Titles can be deceiving. I did not go into some altered state and cross over into the unseen realm of the spiritual world. I read a book called “The Unseen Realm“, by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. I want to share a few observations about my journey into his unseen realm. If Heiser is successful with his teaching in this book, you will come out of The Unseen Realm with a supernatural Deuteronomy 32 worldview.

First, let me say that Dr. Heiser is a highly qualified Near East ancient texts scholar. He can and he does read many of the texts of the most ancient scripture fragments. He also is a scholar that is well versed in Second Temple and Mesopotamian Literature.

This article is not a book review of The Unseen Realm. I don’t see how I could even do that without plagiarizing the major points in his book. If you want to know most of the details, you will need to read the book. Forgive me if I go beyond the book and add some of my own thoughts in the process.

I think that anyone that spends as much time as Heiser has on this subject ought to be able to make a living from his contribution to Christian Theology. I do not like it when people just copy the major points of someone else and then just tattle it to others as if they thought of it. This book by Dr. Heiser only came about after ten years of study, debate and much peer review. I suggest that serious people who can afford such works support the efforts of people like Dr. Heiser. This is a book that you are not likely to find on popular fluff shelves of “Christian” book stores.

This book conflicts with many of the traditional views that you probably were taught. If learning new things from the point of view of the ancient people that the scriptures were given to rocks your boat, stay in the shallower harbors.

I will try to try to define the Deuteronomy 32 worldview or most readers will not have a clue what this worldview is all about.

The Deuteronomy 32 supernatural worldview.

Briefly, it is the worldview that Yahweh divided the nations at Babel and then gave them over to be ruled by lessor divine beings *(also identified as Elohim). This occurred because of human and divine rebellion against the Most High God (Yahweh). The view is based on an interpretation of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 and what ancients actually recorded in non canonical literature.

*(Apparently all beings in the spiritual unseen world in biblical Hebrew are identified as Elohim but there is only one Elohim that is the most high God. He is Yahweh. The word Elohim just identifies spiritual beings that normally occupy the unseen realm.)

Because of the rebellion at Babel, that included both humans and Elohim, Yahweh gave the nations over to the rebellious Elohim to have their own way. There was one exception mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:9, Jacob (Israel), would be Yahweh’s portion.

Yahweh took out a people for Himself through the seed of Abraham. Jacob/Israel was to become a  nations of priests that would bless the nations by freeing the descendants of Adam from their enslavement to these territorial Elohim. God would accomplish two major things through Israel. The defeat of the rebellious Elohim of the unseen realm and the restoration of paradise lost.

Israel’s history is about the war between the people of God (Israel) and the seed of the serpent that controlled the Gentile nations. Yahweh (Jesus) became incarnate through an Israelite virgin. He ultimately would defeat the Elohim that kept mankind in bondage to sin and death by His sacrifice for sin on the cross.

The main support for the claim that God was angry with the Elohim that ruled the known world comes from an interpretation of Psalm 82. This interpretation can be partly supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls and totally supported by ancient non canonical literature such as Enoch 1.

That interpretation of Psalm 82 then becomes the filter that Dr. Heiser (and others with this worldview) use for much of the Bible. I am not saying there is no other support for this view in the Bible, but without these nontraditional interpretations of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 the biblical foundation to build this worldview upon would not exist.

My views on Heiser’s theology in The Unseen Realm.

First, let me say that I do not see anything heretical about his views. Those that claim Heiser’s view of God is heretical use straw man arguments like God is almighty and has no need of a divine council. Certainly God does not need them, but obviously, God chooses to use created beings to rule with Him in His creation. After all, even us Christians will one day rule and reign with Christ as divine beings.

Everything that Moses set up on earth was a copy of what was going on in the unseen realm. Israel had a ruling council of elders set up according to what was seen in heaven. We do see a council of elders in the heavenly throne room in Daniel and Revelation and it is implied elsewhere.

