Troublesome Topic: WERE HEROES OF THE BIBLE QUASI-DIVINE?

On pages 244 – 247 Heiser tries to make the case that Moses and the Kings of Israel, especially David, were “quasi divine” (pp 246 & 247 respectively). He gets this from “Second Temple Jewish writers” who were highly influenced by pagan religions and from “an ancient Near Eastern context.”

Page 273 says John the Baptist, like the prophets of old, “stood in the council” and became a council member. Heiser uses the word “commissioned” to mean become divine and enter the council as God’s human members of the council.

On page 297, at Pentecost, the disciples were being commissioned into his council.

On page 297 Heiser links wind and fire to the divine council, while ignoring the other symbolic uses of those terms. For Heiser everything pertains to the divine council and cannot mean anything else.

On page 310 Believers in Jesus are member of God’s governing rule, his council. The NT church is where the council meets.

On page 311 he equates the term saints, which means holy ones, with the divine council.

This idea is based entirely on pagan thinking.

The picture given to us in the Bible is that there is no such thing as quasi-divine entities. There is the triune God, His angels, the fallen angels known as demons, the leader of them being Satan, also called the Devil, the ancient serpent or the great dragon, and there are humans and other parts of God’s physical creation.

What does Heiser mean when he says that believers in Jesus are members of God’s divine council? How does this help us in our daily lives? We still suffer from weakness, discouragement, a lack of wisdom, temptations, etc. and yet we are somehow divine and we can give God council????? Since we are on his council God will listen to our advice????

This totally changes our relationship with God, one which should be characterized by humility, submission and obedience. This will make believers think they are more important and more powerful than they really are. It will make them think they possess power in themselves, when in reality all the power we have comes from God. We can’t even take a breath unless God ordains it. In Him we live, and move and have our being  Acts 17:28 (ESV).

The subtitle of the book Unseen Realm is Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. It is a supernatural worldview, but it is not Biblical. It is an absolute misnomer.

The next lesson is THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.