Concerning Stoicheion, Elementals, and Nature Spirits

A reader called my attention to another ministry’s teaching regarding stoicheion (elemental spirits), nature spirits, and sitting in a council of spirits, and asked for my thoughts regarding it.

I viewed two hour-long discussions between two leaders of this ministry and agree it’s worth responding so that seers (and others) can have some wisdom and balance regarding this topic.

However, I’m not interested in “calling out” ministries or teachers.

As expressed in this series on God’s varieties of grace, God grants ministries a measure of grace according to his wisdom.

While ministry leaders may step beyond the level of grace, that doesn’t mean they have stepped beyond the level of grace in all areas.

So I think it’s unwise and dishonoring to attack specific ministries or teachers, especially when a lot of their fruit is really good.

Instead, I’ll address the specific ideas presented by this ministry regarding stoicheion, elementals, and rudiments (i.e., earth or nature spirits).

Earth Spirits

The ministry promotes that the Bible teaches the existence of nature spirits. Specifically, trees and rocks, mountains and stars, rivers and clouds, the sun and moon, etc., all have spiritual existences, and these spirits are sentient.

These nature spirits, the ministry teaches, are not only sentient, but can and do speak to humans. The ministry endorsed the view that not only can a seer or spiritual sensitive talk to the spirits, they should, as long as they acknowledge that Jesus is King. For instance, one leader stated the minister talks to the tree spirits in the minister’s yard, and the tree spirits talk back, offering advice or encouragement. 

These spirits (specifically the tree spirits), the minister taught, are very powerful and can appear to be demons to seers, but they aren’t. They’re stoicheion – a biblical Greek word that appears in the New Testament a few time which the ministry interprets as earth spirits. 

This was presented in an American context, where centuries ago European settlers disrupted the harmony Native Americans shared with nature and their spirit gods. 

War of the Earth Spirits

The teacher presented that there is a war going on between tree spirits that are loyal to Jesus and tree spirits that are aligned with wicked gods.

Human allies to the wicked tree spirits were actually destroying the good trees; other “acts of nature” were also destroying good trees, as in the wildfires of California. These aren’t actually acts of nature, the minister explained, but spiritual forces manifesting in the physical.

The teacher explained that witches and other pagans control some of these tree spirits for the purpose of channeling their power. They bind some of the good spirits, and even drain them of their power. The good tree spirits want Jesus as their king, but other tree spirits do not. Many are sort of ambivalent.

Spirit Trips to the Council of the Stoicheion

The minister (along with some friends) formed an emissary team to make peace with the tree spirits, because humans have done such damage to nature, and they want to bring God’s reconciliation to the nature spirits.

They do this by taking spirit trips, led by an angel, to commune with the good tree spirits. In other words, these friends get together for an out-of-body trip led by an angel to a council of tree spirits. Sometimes they first visit heaven to receive some judgments (and blessings) from God (in the form of scrolls).

In the council, they (still in the spirit) interact with the council of tree spirits, whom all knew the angel which led them, and then the humans (still in spirit form) deliver the judgements (usually in the form of blessings) from God. Additionally, strategies would be discussed regarding the spirit wars. 

The ministry’s advice included tuning into the earth spirits for the purpose of extending God’s kingdom here on earth, while acknowledging that these entities would all be burned up when God destroys the earth spirits with fire, and that’s kind of a bummer for the trees.

The scriptural justification for these beliefs and experiences include

1. The several mentions of stoicheion in the New Testament. Stoicheion, again, is a Greek word they say means earth spirits, or nature spirits, but is translated variously in English versions of the Bible, like “elementary principles of the world.”
2. Various verses that describe parts of nature worshiping God (e.g., “…the very stones will cry out”, Luke 19:40).
3. The trees and other plants talking to each other about who will be king in Judges 9.
4. The “spirit trips” described in the New Testament by John, Paul, and Peter and also Enoch in 1 Enoch.

A Seers See Ministries Response

My response will be over several posts, but generally will follow this outline:

1. Opening thoughts from a Christian seer who is also an academic.
2. Examining the scholarly study of what stoicheion really means both in the Bible and in contemporary texts outside the Bible.
3. The Council of Trees in Judges 9 and other biblical examples of parts of nature speaking: earth spirits in the Bible?
4. Spirit trips
5. Concerning Nature
6. Regarding the use of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings by some adherents to this teaching to further justify it.

I ask that readers please withhold judgement until all the responses are released (except maybe point 6, which will be somewhat lighter than the others, but hopefully still useful).

As I’ve explained elsewhere, I’m not a seer. I’ve never seen a demon or a monster, let alone a tree spirit. I’m not even particularly sensitive to the spirit realm. I basically rely on biblical research to understand and interpret the experiences of seers (and those who love them).

I didn’t want to react inappropriately or hastily to these teachings, so before beginning a response, I asked a friend of mine for her opinion. She’s extremely sensitive to the spirit realm and also a biblical scholar. (Yes, some seers actually are scholars!) To protect her privacy, I’m keeping her name confidential.

