whom you are talking. There's no way we can make this a memorized spiel. Submission to Christ is not democratic; everyone has different struggles with the Devil.

Submission to Christ means you'll pay any price, go anywhere, and do anything He demands -- sight unseen. Serving Christ is a black box before you get inside. The entrance is nailing your fleshly nature to the Cross. There is no peace otherwise, because the whole world is Satan's turf. You aren't entering an institution with rules, but the personal submission to someone who loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. Faith defies human logic. People come to faith because they can't ignore the calling that burns in their souls.

I can't give you a snappy little pamphlet. You need to be able to keep it simple. Let them ask questions and be ready to answer them. Your best answers will always be how you have handled things so far. You can always talk about the Unseen Realm and Three Rebellions later. Not to hide it, but to prevent overwhelming them. Don't be afraid to address those things if anyone asks. They aren't joining an institution for personal growth, but an eternal covenant family to reclaim stolen lives. There are no shortcuts.]]> <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 5/20/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1894 Wed, 20 May 2026 03:06:25 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1894 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> <![CDATA[Library Edition: Heiser's Podcast Transcripts]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1893 Tue, 19 May 2026 15:25:58 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1893
Frankly, I prefer the transcripts for most episodes. Only with guest interviews do I gain anything from the audio track. Hearing the sound of someone's voice is meaningful.]]>
Frankly, I prefer the transcripts for most episodes. Only with guest interviews do I gain anything from the audio track. Hearing the sound of someone's voice is meaningful.]]> <![CDATA[The Gog and Magog Delusion]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1892 Sat, 16 May 2026 11:25:51 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1892 Naked Bible 152: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 1 and Naked Bible 153: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 2

We could spend weeks trying to counter the nonsense of Dispensationalism, but for just one lesson, we will look at Ezekiel 38-39 for a clear view of the Gog and Magog delusion of Dispensationalism.

One of the first things we must establish is the image of "Evil North" in the OT and broader ANE thinking. The compass direction is frankly incidental. From the perspective of people living in the ANE, that happened to be the mythical home of dark spirits. It's not centered on any particular location, just a general perception. Trouble can come from any location, any direction, but this is a consistent reference for things that actually transcend geography.

It was regarded as the place where Baal had his home, the mysterious stormy mountains where he held court. The point here is typology, not factual details. It never really mattered who lived up in those mountains or beyond them. This is the key to understanding the Hebrew language and culture, as well as the broader ANE. We have certain images specific to the Hebrew people, but they take their cue on the use of language from the rest of the ANE.

As hard as scholars have tried, a historical identity for Gog is simply not possible. You'll find any number of ideas, but none of them work for various reasons. I believe that's as it should be; it wasn't meant to be confined to a single individual. Rather, it's a role that transcends any historical reference. Various rulers can be called "Gog" but so can Baal, the Devil, the Antichrist, etc.

Sidenote: The Beast (arising from the sea) is most closely identified with Leviathan. Oddly enough, this is the typology for "King of the South" in Hebrew prophecy.

However, if we are going to point to literal geographical references, it can't be Russia. We know more about Tubal, Meshech, Magog, Gomer, and Togarmah. They refer back to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 as various descendants from Japheth, who took up residence in modern Turkiye and Northern Syria. These are all well known to scholarship; there should be no question about those names. Any attempt to equate them to Russia is intellectually dishonest.

Additionally, the idea that "rosh" refers to Russia is grammatically impossible in Hebrew. It cannot be taken as a proper noun. In the context, rōʾsh is either a parallel label ("chief") with the previous word meaning "prince" (nesiʾ), or it is used as an adjective (as is the case in other places in the Bible). There is zero historical reference to such a place name anywhere in any ANE language. The birth of the label "Russia" is from the Vikings long after biblical times; it would have had no meaning to Ezekiel and his readers.

