Over the past few days I’ve begun preparing for some speaking events that will happen in September and October related to The Unseen Realm. As things stand now, I’ve confirmed invitations from the messianic congregation Beit Tefillah in Gig Harbor, WA (Sept 12, 5-9pm), a two-day event in St. Joseph, MO (Oct 2-3), and a one-day event in Plain City, OH (Nov. 7). I’ll say more about these events in the near future. I’m having conversations with a couple other churches as well. Things will heat up a bit after Sept 1 when the book officially launches.
During the course of making some notes about how to summarize the book, I came up with these points / this outline. I thought I’d share them. Even for those who have read the book I think these points will help orient the content.
First Things – what the book is and is not
This is not a book about angels and demons, though the supernatural characters of the Bible figure heavily into the material. Rather, the book:
- Presents the mosaic of biblical theology from the perspective of ancient Israelite / first century Jewish writers predisposed to a supernaturalist worldview, with an eye toward how the intersection of the unseen world with our world affects how we understand the plan of God and our destiny as believers.
- Establishes the pieces of that mosaic by means of peer-reviewed research, and makes the conclusions of that research readable and comprehensible.
The above is my (just over) thirty-second explanation of the book.
Core Ideas in The Unseen Realm
1. Divine council
- God’s family; God’s administration
- God desires his divine and human imagers to together enjoy his presence, and he theirs.
- God desires his divine and human imagers to obediently administer his affairs in their respective realms.
2. Divine imaging
- What it is; its intrinsic meaning
3. Free-will rebellions by God’s imagers
Genesis 3
- divine and human rebellion, leading to council expulsion and loss of human terrestrial immortality (=death)
Genesis 6:1-4
- divine rebellion that leads to (not causes) human corruption
Genesis 11:1-9 / Deut. 32:8-9
- Human rebellion that leads to (not causes) divine corruption
4. Edenic Cost/ Loss
- Halted the spread of Eden to all the earth (i.e., earth’s good but imperfect state not made Edenic; “chaos” not perfected)1
- Human immortality in God’s Edenic world
- Harmony between the seen and unseen realms / divine imagers
- Human membership in God’s home / administration (his council)
5. Reversing the Effects of Free-Will Rebellions
Eden / Genesis 3
- Divine presence returning to earth to dwell with God’s elect people
- election is not a synonym for salvation
- This is where the idea of restoring a divine, earthly kingdom must begin
- Overcome the power of the original rebel (lord of the death); restore human immortality in God’s Edenic world
Genesis 6
- Eradicate the hostile seed that arose because of the rebellion of the sons of God, which will stand against kingdom restoration
- Restrain the spread of evil catalyzed by this event2
- Cf. Jewish theology of human depravity
- Galatians 3:19ff. and the Law
Genesis 11 / Deut 32:8-9
- Bless the nations that were disinherited
- Claim human council members / believers from among the disinherited nations
- Reclaim those nations under the authority of new sons of God (believers)
- Destroy the gods of the nations who became rebellious and corrupt
6. Ultimate Source for All These Points
Jesus Christ
- Covenant maker (Word; Gen 15)
- Law giver (Gal. 3:19 et al)
- Key to secret messianic plan of redemption
- Gospel to Gentiles / Pentecost
- Our resurrection
- Our perfect imager
- Our brother-presenter in the council (Heb 2)
- Judge of the gods at Day of the Lord
- This latter idea — chaos and the original imperfection of the earth — is not developed in the book. It was something introduced in the original draft. It will get a lot of attention in a follow-up volume. ↩
- This item isn’t developed in the book; it will be in a follow-up volume. The best development of this I’ve seen is that found in the SBL paper I blogged about last November / December. ↩
Looking forward to November 7. That is about an hour away from me.
good!
I am interested in the 2-day event in St. Joseph, Missouri. What church and address.
I’ll blog about the events in the near future.
Sweet, looks good! I’ll definitely be picking this one up come September. Best of luck with the upcoming events!
I am so glad that you are going to follow up and develop the idea of an imperfect earth before the introduction of sin (though I would include the imperfection of the Universe at large as well, i.e., all of Creation) in your next volume. I think this is a huge issue that has been ignored and/or blatantly misrepresented by so many who have exegeted (I hope that is a real term) the Scripture in the past.
I have heard so many times that the entire Universe was perfect before the fall of man and that somehow it magically went into corruption and decay only after the introduction of sin. But, my reading of Romans 8 seems to indicate that God purposefully created the present Creation with some degree of futility, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God. And, would you agree that Adam wasn’t in a revealed state even at his creation?
If so, this means that God was anticipating the revelation of the sons of God after sin and therefore knowing that sin would inevitably surface, He created the Universe imperfect (“good” yes, but not “perfect”, different words in the Hebrew per my understanding). This then renders Eden and a Tree of Life with an actual purpose – i.e., human (not animal, allowing for animal death prior to the fall of man in a chaotic earth) sustainability in an imperfect and chaotic world that needed to be “subdued” (Adam told to subdue creation even before he sinned). You don’t subdue something that is already perfected!
Anyway, this is a big issue with me and I could go on and on. But, I cannot wait to hear your take on it from the perspective of original language/ANE scholarship. I am a physician and think of these things from a scientific perspective and I think getting our doctrine correct on this is the KEY to harmonizing Science with the Bible. This has everything to do with propagating the Gospel in our post-modern scientific age. People are falling away from the faith over these issues, it being the fault of the Church for FAILING to address these issues appropriately – stemming from an improper and pathetically embarrasing exegesis of the Scripture on these issues historically.
Thanks Mike for all you do!
Thanks. The imperfect earth is sort of obvious. Eden is never presented as all the earth, and the earth needs “improving” (subduing, tending, spreading Eden across the earth). There are other elements as well.
As soon as I read “speaking engagements” I thought, what are the chances??!!! Hah!! Plain City Ohio is only 2 hours away!! I will be there, hopefully with some friends!!
Thanks Mike!
good – I will blog more about events in the future.
note 2: https://drmsh.com/2014/11/26/thoughts-on-ets-sbl-aar-2014/
Thank you very much, nice sharing
Dr. Heiser, I have just finished reading your book Unseen Realm which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was interesting going through the Bible seeing the background story more clearly and understanding how everything is connected on that level.
I am interested if Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son can be read in the light of the Deuteronomy 32 worldview. It seems that all the key factors are there: sons,
father, inheritance, killed fatted calf… Also, I thing Deuteronomy 32 is the first place in the Old Testament where God is portrayed as father.
Thank you.
I’d like to make it to the Plain City event, about an hour away…
good – if you come, introduce yourself.
This is an interesting question, in that several scholars have made direct connections between JACOB (Israel) and the prodigal — in effect arguing that the parable of the prodigal is Jesus’ simple, folksy re-telling of Israel’s story. There’s something to that, and so ideas like inheritance I think are in play.
A Jewish academic that doesn’t understand the Bible. What a shocker!!
not sure who the Jewish academic is – ?