Where Heiser Helps

Introduction

I want to give credit to Heiser where it is due.

I think some have overreacted to his work by denying even his legitimate contributions to modern religious thought.

Heiser is reacting (and I believe overreacting) to what we talked about in the previous lecture and we need to acknowledge the problem.

Too many have reacted to Heiser by pretending that modern Christians are completely comfortable and consistent in contemplating the unseen realm.

It is like when MANY people say they never heard sermons about grace growing up.

I don’t want to give those folks an inch.

But when a bunch of people are saying the same thing from across an ideological spectrum, we don’t have to accept their diagnosis and certainly not their solutions, but we do have to acknowledge that SOMETHING is off.

Heiser’s book has attracted attention from across a VERY broad ideological spectrum.

I am one of the people who thinks there are some extremely helpful thoughts in Heiser’s work and some significant dangers.

He Pushes Us to Deal with Hard Passages

Because we are generally looking for the “practical” things we can do with a passage, we are led to avoid the parts that aren’t immediately practical.

When is the last time the church where you are studied:

Ezekiel

Zechariah

Daniel

Song of Solomon

Leviticus

Job

Revelation

I don’t want to overemphasize difficult texts (more on that later).

But I want to press into the difficulty and not run from it (intentionally or by default).

He Shows Us The Heavenly Assembly

There are several places where we possibly see a “divine counsel” (Psa. 89:5-7; Job 1:6; 2:1; 1 Kgs. 22:19-23; Dan. 7:9-10).

Elohim can refer to beings other than Yahweh (1 Sam. 28:13; Psa. 82:1, 6).

He does not in any way try to refute that:

Yahweh alone is the Creator;

Yahweh alone is uncreated;

Yahweh alone possesses underived life;

Yahweh alone rules the whole creation;

Yahweh alone is worthy of worship;

no other being is comparable with Him.

He challenges us even on passages we think we know (Psa. 82)

He Gives Substance to New Testament References to Heavenly Powers

There are several passages that point to powers beyond the temporal realm (Eph. 1:20-23; 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16).

The stranger parts of the Bible give us a picture of what this looks like (Dan. 10:12-21).

He Calls Us to Consider Important Jewish Literature

Heiser makes frequent reference to Jewish literature such as:

1 Enoch

Jubilees

the Dead Sea Scrolls

other Jewish writings from the centuries surrounding the New Testament.

Contemporary literature is how we understand vocabulary and interpretations of the day.

Conclusion

The main help here is that someone is pushing against our tidy modernist rejections of the real and present supernatural world.

We need more of it and we need it coming from sound brethren.