It's not as if the Hebrew people weren't aware of people living in various places to their north. However, Mount Hermon, as the northernmost point in historical Israeli lands, became the symbol of the Gates of Hell. No one took that literally. But Jesus Himself took advantage of the symbolism in some of His comments, not to mention His Transfiguration. It had meaning because the Hebrew people were always being invaded from the north. It was a reference to things in the Unseen Realm, not geography.

The Rephaim (a tribe of the Nephilim giants) lived in Bashan on the approach to Mount Hermon. The whole area was regarded as the ancient nesting ground for the progeny of the Watchers. It symbolized the source of human depravity. The mythical home of Baal, Lord of the Underworld (a satanic figure), a spiritual being implacably hostile to Israel, was even farther north in Ugarit (today known as Jebel al-Aqraʿ) and was referred to simply as "North" -- tsaphon or zaphon in Hebrew.

Any reference to a literal invasion from the north would be taken as just one more manifestation of an ongoing moral and spiritual threat from those in God's court who oppose His agenda. Thus, the prophecy here in Ezekiel is God thundering at His own staff. Their plans will fail. Every time they pull this stunt, God will crush it in some way.

Thus, the current context in Ezekiel includes a list of nations at that time served the purpose of the Gog figure. In a literal sense, some of those enemies came from the south, east and west of Israel. However, they were allied with the mystical Dark Lord of the North. This is all echoed in Revelation 20 with much the same moral significance, but not the precise historical meaning it had for Ezekiel and his readers.

Nonetheless, when Ezekiel relays God's promise to reunite the whole nation of Israel in Jerusalem again, we know that there has been on literal fulfillment, nor will there ever be. Rather, he has already mentioned pulling the northern tribes from the nations. Keep in mind: The northern tribes were already paganized before Assyria took them away. Away from their homeland, what happened was precisely what Assyria expected -- the northern tribes dissolved into the pagan nations where they were dragged. Thus, the only possible fulfillment would be a new "Israel" drawn from the Gentile masses.

This is what Paul tells us in Galatians. The real identity of "Israel" was never based on Abraham's DNA (as Jesus indicated with His comment about stones being turned into children of Abraham). It was always the Elect within the nation who were the true Israel. The Elect from among Gentiles were the new members of that ancient identity.

Ezekiel's prophecy is couched in terms of bringing Israel back to the Holy Mountain, the "Mountain of Assembly" -- Har Mo’ed -- the source of the name "Armageddon" in English. Notice: That reverse apostrophe is vocalized as "gh" (not quite a hard "g"). It's also not at all the same as Megiddo, because two "d" letters is a wholly different Hebrew word. The greatest spiritual battle of all time will take place at Jerusalem, because that city symbolizes God's throne in Heaven, where every creature must assemble before God as His command.

All of this is quite certainly linked to the Day of the Lord. We have long taught that there have been, and will still be, many "days of the Lord" in the sense of how God does things. They all manifest in some sense that final "Day of the Lord" in which God will shut down all the resistance to His Word/Son and punish the rebellion among His divine staff. It is not, as dispensationalists insist, the beginning of the seven years of Great Tribulation. It's the End.

Ezekiel refers to the Valley of the Travelers, AKA the Valley of Hamon-gog. The imagery is the same here and in Revelation 20. Heiser goes into great detail explaining how the Hebrew grammar here points to an army that includes the Rephaim and spirits that crossed the boundary line between the Spirit Realm and this world ("travelers"). It's a reference to the Transjordan ("east of the sea") where we have found evidence of a host of cults focused on the underworld, necromancy, the realm of the dead.

Thus, the Army of Darkness will end up buried in this place. The symbolism should be obvious. It's not about the number of days it takes to bury the bodies. The number itself is symbolic of cleansing and making something sacred.

Notice something else here: There is the image of the enemies being consumed. Not locked up or tormented, but consumed. The whole army is an offering to God, consumed by birds and wild beasts as His proxy. In other places it's consumption by fire.]]> Naked Bible 152: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 1 and Naked Bible 153: Ezekiel 38-39 Part 2

We could spend weeks trying to counter the nonsense of Dispensationalism, but for just one lesson, we will look at Ezekiel 38-39 for a clear view of the Gog and Magog delusion of Dispensationalism.