I asked what she thought about this teaching regarding nature spirits. I’m aware she viewed both parts of the teaching released by the ministry in question.

A Seer’s Thoughts

Part of me that has played in that arena really loves the idea. I felt myself go through all the emotions and physical reaction that come out to play when I brush up against something I shouldn’t be playing with. First, I felt high and giddy. Then as I pushed through to listen for the truth, I felt nauseated and started to get a headache. Not a great litmus test for others, but they are signs that I have learned to pay attention to for my own well being. 

There is power in what they are doing. I do think that they have crossed the boundary between Christianity and witchcraft. And in case, I haven’t shared my definition for the distinction with you:

Witchcraft is the attempt to make spirits submit to you. 

Christianity is walking in submission to the Holy Spirit. 

Classically, white witchcraft was exactly what they are doing – making the spirits of nature conform to one’s desires. As they were not addressing Satan or demons, these witches felt vindicated in calling their practice good. It was merely taking an authoritative position within the spiritual realm to work with the forces at work in nature. The problem is, how do they know when they are dealing with spirits of nature or when they have begun dabbling with demons? I don’t think they can. I might be wrong, but I doubt it. 

You don’t have to be too big of a movie buff to know how this typically plays out – you get used to the high of having power so you go in search of the next hit. Something that offers you the same high you felt the first time. And I have no doubt there is a high in the perception of control over such powerful forces. But where does one go after that? God will not be controlled in this manner but the demonic will certainly allow you to think that they are willing to do one’s bidding just long enough to get them hooked. In God’s mercy, the warnings have been “writ large” across all cultures, eras in history, and in every medium – don’t fall for this trap. 

On the flip side, these “nature spirits” always have a dark side. Fairies, elves, nymphs, etc, only became light and fuzzy in recent portrayals. In antiquity, the light and beauty were nothing more than ploys to entrap the unsuspecting and uninformed. They have more in common with Rumpelstiltskin than a Disney fairy godmother. Which is why the early church renounced any dealing with them as demonic. And frankly, that is the direction that I am leaning. 

Galatians 4 even warns against the seductive powers of the stoicheion in verses 8-11. Even believers can be seduced back into following them, and Paul worries that he has “labored in vain” over those who desire to return to them. It is significant that these are the spiritual entities that he cites as being the danger – not demons, but seems to include them in the type activities we would expect of demonic forces. We both know that Paul was precise in his writings and did not choose words randomly. I think he is putting them all on the same level, not making a distinction between the two. 

We see the same warning repeated in Colossians 2:16-23. The very thing he is warning against sounds strikingly similar to the language used by the minister, particularly the part about the visions and it is easy to see how her line of reasoning could lead to the “self made religion and asceticism, and severity to the body.” Paul says we “died to the elemental spirits of the world” – how then are we to communicate with them? And that we are to “hold fast the Head” because it is from God that all growth comes. 

I know that Hebrews 6 is using the word stoichion in a completely different context, but it is tied right back to Deuteronomy, the Song of Deborah, and Psalm 68.  All are describing the events at Sinai and the covenant surrounding the possession of the Promised Land – the blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience, but they are also describing God’s ultimate victory over his enemies. In Deuteronomy 4:15-31, Moses speaks against idolatry and goes into a list of being that should not be reproduced in wood and stone so that they can be worshipped. 

Now, we know that representational art was not forbidden carte blanche. The Tabernacle and the Temple were full of representational art, and it even included spiritual beings in the form of cherubim. So the command must speak to something deeper – perhaps stoicheion using these forms to be known by humanity. In Psalms 68, the writer asks God to rebuke the bulls in the reeds, mocks the Mt of Bashan, and talks of God’s glory on display in the heavens. The Song of Deborah talks of the stars fighting and the river Kishon taking part in the battle. 

I am beginning to think that by using this title, Paul was not so much trying to proclaim a differing class of spiritual being, but is attempting to address all the ways that people in his culture would have known of spiritual beings…. (Doug’s comment: she’s on the right track, as I’ll get to in the next post). 

Finally, there are two things I cannot get past.

We are never told when or how to interact with these elementals. We are never given an example of Jesus or the Apostles interacting with them. If this was something we were supposed to engage in then I would think that we would have been told something, much like we were with demonic powers. The silence is deafening. 

Most of the Scripture seems to indicate that these elementals will be destroyed. If it is to redemption, then great. God has it covered. But why would be expending time and resources on something destined for destruction? I can’t get past the negative language surrounding almost every mention of these entities. 

In my opinion, without a clear Biblical directive on this particular matter, we should err on the side of caution and do what we have been directly instructed to do – worship our Lord and Savior, minister to the saints, and hold fast the Word. At the very least, this is a distraction from those things. At worst, it is playing with fire. 

I can’t agree more.

Next time…

An academic analysis of what stoichieon really means, and a look at the council of trees scene in Judges 9…