Troublesome Topic: LOYAL GODS OR CORRUPT GODS?

Did God give the nations into the control of loyal gods who rebelled and became corrupted, or to evil gods?  Michael Heiser is not totally clear on this point. He says various times that they became corrupted, but he implies that they were bad gods at the time the nations were disinherited. He seems to cause confusion.

However, it the Nephilim became demons or demon-gods when they were killed, and if those same demon-gods were the ones God gave the nations over to, then it is obvious that they were evil at the time the nations were disinherited. Either Heiser is wrong to say they “became corrupted” or he is wrong to place great trust in the books of Enoch which calls them defiled and wicked.

Does Michael Heiser ever specifically say that it was the Nephilim to whom God gave the nations over?  I don’t think so, he is more careful than that. But I believe that 1 Enoch does say it clearly. Heiser relies heavily on 1 Enoch, so it seems to be a way to point people to 1 Enoch without saying the most outrageous things himself – he lets the books of Enoch say them, once people come to see them favorably as he does.

At least by the time of the conquest of Canaan by Israel, the descendants of the Nephilim were enemies of God and His people, and the nations that inhabited Canaan were “under the dominion of hostile gods” p. 193.

Going back even earlier, let’s look at what Heiser says about the origin of the Nephilim. First he automatically discards any interpretation that is not supernatural (p. 185). Of the two options remaining, one is connected physically to the giants that Israel would face during the conquest, i.e. enemies of God (p. 185), and the other supposes that rival gods produced offspring to oppose Yahweh’s children” (p. 188). Notice that in both cases the gods involved are rivals and enemies of God.  See also page 115 where he calls them “corrupt sons of God”.

But other times in his book, especially the part about the work of Jesus, he says various times that the gods that were over the nations “became” corrupt.

This is another example of Heiser causing confusion by failing to agree with himself.