One of the first things we must establish is the image of "Evil North" in the OT and broader ANE thinking. The compass direction is frankly incidental. From the perspective of people living in the ANE, that happened to be the mythical home of dark spirits. It's not centered on any particular location, just a general perception. Trouble can come from any location, any direction, but this is a consistent reference for things that actually transcend geography.

It was regarded as the place where Baal had his home, the mysterious stormy mountains where he held court. The point here is typology, not factual details. It never really mattered who lived up in those mountains or beyond them. This is the key to understanding the Hebrew language and culture, as well as the broader ANE. We have certain images specific to the Hebrew people, but they take their cue on the use of language from the rest of the ANE.

As hard as scholars have tried, a historical identity for Gog is simply not possible. You'll find any number of ideas, but none of them work for various reasons. I believe that's as it should be; it wasn't meant to be confined to a single individual. Rather, it's a role that transcends any historical reference. Various rulers can be called "Gog" but so can Baal, the Devil, the Antichrist, etc.

Sidenote: The Beast (arising from the sea) is most closely identified with Leviathan. Oddly enough, this is the typology for "King of the South" in Hebrew prophecy.

However, if we are going to point to literal geographical references, it can't be Russia. We know more about Tubal, Meshech, Magog, Gomer, and Togarmah. They refer back to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 as various descendants from Japheth, who took up residence in modern Turkiye and Northern Syria. These are all well known to scholarship; there should be no question about those names. Any attempt to equate them to Russia is intellectually dishonest.

Additionally, the idea that "rosh" refers to Russia is grammatically impossible in Hebrew. It cannot be taken as a proper noun. In the context, rōʾsh is either a parallel label ("chief") with the previous word meaning "prince" (nesiʾ), or it is used as an adjective (as is the case in other places in the Bible). There is zero historical reference to such a place name anywhere in any ANE language. The birth of the label "Russia" is from the Vikings long after biblical times; it would have had no meaning to Ezekiel and his readers.

It's not as if the Hebrew people weren't aware of people living in various places to their north. However, Mount Hermon, as the northernmost point in historical Israeli lands, became the symbol of the Gates of Hell. No one took that literally. But Jesus Himself took advantage of the symbolism in some of His comments, not to mention His Transfiguration. It had meaning because the Hebrew people were always being invaded from the north. It was a reference to things in the Unseen Realm, not geography.

The Rephaim (a tribe of the Nephilim giants) lived in Bashan on the approach to Mount Hermon. The whole area was regarded as the ancient nesting ground for the progeny of the Watchers. It symbolized the source of human depravity. The mythical home of Baal, Lord of the Underworld (a satanic figure), a spiritual being implacably hostile to Israel, was even farther north in Ugarit (today known as Jebel al-Aqraʿ) and was referred to simply as "North" -- tsaphon or zaphon in Hebrew.

Any reference to a literal invasion from the north would be taken as just one more manifestation of an ongoing moral and spiritual threat from those in God's court who oppose His agenda. Thus, the prophecy here in Ezekiel is God thundering at His own staff. Their plans will fail. Every time they pull this stunt, God will crush it in some way.

Thus, the current context in Ezekiel includes a list of nations at that time served the purpose of the Gog figure. In a literal sense, some of those enemies came from the south, east and west of Israel. However, they were allied with the mystical Dark Lord of the North. This is all echoed in Revelation 20 with much the same moral significance, but not the precise historical meaning it had for Ezekiel and his readers.

Nonetheless, when Ezekiel relays God's promise to reunite the whole nation of Israel in Jerusalem again, we know that there has been on literal fulfillment, nor will there ever be. Rather, he has already mentioned pulling the northern tribes from the nations. Keep in mind: The northern tribes were already paganized before Assyria took them away. Away from their homeland, what happened was precisely what Assyria expected -- the northern tribes dissolved into the pagan nations where they were dragged. Thus, the only possible fulfillment would be a new "Israel" drawn from the Gentile masses.

