What evidence is there of a spiritual realm?

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This is not a definition, but shows us something of what faith does. It is that which, to the individual, gives solid substance to things hoped for. It is no mere fanciful imagination, but an honest trust in the living God, by which the things of God are made a definite, clear reality to the heart, and are thus recognized to be more truly substantial than all material substance-for the latter will pass away. Also it has that peculiar power of evidencing to us "things not seen." Faith in the living God is not blind, but the actual opening of the eyes, accepting unquestionable evidence of the reality of unseen, spiritual things.

Let no-one misunderstand the foregoing. We are not referring to the spirits of departed men and women. These are quite unable to influence earthly affairs, even if they know anything at all about them, which is very doubtful. Our reference is to angelic beings, some good, and some evil, as before stated. Men have always had a desire to pierce the veil which separates the visible from the invisible. Such inquisitiveness is dangerous in the extreme, and those who indulge in it expose themselves to the tyranny of beings greatly their superiors in power and subtlety, who delight to allure souls down to eternal ruin.

It has pleased God, in His gracious instruction of His own saints to give us glimpses of what is going on in the invisible world. He wishes His own, who are set in testimony for Him here, to have some understanding of the terrible influences which are persistently working for the destruction of the human race. We are thus ourselves preserved from Satanic deception, and are able to warn others also. Daniel 10:1; Daniel 12:4; 1 Kings 22:14-23; and Rev. 16:12-16 are scriptures which every Christian should carefully examine in this connection. In Dan. 10 we find the prophet in prayer for three weeks concerning the future of the people of Israel. At the end of that period an angel came to him saying that he was sent off at once with the answer, "but," said he, "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days" (ver. 13). Of whom is the angel speaking? Not of a man, certainly; for how could the Persian Sovereign hinder an angel coming from heaven with an answer to the prophet's prayer? And would he be likely to know that the prophet had prayed at all? It is a mighty spirit of whom the angel speaks, a spirit that interested itself for good or for evil in the politics of the Persian State. Then in ver. 20, we read: "now will I return to fight the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come." It is impossible to introduce men into such a passage. The angel is speaking of movements and counter movements in the spirit world, resulting in conflicts here upon earth. If the angel's message be read through to the end (Dan. 12:4), we shall learn of many mischievous doings on the part of Kings and others, energised by Satan; we shall also learn that Israel forms the centre of God's earthly ways, and that the archangel Michael has special charge of Israel's interests and that in due time he will act in power on their behalf. (Dan. 12:1) In connection with this interesting angelic communication to Daniel, Zech. 1:7-11; Zech. 3:1-5, and Zech. 6:1-8 may well be carefully considered.

Heaven as a place is not fiction. There is an uncreated heaven where God's throne and dwelling place have always been. From the passage here we may gather that there are certain times when all heavenly tenants, good and evil, have to assemble before the Lord. The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. The expression "sons of God" does not mean believers on earth (the sonship of a believer is a New Testament truth), but supernatural beings, the angels. According to this book these sons of God shouted for joy in the hour of creation (38:7). Other Scriptures speak of such heavenly gatherings. (See Psalm 89:5-7; Zech. 4, etc.) And Satan came also among them. He likewise must appear before the Lord. Satan means "adversary." In this character, as the accuser of the brethren he is seen in the last book of the Bible and according to Revelation 12 he is still active in the same capacity as in the days of Job, and has still access to the throne of God, till the hour comes when his doom begins with being cast out of heaven. Destructive criticism pronounceth Satan a Babylonian or Persian myth, a reproduction in Hebrew literature of the Persian fable of Ahriman. But even the French infidel Renan said of the Satan of the Scriptures, "This is quite a different person from the Ahriman of the Zend-Avesta. It is not the spirit of evil existing and acting for himself." He is not independent of God; as one has correctly stated it, "Satan can go only to the end of his chain." The critical assertion that the belief in a Satan originated after the exile is historically incorrect. The serpent in Genesis 3 is Satan. Originally he was Lucifer, the son of the morning (Isaiah 14), the cherub that covereth (Ezekiel 28) and this great creature of God fell by pride. (See "The History of Satan" in Studies in Prophecy Our Hope Press, and the larger work on Satan, His Person, Work Place and Destiny, by F.C. Jennings.)

Where may we find certainty concerning a matter so important? Not in the reasonings and speculations of men, but in the Word of the living God. Does it, or does it not, teach that there is something in man which does not perish with the body? The question is virtually answered in God's account of the beginning of things. We learn from Gen. 2:7 that the body of the man was first formed of the dust of the ground, and then, as a separate act, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The true life of man is thus not inherent in the outer frame; it is something distinct from mere bodily vitality. Add to this our Lord's words to His disciples in Matt. 10:28, "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Supplement this with the Saviour's reference to the long-departed patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in Luke 20:38, "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him." These passages prove conclusively that when earthly conditions are ended there is another sphere, in which the released spirit lives and moves, where no persecuting hand can ever come. And need we remind the reader of the rich man and Lazarus, who are vividly presented to us in Luke 16 in their respective conditions of anguish and bliss when this world had by both been left behind for ever?

It has been grateful to my own soul to think of the intercourse of heaven with earth, in the progress of this varied and wondrous history. I mean in the visions, or the dreams, or the angelic visits, which at times the people of God have enjoyed. The audiences of divine oracles are of this character also. All these show that the heavens had access to the earth, and had but to pass through a thin veil to meet or reach it.

