East and West
As the sun rises is the east and sets in the west, this shows the pattern of our destiny, human history arose in the east but now the focus is in the west and westernization. East represents the past, and west the future. The most futuristic and technology-based area is Silicon Valley, which is as far west as you can get. Reading in the book of Daniel, we find this battle playing out between the eastern spirit of authority, tradition and the past (Prince of Persia) and the western spirit of rationalism, humanism, and progress (Prince of Greece). Lets take a dive and learn a bit about angelic and demonic forces and the battle of the principalities.In Daniel 10, Daniel was in prayer and fasting for the salvation and deliverance of his fellow Israelite remnant who were scattered abroad in Babylon. The Babylonians had captured and enslaved the Israelites and taken them far out of their home country. Despite the prosperity of Babylon, being stuck in this foreign territory was distressing, as the Israelites no longer had a temple to go to and were trapped in a hostile and idolatrous culture with values opposite of God’s. They yearned for freedom and to be restored to their home country where they could live and serve God in peace. This was the subject of Daniel’s prayers. Interestingly, the angel which was sent to fulfill the answer to Daniel’s prayer was hindered for three full weeks by a spirit being known as the “prince of Greece.”
Daniel 10:20-21, “Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth. (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince.”
There are four powerful spiritual forces mentioned here. On the devil’s side we have the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece. On the light side we have the unnamed angel helping Daniel and the archangel Michael.
So who are these two demonic princes in battle against God’s plan? To understand this we must first realize that not all angels and demons are of equal power. Traditionally there are considered to be nine classes of angel. The first sphere is the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim (Thrones). This angel category deals with mostly heavenly ministry and guarding God’s glory. Anytime these are mentioned in scripture, they are constantly worshipping and guarding God’s throne. The second set of angels are Dominions, Virtues, and Powers. A few of these are alluded to by Paul in
1 Colossians 1:16 “16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”
Ephesians 1:20-21 “….He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
Whereas the first sphere of angels is dedicated to guarding God’s glory, the duties of this second set are traditionally considered to be more related to watching over the universe and over other angels, keeping order. Scripture itself does not give us too much detail on this sphere of angel.
Lastly we have the third angelic sphere. The Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. This is the human-facing category of angels. These directly interact to influence events and people on earth. Angels are the lowest category. These minister on earth, not in the heavens. Archangels are one level higher. The Greek word “arch” means “leader.” In an army, there are the private soldiers, then there are squad and unit leaders. Archangels would be like the leaders and commanders over the standard angels. Although Michael is commonly called an archangel, scripture actually refers to him as a principality. He watches over the nation of Israel. Principalities are the angels and demons which have authority over nations and large groups of people. These are the “strongman” Christ refers to, which must be bound to capture the goods being protected. We see a principality being cast down from heaven in Luke 10:17-18 “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven….”
As the 70 went out and preached, this broke the power satan had over the people in the region to the extent that the regional principality lost its power and fell down “like lightning” to earth. Every nation on earth has fallen principalities that satan assigns to govern it, give the national leaders advice, and lead the nation into sin and depravity. The more influential and warlike nations will likely have more powerful demonic deities that are assigned to them. A principality is a type of fallen angel that is significantly more powerful and influential than regular demons.
Every fallen principality was once a holy angel. As a result, God made all his creation unique and special with no carbon copies. Just as every human has their areas and talent and gifting, the angels were created likewise. As a result, each of these fallen principalities has an area of their talents and personality that is stronger, and now that they have perverted it, they spread their corrupted talent all over their region.
The demonic principalities in a nation correspond with the false gods of that nation. Whenever the false god is worshiped, the worship actually goes to elevate the demonic principality giving him access to the heavens/sky over that area and it gives him greater power and influence in the region.
The Prince of Greece
The demonic principalities that governed ancient Greece were most likely knowledge and wisdom based angels before they rebelled against God. When they joined the rebellion against the Creator, it caused their talented minds of wisdom to become corrupted and prideful. As a result, as the ancient Greeks worshiped these deities they began to take on some of the nature of the fallen princes and believe that their human wisdom and understanding was perfect and could solve everything. One of the false gods worshipped in Greece was Hermes, this is may have even been the "Prince of Greece" spoken of in Daniel’s vision. Hermes is a spirit associated with intellect and communication.
