The Unseen Supernatural World

I first became acquainted with the works of Michael Heiser two or three years ago. Someone, I do not remember who, recommended Heiser’s work Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World – and Why It Matters. I was intrigued. I immediately logged onto Amazon and bought a copy of the Kindle edition (I didn’t want to wait the two days for a hard copy to arrive). I dove in immediately and read it within a couple of days. Immediately I purchased the companion volume, The Unseen Realm: The Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. I devoured it as well. I was astonished and excited as I read Heiser’s careful, studied biblical presentation. (I have spent all my adult life in biblical and theological studies, my B.A is in Biblical Studies, my Th.M. is in New Testament, my Ph.D. is in Historical Theology. However, I have not spent much time in the OT beyond my college and seminary survey courses. All my courses were taught through the lens of Post-Enlightenment, conservative orthodox dispensational Protestantism. I knew the content of the Bible, but these presuppositions did not put me in touch with the worldview of the biblical authors and those to whom the books of the Bible were originally addressed.) To my knowledge, no one has in the past crawled into the worldview of the ANE (Ancient Near East i.e. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and the surrounding peoples). As an Old Testament scholar Heiser, who is the Old Testament expert at FaithLife (Logos Software) has delved deep into the literature and worldview of the Ancient New East and is conversant with the literature of not only the Old Testament but also the neighboring cultures. He brings to light much vital material that we have read for centuries but have not understood because we did not have the larger historical context and worldview of the Ancient Near East.

As for me, I felt like the scales had fallen from my eyes and I came to grips with the supernatural worldview of both ancient Israel and the surrounding cultures which challenged the monotheism of Israel with their own gods (not just their idols but the gods behind their idols). His exposition makes sense of much of the OT material that many of us have for generations just scratched our heads over and moved on. In particular, he focuses on Deuteronomy 32:8-9 as being the lens which encapsulates the Old Testament Worldview. http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/Deuteronomy32OTWorldview.pdf

Beyond these works, Heiser has a blog, hundreds of YouTube videos, and several other publications including a recent work on Angels, Reversing Hermon, The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching the Scripture on Its Own Terms.

There are very few authors I put on my Must Read list. Heiser is there. Read, watch or listen, his content is a must for every serious believer to interact with.