This is what Paul tells us in Galatians. The real identity of "Israel" was never based on Abraham's DNA (as Jesus indicated with His comment about stones being turned into children of Abraham). It was always the Elect within the nation who were the true Israel. The Elect from among Gentiles were the new members of that ancient identity.

Ezekiel's prophecy is couched in terms of bringing Israel back to the Holy Mountain, the "Mountain of Assembly" -- Har Mo’ed -- the source of the name "Armageddon" in English. Notice: That reverse apostrophe is vocalized as "gh" (not quite a hard "g"). It's also not at all the same as Megiddo, because two "d" letters is a wholly different Hebrew word. The greatest spiritual battle of all time will take place at Jerusalem, because that city symbolizes God's throne in Heaven, where every creature must assemble before God as His command.

All of this is quite certainly linked to the Day of the Lord. We have long taught that there have been, and will still be, many "days of the Lord" in the sense of how God does things. They all manifest in some sense that final "Day of the Lord" in which God will shut down all the resistance to His Word/Son and punish the rebellion among His divine staff. It is not, as dispensationalists insist, the beginning of the seven years of Great Tribulation. It's the End.

Ezekiel refers to the Valley of the Travelers, AKA the Valley of Hamon-gog. The imagery is the same here and in Revelation 20. Heiser goes into great detail explaining how the Hebrew grammar here points to an army that includes the Rephaim and spirits that crossed the boundary line between the Spirit Realm and this world ("travelers"). It's a reference to the Transjordan ("east of the sea") where we have found evidence of a host of cults focused on the underworld, necromancy, the realm of the dead.

Thus, the Army of Darkness will end up buried in this place. The symbolism should be obvious. It's not about the number of days it takes to bury the bodies. The number itself is symbolic of cleansing and making something sacred.

Notice something else here: There is the image of the enemies being consumed. Not locked up or tormented, but consumed. The whole army is an offering to God, consumed by birds and wild beasts as His proxy. In other places it's consumption by fire.]]> <![CDATA[My Mother's Eyes]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1891 Wed, 13 May 2026 15:35:09 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1891 <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 5/13/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1890 Wed, 13 May 2026 03:09:44 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1890 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> <![CDATA[More Than a Conspiracy]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1889 Fri, 08 May 2026 20:12:53 -0600 Ed Hurst]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1889 Naked Bible 149: Q&A with Fern, Audrey, and Beth

As Heiser warns up front, this is not a model for ministry. Rather, this interview aims to answer basic questions about how the Enemy and his allies operate. What is their aim in driving humans to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formally known as schizophrenia) and Trauma-based Mind Control? What strategy is behind their efforts prevent recovery?

In order to declare the answers to those questions, we must establish a the identity of the players involved. Also, what follows here assumes you have heard/read podcast episodes 68 and 120.

I'm not going to simply echo Heiser with a summary, but add my own experience, as well.

The whole thing rests on deception. Deception was the root of the Fall in the Garden, the work of the Watchers and Nephilim, and was the substance behind the Tower of Babel and the rebellion that led to idolatry. All of them are lies about who God is and what He has said and done. More to the point, they are lies about our role in His plans.

Sadly, that deception infests the likes of traditional western deliverance or exorcism ministries. That whole thing is based on a false mythology about how the Enemy operates. The net result of most deliverance ministries can make things worse for the victims, reaffirming a false authority system that binds people in Darkness.

The focus of genuine redemption is the person in their context, not some wild fantasies about the Spirit Realm. The sin of the Watchers was to cross the boundary between the seen and unseen realms. It is impossible for us to then reach back across that boundary from our realm and pretend to command beings on the other side. The solution is to deconstruct the lies people believe about themselves and the false authority of beings we cannot see.

The power of the Apostles to deliver was not by claiming authority, but by disclaiming a false authority that ruled the victims. Victims of trauma and DID are not possessed; they are overwhelmed by deception. The Enemy has disrupted the natural process of human development. Some of the damage may be quite real, requiring either a miracle healing and/or medical treatment. In other cases, the Enemy takes advantage of natural disabilities that were already there. But the real problem is the lies people believe about themselves.

