I’ve pressed people on this. When I first began to explain my understanding of the thesis of the Unseen Realm, people objected. While they might be able to offer reasoned objections based on mainstream theology, only a few could pin down exactly why they resisted internally. Near as I can tell, it boils down to the loss of human centrality in the Big Story.
I said it like this: In the Unseen Realm, we are not the subject, but the object of the narrative. It’s not really about us as humans. The ultimate nature of the rebellion in Heaven is about the non-human characters and what God demanded of them. Our situation here in this world after the Fall is a drama, a demonstration of God’s justice in making those demands, and His justice in punishing the elohim for their failure to meet His requirements. We are the object lesson, God’s proof in that dispute.
It’s not that we don’t matter, but that we aren’t the center of attention. The divine logic of what we should be doing is not based on us, but on Him and His glory. And while lots of people can declare that His glory is what matters most, they still object to any reformation in theology and practice that actually takes us off center stage.
This is at least part of why the teaching of the Unseen Realm was buried over the centuries. The traditional church theology elevates humanity to a central role in everything. It assumes that we are the whole point of everything Scripture mentions. When you bring back the very real Hebrew outlook on things, it takes away that false image of the importance of humanity.
This is why the Boastful Pride of Life — a reference to fleshly arrogance — is listed as a primary temptation of our fallen nature. Our flesh does not want to accept the truth of our impotence and lack of importance.
God does have great plans for us, but there are some very important matters regarding the other creatures He made that take first priority. We aren’t kings yet; we are still servants. This is sort of what Luke 17:7-10 is all about. We must look beyond ourselves and our dreams for human existence. Our place in the grand scheme of things is to ride out the simulation until the God has handled the crucial matter in front of Him. That crucial matter is not us.
Thus, Solomon declared that human ambition is striving after the wind. At some point, he realized that (a) he was one of the greatest men to ever live and (b) it really didn’t matter. Against the scale of cosmic events, humanity as a whole was not that significant. The only way we can matter at all is to commit to serving God from the heart. It’s the only way we can possibly have any effect that will outlive us.
Thus, when the Holy Spirit is present, there are two primary symptoms: humility and a passion for making Christ look good.