Other critics of Heiser think that man does not have free will. That is not the case. The sons of God were created to image God and God is free. God did not create robots to image Him. That is against His own divine nature. Freewill is not free unless the imagers of God can make their own choices. They must learn to freely choose God or to reject Him. That is what our own sojourn here is all about. We either choose to become imagers of God by putting on Christ or we choose to continue to image the Devil. We choose who we will serve.

It is easy for me to buy into this Deuteronomy 32 worldview because two decades ago I came to the conclusion that some of the traditional theories of the Bible were unsupportable by any honest reading of the scriptures. For example, the traditional Sons of Seth Theory to explain the Nephilim giants was total nonsense to me. That explanation did not even meet the common sense test. It also did not explain why those living in biblical times had supernatural explanations in their writings about the Nephilim that actually agreed with a unfiltered reading of Genesis.

Even through I agree with much of what Heiser said in the book, I do disagree with some of what he claims. I can agree with the general thesis of The Unseen Realm but also disagree with certain conjectures and statements that Dr, Michael Heiser makes.

For example, Heiser seems to contradict himself on one very important issue (that is if I heard him and am reading him correctly – you be the judge). I remember Dr. Heiser clearly saying in a YouTube lecture that he believes that God foreknows everything. However, in The Unseen Realm, he seems to imply that God needed to keep adjusting His overall plan to defeat the adversary because humans always failed.

I think God foreknew everything that would happen before the foundation of the world. This is what Michael Heiser said on Page 240 in The Unseen Realm (the bold emphasis is mine).

“The apostasy of his people and their subsequent exile prompted a change in Yahweh’s approach to restoring his rule on earth

… snip…

There could only be one solution, through it would have two strategic deployments. God understood that only he could be trusted with perfectly accomplishing his own will. He would therefore have to become man and, in addition, he would have to inhabit the hearts of his children.”

It prompted a change in Yahweh’s approach?? God understood?? He would therefore have to become a man??

Heiser seems to be saying that the incarnation only came in God’s mind after Israel failed? How then can God foreknow everything? I believe that Heiser teaches that God foreknows everything so I have to think that Heiser was just trying to make it understandable from a human point of view. Nevertheless, what was said here gives people a different impression.

I also think there is a major flaw in Heiser’s view of future prophetic scriptures. One of Dr. Heiser’s prime objective is to get Christians to understand the scriptures through the eyes of the ancient people that the scriptures were given to. That is correct thinking for the most part, however, it fails to consider that God is not limited to what the ancients understood about the scriptures that were delivered to them.

There were scriptures given to them that only future generations could understand. The progressive unfolding of various Christian theologies is well-known and accepted within Christian academia. This should also be true with Eschatology. We cannot understand future Bible prophecy by just looking through the eyes of ancient people. They were so far removed that they could not possibly have comprehend a literal future fulfillment. I think we first have to see the big picture about God’s future agenda to get the specific unfulfilled prophecies correct.

Heiser claims that he does not have any specific system of Eschatology. He claims the biblical text is riddled with ambiguities that undermine the certainty of modern eschatological systems. He thinks these things are deliberately cryptic. He claims much might be a metaphor so our modern expectations about how a given prophecy will “work” are inherently unsure (p 349).

From what I read and heard Heiser say, it seems to me that Heiser has a supernatural view that retains most of the views of Covenant Theology. I know that Covenant Theology is the major view in Christianity and it certainly is the view taught in most Bible colleges and seminaries but I do not believe that you can get end time Bible prophecy correct if you believe in Covenant Theology.

Heiser seems to think that all eschatological systems have equal merit or at least some merit. I disagree. I know that we certainly don’t have everything all figured out about end time Bible prophecy but I think one system of eschatological interpretation makes the most sense by a long shot. That system is Premillennial Dispensational Theology.

Is Eschatology the only major theology of Christianity that should stay confused? Or is there Holy Spirit led progressive enlightenment going on here as well? If Heiser and others at this late date can offer enlightenment on a worldview that explains what is happening in the unseen realm, why can’t other scholars get enlightenment to figure out the correct system to explain end times events? I think they can, and for the most part they have. Even so, nobody should confuse Dispensational Theology with the convoluted eschatology of the postmodern Bible prophecy teachers found all over the modern media.