The Devil is the Master of Darkness simply by virtue of being the first to rebel, to reject God's declared purpose and plans. He is not the highest rank, however it is you imagine such a thing. He has the support of beings who were surely higher than him, but they agree with his fundamental complaint that God cares too much about humans. Humans were granted the very high mission of imaging God in Creation without having the high rank that other beings on God's staff held. It would require the higher beings to honor God's imagine in them.

This the foundation of the dispute between God and the Devil. As a result, the Devil and his partisans have agreed together to destroy humans. They don't have that power, but are trying to turn the humans against God. God has responded by giving the Devil a limited grant of authority to try his hand at provoking humans to do things that would require God to destroy them. Part of this game is that we are placed in mortal bodies. We are born into a deception about our situation as mortal creatures, which is how we got into this situation. Christ redeemed us, but it's not enough to simply buy into that intellectually. The process includes the necessity of us dying first to our fleshly concerns, and then being relieved of our fleshly nature at God's timing.

We rediscover our eternal identity in Christ. However, the process of rediscovery can be particularly difficult for some us. Heiser refers to the "divine council worldview" while we tend to use the term "thesis of the Unseen Realm" -- there's not much difference between the two terms. The point is that this is the biblical cosmology, if you will. There is more than enough academic evidence of what the Second Temple Judaism taught about such things, and we can see clear evidence that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament also believed some of that background, including it in their teaching.

Deliverance and exorcism ministries carry a cartoonish view demons. The thesis of the Unseen Realm pegs them as very low-level "bastard spirits" (from the Dead Sea Scrolls). They are disembodied spirits of the Nephilim and Rephaim from the Bible. These are half-breed children of genuine elohim, the Watchers who crossed the boundary to come to earth and cohabit with humans. Both Watchers and Nephilim are spirit beings who can incarnate under certain conditions, but the latter are lower rank and lower power.

Both groups are condemned to the Abyss until the Last Days. They'll be released briefly prior to the Day of Judgment, for which the details are unknown at this point. They lost their actual powers over Creation when they were confined to the Abyss. For now, their only power is deception, same as the Devil. Indeed, they are bound to honor the principles of Biblical Law. If you don't buy their lies and obey the Word, they cannot do much to you.

Side note: In their eagerness to keep their influence of humans, the spirits of the Nephilim will submit to conjuring. They will do everything they can to share their false lore -- as if they would ever tell the truth about the situation and processes in the Spirit Realm.

However, there are members of the rebellion who are not in prison. The Divine Councilors who allied with Satan and are responsible for the deception of the Gentile nations remain on staff in Heaven. They have genuine power; they are the real trouble. This is why idolatrous cult folks can do some really strange things. It is this corrupted power that Christ broke on the Cross, so that we can be delivered from the dominion of the rebellious elohim. We don't belong to the nations and their idolatries any more; we belong to Christ.

The resurrection of Christ broke the power of death and the power of idolatry. Do you understand that every human government is bound under idolatry? Do you understand why the truth of Christ's Kingdom is a threat to every human government? For example, within the Imperial Roman bureaucracy, there were officials who understood this teaching up to a point. They understood it well enough to know that followers of Christ might be generally cooperative with the process of human government, but their ultimate allegiance was to something they considered much higher. The only way to combat this was to demand Christians engage in idolatrous worship under threat of execution.

Even if a given government lacks that level of understanding, you can bet the elohim know. They will steer their human servants into paths that will eventually threaten genuine Christian faith and the biblical understanding of the Unseen Realm. Indeed, the elohim have steered the US government, among others, to engage in efforts at mind control. I'm guessing the bulk of clients treated by Fern, Audrey and Beth are victims of government programs designed to test the limits of how to create and use people suffering DID and trauma.

People who work to share these teachings are at some risk of retribution from the elohim. Pray for them that they will be ready to move forward without flinching.

