W
hen we examine the scriptures closely, it is not hard to see the outlines of the spiritual in the sketches of God’s painting. The Christian life is filled with supernatural events. Yet, modern Christians today live in a time and place that is staunchly materialist. We celebrate the spiritual victories of the past on Sundays, but scowl at any scent of the supernatural, immediately testing any miracle with our trusty scientific method and then instinctively tossing the event into the charismatic garbage bin next to our essential oils and the supposedly long-lost Spear of Destiny.
But, ironically, it does not take long when we wade in the waters of scripture for us to encounter something outside the norms of the human experience. From Genesis, we see entities like the Nephilims and mentions of the “sons of god”. Even in our recent Word of the Week, we were introduced to the Divine Council, spiritual creatures with supposed influence and dominion. What exactly are these creatures?
What is the Divine Council?
The clearest biblical depiction of the Divine Council is in Psalm 82 where it reads “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment”. This cast of Council is again acknowledged in Psalm 89 where the writer asks, “Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared.” But even beyond the shores of the Psalm are mentions of some Divine Council. In the beginning of Job, God seems to be meeting with the “Sons of God” or “Elohim” and Satan seems to be included in this mix.
Is this ancient Near Eastern imagery? Or are there really mini-gods roaming around the world under the authority of Yahweh? Could Annabelle really be a conscious principality arrayed against the church? And what exactly is Elohim? Isn’t that just another interchangeable word for God?
Inspired by the Counterpoint books, presented here are the four most prominent views on the Divine Council to allow the reader to compare the different views side by side.
Divine Council as Spiritual Beings:
Michael Heiser’s academic expertise in the bible is Ancient Near Eastern languages and history and he has written extensively regarding the Divine Council. This perspective is one that not only what “The Bible Project” defaults to (literally cited at the end of their video), but also the one that TLC’s Word of the Week probably will ascribe to.
Heiser argues that the Divine Council is actually a wide spectrum of spiritual entities that even has its own hierarchy. The understanding of this position has to start with Hebrew linguistics. Much like the English word moose or fish, the word “Elohim” can be either plural or singular depending on the context of the sentence. However, its usage always strictly deals with the existence of some entity in the spiritual realm.
Heiser bases his argument on Psalm 82 to formulate the identity of these spiritual beings called “The Divine Council”. He argues that the plurality of the word “Elohim” points to the Divine Council being lesser divine entities, commonly referred to as lowercase gods, who are above angels but below the Godhead. These members of the Divine Council accomplish God’s will in the supernatural realm, acting as the parallel for humans in the physical realm.
This worldview structure birthed the doctrine of Cosmic Geography, a belief about the Divine Council that stems from Deuteronomy 32:8. Heiser argues that God disinherited all nations except Israel and gave different members of the Divine Council authority in steering and controlling spheres of power throughout the world. Eventually, members of the Divine Council throughout history grew corrupt and rebelled, leading to events such as the Nephilims in Genesis or to the self-glorification and the fall of a particular member now known as Satan. The conclusion to this worldview will be when Jesus, considered a unique entity even among the Divine Council, returns and defeats the disloyal members of the Divine Council, ultimately incorporating loyal Christians into the Divine Council and restoring an Edenic Kingdom.
The Divine Council as Angels:
This perspective takes a less metanarrative approach and simply argues that the Divine Council refers to angels. Popularized by John Piper in his “Putting the Gods in their Place” article, this perspective holds that the existence of any other spiritual entity is extra-biblical and that the scriptures already provide ample evidence for angels and demons having dominion on earth. Therefore, the Council in Psalm 82 must refer to different angelic beings who were given positions of authority. This perspective is backed by Jude 6 where it reads, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.”
This belief presupposes that whenever “Elohim” is used in a plural context or when the words “sons of god” appear, it must be referring to angels. Going a step further, Piper uses Psalm 82:6-7 to argue that fallen angels can still “die” a spiritual death in the lake of fire.
