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April 26, 2017 - Jim Bakker Show
05:59
Where It Begins - Dr. Michael Heiser on The Jim Bakker Show
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Time Text
Peter's Objection 00:05:26
Some familiar stories here.
Like in the book, you know, I have a bunch of these, but let's just stick to the Gospels for now.
When Jesus goes to Caesarea Philippi, okay, a very familiar story.
This is the story where we have Peter's conversation with Jesus.
They go to Caesarea Philippi.
Jesus says, well, who do men say that I am?
Peter says, well, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And this is my paraphrase now.
Jesus says, well, don't get a big head.
You didn't figure that out by yourself.
The Spirit told you that, but you're right.
And then he turns to him and says, you're Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.
And then unfortunately, most translations will have, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
I'm going to say something about that translation in a moment.
But we all know that this is a big blow-up passage.
The Roman Catholics say, well, Petra, Peter, Petros, all this stuff, Peter's the rock, and upon this rock I'll build my church.
We should all be Catholics.
And of course, the Protestants say, no, we shouldn't do that.
The rock is like in 1 Corinthians 10, where God is the rock, so Jesus is the rock, and the church is founded on him, so don't be Catholics.
I don't think either of them are right.
I think upon this rock is the place where they're standing.
And I get that because of the Old Testament history of that place.
Caesarea Philippi in Jesus' day, there was a cult center there dedicated to Zeus and to Pan.
In the Old Testament, that was a cult center for Baal.
It's located in the region of Bashan, which is at the northernmost part of the tribal land allotted to the tribes.
Bashan was known in Deuteronomy 2 and 3 as the residence of the vestiges, the last vestiges of the Rephaim.
The Dead Sea Scrolls actually refers to them as bastard spirits because they come from the Nephilim.
So this is where the last of them live.
In non-biblical texts, Canaanite literature, there are two cities in that region that show up in Deuteronomy 3, Ashtaroth and Edri, that were known to Canaanites as the gates of hell, the gateways to the underworld.
So Jesus shows up here at Caesarea Philippi, and he has this conversation with Peter.
And what he's really saying is, look, right here is where it begins.
I'm going to build my church, and we're going to start right here.
And instead of translating it, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
If we had an interlinear Bible and I could show you, there's no preposition for against there in the Greek New Testament.
You should translate it, the gates of hell will not be able to withstand it.
And that changes the whole image.
Because if it's the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against it, it's like the church is cowering in the corner taking a beating.
We're going to survive because we're the church.
God's with us.
No.
If you do it the other way, the church is the one administering the beating.
Hallelujah.
The church is the one that is on the offensive.
So Jesus is saying, look, we all know what this place is.
We all know what's associated with the underworld realm of the dead.
Baal, again, this isn't Bible, this is Canaanite literature.
Baal was known as Baal Zabul, Prince Baal, Lord of the underworld, Lord of the Dead.
That's why he becomes a Satan figure to Jews.
Jesus is saying, we're going to take Baal's turf and we're going to turn it into his tomb.
This is where it begins.
And then the scripture says, well, a few days later, they go up into the mountain.
Well, there's only one mountain there.
It's Mount Hermon.
And Hermon, again, has this association with the watchers.
This is the place where, according to Enoch, that they descend to do what they can to humanity.
They go up into the mountain with Peter, James, and John.
And what happens there?
It's the transfiguration.
Why does Jesus pick this place to show who he was?
Well, I'll tell you why he does that.
He's picking a fight.
He's picking a fight.
He's saying, look, here I am, God.
He took on the devil!
The evil!
I love this.
Here I am.
This is who I really am.
Do something about it.
So we've just had him go to the gates of hell, the gateways to the realm of the dead where Satan is, and poke him in the eye there.
Then they go up into Hermon.
They poke the watchers in the eye there.
And then this is why it's important.
Then the gospels say from this point forward, he began to teach his disciples that he had to go back to Jerusalem and die.
Okay, and they're freaked out because it's like, what do you mean?
This is fun.
We go over to the gates of hell.
We poke him in the eye.
We go up to Mount Hermon and you do this.
This is awesome.
And now you're talking about dying?
And this is where Peter objects.
And Jesus says to him, get behind me, Satan.
And Satan is just an adversary.
In other words, don't be the adversary.
This has to happen.
Because Jesus knows something they don't.
Jesus knows that he really does have to die.
Intentional Biblical Narrative 00:00:47
Because guess what?
Do the math.
You can't have a resurrection unless you have a death.
He has to die.
So a week later is the triumphal entry.
And then a week after that, he's dead.
And it's mission accomplished.
I mean, it doesn't look that way, but that's the whole point.
We sort of read the Bible like it's a textbook.
I mean, I'll admit I did that for many years too.
But it's an epic narrative.
The writers are doing intentional things in what they write because when they drop a line, they want you to know, okay, I know where this comes from.
I have seen this before, so that you'll go back and look.
And then you're able to think their thoughts after them.
And our focus here is on Enoch's material and how that gets repurposed.
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