Islamic State (1) Spiritual Empires

President Obama has announced his strategy for dealing with the Islamic State. He is at a bit of a disadvantage, because his advisors do not have much understanding of the links between religion and society. Most would not know the difference between a Wahhabi and a Salafi. Worse still, they have no clue about interactions between the spiritual and the physical realms. They look at military and economic strength, but they ignore spiritual forces. If you only have partial information, you will make bad decisions.

Big events on earth are usually the consequence of events in the spiritual realms. One reason that history on earth seems to repeat is continuity of events and characters in the spiritual realms.

The empires that rise and fall on earth are usually controlled by principalities and powers in the spiritual realms. Evil spirits do not die of old age. When an empire fades, the evil power that controls it does not go and look for another empire, but remains attached to the place where the empire was based. Many of the evil spirits that worked it would go over to the other side, but the principality and power will usually wait for an opportunity to reassert his power.

The Prince of Persia was the powerful evil spirit that controlled the Persian Empire when it was the most powerful empire in the world (Dan 10:13). When the armies of Persia were defeated by Alexander the Great, the Prince of Persia hung around for more than a thousand years waiting to get another chance to exercise power. He is now back in the driving seat in modern Iran.

The exception is the spirit that controlled Babylon. When Babylon was destroyed, its principality and power went and established itself in Rome. It left Rome when it collapsed and is now at work in the nation that will become the new Babylon, when the Babylon the Great described in Revelation emerges.

The ancient Middle East was dominated by four big empires each controlled by a spiritual prince. These were four empires were Babylon, Egypt, Persia and Assyria. The spiritual ruler of Babylon has moved on to better things, but the spiritual princes that controlled Egypt, Persia and Assyria are still there. Egypt and Persia are well understood, but Assyria has been forgotten.

More on Assyria in my next post.

Getting the Bug

When we returned from Israel, a friend asked me this question.

Did you get the bug?

The answer is “No”, but I do understand the question. Over the last thirty years, I have seen a number of Christians develop a real passion for Israel (sometimes to the point of obsession) that other Christians cannot understand. I have never felt that passion. I am very interested in Israel, for the reasons that I will explain in tomorrow’s post, but I have never felt any urge to visit the country, so I was intrigued that an opportunity arose. It was interesting to see the country with my own eyes, I am still committed to praying that God’s purpose will be accomplished for the Jewish people, but I am still a dispassionate observer. The bug passed me by.

I do not have the bug, but I do have a theory. Jacob had twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel. After the reign of Solomon, the kingdom split in half. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin became a southern kingdom ruled from Jerusalem called Judah. The other twelve tribes became a northern Kingdom based on Samaria. Ahab was the ruler of the northern Kingdom. I Kings 17 gives the history of Hoshea, the last King of Israel in Samaria. Like his predecessors, he did evil and lost the protection of God. The King of Assyria invaded the northern kingdom and deported the people to Assyria.

The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns (2 Kings 17:24).

The southern Kingdom called Judah persisted for several more generations. When they continued to disobey god, they were eventually conquered and deported to Babylon. The difference was that after a few hundred years in exile, the people of Judah returned to their land under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra. In contrast, the people of the northern Kingdom (the other ten tribes) never returned. When people eventually migrated out of Assyria to many parts of the world, those who were descendants of Jacob would have gone with them, and because the genealogies are lost, most of these people do not know that they are descendants of Jacob, belonging to one of the ten tribes of Israel. These Israelites will be spread throughout the world.

My theory is that those Christians who develop a passion for Israel, and feel compelled to serve and pray for Israel are actually descendants of the Israelites exiled to Assyria, who do not know it. The reason they are so obsessed about Israel is that they are part of Israel, and God is trying to reveal it to them.

My ancestors came from Scotland. After my visit to Israel, I am fairly certain that they did not get there by way of long vacation in Assyria, because I did not get the bug.