When we read the Bible today, it’s easy to imagine that the spiritual world it describes is simple—just one God and nothing else. But the world Jesus walked in was far richer, far more vivid than we often realize. There were angels, rebellious spirits, a real Satan, a divine council, and a coming Messiah who would be exalted above all. These elements were part of the spiritual landscape Jesus knew intimately.
Jesus came into a world full of light and shadow—and He is the true light of God. He came not into a world of fantasy, but into a real spiritual world, where power, danger, and glory coexisted. Let’s see that light clearly. Let’s explore the world Jesus and the apostles knew, how they originally understood God and His heavenly realm, and how later Christianity actually modified how we think of the faith today. Most importantly, we will see how the original faith in Jesus given to the apostles can bring us into the light today. Scholars call this the Second Temple worldview.
Let’s start with Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:4 says:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
God is one. But that doesn’t mean He is alone. The Hebrew Scriptures also speak of many heavenly beings: angels, “sons of God,” “holy ones,” even “gods” who serve under Him. Psalm 82 says:
“God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment… ‘I said, You are gods, sons of the Most High.’”
This pattern goes all the way back to the Exodus account, central to the light on which the faith was built. In Egypt, the priests of Pharaoh invoked their gods to challenge the God of Abraham and Moses. Some of them were even partially successful—they could reproduce some of the plagues God sent. But eventually God’s plagues outdid theirs, showing He is greater than all these other gods. The Israelites saw that these other gods have some real power, but God is King over all of them.
In Job 1:6, we read about the “sons of God” presenting themselves before the LORD—and Satan is there too.
The point is clear: The world Jesus knew is a spiritual world full of beings, real and active. God reigns supreme, but His heavenly realm is populated. Jesus’ light shines into a very real spiritual world, not a fantasy.
Some people today question whether Satan exists, but Jesus did not. Luke 10:18 recounts Him saying, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” And in John 8:44, He calls him “the father of lies.” Jesus confronted demons personally. In Luke 4, we read of a man possessed by an unclean spirit crying out, “Have you come to destroy us?” Jesus commanded the spirit to leave, demonstrating His authority and the power of God active in the world.
The light of Jesus Christ came into a world where gods are real—some heavenly and some earthly—and the evil one is real. To believe in Jesus is to believe that He conquers the darkness around us. It is to believe that He is the light sent by God Himself: sent by the one God in whom no darkness exists.
Ancient writings preserved before Jesus’ time, like 1 Enoch, offer a window into the world of heavenly powers. They describe angels, rebellious spirits, and a pre-existent heavenly Son of Man. In 1 Enoch 48, we read: “In that hour, the Son of Man was named before the Lord of Spirits… All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him.”
Jesus identified as the Son of Man, as this figure—the one God sends, exalted above all, bringing the true light into the world. He is the fulfillment of what the faithful had long awaited.
When the religious leaders accused Him of blasphemy, Jesus quoted Psalm 82 in John 10:34–36: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? …how much more the one sanctified and sent by the Father?” Here, Jesus places Himself within the heavenly council, yet in a unique way—glorified and sent by the Father. He participates in the worldly powers and in the powers of the spiritual world, but He is appointed to reign above all of these powers. He is the light that no darkness can overcome.
The apostles did not speak in the philosophical language of later centuries. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 8:4–6, summarizes the pattern: “There is no God but one… yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things… and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.”
The apostolic understanding was simple yet profound: One God—the Father, and One Lord—the Son. This fits perfectly within the Second Temple worldview: one God, many heavenly beings under Him, and an exalted Lord.
After the Temple fell in AD 70, Judaism became more rigid, rejecting ideas like a second heavenly figure beside God or a divine Messiah. Early Christians faced a question: how could Jesus be worshiped without being considered “another God”?
This led to centuries of theological development: modalism, early distinctions between Jesus and the Father, the Arian controversy, the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and the eventual formulation of the Trinity in the 4th and 5th centuries. These debates show how the church varied in understanding the light of Jesus in a changing world.
So here is the good news: Jesus is the light! He came into a world full of power, danger, and glory. Believing in Him today means trusting the one God, the Father, and believing this Father sent Jesus as the light of the world, then holding to the teachings he revealed to his apostles, as the New Testament records; it means honouring the exalted Son who is made Lord over all by God when He raised Jesus His Son from the dead; and then being led by the Holy Spirit’s power in our own lives, the Holy Spirit given by God to those who believe. Yes, doctrines are now different from those believed by the earliest disciples, so we need to dig down and find “the faith once delivered to the saints”: That Jesus Christ is the light sent into the world by the One God, the Father, and it is His teachings we should receive as that light.
The light has come! Jesus Christ shines into the darkness, conquering evil, teaching the teachings of God, and calling us to trust in this light.
Today, He calls you: Believe in Him, the Son of God. Follow Him. Keep His teachings as light from God. Honour Him as Lord. Pray to His Father as the one true God. Step into the light that no darkness can overcome.
Christ died for you, and He lives forever by the power of the One God who sent Him.
