Troublesome Topic: MY CRITIQUE OF HEISER’S THEORY OF A COUNCIL OF GODS

Is 48:8 & 11 say that God will not share his glory with any other. That leaves no room for other divine figures, even ones that He supposedly created.

Either the God of Israel is all-powerful, or He is not. The presence of a council of gods indicates their leader is not all-powerful.

Michael Heiser makes a big deal about the plural form of the name Elohim, and in many cases he says it is referring to the members of the council, not to the God of Israel. But he fails to mention that the verbs which accompany that plural name are usually singular verbs.

Heiser talks about good members of the divine council helping God with various parts of Israel’s history – the giving of the law, and other things. These gods were to be trusted as benevolent and wise. But who were they? Why do we not know any more about them if they played such an important part in Bible history?

On page 156 Heiser says that “Yahweh commands the nations and their gods. Other gods serve Him.” But do they? From what we see in ancient mythology from any religion you might choose, do other gods really serve our God? I think not. Heiser wants it to be so, but all evidence, Biblical and extrabiblical, indicates it is not so.

Heiser sees many of the instances in which angels are mentioned in the Bible and interprets them to mean “members of the divine council”.

On page 54 Heiser says that the other imagers, the members of God’s council have free will just like humans and can oppose God (without much consequence.) He assumes this because he assumes they were created to be God’s imagers. However, bearing the image of God is a big deal and we should not assume that others were also made in the image of God unless the text of Scripture tells us, which it does not. Heiser makes a huge jump here, one that is unwarranted.

On page 168 Heiser calls the members of the divine council the “enforcers” of the covenant at Sinai. In this he is totally, 100% wrong, therefore I cover it under the topic I call Fatal Flaws in Michael Heiser’s Worldview.

Michael Heiser says that the phrase “council of Elohim” in Psalm 82:1 is referring to a council of the gods (pgs. 11-13). But it is the rest of psalm 82 that indicates to us how we should interpret the phrase “council of the Elohim’ in verse 1. He says the idea of them being human judges is weak, because Jewish judges were never given authority over all the earth. However, in Psalm 82, the whole earth is only mentioned in conjunction with God exercising His authority, which is indeed over the whole earth. Understanding the “council of Elohim” as human judges appointed by God is the most natural reading.

I believe Michael Heiser misuses texts or twists them by assuming they are proof of his theory.

e.g. re: Dt 32:17 he says that this verse refers to demons as Elohim. 

It seems more natural and in agreement with the rest of the Bible that the verse shows that demonic forces are behind the false “gods” that people often worshipped. That does not mean that demons can rightly be considered “sons of Elohim” or Elohim (gods) themselves. His statement is an overreach in my opinion.

Terms like “hosts” and “holy ones” are usually seen to refer to angels, and there is no need to change that. It is consistent with the rest of the Bible. We are given a good picture of angels and demons in the Bible. Everything fits together. There is no need to take another category from the pantheons of the pagan religions, and add it to the Bible.

Job 1:6 The reason the angels were presenting themselves before the Lord seems to have been because they had to answer to God, not to give Him counsel.

On pages 273 – 275 Heiser says that God called on the divine council to send someone to announce the appearance of Yahweh in the man Jesus of Nazareth. They called John the Baptizer. They were also the ones who called Isaiah, (p. 273), Moses, Paul and other prophets. What else did the divine council do that we have always thought God did?

When has there been cooperation between the pagan gods?  Isn’t there usually competition? If the Nephilim were deity, they would not work together with each other and with the Creator God. They would not play nicely with others.

The phrase “council of the gods” is speaking in human terms just as the phrase “God remembered him.”

Some go so far as saying that Jesus is not part of the God-head, but a man that was chosen to be the Messiah. These same people seem to think the Nephilim can be both human and divine at the same time, but Jesus cannot be!

The next lesson in this series is BIBLE PASSAGES ABOUT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.