Troublesome Topic: WILL HUMANITY BECOME DIVINE?

Heiser posits that, in the end, God and Jesus will finally defeat all the rebellious and quasi divine figures and make his faithful human followers divine.

On pg 353 MH writes “Humanity will become divine and displace the lesser Elohim over the nations under the authority of the unique divine son, the resurrected Jesus.”

Heiser’s view of how things end had more to do with the wicked gods and quasi-divine figures than it does humans for whom Jesus died.

Of course he makes every use of “holy ones” to be the divine council, and not angels or human saints.

The Bible never says we will become divine or become gods. In fact, religions that believe in demigods and a pantheon of gods were condemned by the God of the Bible.

Heiser refuses to accept any interpretation of verses that talk about us ruling with God in any way other than his view of the council of gods. This comes primarily from his assumption that all of God’s imagers are going to end up in that council. This is nothing more than wishful thinking and the incorporation of other belief systems into the Bible.

God the Father is the true judge, and He will execute judgement through His Son Jesus. Our role in anything that can be called “ruling” will be small, and will be characterized by submission to God. It will look very different than the picture Heiser has painted of the council of gods where they can challenge the Creator God and even rebel against Him and get away with it.

We will always be His children and He will always be God. If God gives us some role in ruling as His co-regents, it is only because He will elevate us to a position we do not deserve. We do not have, and will not have, the qualities and characteristics that are usually required of entities that are called “gods” or “divine”. We do not know things that should be beyond human access to know, and we are greatly limited in what we can do and accomplish. Therefore, if we help rule God’s creation, and it appears that we will, it will not be from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness, with total submission to Jesus and God the Father. The Biblical passages that talk about us ruling say more about the infinite grace of God, than they do about the qualifications of humans.

In preparation for countering statements like the ones in my previous paragraph, Heiser stripped the name Elohim of “a set of attributes”. Page 30 says the term Elohim “is not about a set of attributes,” and on page 32 he states it “isn’t about attributes” and “has nothing to do with a specific set of attributes.” He says this because the name Elohim was used of various entities, not just the Creator God. That is true. But the word Elohim means “mighty ones.” Might is an attribute. It is held in differing degrees by God, or angels or human leaders, but all of them possess the attribute that is at the root of that word. I think Heiser stripped Elohim of all its attributes and made it only a “place name” so that later, when he talks about us becoming divine, we would find ourselves forced to accept his idea. But the fact that the name Elohim was used of various entities does not strip it of all attributes; it indicates that context must tell us who is being spoken of and how much of the “mighty” attribute they possess.

There is something to the idea of faithful believers given some type of “rule” in the life after this one, but it does not necessitate us becoming divine, nor the existence of other gods and a council of them. “We will judge angels” does not have to mean that we will become divine just like the spirits of the Nephilim.

On pages 368-373 Heiser makes the case that Armageddon is not located at Megiddo, but at Jerusalem. In the great battle of Armageddon, the rebellious powers will make one last attempt to defeat God, Jesus and His followers, but they will be defeated.

He may be right about Armageddon being Jerusalem instead of Megiddo; I need to study that one some more. But even if he is right about the location and about the purpose of the battle, it does not prove that other gods exist or that there is a council of the gods that gave God council regarding major decisions. The imagery fits just fine without including other divine beings such as lesser gods and quasi divine beings (demi-gods). Those are pagan ideas and have no place in the Bible!

The next lesson is WERE HEROES OF THE BIBLE QUASI-DIVINE?