Three-agent Universe

Each day I try to read a couple of chapters from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. By coincidence, I have arrived at Job and the Book of Revelation at the same time. The parallels between these two books are interesting. They both describe a three-agent view of the world. I describe what this means in an article called Three-Agent Universe.

Job and his friends lived in a two-agent universe. They believed that everything that happened was caused by God or humans. This is what confused Job. He trusted God and knew that he was good. He could not understand why so much evil had happened when he had lived a good life. His friends accused him of deserving what had happened to him, but Job refused to accept that. He also refused to accuse God of being evil.

The narrator of the book of Job understood that Job lived in a three-agent universe. He understood that Job was caught up in a struggle between God and the spiritual powers of evil. The evil that had afflicted Job was inflicted by the spiritual powers of evil. Rather than being a result of Job’s wickedness, this evil occurred because he was good, and the spiritual powers of evil hated him.

The book of Revelation also describes a three-agent universe. Some of the evil events on earth are caused by humans. But much of the evil is the work of the spiritual powers of evil, in a last desperate attempt to overthrow Jesus and regain a place of power. But John reminds his readers that the spiritual powers of evil have limited powers and can only act when God allows them (by opening the seals, etc).

The difference between the two books is that in Job, the spiritual powers of evil had a place in heaven, and could accuse humans before God. In Revelation, the spiritual powers of evil have been defeated by Jesus’ death on the cross, and have been cast down onto the earth with only the power of a trespasser. They have lost their place in heaven (Rev 12:1-12) and will fail in all their attempt to restore it. Their final defeat leads to their destruction.

Many Christians still live in a two-agent universe. They don’t understand that some of the events on earth that affect them are a spillover from the battle between God and the spiritual powers of evil. This means that good people sometimes experience evil, and evil people sometimes succeed for a time.

The God of both Job and Revelation promise that in the end, everyone who lives on earth will receive true justice and vindication.