Troublesome Topic: INTRODUCTION TO THE NEPHILIM AND A COUNCIL OF GODS

This study is specific to Michael Heiser’s book The Unseen Realm, and his companion website moreunseenrealm.com/toc. My treatment of the book Unseen Realm is only a summary; if I dealt with every detail Heiser brings up I would have a book just as long as his or longer.

I recognize that there are other books out there about similar topics. However, it appears that Heiser’s book is the most popular and seems to have reignited an ancient trend.

Lots of people are being taken in by Heiser’s book because it is persuasive and includes many Biblical texts. He makes his arguments sound plausible or even undeniable.

However, if you only read what he wrote and nothing else, I can see why you would become confused or persuaded.

This book is dangerous because it is well presented but has false foundations.

The reality is that some of the things Heiser brings up cannot be proven either way with 100% certainty. That opens the door for him to make the case that his ideas are at least plausible. In another lesson in this series, I make the case that on the sliding scale of what to accept from the cultures around Israel in ancient times, either extreme is wrong. See my lesson called HOW FAR ON THE SLIDING SCALE SHOULD WE GO? One of my points of contention with Michael Heiser is that he positions himself on the wrong place on that scale.

Related to that is the reality that the Bible includes two major groups of statements about God which point different directions. One group of statements needs to be seen as a literal reference to reality and the other set as statements which do not express an actual fact. See my lesson called WHICH SET OF STATEMENTS ABOUT GOD NEEDS TO BE ADJUSTED?

HOWEVER, Heiser’s book also contains some fatal flaws – statements which are flat out wrong, provably wrong. We will start with those fatal flaws; therefore the next lesson is FATAL FLAWS IN MICHAEL HEISER’S WORLDVIEW.