Five Things we Must understand (But often Don't) about the New Testament (4)

4. What in the Heck are “Principalities and Powers”?

A famous and influential New Testament scholar of the 20^th century Rudolf Bultmann wrote: “We cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament” (The New Testament and Mythology, 4). Perhaps over-intoxicated with the achievements and potential of reason and science, Bultmann took earlier and more primitive views of the world as “mythological” and to be treated as such, that is, non-realistically, in terms of our modern view of the world. We must interpret figures like angels, demons, principalities and powers, and maybe even deities, which ancient peoples believed existed in reality, as symbols to say something we think important about our world. We cannot however take as reality in our rational and scientific understanding.

If we agree with Bultmann and his dismissal of ancient worldviews as primitive, naïve, and meaningless in our modern scientific world, we may be guilty of what C. S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery,” the modern conceit that the most recent or latest is the best and the earlier retrograde and to be dismissed. When Hamlet tells Horatio “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5) we might ought to hear that as a warning about our easy acceptance of any form of scientism, the ideology that science and the scientific method are the full and only measure of truth, and remain open to the possibility, indeed, the near certainty that truth comes in many flavors, hues, and colors, not just those susceptible to analysis in a laboratory.

The biblical world is inhabited by creatures of all sorts in addition to God and humans. To wit, angels, fallen and good, demons, Satan, powers, principalities, thrones, elements, rulers, sin, death, and flesh among them. We normally only think of the first three items listed as being “real” (if any are). But biblical writers have a far more expansive view. What if they, and especially Paul from whom the principalities and powers language comes, are right, though? I propose we accept that they are and see what it means for our view of the world and our life in it. If such a view promotes a deeper, more profound understanding of what we experience than our “empty heavens” view, we might want to take a further look. If its suggestion for living in such an “inhabited” world correlates with or deepens our experience of following Christ, even more reason for further consideration.

Caveat: there is much foolishness written and preached about angels, demons, Satan and God’s relation to them. I ask you to lay aside as best you can whatever perceptions and/or prejudices you may have about them, as well as whatever scientistic prejudices you possess (or possess you!).

We will focus on Paul since he gives us the most biblical data to work with. He believes in an “inhabited world” – God, Satan, angels, and demons + all the different expressions for the powers. He does not define or differentiate them as did many other worldviews and philosophies of his day. He’s more interested in them as a group. He believes these powers

-were created good by God through Christ (Col.1:15-16) to support and enhance human existence,

-have fallen from their calling by seeking to seize control of humanity and its history,

-have been defeated, by Christ’s cross (Col.2:15),

-are now the “enemy” the church does battle with (Eph.3:10; 6:10-12), and

-will be redeemed and restored to their creational good purposes in the end.

These nefarious spiritual powers - not angels, remember, Paul differentiates these powers from angels – wreak havoc in the good order God designed to make and keep human life human. Worldviews, institutions (e.g. education, family, economics,  banking, schools, government, religions), customs, taboos, almost anything that conditions human life and history, lie under the thrall of these rebellious powers. The chaos we experience, and intractable chaos at that, in our worlds Paul attributes to the malfunctioning of these powers. Worldviews, institutions, customs, taboos, etc. are not bad, just badly used by the powers responsible for them. Modern sociologists recognize that something beyond simple human agency is required to account for the directions and dysfunctions they observe and study. They can’t name it anymore clearly than Paul does (mob rule, for instance) but know its reality.

Many years ago a sociologist named White (I’ve forgotten the first name as well as the title of his book) studied the War on Poverty begun in the sixties and why we never won it. We should have. Resources were more than adequate, national political will to do it seemed present, yet we could defeat and end poverty. White’s research gave him this answer: the American Dream imbues its citizens with such expansive dreams about what they can achieve and be that very few of us (however successful) feel like we’ve actually been and done all that they could be. Most of us feel far from it. Thus many all feel some need to have a group of failures to help us bolster our own sense of failure/guilt over the modesty of our achievements or lack thereof pursuing the Dream. We need the poor to feel better about ourselves. Thus we cannot, psycho-socially, afford to win the War on Poverty. I’m not concerned with whether White is right or not in this specific case. But his conclusions do clearly illustrate the way the powers Paul talks about can use a feature of this world, an ideology, to pervert our best desires and hopes and reinforce a situation of chaos and disorder.

Robert Moses has made the creative suggestion that we consider the chief practices Paul enjoins on his churches as lenses to see what he saw was at stake in dealing with them (Powerful Practices: Paul’s Principalities and Powers Revisited https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/5731/Moses_divinity.duke_0066A_10008.pdf?seque). For Paul, the powers are present in every dimension and aspect of life and commandeer the structures and dimensions of life diverting them away from their God-intended purposes toward chaos and destruction (Rom 7; Gal 4:1-11; Col 2:14). To grasp this, however, requires a Spirit-given insight since the powers work to deceive and blind us to the truth (Rom 7:11; 2 Cor 4:4). The powers are both spiritual forces (again not angels) who work to directly impact the quality of life on earth.

Paul clearly thinks that some practices of the church provide protection for their practitioners from the attacks of the powers while others would lay them open to these attacks. Since the powers are both the opponents (Eph.6:10-12) and audience (Eph.3:10) it is vital to become familiar with these practices. Moses finds the three practices of baptism (Rom.6), preaching (1 Cor.2), and church discipline (1 Cor.5:1-11) as protective of believers and idolatry and meat-eating in temples of idols (1 Cor 8-10; Gal 4:1-11; Col 2:6-23) as practices that leave us vulnerable to the powers baleful impact

Christ’s encounter and defeat of the powers on the cross is the event that underwrites baptism as a powerful practice. To proclaim the cross as the wisdom and power of God is to be caught up into a cosmic battle in which Christ has already won the war yet there remain battles to fought to consolidate and extend his victory throughout the world (1 Cor.15:24). (See Moses 295-298)

That these powers (along with Satan and his minions more generally) are explicitly designated the church’s enemy and opponent makes getting a handle on them crucial for reading the Bible well. The Old Testament’s emphasis on idolatry is the Bible’s opening salvo on this matter. Demons, often considered the spirits of the idols, the powers, and a widely inhabited heaven come to prominence in 2^nd Temple Judaism from which Jesus and Paul emerged. Thus, the Bible from beginning to end posits other powers as the enemies of God’s people rather than the humans whom they coopt and whom cooperate with them as their tools and instruments.

Too often, in my experience, today we tend to discount this reality for a variety of reasons. And we are the poorer for it. When we attribute our difficulties simply to our own frailty and fallibility, or to a devil we interpret as a being assaulting us directly and personally, we miss the most pervasive and determinative attack on or faithfulness and integrity. Even though these powers have been defeated by Christ at the cross, they have not yet been fully redeemed and restored to their creational goodness and vocation. Thus we will still experience their attacks and assaults on our integrity and witness. To fail to keep this factor in view will limit and dilute both. The early church spoke in terms of a “trinity” of opponents Christians faced: the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph.2:2-4). To leave the world, the venue of the powers’ work) out of consideration or to caricature it as temptation to personal sins (“don’t drink, smoke, cuss, chew or run around with those who do”) is to default on a big hunk of our ministry.