Quoting from Piper’s article itself, the end of this worldview is when:
“Our God owns the nations. The “gods” are permitted for a season to wreak havoc. We are called to see beyond their suicidal schemes of sin. We are called to stand with God and bear witness to his truth against the darkness. In due time he will defeat all his enemies and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
The Divine Council as Humans:
Popularized by many Old Testament commentators and scholars, this perspective argues that the Divine Council in Psalm 82 refers not to heavenly beings, but actual human rulers who rule alongside God here on earth. Humans are constantly referred to as his ambassadors and his image-bearers, therefore also can be argued as being lowercase “gods”. The language in the other Psalms, such as in Psalm 94, seems to use the same dominion language as Psalm 82, but refers to human rulers explicitly instead.
In this worldview, the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 do not refer to angelic beings but to the chosen people of God, negating the existence of sexual relations between angels and humans. However, this worldview also affirms that these “gods” who are chosen to rule and have dominion over the earth can also fall into the need of discipline and correction, leading to conquests like in the book of Joshua.
Further evidence for this position relies on the fact that the word “Elohim” has been used to refer to humans before in scripture, such as in Exodus 21 and 22. In both instances, “Elohim” is used to refer to human rulers and to imply dominion over something. Another instance occurs in 2 Samuel 28, where the ghost of Samuel conjured through the request of Saul is also referred to as “Elohim”.
The Divine Council as the Trinity:
One view is that the Divine Council is merely poetic language meant to refer to the Trinity. The word “Elohim” seems to refer to the Trinity in Genesis 1 during the creation account. Further along with the Old Testament, in Job 1, the only individuals mentioned by name are God and Satan. It is possible that Satan, an angel, could be privy to some actions of the Divine Council, but does not have to be part of it. Rather, like in Genesis 1, the Divine Council could solely refer to the Trinitarian God. There is further evidence for this in John 10:33-39 where Jesus makes a case for his divinity using the historical term of Elohim. The underlying argument here is that if the Divine Counsel existed apart from the Godhead, then Jesus’ declaration claiming to be in the Father and the Father in him would have to be blurred with the potential claim of just being another divine status between angels or some other spiritual entity.
This view is scripturally backed by Romans 11:34-35 where it writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” Crossapplying to Psalm 82, based on the Christian understanding of the sovereignty of God, holders of this view argue that nothing happens apart from His sovereign will. There is no Divine Council who provides wisdom to God apart from God. Thus, in Psalm 82, the Psalmist means that God is His own divine council in a trinitarian sense, and “the gods” speaks to the Psalmist’s knowledge of how some of his counterparts would understand the world to be (the false idea that there are multiple gods). It would not be unprecedented for Yahweh to symbolically dominate another dead, lowercase god, like Dagon, despite its non-existence in order to communicate his supremacy clearly to a pagan people.
The scriptures are clear that there is only one God, and explicitly provides no category for a being existing between God and angels. Alistair Begg writes of scripture that, “the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main thing.” If God had not explicitly revealed in scripture the existence of another spiritual entity, then it must either not exist or just be a part of the “secret things” that belong to God mentioned in Deuteronomy 29:29.
Conclusion
In no way is this an attempt to map out the oceans of the Divine Council, but rather just a quick trip near the shore-admiring the landmarks and pointing out some touristy sights of interest. It does, however, provide an introductory model for Christians to dissect and test against the Word
Our faith is unmistakenly marked by the supernatural and we are called to grow in our spiritual understanding of God. However, we cannot escape the reality that, within evangelicalism, we have fashioned many doctrines that are outside of the bounds of scripture. As followers of Christ, we must balance the knowledge that all scripture is beneficial for our spiritual growth and the understanding that we must test all things through scripture. Paul makes this clear in Timothy where he writes: “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (1:13–14). With our history in mind, we must take careful discretion to read each viewpoint with the lens of scripture and the urging of the Holy Spirit. Without scripture, we are prone to wander from the fold of God by twisting doctrine “to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).