Allegorical interpretation of future prophecy or just saying that they are a metaphor (figure of speech) is something widely accepted by most of Christendom for sure. However, their lack of literalism is also why they will not consider Heiser’s supernatural worldview in spite of the evidence (they don’t want to be confused with the facts). The real problem with most in Christendom is that they do not want to believe what God actually said in scripture. That is because it would not fit the traditions that were passed down to them or fit their current modern and postmodern worldviews.

How much literalism does one need to see before they catch on that God literally intends to fulfill what the prophets said about the end times? Jews being back in their covenant land and many nations hating them should be one big clue that God has a literal prophetic fulfillment and millennial agenda remaining for the physical nation of Israel.

The pretribulation Rapture and the tribulation are not metaphors. The Beast/Son of Perdition/Antichrist is no metaphor, so why would events associated with the coming of the Antichrist, the birth pains, the judgments and the restoration of the promised kingdom be metaphors? I am not saying that Heiser believes that they are, but, modern man should take future Bible prophecy literally or he might be better off not taking it at all. Revelation warns those that would distort anything that is written in the prophecy. Is that warning also just a metaphor?

If it is not literal to the generation that it is fulfilled in, what is the point of God even giving precise  details about future events? Bible prophecy just becomes man-centered politically correct feel good “kingdom now” nonsense when theologians become free to redefine anything that does not fit their postmodern worldview as being allegory or some figure of speech.

It is my understanding that Heiser is writing a novel that will contain some of his own eschatology. I am pretty sure it will build on The Facade novel that he wrote 15 years ago. What would that theology be? The return of the Elohim from the unseen realm to fulfill some things said in Revelation? I would think so. That will fit in nicely with the conjectures of others that have their own version of the supernatural unseen realm fulfilling some of what Revelation says.

I personally think the supernatural view about the end times will turn out to be correct. Although I also think that many with this supernatural worldview are now trying to shoe-Horn it in a timeline that simply will not fit (that would not include Heiser). I guess that sells books. Nevertheless, it can’t happen until the restrainer is removed. At this point, I don’t think anyone can offer anything but conjecture about all the natural or supernatural details that will arrive with the Beast and his false prophet.

Everything on Bible prophecy media today is about the coming of the Antichrist. They do not even try to explain what the Two prophets of God will be doing for 1260 days. Everyone forgets that they will appear 1260 days before the Son of Perdition/Beast/Antichrist even rises out of the Abyss.

These two witnesses of God apparently torment the unbelieving world and have the power to call down judgments on the world as often as they wish (Rev 11:6). Are plagues and turning water into blood just metaphors? I think not. However, all we hear on the Bible prophecy media is about the imminent coming of the Antichrist. Some even say he is already here. Until the two prophets appear I think I will stick with what the scripture actually says and try to keep my return of Apollo and Zeus conjectures to a bare minimum.

It looks like the unseen realm somehow put me on a soapbox.

From those last statements, I might have seemed critical of this book with its supernatural worldview but actually I like The Unseen Realm very much. Heiser’s unseen realm with its Deuteronomy 32 worldview is not going to be accepted by the world or even most in Christendom. Even so, it is quite logical and it is built on what the ancient records actually say. I can’t really tell you the gems that are in this book without resorting to plagiarism so I am not going to even try. Besides, this post is already much longer than postmodern’s will read.

I suggest that you get a copy of The Unseen Realm. Then after you read it you might want to discuss it in the comments section here. As Michael Heiser suggests, the book is not the end of the discussion and discovery, it really is just the beginning. After reading this book, you may never see what is written in the Bible quite the same.

For you people who cannot afford the book, you can find Heiser’s lectures and interviews on The Unseen Realm on YouTube. Just type in his name. Most of the major points covered in the book can be found on YouTube or on Heiser’s websites.