Troublesome Topic: ALL PEGS ARE ROUND IN THE END

I invite you to imagine something with me.

Michael Heiser, author of the book The Unseen Realm, is standing behind two tables and a videographer with a camcorder on a tripod is on the other side of the tables. The videographer gives a thumbs up and Michael looks into the camera and states, “I have 100 pegs and all of them are round. Let me count them for you.”

The video does not show the table with the pegs on it. But in reality, most of the pegs are square pegs, and a few of them are indeed round. A few others are not perfectly round, but not perfectly square either, rather they have squarish shape with slightly rounded edges.

Between the two tables is a stand with a large piece of metal on it. The metal has two holes through it; one hole is round, and one is square.

He then proceeds to go through a process involving all 100 wooden pegs, but the videographer is only recording part of the process, based on instructions from Mr. Heiser.

That process is this. He picks up a peg. If it is a round peg, he pushes it through the round hole, then steps to the other table and lays it on that table, while saying the number of that peg in his sequence toward 100.

If it is a square peg, he uses a hammer to pound it through the round hole, sheering off the corners so that it comes out the bottom as a round peg. He takes it to the second table and states the next number in the sequence. The videographer records him laying each peg on the second table and saying the number. The video clearly shows that each peg he lays down is a round peg.

If you watched the video, you would only see Michael Heiser placing 100 round pegs on a table and counting them as he did so. But if you paused the video and looked closely at the pegs, you would see that they have something written on them. Some have a Bible reference on them, others refer to a specific place in 1 Enoch or 2 Enoch, etc.

If you are familiar with these sources, or if you take the time to look them up and study them for yourself, you will know that many of these pegs started out as square pegs. So you know that Michael Heiser turned them all into round pegs before laying them on the table and counting them.

THE INTERPRETATION OF THIS ANALOGY

Michael Heiser is right about some things – there is a spirit realm, and we should not ignore it. There were giants, and some of them caused trouble for others. These are represented by the pegs that were round from the beginning.

However, Michael Heiser assumes everything in the Bible that has anything to do with giants, the spirit realm, God’s authority, God’s decision-making process, human progress, human corruption, etc, must be referring to the Nephilim being part of the Council of the gods. This assumption is similar to saying that all pegs are round, and then forcibly making all the pegs be round pegs, even if some of them started out as square pegs.

Most of the passages he quotes have a more natural meaning that does not fit his highly pagan worldview, while a few are debatable. The debatable passages are represented by the quasi-square pegs which he also turns into purely round pegs.

Michael Heiser comes to his worldview by forcing every verse, every passage, every statement, into his mold. Everything must conform to his desired end.

The next lesson is WHERE DID MICHAEL HEISER GET THE CONCEPTS FOUND IN HIS BOOKS?