Final note: The Watchers and Nephilim cannot be redeemed. The rebel elohim have already been sentenced, but remain free until the Day of Judgment. They have been rejected and a major element in their wickedness with us is making us believe we are rejected, that we cannot be redeemed. The western doctrine of guilt before the law is a primary element of that campaign. It's also a fundamental element in trauma abuse to make people believe that God hates them, that they deserve all the evil that happens to them. You would hardly be surprised that such victims are the source of a pernicious doctrine that demons can be redeemed. This has captured and destroyed many ministries led by people who falsely imagine that they can talk the demons into confessing Christ as Lord.

Yes, demons would love to be redeemed, to rejoin the Eternal Family of God, but they already know it can't happen. They seek desperately to sucker us into talking to them for any purpose at all. As Heiser and these ladies point out, there is nothing to gain by that. Don't even try to reach into the Unseen Realm. Just work with the victims through the love of Christ. The biblical doctrine of redemption demands that we focus on loving His human children face-to-face. Redemption is a personal process.

I recommend you listen to those three podcasts for yourself.]]> Naked Bible 149: Q&A with Fern, Audrey, and Beth

As Heiser warns up front, this is not a model for ministry. Rather, this interview aims to answer basic questions about how the Enemy and his allies operate. What is their aim in driving humans to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formally known as schizophrenia) and Trauma-based Mind Control? What strategy is behind their efforts prevent recovery?

In order to declare the answers to those questions, we must establish a the identity of the players involved. Also, what follows here assumes you have heard/read podcast episodes 68 and 120.

I'm not going to simply echo Heiser with a summary, but add my own experience, as well.

The whole thing rests on deception. Deception was the root of the Fall in the Garden, the work of the Watchers and Nephilim, and was the substance behind the Tower of Babel and the rebellion that led to idolatry. All of them are lies about who God is and what He has said and done. More to the point, they are lies about our role in His plans.

Sadly, that deception infests the likes of traditional western deliverance or exorcism ministries. That whole thing is based on a false mythology about how the Enemy operates. The net result of most deliverance ministries can make things worse for the victims, reaffirming a false authority system that binds people in Darkness.

The focus of genuine redemption is the person in their context, not some wild fantasies about the Spirit Realm. The sin of the Watchers was to cross the boundary between the seen and unseen realms. It is impossible for us to then reach back across that boundary from our realm and pretend to command beings on the other side. The solution is to deconstruct the lies people believe about themselves and the false authority of beings we cannot see.

The power of the Apostles to deliver was not by claiming authority, but by disclaiming a false authority that ruled the victims. Victims of trauma and DID are not possessed; they are overwhelmed by deception. The Enemy has disrupted the natural process of human development. Some of the damage may be quite real, requiring either a miracle healing and/or medical treatment. In other cases, the Enemy takes advantage of natural disabilities that were already there. But the real problem is the lies people believe about themselves.

The Devil is the Master of Darkness simply by virtue of being the first to rebel, to reject God's declared purpose and plans. He is not the highest rank, however it is you imagine such a thing. He has the support of beings who were surely higher than him, but they agree with his fundamental complaint that God cares too much about humans. Humans were granted the very high mission of imaging God in Creation without having the high rank that other beings on God's staff held. It would require the higher beings to honor God's imagine in them.

This the foundation of the dispute between God and the Devil. As a result, the Devil and his partisans have agreed together to destroy humans. They don't have that power, but are trying to turn the humans against God. God has responded by giving the Devil a limited grant of authority to try his hand at provoking humans to do things that would require God to destroy them. Part of this game is that we are placed in mortal bodies. We are born into a deception about our situation as mortal creatures, which is how we got into this situation. Christ redeemed us, but it's not enough to simply buy into that intellectually. The process includes the necessity of us dying first to our fleshly concerns, and then being relieved of our fleshly nature at God's timing.

