Welcome to the Empyrean

Exploring the theology behind Underland and the Forehidden Kingdom

In 2019 I released my debut book, The Kingdom, The Body, The Bride and the Tabernacle. I sought to answer the question, what is the Kingdom of God and how is the church supposed to live that Kingdom out?

To answer that question, I explored some of the dustier corners of biblical theology that some remain ignorant of. It involved tracing the history of redemption from Genesis to Revelation, but also exploring how this storyline tracked and intersected with the unfolding drama of the spiritual realm and those that inhabit it.

Why, might you ask? Because how the Good News of God’s Kingdom unfolds tracks right alongside this intersection between heaven and earth.

For example, just as God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt involved God’s metaphorical judgement on the gods of Egypt, our rescue from the enemies of sin, death and Satan involve Jesus contending with and overthrowing the literal “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Colossians 2:15, Ephesians 1:20-21).

Now, “What are those?” you might ask.

We’ve all seen the images of angels and demons with their bird & bat wings, halos & horns, pitch forks & bow and arrows, but the truth is far more bizarre and (quite frankly) far more interesting than that!

“God [Elohim] has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods [elohim] he holds judgment . . . I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” — Psalm‬ ‭82‬:‭1‬, ‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

God (with a capital “G”) had a council of lower-case “g” gods who were cursed to die like men? Say what?!

It all begins with understanding that, according to ancient Israelite thought, the word elohim (what we usually translate as “God”) didn’t carry the same set of unique attributes that we attach to the word “G.O.D.” Namely, elohim described where something was from rather than what it was.

Hence, you could find the term attached to Yahweh God of Israel, demons (Deut 32:17), members of God’s Divine Council (Psalm 82:1) and even deceased human beings (1 Samuel 28:13). What they all had in common was that they were inhabitants of the unseen, spiritual world.

Yahweh, God of Israel, was El-Elyon; God Most High. “Most High” means he was the elohim who was higher than all the others. What this didn’t mean was that these other beings were in the same league or class as him.

Yahweh is an elohim, but no other elohim is Yahweh. He alone was the unique, Most High Elohim who had created all things, including the lesser elohim.

There were multiple elohim who were known as the “sons of the Most High” and the “sons of God.” And what’s more, according to Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32:8, they had a hand in ruling over the nations of the Earth but had somehow been corrupted.

Now, can you imagine a better canvas for creativity?

So, when it came to writing my young adult fantasy fiction novel, I had an elaborate canvas of theology to draw from that would undergird the world I was creating.

What I would like to do here on the Empyrean is begin to explore some of the theology behind Underland and the Forehidden Kingdom and share it with you.

I haven’t quite decided how to do that just yet. My initial plan was to serialise the chapters of KBBT here as articles, post some other musings and throw in additional content that never made it into the final book. I might still do that or just adapt some of the chapters to make shorter articles. We’ll see. But in the mean time, stay posted!

To get an idea of where we’ll be going, you can read the first three chapters for free here.