I don’t have a whole lot to say on each of these, so I decided to combine them.
As of Monday, I am told that both Unseen Realm and Supernatural will be printed and on pallets at Amazon. Some of you have noticed that Amazon is now permitting pre-orders. That’s true. The dates posted for when the books will ship were created by Amazon. The big launch is the only thing we’re waiting for. Some re-filming for that will happen Monday (I’m in that so I know for sure). This week there will be some meetings to (hopefully) give final approval for the marketing plan/strategy. Pray that these meetings and the re-filming go well.
On the bibliography, it appears that “item input” may be done by month’s end, though that may spill into August a bit. As best I can tell, the bibliography will have roughly 5,000 items in it, around 3,500 of which will exist in PDF. To remind everyone of the bibliography’s flavor, these are (99.9%) peer-reviewed articles and books on subjects covered in The Unseen Realm, which of course lays out what I call the divine council worldview behind the narrative of biblical theology. Once item input is completed, the last stage (and perhaps the longest) begins: adding keyword tags to the items for convenient searching. I may close the Go Fund Me campaign site when item entry is done instead of waiting until tagging is complete. Donors to the project will get more details via email when I make that decision.
Lastly, I have a meeting this week that may result in a new project — one that can begin almost immediately thereafter. Should this project become reality, I’ll likely take bids for it (i.e., propose costs). I will need book cover art and possibly editorial expertise. Those of you who have real-world experience in such things should keep an eye out for an update at week’s end or early the following week. If this isn’t to be, I’ll also let everyone know in an update. I’ll have clarity by week’s end.
When will they be available from Lexham Press? Any dates on that yet? Free shipping from Amazon is nice, but I think bulk deals from Lexham (or distributor) will also work out well.
Almost there!
bulk shipments will be handled through Lexham. I can give you the name to contact if you email me (see my post of today as well).
While filming today, try not to have that look in your eye of, “PLEASSSSE let’s get this thing LAUNCHED!”
I behaved. Mostly.
Good things take time.
Great things seem to take a little longer.
OT
Cogent, sane words.
Rare and most welcome.
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=iQEkEl1jvgs
Although.
I’m a little crushed that I’ll never be called a liberal. Maybe if I poke that Geisler guy…2nd thought;never mind.
Thanks/Best.
Oh.
& the Faithlife vid.
Snapping the zoom back/forth makes it a little unwatchable.
Better training/better tools/second camera? Juggling? Small dogs on unicycles?
It’s obvious I’m no help.
Best.
I have no control over that. I just try and think of something to say every Friday while riding in on the bus.
had to laugh!
I read chapter 2 “Rules of engagement” and had to laugh since I have experienced what you describe. I have had several supernatural experiences of the God kind, also the Lord put me in the deliverance ministry in 1980. I don’t find many people to share my experiences with because they immediately think I am lying or I am crazy. My first experience as a child was a small cloud of bright, white light that appeared above my head, came through my eyes and delivered me of about 6 or 7 spirits of fear. The Lord kept telling me I was Jewish (catholic family) and finally got delivered from a Jewish curse and I realized I was Jewish. I then got my DNA tested and it proved I was Jewish.
It is getting closer, Dr. Heiser! And unlike fusion it isn’t ‘n + 20 years’ until released… at least I hope not!
Thank you for all your hard work, diligence, and patience in bringing your work to fruition. It definitely is unique–but at the same time Biblical. I am excited to have a well-researched and trustworthy source to point people to to see how concepts like the divine council, cosmic temple, and other important Biblical motifs fit together. It is like reading the Bible for the first time once you start “thinking” in Ancient Near Eastern categories.
I have my copy pre-ordered (again!) and I am sure there will be enough people in our small Church anxious to do a Bible study based on the material you have compiled. (Btw, your writing style is very lucid and easy to follow–a difficult task when explaining such complex topics.) Which is exciting to me as I won’t get a room of blank stairs anymore when I mention Zion as a cosmic mountain connected with Eden!
Mike, slight jesting aside, I do think you are doing the body of believers a huge blessing and service in “resetting” conceptual categories. I recently worked through Isaiah chapter 4 with some friends and “parsed” the referential backgrounds in the text. Unfortunately, my effort was difficult for some to grasp. Having a book broken up into neat chapters detailing these concepts will be a fantastic gateway for many.
In my mind your work is similar to T. D. Alexander’s, From Paradise to the Promise Land. Which is another book that serves as a nice gateway to the “uninitiated” into some major themes of the Torah (with forward looking trajectories).
Again, super excited about your work! Thanks again for having me up with a group (Brent Emery) a couple years back as well as answering a couple of my emails in the past. Your generosity is much appreciated.
