p.1 God, the universe and our world according to Michael Heisers ‘Unseen Realm’ view

A summary of his teachings in a nutshell

Before anybody reads or listens to Dr. Michael Heiser, they NEED TO FIRST UNDERSTAND, that according to his writings he is not a monotheist, but rather, he believes in a pantheon of Gods, similar to the pagans stories of a mythical pantheon of gods, (such as Zeus and the gods of the Greek pantheon of gods.)

He speaks of a council of gods (Divine sons of God) that were created before anything else was created by God, prior to the Biblical Historic account of the Heavens and the Earth by the true God the Bible presents (Gn.1:1). This one Elohim (God who is Yahweh) is the head of the other 70 (?) Elohim, (gods), a group of council members he has made (Heiser has made up), called the sons of God. This concept is a directly associated to the influence of pagan myths he has allowed to influence and guide his interpretation. These unbiblical teachings of God, the universe and the World (which he profusely and unapologetically admits to), are not from the Bible.

It must be noted, that according to Heiser’s imagination, the Biblical Triune nature of God may no longer consist of (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit), but rather, 70 added Divine lesser gods. Instead of Jesus, the Son of God who is Michael the arch angel being the first creature made taught from the false Jehovah’s Witness teaching, Heiser says God created 70 gods in his image (whom Heiser calls (70 Divine Sons of God). This is defined as Henotheism, (a great God over the lesser gods) it is a form of polytheism. Therefore the God of Scripture is not monotheistic.

Instead of these three persons united as the one God (echad), according to the view Heiser’s introduces to people, he has 73 Divine (deity) beings before creation (the triune God and 70 others). As he states “other deity level beings exist.” (THE DIVINE COUNCIL IN LATE CANONICAL AND NON-CANONICAL SECOND TEMPLE JEWISH LITERATURE by Michael S. Heiser).

His language is confusing especially when the Bible speaks of only the triune God existing before creation. On this fact alone he has departed from the Scripture. But there is so much more he adds to form his modern day Ameliorate mythology.

We need to heed Paul’s admonishment to not “go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6). That means the Bible only used for learning of God, not the Bible plus as Heiser is teaching people.

This man is misleading and misdirecting Christians away from the truth in the Bible

by adding to the Word. Which we are told not to do throughout the Bible. This is an admonishment and a warning against his paralogism, introducing unbiblical teachings from pagan and non-canonical book sources.

This is my conclusion from many hours spent into research of his writings. In logic there are concepts to abide by to reach a right conclusion: One should come to their conclusions when warranted by the evidence in Scripture, not by the silence of evidence. To go further, is to change the evidence, which affects the facts historically and doctrinally.

Michael Heiser writes, “ Let me say first that, despite an interest in genetics, I find it hard to care about evolution, theologically. I’m not offended by the thought at all. I really don’t care what mechanism God used to do what He did.” https://drmsh.com/evolution-adam-additional-thoughts .

He allows Darwin’s evolutionary theory to be acceptable just like liberal academics do. he shows how unsure he is by statements like these.

The Bible teaches God brought things that were not existing into existence, this allowance changes Genesis 1. What Christian understanding the word would say this?

Dr. Michael S. Heiser Awkng school of theology claims he is Equipping Christians with a Deeper Understanding of the Bible. I would say from everything I read it is a ‘different understanding.’ Though different can be beneficial at times, if it is more accurate; in these matters it is not.

Here are some of his conclusions. Scriptures that show Gen.1 is the beginning of creation. Heiser says it does not. Genesis 1:1 is not the beginning of creation. Heiser says: “I don’t believe God’s first creative act in Gen. 1:1-3 occurred in verse 1.” His statement means, that when God said, ‘in the beginning,’ that it was not really the beginning of him creating. Then we do not know when the beginning was except to learn from Mr. Heiser that this is not the beginning. This is just one of the many places he rejects Gods word.He states Moses did not write his books (certainly not Genesis); the flood was not worldwide but localized; Angels who follow Satan are not the demons, demons come from the dead Nephilim.

