principalities and powers, have only learned the manifold wisdom of God since

'the Mystery' entrusted to Paul has been made known.  The death of Christ not

only delivered His people, it destroyed their foes.

In Romans 8:37 Paul speaks of the suffering believer as being 'more

than conqueror' through Him that loved us, and then goes on to assure us that

nothing can rob us of this victory or separate us from this love, and among

the possible antagonists he places 'principalities and powers' in close

association with 'death and life', an association that would be without sense

or purpose if these exalted beings were not antagonistic to the purposes of

'For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor

height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us

from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom.

Under the translation 'rule' in 1 Corinthians 15:24 is hidden the word

'principality', and by restoring it we are assured of the promise of Romans

8.  Once again these principalities are aligned with death, for among the

enemies that are to be destroyed at the end is death. 'The end' will be

attained only 'when He shall have put down all principality and authority and

The first appearance in Ephesians of these principalities and powers is

in chapter 1.  There Christ is depicted as being seated 'far above' them, in

'heavenly places', whereas they, the principalities, powers, might and

dominion, are 'under His feet', and this subjection is in direct contrast

with the Church which is His Body, being shown in chapter 2 to be not only

raised up together with Christ, but potentially to be 'seated together' in

heavenly places, far above those subordinated principalities and powers.

Ephesians 6:12 at first sight seems to teach that these warring world rulers

of darkness are actually waging war 'in heavenly places'.  Now the earlier

references to 'heavenly places' leave no doubt about the fact that they are

where Christ sits at the right hand of God.  Are these 'spiritual

wickednesses in heavenly places', there, at the right hand of God?  It is

imperative that we seek a Scriptural answer to this question, for we must

remember that Satan's authority is limited to the 'air', and that Christ and

His church are 'far above all principality' and therefore far above the realm

of Satan himself.  In a footnote to an article written years ago by the

author in Things to Come, Dr. Bullinger drew attention to the true

disposition of the verse:

'For we wrestle not

But With principalities

in heavenly places'.

with flesh and blood

... Of This World

We do not wrestle with flesh and blood; neither do we wrestle in

heavenly places.  We do wrestle with spiritual wickednesses who are the

rulers of this darkness ('of this world' omitted, see R.V.).  The reader may

appreciate a confirmatory passage where a similar division of subject is

necessary.  As 2 Peter 1:19 stands in the A.V. it lends colour to the

erroneous teaching that the, Second Coming of Christ is not to be understood