Ethereal MindPeter's angel and Pneumatology
Continuing my greatest spiritual awakening ever, I woke up recently obessed over Peter's angel from Acts 12:15. I am seeking to prove some beautiful - and terrifying - new pneumatology.
If any of you lacks wisdom
It's been a little while since I last wrote a blog here on Ethereal Mind, and the primary reason is because God has been doing some utterly mind-boggling things in my life. In short, I asked for wisdom that I determined to be lacking, particularly in the area of pneumatology, and God answered me more powerfully, more overwhelmingly than I ever could have imagined.
I can personally attest to the fact that this Bible verse is true, and I challenge you to take up God on his word:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
I feel strongly that I have been given some invaluable new talents to spend on his behalf, deposits that I cannot and will not bury into the ground (cf. Matthew 25:24-25), and so I am determined - nay, burdened - to yield him a satisfactory return on investment.
Hidden mysteries
I have received some of the most awe-inspiring, wondruous illuminations into Scripture that I could have ever possibly conceived of. I've been a Christian for over twenty years, and God still absolutely takes me to school with his hidden wisdom and divine mysteries scattered throughout the Scriptures. And if my usage of the words "hidden" and "mysteries" sound strange, I would encourage to go reread several of Paul's epistles. He attested to the fact, on a great many occassions, that this gospel we preach is indeed a mystery and a manifold-wisdom hidden in God before the ages, full of wondrous truths that are spiritually discerned ^1:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
It is about some of these very mysteries which has so greatly perplexed my mind and elevated my heart in these past four to five months.
The Divine Council Worldview
Ever since around late August or early September last year, I have dove in, head first and with the greatest enthusiasm, to the ground-breaking work of the late Dr. Michael Heiser and his focus on the Divine Council Worldview. I have always, always been drawn to the supernatural mysteries of the Bible, and I have likewise always been very dissatisfied with the modern, American, western church that commonly ignores those details, if they ever even acknowledge them at all. Dr. Heiser's wondrous synthesis of scholarly thought around the Divine Council scholarship and Second Temple Jewish beliefs has illuminated and explained deep, ancient, supernatural mysteries of the Unseen Realm that have always plagued the back of my mind.
His work lead me down the greatest, most potent spiritual awakening that I have ever experienced. And as if that was not a monumental enough of a blessing, our generous God decided to give me a part two earlier this year.
Peter's Angel
That's when, around four to five months ago, I woke up thinking about Peter's angel, and I could not get it out of my mind.
I don't fully know how to articulate this oddity; I woke up on a Monday morning, moved in my spirit to research Peter's angel, the idea of heavenly counterparts, and the elusive, rarely-studied field of pneumatology. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit (and, I would add, general spiritual matters in the Bible).
This strange, strange verse kept ringing in my mind, almost obsessively, and I could not mentally rest until I gave it some sufficient investigation:
They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
For context, this is the famous story of Acts 12 where Peter is miraculously broken out of prison - where he would have likely been executed by King Herod, who had previously killed James the son of Zebeedee just a few verses earlier in Acts 12:2. Peter was rescued and released from prison by an angelic helper, and afterwards he went to the house of Mary to reconcile with the disciples. At the door, a woman named Rhoda answered him, and once she realized it was indeed Peter, she was so overwhelmed with joy that she left Peter at the door and went to tell the other disciples that their dear brother had returned to them. In disbelief, they dismissed Rhoda's claims, and even when she said she recognized Peter's voice, they, still disbelieving, retorted that it must have been Peter's angel.
Huh? Where did that idea come from?
Even though the earthly Peter was indeed at the door, as they came to discover, why would Peter's angel have the same voice as him? Who gave them that idea?
Am I missing something?
Starting the research
From here, I decided to scrape every forumn, every Reddit post, every YouTube video, every corner of the internet that I could discover which exegeted this strange verse in Acts 12:15 and spoke on angelic traditions and, most specifically, heavenly counterpart traditions.
That lead me into this Reddit post on r/AcademicBiblical where someone asked a similar question as I on Peter's angel, and an answer in that thread pointed me to the life-changing work of Dr. Andrei Orlov. On that particular Bible scholar, I have a great deal more to share; suffice it to say for the moment, I think it was no mistake that I came across his scholarship; rather, I think I was lead - am still being lead - by the Holy Spirit.
I found a heavenly double video by a man named Tim Ware who spoke on this concept in his The Chapel of Christ. To my delight, I also found a short interview video from the beloved Dr. Heiser where he addressed this similar concept of a "heavenly twin". I recommend watching both videos, they were both great.
Ready Set Go
And that was the beginning of the strangest, most bizzare, most terrifying, most wondrous Scriptural journey I have ever walked to this date. You have no idea how much I have to tell you, to share with you.
I am not kidding you in the slightest when I say that I have been burdened with beautiful new knowledge, the likes of which may cost me dearly in my personal life, yet which I am confident God will sow and prepare for reception with at least some of the people that I encounter. In the comings months or years, however crazy you may think that I am, I assure you that I have not lost my mind, not in the slightest.
I believe strongly in Sola Scriptura, and I'm willing to follow Scripture wherever it may lead me, however strange and unexpected the destination might be.
Be ready to learn, image bearer.
