Three-agent Universe

I have come to a particular understanding about how the universe operates. I have set it out in Spiritual Realms and Three-agent Universe. I am fairly sure that my understanding is correct, but it is hard to prove it using proof texts.

The reason is that the Old Testament authors lived in a two-agent universe: everything was the work of God or man. They reflected that understanding in the way they wrote about their experiences. The Holy Spirit usually did not make them write things that they did not believe or understand, so the Hebrew text reflects their world view, even if it was incomplete.

The New Testament explains that we live in a three-agent universe. Humans are caught up in a struggle between God and the spiritual powers of evil. Because God does not want to glorify the powers of evil, the scriptures don’t tell us much about how their power structures are organised in various seasons. The truth is that we don’t need to know. We just need to know that Jesus defeated them on the cross.

For my first years as a Chrisitan, I lived in a two-agent universe. I believed every thing happened was an act of God. However, it did not make sense with the reality of my life. After struggling with this conundrum, I came to see that we live in a three-agent universe. That enable me to make sense of things that happen in life. I believe that this understanding was a revelation of the Holy Spirit, but I could be wrong.

I believe the scriptures (Old and New Testament) do give hints about the way that the powers of evil are organised (some of the hints are clearer than others). What I have tried to do is to pull all these hints together and organised them to understand something of how the powers of evil are organsied in various seasons. This is not a complete revelation, so I will never be certain that I have got it absolutely right.

I have shared all that I have discovered, but I realise that it is not enough to persuade everyone. Therefore, I don’t see any point in arguing about particular scriptures, because that will never resolve the much bigger and more important issue. To understand the world we live, we need the revelation of the Holy Spirit.