While the earth was undefiled, the Lord God walked in the garden. And afterwards, though He was in some sense estranged from earth, yet He was ever ready to visit it in the behalf of His elect, as in the histories of Abraham, Joshua, Gideon, and others. The ladder which Jacob saw, with its top in heaven and its foot on the earth; the passing and repassing of Moses in and out between the Lord and the people; the elders going up and seeing the God of Israel; Solomon's ascent from his own house up to the house of the Lord, these are notices of intercourse between the heavens and the earth in the days of the kingdom. So that bright and memorable hour, when Jesus was transfigured, in company with Moses and Elias, in the sight of Peter, James, and John. So the occasional appearances of Christ to His disciples after He had risen. And so the vision of the descending and ascending sheet. The heavenly things at such moments unfold themselves to the eye of man, and give sweet notice of their nearness to us. We do not as yet perceive this nearness, for the glory is not yet in its millennial place over the city of the Jews; but faith reads these notices of this nearness, and understands them. Isaiah 4. Faith, in Elisha, knew that the Lord of hosts was nigh, and he prayed that his servant might have his eye opened to see that the mountains around him were filled with the chariots and horses of heaven; and in the millennial kingdom all this will be to sight. The heavenly glory, or glory of the golden city, will shine over the Jerusalem of the land of Israel. On all her habitations it will be a covering. The ladder will be erected, with its head in the heavens and its foot on the earth; the same blessed Lord will be the centre of all things; and, as in the different parts of one temple, the services of praise and joy will be celebrated, every tongue confessing Jesus Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

There is no doubt whatever that we are surrounded by a vast world of spirits, some good, and some evil. The good are those who continue in their proper allegiance to the Creator; the evil are those who are in revolt against Him, following the leadership of Satan. But both good and evil are deeply interested in the affairs of men; the one delighting in their blessing, and the other seeking to compass their ruin.

There are three notices of the spirit world in the epistle to the Ephesians which must detain us for a moment. In Eph. 1:20-21 we have Christ's position in relation thereto. He is seated at God's "right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion." However mighty the spirit forces in the universe may be, Christ is superior to them all, and all must yet acknowledge His Lordship. In Eph. 3:10 we are told "that now to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies is made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God." These are holy spirits, who observe with unselfish interest what God is doing for His redeemed, and they admire the wisdom of His ways therein. Peter says they desire to "look into" these things (1 Peter 1:12). Then in Eph. 6:12 we learn that the Christian's present conflict is "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places" (see margin).

(V. 13). Though Daniel's prayer had been heard on the first day that he had poured out his soul before God, the answer to his prayer had been delayed three weeks. The angel intimates the reason for this delay. There were spiritual antagonistic forces at work. For three weeks the prince of the kingdom of Persia had withstood the angel sent to answer Daniel's prayer. The prince of the kingdom of Persia is evidently a spiritual being. In this verse, Michael, the Archangel, is referred to as "one of the chief princes," and in the last chapter as "the great prince."

Scripture clearly intimates that in the spiritual realm there are good principalities and powers as well as those that are evil (Eph. 1:21; Eph. 6:12, etc.): and that even as God has deputed certain angelic beings, under the direction of an angelic prince, to guard His people, so Satan has evil spiritual powers, under an arch-enemy, deputed to carry out his opposition to God among the nations of the world.

But in the account of Daniel's praying, what a curtain is uplifted from unseen things! Many suppose that above this world all is good. But Scripture lets us know that there are principalities, authorities, and spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies, with whom, indeed, we are in conflict (Eph.6:12). Does it seem strange that wicked spirits should be there? The explanation is that there has been sin amongst spiritual creatures as well as in man, and that indeed before man existed. For we find that when only just ushered upon the platform of creation he is confronted by an insidious foe already in existence - that old serpent, the devil. However, man, the material being, though having sinned, has not yet been cast out of the earth, which is the home of his nature; he is still tolerated here, though in rebellion against God, and though he has risen up against, and crucified, the Son of God. Now heaven is the habitat of spiritual beings, as the earth is of material; and the spirits which have sinned are not yet expelled from the heavens, any more than man from the earth.[3]

"The devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain" (Matt. 4:8); "Angels came and ministered unto Him" (Matt. 4:11); "Those possessed with demons" (Matt. 4:24); "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:53.) These and many other scriptures speak of spirit-creatures. We read of the prince of the demons, the wicked hosts of fallen spirits, as the legion that possessed the demoniac of Gadara; of the angels who ministered to the Lord, the multitude of the heavenly hosts, more than twelve legions of whom would gladly have responded to the Father's command to attend upon His Son; but immediately we recognize that none of these can for one moment be thought of in any other way than as creatures. They are either fallen creatures like the devil and his kindred spirits, or the unfallen angels who delight to attend upon the Son of God. Thus, not only is God's spiritual essence declared in distinction from all material existences, but in contrast with all the hosts of spiritual beings who are His creatures.

Is there a life beyond the grave? Often and anxiously the question is agitated amongst men. The Son of God answers it for us here. The beggar died, and was forthwith, not extinguished nor consigned to centuries of insensibility, but carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The position is described from the Jewish point of view. Conscious blessedness and that in the company of the father of the faithful, is plainly set forth. The rich man also died, and of him it is said, "he was buried." Why is this added in his case? Clearly because the Lord would carefully distinguish between body and soul. The man's body was buried, doubtless with all the pomp and circumstance that suited so wealthy a person; but immediately afterwards we read "in Hell (Hades) he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." Let me repeat, his body was laid in the tomb, but his soul went to Hades. Beyond all just controversy, this is the Saviour's meaning in the passage before us.