After I listened to Dr. Heiser’s YouTube series “The Unseen Realm,” I bought the book. There is another gem he shared with me there that I’d like to share with you. It is found in the controversial text of Matthew 16:13-18:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So who, or what, is the “rock” upon which Jesus will build His church? Catholics say Jesus was saying Peter is the rock. So, they say, he was the first pope. But Protestants say, no, Jesus was doing a word-play. Peter comes from the Greek “petros,” which means “stone.” But when Jesus uses the word “rock.” he means, in translating the Greek, per Vine’s Expository Dictionary, a “mass of rock,” a “sure foundation,” as opposed to a detached stone which could be “easily moved.” Therefore, they say, Jesus was saying He is the rock he was referring to; He is the foundation of the church (I Corinthians 3:11), immovable in His doctrines and foreknowledge.
Dr. Heiser admits to the accuracy of this word-play, but adds that Jesus has another word play for “who/what is the rock,” which conveys a cosmic scope.
To explain his idea, we must start with the fact that Jesus was leading His disciples into Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13 above), which happens to be at the foothills of Mt. Hermon—a very significant mountain because of its moral darkness. This mountain was the place where Satan and his fallen angels plotted to destroy the lineage of Jesus by sexual relations with earth women (Book of Enoch, Chapters 6 and 7). (I’ve discussed the validity of this angels-with-women idea, in two blogs--see the ones with "DNA" in the title. Those blogs discuss the veracity of Enoch as well). So the mountain has one dark feature right there.
Then there’s the fact that the Greek equivalent of Hermon, in Scripture, is Anathema, which means “devoted to destruction.” Uttering Anathema on someone is the direst of curses one can pronounce. Paul uses the the word in Galatians 1:8 for a terrible sin:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Changing the gospel brings down curses from God, and separation from Him forever. (I quickly add, with meaningful repentance, God could forgive.) This is the second darkness around Mt. Hermon.
To get to my third point of darkness about Mt. Hermon, you need some additional background. To briefly review a previous blog: Genesis 6:1-4 really says that in Noah’s day, fallen angels came to earth, took on the form of men, and married and had sex with earth women. The children of this sexual match of immortal angels and mortal women were aberrant. They became renowned giants, and they were called Nephilim (that word is in the ESV or NIV translation). The Nephilim were wicked. And being a mix of mortal and immortal, they were not human, so it’s possible that they were unsavable. They were also linked to the rapid immorality that caused the Flood (Genesis 6:5), and to the evil technology that they taught earth men (see more in the book of Enoch).
To complete the background, we fast forward to the days of Moses and Joshua his general. God had picked the land of Canaan as the promised land 600 years earlier, in the days of His promise to Abraham (Genesis 11:31). To claim the land, they would have to conquer tribes and take it over. It would be a challenge for the new, small, Israelite nation to defeat anybody. When you look at Canaan in those days, it seemed the worst possible place for God to pick for their home. For one thing, Satan had trouble waiting for them. Since Satan knew back in the days of Abraham where they were headed, he had 600 years to make their entrance as miserable as possible. If he could discourage them, they would lose faith in Moses and Joshua and abandon the promised land idea. Then they might be assimilated into the tribes that were there and, boom--no more pure Israelis. No pure lineage for Jesus. God would be a liar to Abraham and the nation.
So, first, Satan brought out his lusting fallen angels to do their work again, and produce more Nephilim. Satan hoped that the giants would scare off the new Israelite nation. He was right, for 40 years after they hit the border. When the Israelites first saw them, they instantly abandoned God's plan. But God was patient, and they had a faithful leader in Joshua. They had another go at it after 40 years, and found a way to defeat the giants.
A side note: If you don't believe the giants existed for a second go-around, consider the archeological digs that no engineer can figure out how they were built. Plus, Scripture speaks of these giants at least nine times in Numbers through I Chronicles, when the Jews were defeating tribes and taking the promised land. For instance, under Joshua's leadership, they defeated the giants of Bashan. Their king, Og, had a bed that was between 14 and 16 feet long. Deuteronomy 3:11 and Joshua 13:12 records these facts:
…Og the king of Bashan was left…Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length……all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei… these Moses had struck and driven out.
Now you still may ask, Couldn't God have selected an easier plot of land to build their kingdom on earth? Well, God's principle is, You go the the heart of evil, the source, the head of the snake. You cut off the head. You show up Satan.
