Berean Distinctive Pt. 4: Divine Council

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For the next several weeks we will be looking at several doctrines that are distinctives of Berean Bible Church. This week we are studying the doctrine of Preterism

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[joelbuzbee]

Must be nice to have that much knowledge in studying The Word. Sure makes so much sense- don’t hear preaching and teaching like this everyday.Thank you

[odessamaynard]

I have been watching quite a lot of your teachings lately and started this one today. When you were talking about psalm 82, this scripture came to my mind. Jesus uses the same words in psalm 82 in reference to men.

In John 10: 34-38

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

[hilltopper]

David always finds interesting topics-this one is great!

[meleket]

Awesome. God bless you more, Pastor David.

[keithrhodes]

Wow. Great lesson. I have been studying this subject for years. I didn't realize David had this understanding. Very interesting stuff. Keep up the good work.

[GradyRisley]

You got it brother. When the divine council is understood it takes the confusion out of the scripture. The cross purchased back the earth.

[aquarpioleonine]

The final curtain to be pulled back... the 4 Living Creatures... the Standards of the trbes of Israel...

[megansousa]

Luke 8:11-15

11 “This is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. 12 The seeds that fell along the path stand for those who hear; but the Devil comes and takes the message away from their hearts in order to keep them from believing and being saved. 13 The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who hear the message and receive it gladly. But it does not sink deep into them; they believe only for a while but when the time of testing comes, they fall away. 14 The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear; but the worries and riches and pleasures of this life crowd in and choke them, and their fruit never ripens. 15 The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit.

In verse 11 Jesus explains that the devil comes and takes away the message and that is why people don't believe. My question is; if the devil is a defeated foe, how is it that people still don't believe the gospel. Who is causing them not to believe? Why doesn't everyone receive the truth if the enemy is unable to take the message away?
I am new to preterism, and it answers so many of the questions I had for so long, but I'm still confused on this issue.

[maroe]

Dr Michael Heiser's work is brilliant highly recommend his books.

[pauldmckee]

I have listened to many teachings about the sons of God having sex with human women. I'm still puzzled by many things. First would be heavenly beings having sexual organs. Could you help me with this?

[OZMAZZ]

I believe the issue here that you maybe applying the word Elohim to spiritual beings while it was applied to Moses.
It is I believe to those who rule using the word of God.
This is why Jesus said to them ( doesn’t scriptures say you are Gods, to those whom given the word of God)
John 10:34 KJVS
[34] Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

[andrewviersen]

I can't help but speculate that the council members were infatuated with the new creature called Eve. They had never seen something like this before and were jealous of mankind's ability and mandate to be fruitful and multiply. Just speculation of course 😀

[nicholerogers]

The Sons of God began with Adam. And when Adam and Eve had their third son Seth, outside of the garden, Seth's son Enos was when men began to call upon the NAME of the LORD.
Genesis 4:25-26
And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God,  said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

So the difference between the Sons of God and the Sons of men in Genesis, is simply those who called upon the NAME of the LORD and those who did not.

These were all just human beings but calling upon the NAME of the LORD is what seperated them, same as today.

When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, The LORD God said they had become like gods. And now they must put forth their hand to eat of the tree of LIFE and live for ever.

Genesis 3:22
“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”

This is essentially the same as being in the DIVINE COUNCIL through calling upon the NAME of the LORD, in the New Testament also.

God does not change his ways, therefore scripture is consistent all the way through.

Remember what Jesus said the Pharisees?
John 10:34
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”
“If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;”

Simply said....this was essentially the same Gospel given in the New Testament, even from the beginning.

[Nunya_Bidness_]

On the last vid: not sure sovereign election neccessarily means eternal life..."Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" God is certainly sovereign, but he might just choose you to be an apostate and/or "vessel of wrath"...

[aquarpioleonine]

Animals were created in images of the gods. Man is is God's image yet lower than the angels. Ciltures' gods resemble amimals for a reason. Oh hey btw these guys all time travel and can't win no matter where within the timeline they go. We are in the image of the Highest God!

[hillaryfamily]

You want us to be Bereans and check out the claims? Well, it is not hard to check out and see that the claims don't work. The title 'son of God' is a political status of a human being, to rule. Under the Torah and its political structure, 'you are the sons of YHWH your God' (Deut. 14:1), i.e. each Israelite has the same political status as a sovereign, as a subordinate sovereign under YHWH God, the Great King. There is no intermediary royal bureaucracy in the biblical/ Old Testament political structure of Israel, rather Israel is YHWH God's firstborn son, both collectively, and individually of each man.