Blessings in Yeshua, Joshua
This is the first time what I do has been compared to fusion! I like your phrase “restting” conceptual categories. That’s a good way to think about this.
I’ll be at Brent’s congregation again Sept 11-12.
I am very excited about this book. Does it explain fossils aswell?
I presume you are talking about Unseen Realm – ? That book is about the supernatural theological narrative of the Bible, unfiltered by modern worldviews and traditions (i.e., I focus on what the Bible meant to the original writers and readers). So that doesn’t have anything to do with fossils.
I received my copy Tuesday — I thought there were 2 books in the Amazon box because it was so heavy! The book is nice and dense, just how I like them! I like that it is hardback, another plus.
I have read a number of chapters and then skipped around to get a feel for the flow. I have a read most of your previous works (journal articles, ETS talks, dissertation, former website articles) and my unfinished thesis is on the “Angel of Yahweh” and relies on the “cosmic temple” motif for informing background so I have a good feel for your research and the body of current literature on the topic–and your book does NOT disappoint!
As I wade through every word and note I am most interested in how you “tell the story.” From what I have read and your TOC so far I like your pacing. I often forget how embracing these concepts and new ways of looking at the Bible requires significant distanciation for most. I think that is the #1 hurdle your work will have for most yet so far you do a good job of helping people “reframe” the Bible jargon with phrases they can embrace. As fantastic as your dissertation and other works are you didn’t get lazy and just dump them into a book–I can tell you spent a lot of time crafting and shaping a message that is true to the Biblical text while presenting it in a way digestible to serious Bible students. If that was your goal with this work, a doorway to the broader Biblical worldview of the heavenly/spiritual realm, so far I give you a firm ‘A’. If the next 200 pages hold up you get an A+
(This blabbering is me thinking out loud how I will frame my Amazon review–consider yourself warned.)
Anyways, so far so good! Beyond “resetting conceptual categories” there has been a HUGE void in academic and popular literature that strings together the spiritual/heavenly realm. My wife, as sweet as she is, kindly nods when any of the following words escape my lips: cosmic mountain, world as temple, cosmic geography, divine assembly, vice regent, Cloud Rider and other shared/convergent ANE imagery & polemic, [issues with] monotheism, etc. I shouldn’t complain because she really grasps and appreciates the nuances on the word elohim, the name as theophany, the Angel of Yahweh, etc. and how they have helped her understand the Bible–I am [unfairly!] hoping your book can flesh out the big picture narrative for people like her. People who love the Bible, are willing to embrace what it says even when it isn’t traditional and sounds weird, and are willing to roll up their sleeves and study but not prepared or able to read 20 academic volumes and 100 journal entries to put it all together themselves. And frankly, it would take this sort of effort to get a fraction of the amount of quality information from such works that you have nicely packaged in your book. And your book doesn’t come with the rabbit trails and trappings of having to engage that body of literature.
There never has been a book like yours, from a believer’s point of view. Which is important because what are my options?
I cannot in good conscious recommend the standard works like those from Mark Smith. Ditto works from Day, Green, Hundly, Levenson, Cross, etc.
Albright’s work is too outdated (understatement!) and doesn’t confirm close enough to scripture and is more concerned with ANE connections than fleshing out the Biblical worldview.
There is a great pool of eclectic works but they are either very narrowly focused and do not piece it all together (Walton’s Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology–not a slam on such works as these are needed, too), make too many concessions to modern scholarship (Sommer’s The Bodies of God), are too special interest (are focused tangentially on Biblical ecology or focused narrowly on a topic like the Trinity with disregard for all the other stuff related to the Biblical worldview of heaven), or are far too constrained by creedal boundaries (pretty much everything else).
And then there is your new brick, the Unseen Realm, masquerading as a book. I can say, in my opinion, you take the best parts of the above categories but jettison all the negatives I pointed out.
I am really excited to share it. I figure if I cannot win them over by sharing it I can knock some sense into them by tossing it at them like a brick! Seriously, though, a number of people have said they want to borrow it (yay for it being a hardback! I hate sharing paperbacks) and they also plan to be come to the 9/12 talk. You are filling a gap that people are hungry for and I am happy I finally have something “Biblical” to point them to when they get excited by the Nephilim or “God of the gods” and not cringe when they tell me they spent 100 hours on youtube.
Seeing your book on my night stand is extra motivation to finish grading the 15 yards of top soil and planting grass in our yard! The book continues to stare at me like a neglected child in need of attention! But my wife would like the paver patio and giant hills of dirt to be completed before 2016 🙁
Expect a review on Amazon by the end of August.
