Image by Karin Henseler from Pixabay

At times, the Bible offers us glimpses of what lies beyond the veil of our physical plane of earthly existence, where angels, demons, the souls of the saved who have passed into His presence, and God Himself dwell. In Isaiah 6, the prophet records a vision where he saw the Lord on the throne, being served by seraphim. Daniel Chapter 7, the Book of Revelation, and other passages in scripture provide a few more glimpses. In 2 Kings 6:15-17, we read:

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 

That Elisha’s young servant was fearful of what would become of them at the sight of an “army with horses and chariots” that were surrounding the city is not at all surprising. Elisha, however, was not anxious and asked the Lord to let the servant see what he saw.

While we see glimpses of the supernatural world in Scripture, some Christians tend to add details from their own imaginations to the glimpses we are given, claiming such adventures as trips to heaven where they take tours and see the sights. One person claimed to have had a water fight with Jesus! We don’t usually vouch for the reality of such subjective imaginings and see no reason to start today. Some people report details about the dark side. In 2 Corinthians 12:1-5 the Apostle Paul recites an account of “a man” who “was caught up to the third heaven.” In verse 4 Paul state of the “man” in question “he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.”  God, it seems, chooses to reveal details He wants us to know and withholds those He does not. C.S. Lewis spoke to this dilemma in The Screwtape Letters, Regarding the existence of fallen angels, or as he put it, “devils”:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”¹C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: MacMillan, 1944), 9

About a year ago, we discussed this topic on an episode of our Unknown Webcast entitled “Are they Friendly Spirits?” with Salvador Ung Hayworth and Ivani Greppi. In this case the spirits in the supernatural world are fallen angels commonly called demons, that pretend to be deceased ancestors or demons that those engaged in the occult like Umbanda as was Ivani.

The late Michael Heiser stepped into this area of interest and intrigue with his book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. We are concerned. The problem is not that Heiser was bringing attention to the existence of the Unseen Realm, the Scriptures already do that. But that he developed quite a fanciful narrative about subjects for which we have very little hard evidence. It is, as he describes it, the “Supernatural Worldview of the Bible”²Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (p. 383). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition. which is to be used to inform us how to interpret Scripture, rather than allowing Scripture in its historical-grammatical context³See the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics to inform our understanding of the text and our worldview.

Since the traditional understanding of the biblical text, particularly in the Psalms, did not support Heiser’s new narrative, it was rejected by him and replaced with a worldview that aligned with and supported his narrative. It is called the Divine Council Worldview (DCW). In our previous article “How Many True Gods Are There?,” we demonstrated that Heiser ignores the type of literature Psalm 82 is – it is poetry. He goes on to assert ideas that are found nowhere in the text, while he overlooks or negates things that are in the text. Further, he ignores the range of meanings that words have in varied contexts on his way to creating his DCW. Yet we all know that many words have different meanings in different contexts. A brief example in English might help:

The grandmother has to mind her grandchildren. (look after)
Children are taught to mind their elders. (obey)
Do you mind? (care or take offense?)
Great minds think alike. (thinking apparatus of human beings)
and so forth

His new baseline for biblical understanding is that “The God of the Old Testament was part of an assembly—a pantheon—of other gods.”⁴Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (p. 11). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition. Using his newly established DCW, which naturally supports his narrative, Heiser carries that to the next piece, expounding on Deuteronomy 32, specifically Deuteronomy 32:8–9. Again we must ask, what type of literature is Deuteronomy? “Introduction to Deuteronomy” describes the theme:

Deuteronomy, the final book in the Pentateuch, contains Moses’ last three sermons and two prophetic poems about Israel’s future. Reflecting on the nation’s past mistakes, Moses urges the people not to repeat those errors when they enter the Promised Land. Possessing Canaan will fulfill the promises made to the patriarchs, but if the people fall into idolatry or fail to keep the law, they will be exiled.

It is historical narrative and poetry. Moses is recounting of the Nation of Israel’s past (at that juncture), a reminder of God’s Law and promises, the handing of the nation’s leadership over to Joshua, and Moses’ farewell since he would not be crossing over into the land with them but would die soon after they departed. In chapter 31, after commissioning Joshua, Moses instructs them:

Now, therefore, write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. (Deuteronomy 31:19)

Moses gives his goodbyes in verse 29 and in verse 30 we read:

Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel

This song is a poem and includes parallelism. In Deuteronomy 32:8, the song points back to Genesis 10, where we have the listing of the nations, the descendants of Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8 KJV)

Verse 9 in the KJV reads:

For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8 KJV)

Verses 8 and 9 describe the Lord setting up the nations, their boundaries, and their inheritances, and that His portion of people and land descends through Jacob.  By all accounts, that seems pretty straightforward. The problem is, the KJV does not really support Heiser’s theses. In The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, Heiser spends a good deal of time defending the proposition that with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have earlier and better manuscripts that changes these two verses. The changes seem to better accommodate his DCW views. He draws on the ESV here:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9 ESV)

Interestingly, in making his argument he comforts the reader by letting them know they don’t really need to know the details. We are supposed to simply trust that he does:

Frankly, you don’t need to know all the technical reasons for why the “sons of God” reading in Deuteronomy 32:8–9 is what the verse originally said. You just need to think a bit about the wrong reading, the “sons of Israel.”⁵Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (p. 113). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition.

Heiser goes on to develop his DCW armed with the “sons of God” in this passage which aids his newly discovered pantheon of gods, of which YHWH is a part. According to Heiser, the gods rule over the nations in Deuteronomy 32:8. There are at least two problems here. The first is, as Tom Howe points out in The Unseemly Realm, even if “sons of God” is more accurate, it doesn’t help Heiser’s cause because this text is a parallelism:

even if the reading “sons of God” is accepted, it does not indicate that the sons of God are “other gods” or that it implies polytheism. Heiser et al. have completely missed the parallelism of verse 8: The word ‘nations’ is parallel to the word ‘peoples’, and the words “sons of man” are parallel to the words “sons of God.” The parallelism indicates that the sons of God are in fact the sons of man. To interpret this as referring to “other gods” is reading into the text a prior assumption that disrupts the parallelism. It is another case of eisegesis.⁶Thomas A. Howe,The Unseemly Realm: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Michael S. Heiser1; Independently published; November 25, 2024, p. 235

Dr. Howe created a helpful graphic to demonstrate visually what he was explaining. The word Elyon is normally translated “God Most High.”

The “sons of man” are the “sons of God” – not a pantheon of gods.

It is unfortunate that the Late Dr. Heiser took this route. Several people we have spoken with have indicated that Heiser has many good and important things tin book that contributes to a better understanding of the spiritual realm, but they too are puzzled why he has embraced and developed a pantheon and that he suggests or perhaps insists his newly minted DCW is the only way to truly understand Scripture. We should all be wary of such claims.Ω

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