Let me just share what I’ve learned from Michael Heiser’s Divine Council Worldview (DCW), which is the Christian doctrine I now hold. I believe this is the right way to understand the Bible and inform our Christian Faith.
After learning about the DCW, my impression is that Heaven is not automaton-land. It’s apparently a common modern view that when you’re in Heaven as spirits, you are to be automatons; you can’t do any action of your own, you wait for orders and do only what God tells you to do. Someone argued with me before that we can’t have free will in Heaven (now I know that that’s from Reformed Church/Calvinist belief).
But DCW says we do. We are free to move around and do as we please, we even have recreation. Heiser said, we’re not strumming harps in Heaven or doing anything that makes us mere props. There is an hierarchy in Heaven, so differences exist there too. But God gives us assignments, and part of those assignments is managing the cosmos as part of his council. This seems consistent with contemporary views in the Ancient Near East about the other world or afterlife.
DCW just means that one purpose for the creation of humanity is to be partners in his managing of the cosmos, the creation. Other beings, those we call angels though not all are really angels, were also created for this. Some of them rebelled however, and so we have Satan and his “fallen angels,” actually fallen created spirit beings. Heiser described the three falls, in Eden, the Nephilim and Babel, and these are the three events that corrupted humanity. These particular beings didn’t like being joined by humanity in managing the cosmos.
The enemy of DCW is the idea that we are supposed to be God’s automatons. The concept of an automaton is actually modern, probably inspired by ideas about modern automatic machinery and likening people to these. But my theory is that automaton-land views of Heaven are actually a product of Gnostic infiltration (which ultimately comes from Paganism). I think many ideas of the Christian afterlife today are influenced by John Milton and William Blake, but those have Gnostic ideas in them. Milton’s and Blake’s work as supposed to be literature (also The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France), but some people mistakenly adopt those ideas as doctrine.
The problem with all this for me is when some believers try to bring Heaven to Earth under the automaton idea. Because of the idea of Eden, we try to achieve Utopia. But doing it while being separated from God has been disastrous (See Dr. Heiser’s video short on utopia). When non-believers do it, they end up creating things like Marxism and try to turn others into automatons; and that also leads to disaster (millions dead because they don’t want to become automatons). But even believers fall to this pitfall. They may claim to have the Holy Spirit to guide them or such. But historically it led to things like the Inquisition or killing of people of other faiths. People trying to make the Earth into Heaven today are still vulnerable to sinful influences.
In all, our theology will indeed manifest in the way we treat other people. If we think people become automatons in Heaven, we tend to try and turn others into automatons. If we think people should be free and able to act on their own on Earth, as in Heaven, we will respect other people. In fact, I believe that is how the second great commandment, to love others, is enacted.
I think automaton ideas in religion make people leave their religions as well as become Atheist. No one wants to be automatons and we’re wired to be that way. I think realizing this will revolutionize Christianity and return it to what it was originally. I don’t propose this just as a revisionist act or cop out just appeal to the atheists. I see it more as returning to Ancient Near East roots which is close to the truth. Also, trying to make automatons of others is corruption of God’s creation.
I haven’t read Heiser’s book Unseen Realm yet, but a lot of Youtube videos already explain a lot of his points. Still, I do hope to get most of his books.
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