Again, thank you for your service and hard work. It is a blessing.
You’re welcome. I think you’ll feel good about what the book does. My own aim (I refer to the book as a “starting point” early on) is to give people a new (old/ancient) framework for understanding biblical theology — to give readers the lay of the land. A follow-up book will both drill down at points, and introduce a lot of new material — for which this book provides the backdrop. Go to moreunseenrealm.com and click on “What’s Next?” for what I’d cover in a second book.
I understand your hesitation with not recommending the quality standard works to people — too much that needs to be sifted or explained because of certain presuppositions. My goal is to take the nuggets our of all these things — the data that are important for understanding a given point — and then keep going.
The 9/12 talk? Where are you at geographically?
Will it only be in printed form or an eBook/ePub of the unseen realm will be available?
Unseen Realm and Supernatural will be available in a variety of digital formats.
ok! Amazon is shipping Supernatural and Unseen Realm…..Supernatural should be here Saturday and the other within the week. So happy to finally get to read these works of yours.
So they say — we didn’t direct any of that. Please let me know if you get books.
Just got Supernatural….. yeah!! The cover feels icky. Not going to complain but it’s a very dull finish which is fine but it “feels” different as far as the composition of the paper on the cover goes. Kind of like running your fingernails down a chalkboard.
Maybe this sensation will go away. Glad I now have the book.
congratulations!
It’s some sort of “matted” (I can’t remember the technical term) finish.
Yes, it is “matte” a non-glossy finish….looks real good. I just wanted to point out it felt kind of different. No problem…..
I just got order updates from Amazon saying that Supernatural should be on my doorstep on July 27 and Unseen Realm should be on my doorstep on July 28. Are these dates reliable? Or are they just coming from the Amazon robots?
I have no idea. Please let me know if you get books. No idea what Amazon will actually do. Our launch (the publisher) has nothing to do with those dates.
I want to confirm Amazon is telling me my copy of The Unseen Realm shipped today Friday 7/24 and will arrive Tuesday 7/28.
I will let you know if I get it–I have never had them say something shipped without it actually shipping. Let alone an actual arrival date/time.
I have a UPS tracking number and it even tells me the carrier picked it up in Murfreesboro, TN, US at 11:25pm yesterday.
Good – Please let me know when you receive a book / books. Thanks!
I received my first Supernatural book Thursday 23 Jul 2015. I just about have it read. My other Supernatural books and Unseen Realm books will arrive Tuesday 28 July 2015. They have already shipped according to the tracking site. Supernatural is great and I’m really looking forward to Unseen Realm. It’s exciting!
awesome – post a review! Let me know when you get Unseen Realm. I’m going to ask folks inside the building if I can announce anything. What’s odd is that Amazon *now* has a September 1 date for Unseen Realm — but the page takes normal orders (not pre-orders). Even odder, Supernatural *doesn’t* let people order — you can only pre-order. I think I know why this is the case, but I need to confirm with the publisher.
I finally figured out how to get my review up on Amazon! Unseen Realm and more Supernatural books will be here Monday. My friends and family are really going to enjoy them. Get those next 3 books out, they are important!!! 🙂
working on them as we speak.
Got Unseen Realm from amazon in the mail yesterday
congratulations! As I noted to Josue, they’re going to be surprised in the office. I’m not sure anyone else will get one before Sept 1.
I got an email yesterday telling me I would have my Unseen Realm on Friday. I have started reading Supernatural and really like it. It came at a wonderful time since my friend from Colorado will visit me this week for 7 days…..Boy will we have subject matter to discuss. YHWH bless……
Thanks – post a review when you’re done!
Will Unseen Realm be available in paperback or only Hardcover? when will paperback be available?
Thank you, i am excited. I read the myth draft I think three years ago? or when the draft first came out on pdf.
The short answer is that I don’t know. But in any form, the current book is WAY better than the old myth draft.
Just delved into the first chapters of Unseen Realm. When is companian website planned to go live ?
Well, I wasn’t planning on making it live until we launched the book. So now I’m in a bit of a dilemma – do I push the button or not? I may – hit me with another comment in a couple days so it doesn’t fall off the radar.
Companion website ? To push button or not reminder.
How far are you into the book?
chapter 7
I am now the possessor of two brand new books titled The Unseen Realm! I’m glad I didn’t have to wait until September 🙂 So, all I need now is an electronic copy of Supernatural and The Unseen Realm and life will be complete.
So that brings to mind another question: do we have to wait for eBook or Kindle copies, in addition to hard copy?
I presume the digital versions will be available Sept 1.
Ordered both books yesterday on Amazon and both arrived today.
congratulations! Glad they made it through.