There are a numerous non biblical answers from Heiser’s new and improved mythology

John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses”  That’s  false according to Heiser

John 7:19 “Did not Moses give you the law,” that would be all 613 commandments not just 10

Luke 24:27 “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

John 5:46-47 he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" Good question- which applies to Mr. Dr. Heiser

Mark 10:2-9 the Pharisees came and asked Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" testing Him. And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?" refers to, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, v.6 “But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.'  'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife 'and the two shall become one flesh' (a quote from Gn.2:24 that Jesus says Moses wrote) .

Israelites before Moses preserve the patriarchal traditions via oral history. 2. The above traditions pre-date arrival in the land, but got written down after Israel arrived at the land (at some point). That is, I don’t think Moses was writing them down during the trip, as most conservatives think. He had better, more pressing things to do. https://drmsh.com/mosaic-authorship-torah-problems-documentary-hypothesis-jedp-part-3/

He told them to put the writings next to the ark. In the Law that God gave Moses, God provided specific instructions to build a place of worship (Exodus 25—27). Acts 7:44 instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.”

This “tent of meeting” or tabernacle could be taken up and moved each time they changed locations while wandering in the wilderness. The word tabernacle is an English rendition of the Hebrew word miskan, or “dwelling place.” The tabernacle was a temporary dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant and the other holy items that the Israelites were instructed to use in the worship of and sacrifice to Yahweh.

So whom are you going to believe Heiser or Jesus?

Heiser teaches there other gods in the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve. He teaches that Satan (who he says was not the tempter of Eve .Rv.12 John says the serpent is Satan) is part of Yahweh’s council that had its headquarters based in the Garden. That Eve was tempted by one of these gods that were with God before creation, that “she was conversing with a divine being.” But according to the Bible there was no so-called council in the garden of Eden in the Bible. What is his source, the pagan Ugarit and other non canonical unaccepted books.

Sin is not passed down from Adam

His statement of faith, what he believes on sin is not fully honest because of what else he teaches on the subject. https://inquisitivechristianity.org/index.php/blogs/blogs-michael-s-heiser/13-ministry-philosophy/117-statement-of-faith

Beginning in Genesis, the book that the whole Bible is based on He does not believe the nature of man is sinful from Adam; that we just sin. Heiser position, “ there is no mention here of Adam’s original sin being transmitted to the rest of humanity. ”

“The idea that Adam’s guilt was transmitted to all humanity is completely absent from OT theology. One would think that, given its central importance to the whole idea of salvation, if this view were accurate, at least one writer in the OT during the 2000 year history of Israel from Abraham to Jesus would have put the idea out there . But none did (under inspiration to boot).”

He teaches in posted articles that Adam’s sin is not passed on to all men he says in this particular statement of what he believes “ the whole race was plunged into condemnation and death so that now all human beings are born with a sin nature.”

One must choose which Heiser view they will accept from him.

He does not believe there was a worldwide flood but local regardless of the Bible explaining it as a worldwide judgment on all who lived.

He has introduced to the church the teaching that 70 true gods fell (the sons of God ,Gn.6) and were then assigned by god to rule over the nations after the flood. But also teaches these sons of God in Gn.6 rebelled, that their offspring (Nephilim) survived the flood and did the same type of attack in Gen.6 to succeeding generations until Israel wiped out all the giant off springs.

It’s hard to find where he agrees fully with the Bible anywhere?  Each segment of doctrine he adds a peculiar speculation which divorces you further from the Word as you accept and build your beliefs on his myths and his interpretations. Heiser is determined for you to accept his view, the question is will you fall for it. If you do, it will mean you do not accept the Biblical author’s divine revelation as it was written.

Heiser is so enamored with other researchers and their explanations of the divine council of the Ugarit, he quotes them endlessly to prove his theory; he relies on their assumptions and conclusions.

The problem that we are seeing is that Heiser uses the religion of Baal, based on the discoveries of the Ugarit, to reinterpret the Bible. He basically takes the false teachings of Baal and ascribes them, conforms them to the Biblical authors wherever he can.

He tells us directly and by doctrine he is not monotheistic but henotheistic (he terms it Monolatrous). Which simply means that there are many gods (specifically 70) with a head God over them, similar to the ancient pantheons and similar to today’s Mormonism. Heiser claims that he learned this by a new understanding (revelation) he received by reading Ps.82. That he believes refers to one certain Elohim (YHWH – the creator God), as a different species of God (called species unique), who is the head over the other Elohim, (gods) whom He had created before creation. He calls ‘el’, (elohim is the plural) a proper name and ignores it is used for a group of el’s. The fact is ‘el’ is a general term for God, (any god) like theos is in the Greek.

