principalities and powers
Definition
Principalities and powers (Greek: ἀρχαί καὶ ἐξουσίαι, archai kai exousiai) is the New Testament designation for superhuman spiritual forces that exercise influence over the cosmos and history (Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:15). The terminology encompasses a hierarchical spectrum of spiritual powers — thrones, lordships, governments, and authorities — which can designate both heavenly and fallen realities. In this corpus George Warnock is the most detailed exponent of this concept, particularly in his analysis of heavenly warfare; Watchman Nee describes the two-layer model of reality underlying Eph. 6:12; Stephen Jones and Cees Noordzij treat it in connection with Satan’s role in history.
Uses per Author
George Warnock
Warnock identifies principalities and powers as the heavenly counterparts of earthly rulers. Michael the archangel’s combat with the prince of Persia (Dan. 10:13) is for Warnock biblical evidence that every earthly power has a corresponding heavenly power:
“Michael had fought thirty days with the prince of the Persian kingdom (Dan. 10:13). This heavenly conflict behind the scenes of earthly politics shows how principalities and powers function: every earthly throne has a heavenly counterpart, every nation its spiritual representative.”
(Who Are You?, Chapter 5)
Warnock connects Col. 2:15 with the dismantling of Satan’s authority: Christ at the cross openly stripped and exposed the principalities and powers. They still occupy their positions, but their actual power (dunamis) and authority (exousia) have been removed:
“Christ disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public display of them, triumphing over them through the cross (Col. 2:15). What Satan now possesses is only darkness and deception. The actual power has been taken from him.”
(Who Are You?, Chapter 5)
Watchman Nee & Witness Lee
Nee employs a two-layer model of reality for the principalities and powers: at the visible level, human kings, rulers, and evildoers; at the real, invisible level, the demonic powers operating behind this visible world. This two-layer model is for him the key to Eph. 6:12:
“God has a supreme enemy, and under his authority are countless demons and fallen angels who seek to flood the world with evil and to exclude God from His own kingdom. This is the meaning of verse 12. It is an explanation of the things that are happening around us. We see before us only ‘flesh and blood’ — that is, a world system of hostile kings and rulers, sinners and evildoers. No, says Paul, our struggle is not against these, ‘but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ — in short, against the schemes of the devil himself.”
(Sit, Walk, Stand, Chapter 3; cf. Eph. 6:12)
This two-layer model carries a direct ecclesiological implication: the church has a cosmic task that extends beyond its own edification. In the two-throne conflict — Christ’s glorified position far above all rule and authority (Eph. 1:20-21) set against the principalities still occupying the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12) — the church is called as an instrument of Christ’s lordship: “The church is called to drive Satan from his current domain and to establish Christ as Head over all.” (Sit, Walk, Stand, Chapter 3) For Nee, the spiritual authority the church carries (Eph. 3:10) is directly linked to Christ’s position above the principalities.
Stephen Jones
Jones treats principalities and powers in connection with his analysis of Satan’s role as accuser (ha-satan = the adversary). Satan operates as head of a juridical-political structure that governs the earth until the Jubilee liberation:
“Satan is not merely a spiritual being but an accuser in God’s courtroom (Job 1:6-12; Zech. 3:1-2). The principalities and powers under him manage the earthly orders of power — but they do so only with God’s explicit permission and within His jurisdiction.”
(Creation’s Jubilee, Chapter 8)
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij emphasizes that Satan’s systematic opposition to God’s plan for the sons of God — in the form of the great dragon pursuing the woman (Rev. 12) — is a structural manifestation of principalities and powers in salvation history:
“The great dragon waits at the birthing woman to devour her child (Rev. 12:4-5). This is the pattern of principalities and powers throughout the ages: Pharaoh, Herod, the Arab armies of 1948 — all manifestations of the same spiritual dynamic.”
(Moses and the Way to Sonship, Chapter 8)