“What I mean by context is worldview - having the ancient Israelite or first-century Jew in your head as you read. How would an ancient Israelite or first-century Jew read the Bible - what would they be thinking in terms of its meaning? The truth is that if we put one of those people into a small group Bible study and asked them what they thought about a given passage meant, their answer would be quite a bit different in many cases than anything the average Christian would think. They belonged to the world that produced the Bible, which is the context the Bible needs to be understood by.” PeopleThinkingWorldMeanDifferentChristianTermStudyTruth IsAncientJewWorldview Author:Michael S. Heiser
“Rebellion against God results in being cast out of his service. God doesn't run the affairs of the spiritual world or our world with rebels on his payroll. They are cast to the Underworld (in the case of the Eden rebel), or a special place in the Underworld (e.g., the offenders of Genesis 6:1-4, who are, to quote Peter and Jude, "kept in chains of gloomy darkness" or "sent to Tartarus"). There are more divine rebels than that in the Bible, but hopefully that scratches the surface enough.” WorldEnoughRunningSpiritualDarknessSpecialDivineAffairHopefullyRebellionRebelGenesisGloomyPayroll Author:Michael S. Heiser
“The powers of darkness are still part of the spiritual world - they don't become something else when they rebel against God. Disembodied believers are, by definition, also part of the spiritual world. So are God and Christ.” WorldSpiritualChristDarknessBelieverRebel Author:Michael S. Heiser
“How much of what the biblical writers believed about the supernatural world do I believe? They weren't us. We are products of the Enlightenment; they were not. So let's stop denying that reality. Rather than sitting in judgment on them from our Enlightenment perches, we ought to have them sit in judgment on us when it comes to informing us about the supernatural world. After all, what they wrote was ultimately overseen by God.” WorldBelieveRealityI BelieveJudgmentEnlightenmentBiblicalNatural World Author:Michael S. Heiser
“When biblical material touches on the natural world, we can legitimately use the tools of science. Sometimes that shows us - no shock here - that biblical writers didn't know as much as we now know about the natural world - but God knew that when he picked them, so that alone tells us that "doing science" that would satisfy a 21st century - and beyond - audience wasn't what God was interested in with respect to the enterprise of producing Scripture for posterity.” WorldSometimesNaturalAudienceScriptureEnterpriseBiblical21st CenturyPosterityNatural World Author:Michael S. Heiser
“The truth is that we don't know much about the spiritual world except for what Scripture tells us, so it's unwise to think we can speak with clarity about what a divine being can or cannot do. The tools of analyzing the natural world are of no use for analyzing the supernatural world. For the latter we need rules of logic, and the supernatural beliefs of the biblical writers are quite defensible in that arena.” ThinkingWorldSpiritualBeliefSpeakNaturalDivineTruth IsLogicScriptureClarityBiblicalNatural WorldUnwise Author:Michael S. Heiser
“Why are you uncomfortable with the supernaturalist worldview of the biblical writers? Evangelicals don't want to just say, "Well, the inspired writers were wrong about some of their beliefs about the spiritual world and its inhabitants." That really doesn't work in a confessional situation! So instead we come up with excuses and interpretations that allow us to remake the biblical writers in our own post-Enlightenment image. I understand that impulse, but it's not honest.” WorldSpiritualBeliefSituationHonestInspiredExcuseImpulseUncomfortableBiblicalWorldview Author:Michael S. Heiser
“God doesn't save us to perpetuate a particular Christian sub-culture. He saves us to advance a supernatural kingdom that is not of this world.” WorldChristian Author:Michael S. Heiser
“God wants the world to function in an orderly way, not a chaotic way, so teaching humans to do what's right and what will make for the happiest life isn't going to be off limits.” WorldTeachingChaotic Author:Michael S. Heiser