We rediscover our eternal identity in Christ. However, the process of rediscovery can be particularly difficult for some us. Heiser refers to the "divine council worldview" while we tend to use the term "thesis of the Unseen Realm" -- there's not much difference between the two terms. The point is that this is the biblical cosmology, if you will. There is more than enough academic evidence of what the Second Temple Judaism taught about such things, and we can see clear evidence that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament also believed some of that background, including it in their teaching.

Deliverance and exorcism ministries carry a cartoonish view demons. The thesis of the Unseen Realm pegs them as very low-level "bastard spirits" (from the Dead Sea Scrolls). They are disembodied spirits of the Nephilim and Rephaim from the Bible. These are half-breed children of genuine elohim, the Watchers who crossed the boundary to come to earth and cohabit with humans. Both Watchers and Nephilim are spirit beings who can incarnate under certain conditions, but the latter are lower rank and lower power.

Both groups are condemned to the Abyss until the Last Days. They'll be released briefly prior to the Day of Judgment, for which the details are unknown at this point. They lost their actual powers over Creation when they were confined to the Abyss. For now, their only power is deception, same as the Devil. Indeed, they are bound to honor the principles of Biblical Law. If you don't buy their lies and obey the Word, they cannot do much to you.

Side note: In their eagerness to keep their influence of humans, the spirits of the Nephilim will submit to conjuring. They will do everything they can to share their false lore -- as if they would ever tell the truth about the situation and processes in the Spirit Realm.

However, there are members of the rebellion who are not in prison. The Divine Councilors who allied with Satan and are responsible for the deception of the Gentile nations remain on staff in Heaven. They have genuine power; they are the real trouble. This is why idolatrous cult folks can do some really strange things. It is this corrupted power that Christ broke on the Cross, so that we can be delivered from the dominion of the rebellious elohim. We don't belong to the nations and their idolatries any more; we belong to Christ.

The resurrection of Christ broke the power of death and the power of idolatry. Do you understand that every human government is bound under idolatry? Do you understand why the truth of Christ's Kingdom is a threat to every human government? For example, within the Imperial Roman bureaucracy, there were officials who understood this teaching up to a point. They understood it well enough to know that followers of Christ might be generally cooperative with the process of human government, but their ultimate allegiance was to something they considered much higher. The only way to combat this was to demand Christians engage in idolatrous worship under threat of execution.

Even if a given government lacks that level of understanding, you can bet the elohim know. They will steer their human servants into paths that will eventually threaten genuine Christian faith and the biblical understanding of the Unseen Realm. Indeed, the elohim have steered the US government, among others, to engage in efforts at mind control. I'm guessing the bulk of clients treated by Fern, Audrey and Beth are victims of government programs designed to test the limits of how to create and use people suffering DID and trauma.

People who work to share these teachings are at some risk of retribution from the elohim. Pray for them that they will be ready to move forward without flinching.

Final note: The Watchers and Nephilim cannot be redeemed. The rebel elohim have already been sentenced, but remain free until the Day of Judgment. They have been rejected and a major element in their wickedness with us is making us believe we are rejected, that we cannot be redeemed. The western doctrine of guilt before the law is a primary element of that campaign. It's also a fundamental element in trauma abuse to make people believe that God hates them, that they deserve all the evil that happens to them. You would hardly be surprised that such victims are the source of a pernicious doctrine that demons can be redeemed. This has captured and destroyed many ministries led by people who falsely imagine that they can talk the demons into confessing Christ as Lord.

Yes, demons would love to be redeemed, to rejoin the Eternal Family of God, but they already know it can't happen. They seek desperately to sucker us into talking to them for any purpose at all. As Heiser and these ladies point out, there is nothing to gain by that. Don't even try to reach into the Unseen Realm. Just work with the victims through the love of Christ. The biblical doctrine of redemption demands that we focus on loving His human children face-to-face. Redemption is a personal process.

I recommend you listen to those three podcasts for yourself.]]> <![CDATA[Weekly Wednesday Prayer + Fasting, 5/6/2026]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1886 Wed, 06 May 2026 05:02:39 -0600 jaybreak]]> https://radixfidem.org/showthread.php?tid=1886 the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]> the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.]]>