Since Greek spirits are based on knowledge and intellect, is it any surprise that it is at universities where fraternities and sororities make their members vow allegiance to Greek lettering to come into covenant with these spirits? That is the ancient principality marking his territory over the realm of knowledge and its institutions.
Hermeneutics
Modern day bible-study is based on the principles of what is known as Hermeneutics. This practice is based on fixating on the literal plain-meaning layer of scripture only, and denying any prophetic Spirit-led interpretation. The interpretations denies and ignores all of the allegories and hidden meanings of the Bible with the mindset “an interpretation is only true if it was known to the original author of the book.” Thus, it exalts the intellect to the maximum and shuts the Holy Spirit out completely.
The Jews believed every scripture had four paths of unique meaning, symbolized by the four rivers of Eden. The first is the “Peshat,” the surface or “plain” meaning. The second “Remez” is hints and allegory. The third “Derash” means to “seek” and refers to the Midrashic interpretations. The fourth is the mystical or esoteric interpretation.
Genesis 2:10-14, “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.”
The Holy Spirit states hermeneutics is read spiritually as “Hermes Neuters.” The castration of the power in the Word being taken away as humans limit the bible to only the plain meaning and scoff at all of the symbols and allegories. In place of God’s prophetic spirit, we surrendered the beauty of God’s word into the hands of a Greek principality, to rob the word of its life and produce generations of spiritual eunuchs. When you use hermeneutics and textual criticism, you interpret the bible with the mindset and wisdom of the Prince of Greece that is associated with corrupted wisdom and corrupted understanding. Rather than to listen to the Holy Spirit who would guides us into all truth, it totally blocks him. Many passages of scripture have two or three tiers of meaning. Matthew and the early apostles in the New Testament constantly butchered todays rules of bible interpretation. Many of the prophecies of Christ were considered “taken out of context” because the Jews wouldn’t allow themselves to see past the plain surface meaning into what God was trying to reveal.
For example, in Isaiah 7:14 it says the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Matthew interpreted this to refer to Christ’s virgin birth. This is actually what would be considered “taken out of context” if you are fixed on using hermeneutics. The original passage taken only strictly literally, referred to a young woman (who must be been known to Ahaz and Isaiah) who would bear a child and that God would destroy king Ahaz enemies before the child had grown up enough to know right from wrong. King Ahaz lived hundreds of years before the time of Christ, so to understand this passage is a prophecy of Christ’s virgin birth requires going beyond the original meaning and into another of the four rivers of interpretation. What if Matthew had been stuck in a mindset of using hermeneutics to interpret scripture? He would have missed out on one of the most important prophecies of the Messiah!
In Hosea 11:1 the prophet writes: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.”
This passage was universally understood to refer to how God rescued his “son” Israel from the slavery in Egypt. If we left it there we would have totally missed out on the Messianic meaning hidden here. Matthew 2:13-15 interprets the passage in Hosea to refer to Christ returning from Egypt as a child, where his family had fled to escape Herod’s persecution. Being unwilling to go beyond the plain-meaning of the passages caused the New Testament era Jews to reject Christ as Messiah. We cannot allow ourselves to make a similar mistake in the end-times and miss God’s plan because we are trapped in literal-only bible interpretation.
Midrash is the true Jewish method of interpretation for the scriptures. This allows one passage to have multiple meanings and interpretations that all stand side-by-side. The midrash method finds meaning in every phrase and word, as scripture says in Isaiah 28:9-11, "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue [the language of hidden revelation] will he speak to this people."
Who are those “weaned from the milk”? The book of Hebrews has the answer:
5:12-14 “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Milk is to focus mostly on theology and not move on to revelation and operating in power. Milk has calcium which makes bones strong, but focusing on bones only leads to a dead skeleton type of faith, theology-based. Meat builds muscle and the strong meat Hebrews refers to, is to operate in the supernatural, accessing your giftings and ministering in power. Hermeneutics causes us to focus only on theology and not enough on power and revelation.
13 "But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
The "snare" here is the trap of hermeneutics. Trapping believers into a false interpretation based on limiting the word to what it meant to the original author, when in fact the Bible was written as a living book to speak to all ages throughout history. A prideful scoffing contemptuous know-it-all attitude is the quickest way to block hearing God’s voice. It’s crucial to be open-minded and humble to receive revelation and insight from scripture. The Bible is a living book. Be open to what he is speaking from it!
See also: Trying to Cast Down a Principality