His view that he operates from is to more accurately REINTERPRET the Bible to what he calls how the ancients understood. Heiser’s view, “ You might be thinking that all you really need to know about the religion of the Israelites is in the Bible. You’d only be partially correct in that thought .”(What's Ugaritic Got to Do with Anything? Michael Heiser)

So what God has us learn from His Word is insufficient, which is a denial if 2 Timothy 3:16. Heiser go to resource for more information on Israel is The Ugarit, written by the pagan enemies of Gods people. Hardly a good source of truth.

“The languages of the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Canaanites were deciphered for the first time only in the past 200 years. The intimate relationship between the OT and the literature and ideas of these civilizations became accessible only after such developments in ancient language studies. This opened an extraordinary window for understanding what the biblical writers meant . These connections significantly impacted our understanding of the early chapters of Genesis” (Genesis and Ancient Near Eastern Cosmology)

So according to Heiser’s view, you can’t fully understand the Word of God by His Word, (and the Holy Spirit who is the teacher of his Word). Heiser says we need the pagan myths to understand Biblical truth. So what of all those before this new paradigm of understanding, (of the last 200 years) could they not understand the Scripture in Genesis? No. Which means until our day no one had accurate truth on Scripture.

In his approach Heiser employs apophenia instead of biblical Hermeneutics to arrive at his interpretations.

So by studying the pagan’s religions who do not know God, do not mention Israel, were enemies of Israel and God, we can supposedly learn more of Israel’s history and teachings? Instead of looking at them being slanted and misinformed it is looked as beneficial. Whereas we have over 3,500 years of Jewish history and the words and stories God inspired, but they are not sufficient.

His work is advertised for “$999.99 Buy Now Uncover the Unbelievable with Mike Heiser Logos Bible Software allows you to delve deeper into the Scriptures with step-by-step guidance, a library's worth of resources, and powerful tools—like those that decipher ancient Greek and Hebrew. With Logos, your own research into the mysteries of Bible is far less puzzling .

Logos- Faithlife advertises Michael Heiser as: Taking Scripture on Its Own Terms, which is not at all what he is doing as he adds the Ugarit and other unaccepted information from other non canonical books and research from a spurious amount of liberal authors to interpret the Bible.

He’s got a piece of paper (doctorate) that apparently makes his teaching more important, it impresses people, but it is only as good as where he got his education, and that came from a liberal education. See What is a Liberal?

His main teacher says in academics you can’t use faith to understand Gods word, the very opposite of what God has said that is required. If you do not have faith how do you understand God’s word accurately?

Heiser’s own methodology is based on his very liberal education from the two very liberal colleges he chose to attend. His approach is more like a textual critic who changes the text from its original intent. This is done by using pagan literature as his basis for interpretation. When the Scripture does not fit the grammar, or meaning, he shifts the Biblical text to allow the pagan worldview to shape the scripture.

Liberal education equals a liberal teaching agenda. Heiser primarily uses Canaanite pagan literature (Ugarit) of which, he goes as far as saying that the Hebrew religion did not fully come from God to Abraham and to Moses by direct revelation, but received much of it by the Canaanites (their Ugarit) which Israel then developed and adopted it into Yahweism. He makes the Canaanites myths into a truism of revelation that the Hebrews used. His new mythology is made from other myths. Heiser over and over forces the pagan world view into the Bible as truth formulating the foundation of the Bible.

He is not a theologian of any sort, not a scholar on Scripture but on pagan writings which have influenced him in such a way that he is crippled in accepting the Scripture. By using false religious writings from the Canaanite enemies of Israel he fails to interpret a few unclear Biblical passages by the overwhelming clear passages of scripture, (The clear interprets the unclear is the primary rule of biblical interpretation). When this is abandoned one can reshape nearly everything in the Bible to say what they want, which Heiser does as he teaches. This will be more than evident as you read and study all of our articles concerning him. Unraveling the years of his intricate subtle web of alternate views, has not been an easy task. It is God’s Word we use to refute Heiser’s teachings throughout these articles.