The sons of God in Gen. 6:1-4 are men, the text says so. They are mighty men, i.e. war lords. These are polygynous men who accumulate power, women, land and treasure, and who built empires and who went to war against each other and who taxed other men and who filled the land with human blood. This is rather basic and ancient human politics and power-structures, against the social and power structure of the Torah, and whom YHWH God wiped out with the flood of water. Just ask yourself, why did Noah's monogyny and his wife and his sons' monogyny and the animals monogyny get mentioned so many times? Why did the beasts get wiped out, and who are the beasts to be held accountable for shedding human blood in Gen. 9:5-6? Do we somehow not know that beasts are representations not of divine beings, but of human beings as kings and their kingdoms? Dan. 7 anyone?

The term 'elohim' is not a 'place or residence locator, ' this is rather obviously nonsense. Samuel is not in heaven, he is in the UNDERWORLD which is as far away from heaven as it is possible to get.

Human kings are not puppets of divine beings, rather, they become divine by means of acquiring political power: as David Curtis said in his message, the term elohim originates from from basically means 'power' or 'powerful one.' Therefore, when a man becomes a king, he becomes a god himself, he becomes divine. And he ascends to heaven. Is heaven a geophysical place, sure, but it also represents the higher power status, so, when a man becomes a king, he ascends to heaven and becomes a god, and a star in heaven. David, for example, in Ps 89, becomes an immortal god in heaven when YHWH God makes him king: 'in the heavens [i.e. where YHWH God has elevated David to] I will make known your faithfulness.' and 'I will establish your offspring forever' David is exalted to heaven: 'I have exalted one chosen from the people.' David is made a son of God 'He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father' and 'I will make him the firstborn.' But, of course, David's kingdom is not immortal, and it is destroyed, and when this happens, David loses his divine status and falls from heaven down to the dust of the grave with his crown: 'But now you have cast off and rejected, you are full of wrath against your anointed .. you have defiled his crown in the dust' and 'you have cast his throne to the ground.' David's divinity and his immortality fail: he 'falls like a prince' and 'dies like a man' because that is what he is. This is the language used of human kings in the go-to divine council passages like Is. 14 and Ez. 28. Human kings are divine and ascend to heaven, and then they fall like princes and die like men, because that is what they are. The whole parallel theory of gods and human kings is misconstrued: the human kings ARE gods, i.e. powerful ones, by definition. And this is the status we all have and are supposed to have: to be sons of God (e.g. Mat. 5:9; Rom. 8:14) and participate in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) which is the same as being seated in heavenly places and on thrones (e.g. Eph. 2).

Ps. 82 is obviously talking about men who rule and who have power. the Psalmist is petitioning God to hold those corrupt and powerful men to account. But, who is the psalm a message to? It is a message to those human kings and powers: for this reason, the Lord correctly said that those to whom the word came, i.e. those human kings and powers, were gods, John 10:34-35. What the hell happened to audience relevance? Just read Ps 82 and Ps 89 and Ez. 28 and Is. 14 and ask yourself, what is the relevance of this message to the original audience? How did it work and what did it mean to them? It is just the way political power and human kings are described and understood, not as puppets of divine beings, but as divine beings who fall like princes and die like men because that is what they are.

This whole divine council business is a nonsense. It has enough material to work with to create that elaborate theory, but you have to selectively ignore half of the material and how the words and concepts are used to make it work.

[fluentreasoningchannel]

Hebrews 1:5 “For to which of the the angels did God say you are my Son?” Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:40 and Matthew 22:30. Why cite non inspired sources, I.e. Enoch and Jashur?

[AndrayTheDutchman]

A very interesting perspective. But I'm just wondering why you are so sure that the Hebrew scriptures portray the only correct truth and history of everything. Can't it be a mix of bits and pieces of religions, scattered texts and then some? How do you determine the truth and reliability of anything for that matter? Aren't we just guessing here? We can't go back in time to check...

[PreachingJesus]

Nothing in pslam 82 is speaking of divine beings. Context makes that clear.

[stacyturbeville]

The begin of the message revealed the foundational error: the trinity belief. Jesus was a plan in the beginning not a God actually with the Father. God the Father alone is God. Scripture is emphatically clear on this. A God is not created. This so called divine council has only one who is not created by David’s own assertion. Therefore there’s ONLY ONE GOD THERE. Isaiah is clear God is alone and BY HIMSELF. Singular. Not a trinity. Jesus is called CHRIST for a reason. He’s a man filled with THE FATHER (John 14:7-10). He’s not part of a trinity. Our mediator is a man (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus is the FIRSTBORN in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 destroys any thought of a trinity. God alone is the Father. Jesus yes is appointed the position as God amongst us in an anointed way. Why? Because He’s the image and form of the Father. Satan was called morning star. So was Jesus. Is Satan a God or is Jesus an Angel? Stars are witnesses of the Father. Not a council of literal Gods.