The point of mentioning “Og the king of Bashan” is this: Mt. Hermon is smack in the middle of the Bashan area. Thus, Mt. Hermon and Bashan, in addition to being a community for Satan’s minions, despite having a name that is accursed, and having had demonic giants, also had a lot of wicked people. As Joshua 13:12 above notes, Ashtaroth was the capital city of Bashan. Ashtaroth, named after a goddess, had a bad reputation in Scripture. The people worshipped the goddess Ashtoreth (in other nations, she was called Aphrodite, or Ishtar—both fertility goddesses—we get Easter from Ishtar). These goddesses were also known as the “queen of heaven” (Catholics take note), and the people of Bashan and Mt. Hermon persuaded the Israelites into worshipping this goddess as well. There were religious sexual rituals that took place. The worship involved the “high places,” which were also constructed in Israel. They were mentioned many times in the Old Testament. God wanted them destroyed—they practiced sacred prostitution. This was heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual perversion. I mean, how bad is this? See if you can imagine prostitution being part of your religion. All this is to say: This was the third evil of this Canaanite area.
In summary, for all three of the reasons listed above, Mt. Hermon was Ground Zero of the gates of hell and demonism on earth--and yet this is where God led the Israelites--as it turned out, they partially failed. They fell into the attractive idolatry of sexual prostitution.
Now Jesus was leading His disciples here too. With His help, he wants to take a second shot at the world's evil, and smash it in the lives of His disciples.
Now, to finish the backdrop to the cosmic scope of what Jesus was doing on Mt. Hermon, I need to explain the “gates of Hell” quote. Hopefully you remember Matthew 16:18 above:
…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
We’re ready for the final two gems I got from Dr. Heiser. First, the idea that people have today, whether Catholic or Protestant, about interpreting this is, Satan would be attacking the church, but “the gates of hell shall not prevail against (it) the church. But this made no sense to Dr. Heiser, who couldn’t visualize gates attacking the Christian church. Gates are defensive, not offensive. Their purpose is to hold the attackers back. There is a simple explanation for this conundrum, and that is: a proper translation. From the Pure Word, the most accurate translation of koine Greek around, Matthew 16:18b:
…upon this huge Rock I will build My Assembly (ed. note: the church), and the gateways of hell shall definitely not triumph against Me.
This translation definitely implies that Jesus, in this quote, while He is standing on Ground Zero of hell on earth, is prophetically saying He (through us) will be attacking the gateways of hell, even at its worst, and the gateways will not be able to hold Him--or us--back (praise God!). Christ, with the help of His church, will blow through those gateways in complete and utter triumph! Hell will not triumph against His attack!
How does this happen? Because, though Satan would assume he triumphed by killing Jesus, in reality, Jesus won the battle. First, by dying, He accomplishes great things: He thus pays for our sins. Not only that, He was resurrected from the dead; thus He defeated death. We believers will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, attack Satan ourselves by living godly lives, sacrificing the world's pleasures for Him, and by bold witness. By following God’s will, our lives will be a triumph of good against evil. We will someday also be resurrected and join Him in heaven, and there will be no more death.
There is a second gem I got from Dr. Heiser, that further explains his “cosmic meaning” of the “who is the rock” conundrum. Dr. Heiser has climbed Mt. Hermon himself and discovered a huge rock jutting up from the earth at the peak, so that is the best vantage point that Jesus likely made His speech. That jutting-up rock was the rock Jesus was pointing out. Jesus was saying, “from where you are standing, even at this rock and the gates of hell, we shall attack Satan and shall have victory.” That was the double entendre of the word-play. “You are Peter (stone). I will build my church even on the gates of hell, represented by this rock.”
So the big picture is this: Jesus, at the time, is near the final week of His life. He has reasoned with the evil Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes; He has admonished and warned them that their lack of belief will send them to hell (John 8). But they still plan to kill Him. He knows that when He enters Jerusalem for Passover, they will make their move to kill. (What’s ironic is, they were playing into God’s hands—He wanted them to do it on Passover, to prove who the real Lamb of Sacrifice is). Jesus wants to taunt Satan into making his final move to kill Him. Jesus is deliberately standing on Mt. Hermon, ground zero for hell, and giving Satan the middle finger, as it were. He is telling Satan—"come on! Bring it on! Go ahead! Prove you are powerful enough to kill me!" (Ironic, as I say, since that’s what God wanted to happen to save His faithful people by Jesus paying the price for our sin. Satan did not know about God’s plan of redemption and resurrection). Jesus knew how to pick a spot for throwing down the gauntlet.
Jesus is the winning side in the battle of good vs. evil, God vs. Satan. By dissing Him, you are on the wrong side. Read Scripture--I recommend the Gospels--to find out how to get on His side. Your destination may change after your death as well; from hell to heaven. May God go with you.
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