Case in point, gods created by God before creation? The only being that existed before creation is God; the triune God, the only conclusion you can come to NOT Heiser’s 70 in the elohim class of beings (species). There is no mention of this in the bible.

Just look how he writes this, “The Old Testament writers understood that Yahweh was an elohim—but no other elohim was Yahweh. He was species-unique among all residents of the spiritual world.” (Unseen Realm)

But he does not call the other elohim false or counterfeit. It’s actually the opposite, they, Israel understood this Elohim (God) who was YHWH, as the only true Elohim (God), that all other elohim were false gods; there is only one true God. How? YHWH elohim told them over and over, and proved it. Isa. 43:10 “ That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.” Believe him alone (see Deut.32:39; 2 Kings 5:15; Isa.44:6, 45:5).

Heiser instead says all these verses of proclamation are comparative, not exclusive. Heiser’s position is that God does not believe he is the only true God because he made other gods, therefore his statements found in Isa.43 are dismissed. Can God make other gods? God eternally exists, is all knowing, all powerful and has no darkness in him.

It was not about the writers view of interpretation but a direct divine revelation to ALL of Israel (through Moses). But many of the academics Heiser uses to affirm his teaching seem to eliminate the Scripture being authoritative or a revelation from the true God who formed Israel to be a theocracy under him.

Another example “So God created man in his own image, in His own image He created them. Male and Female He them .” (KJV)

Heiser states while humans are the image of God on earth, these other beings (elohim) are the image God in the spiritual world. Then he also says “ those sons of God who were already in existence at the time of creation. The plurals in Genesis 1:26 mean that, in some way, we share something with them when it comes to bearing God’s image .” (Unseen Realm). Underline mine

So he changes the Scripture so that we are not made in the image of God (singular God) but also the sons of God along with God, which makes the declarations in Gn.1:26 (and 5:3, 9:6) from God as inaccurate.

Most of his writings (i.e. Unseen Realm book) he attempts a ‘show and tell’ manner to correct the churches understanding of the Scripture. This is done by inserting his revelation from Ps. 82 of a “divine council,” of gods into other Scriptures. He believes this provides the solution to our flawed understanding that there are other gods made by God. That it corrects our understanding for the true Biblical history that is hidden from Genesis onward that the Hebrews did not convey in the Scripture. He ignores that God acknowledges the things people call gods (idols of wood and stone) and believe them to be real.

His main point, Scripture can only be interpreted through ANE (Ancient Near Eastern) pagan mythologies and worldviews. Which were rejected by Israel in the Old Testament by God himself. So he is convincing people to be like those apostates in ancient Israel who adopted the other gods around them.

He use of the mention of ‘sons of God’ in Deut. 32:8 in a fragment from a text discovered at Qumran that overrules all other texts which do not work with Heiser’s theological position , i.e. Angels of God (mentioned in another fragment – Septuagint) because he believes they are sons of God, Gods, a different species greater than the angels.

He does not consider that the Essene's at Qumran had a religious library and what is discovered there does not distinguish what was true or false, because they had collected both. They dressed in white, practiced numerous baptisms discouraged marriage. In fact Josephus wrote when one joins the Essenes he was to swear that he would keep their doctrines secret, especially the names of angels. Not everything the Essene's did was Kosher.

It is difficult to find his agreement with orthodox biblical teaching in church history that has been said over the nearly 2,000 years, every doctrine has his Heiser academic twist to it. He has estranged Bible interpretations that do not coincide with the text or historical orthodoxy, this matters when they are all taken into account of how many of his doctrines and conclusions differ.

The fact is, that many beliefs he espouses are in name only from the Bible, not doctrine. In other words he uses the words, terms from the scripture itself to prove how important the Ugarit is in interpreting the Bible. That is where he leads the student learning from him.

If one does not pay attention to all his teachings they can may overlook his duplicit statements, and there is enough of it to choke a horse. Whether he is just confused or aware of this is still undeterminable. I would say for now, one should be more than cautious with his teachings that are spurious and opinion oriented  that stem from a pagan writings like the Ugarit rather than the Bible.

p.2 God, the universe and our world according to Michael Heisers ‘Unseen Realm’ view  Scripture ALONE  or Scripture plus...

 

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