This is not the way we should read the Bible at all. Notice how he put Moses into the worldview of Baal.

The imagery is completely consistent with how Israel’s neighbors thought about their gods. (46)Īn ancient Israelite would have thought of Eden as the dwelling of God and the place from which God and his council direct the affairs of humanity. The Hebrew Bible uses the same descriptions for the abode and throne room of Yahweh. The discoveries at Ugarit put all of that Old Testament History in context… the divine council had three levels… The council of El met on a mountain or lush garden… Council meetings were held… All of this will sound familiar to someone who has read the Old Testament closely. He says, for example:Įden can only be properly understood in light of the worldview the biblical writers shared with other people of the ancient Near East. He basically takes the errors of Baal and ascribes them to the Biblical authors. The problem that we are seeing is that Heiser uses the religion of Baal, based on the discoveries in Ugarit, to reinterpret the Bible. Now, there are some good things to be said about Heiser’s book, but we all notice a particularly dangerous thing about his approach that we should beware of.

I spoke with some other conservatives who are well researched in this doctrine and they confirmed some of the problems I was seeing. My friend sent me a copy to look over and I saw some really concerning stuff. I didn’t want my friend to get into some weird hyper-charismatic teaching on angels and demons, so when I saw that Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary endorsed the book, I assumed that it would be pretty safe. I had never heard of the book, nor the author, so I did a quick google search. It’s on the topic of angelology and she asked me if I had heard of the book or if I knew of any dangerous teachings therein. Several months ago, a friend started reading Michael Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm.

The unseen realm dr michael heiser