The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, by Michael S. Heiser. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015. 368 pp. $27.95.
The Unseen Realm is a biblical theology of the spirit realm. It is based upon a close reading of the Bible in its ancient contexts (i.e., ANE and Second Temple texts). It grows out of the author’s dissertation, published articles (e.g., in Bibiliotheca Sacra, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Bulletin for Biblical Research), and ministry to people who hold worldviews grounded in the paranormal, occult, and esoteric beliefs. Thus, it represents an effort to apply top-tier scholarship to biblical theology and then make this theology available to the church at large. Author Michael Heiser holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Semitic Languages from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is Scholar-in-Residence at Faithlife Corporation.
Heiser begins with a two-part thesis: first, that God created both spirits and humans to image him (Gen 1:26–27), each in their respective realm, each free to love and obey God and, second, that recovering a worldview incorporating such a theology greatly contributes to understanding God, his Word, and his mission in the world.
In Heiser’s view, God created humans “a little lower than the elohim” [“gods, spirits”] (Ps 8), but gave to humans, not to the heavenly spirits, authority over planet Earth as his royal vice-regents (Gen 1:26–27). In what may have been a case of jealousy, one of these spirits [hannachash “the serpent”] tempted the first couple in an effort to thwart God’s plans. From then on, the storyline of the Bible records God’s progressive efforts to defeat the forces of evil and reclaim not just humanity, but all of creation for himself. A major change came when God disinherited the nations at Babel (Gen 11) because they refused to obey him. He assigned powerful heavenly spirits (beney elim, “sons of God”) to rule over them, based on geographical regions (Deut 32:8; 4:19–20; cf. Gen 10). God subsequently created a new nation—Israel—to image him and to bring the nations back to him. The rebellious spirits over the nations continue to resist God and his rule (Ps 82; Dan 10:13, 20), which provides the background of spiritual warfare (e.g., Eph 6). Jesus’s coming to earth as a human was accompanied by many direct attacks on his spiritual foes. His final coming will involve both heavenly spirits and glorified humans. Faithful human believers will judge and replace rebellious heavenly council members (1 Cor 6:3) and then rule and reign with Christ forever.
The book itself is composed of eight sections divided into 42 chapters. Each section ends with a well-written summary. Part One (chaps. 1–2) gives the author’s biographical background that served as the catalyst for the book. Part Two (chaps. 3–9) introduces the spirit realm within the context of God’s heavenly council of spirits (“angels”). It shows the parallel between the imago dei of humans and the role of angelic beings as fellow ministers of God. Part Three (chaps. 10–15) deals with the fall of humans and the character of the snake in relation to the implied fall of a heavenly being in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Part Four (chaps. 16–22) treats God’s relationship to Israel, beginning with the call of Abraham. Israel became the means for God to begin reclaiming the rebellious nations of the world. The relationship of the church to ethnic Israel is seen in this light. Part Five (chaps. 23–25) examines the giants encountered during Joshua’s conquest in light of intertextual links to the nephilim of Genesis 6. Part Six (chaps. 26–30) covers the prophetic function of standing in God’s council and relates this to Daniel 7 and to prophecies about Jesus. Part Seven (chaps. 31–38) investigates the OT roots for the development of NT Christology, as well as Christ’s coming and the NT passages related to spiritual warfare. It also posits that spiritual warfare provides the reason for so many prophecies being cryptic (i.e., if the rebellious spirits had known God’s plans exactly, they would not have inspired people to kill Jesus [1 Cor 2:8]). Part Eight (chaps. 39–42) applies these ideas to eschatology, showing that Christians will judge and even replace the unfaithful heavenly council members as part of ruling and reigning with Christ. All in all, there is a wealth of material here, much more than the above summary would suggest.
Perhaps Heiser’s primary contribution is that he develops a genuine alternative to mainstream scholarship. Most mainstream OT scholarship on this topic regards the heavenly council as clear evidence for the evolution of Israelite faith from Canaanite polytheism to monotheism (see Heiser’s articles in BSac and BBR). Heiser makes no attempt to integrate the findings into any pre-existing theological system, whether dispensational or Reformed. Thus, although the findings do support certain Baptist and dispensational claims (e.g., baptism is a sign of loyalty to Jesus, ethnic Israel has a literal future in God’s plan), they also cut across all systems at some point or other (e.g., the battle of Armageddon takes place at Jerusalem, following Zechariah 14, not in the plain of Megiddo).
Although it would be easy to criticize this book for not being exhaustive in its treatment or for not being a systematic theology per se, such criticism would be unfair because the book does not claim to be exhaustive, and its explicit purpose is to provide biblical theology. Its goal of propounding a comprehensive, coherent model based on the biblical material in context is much more modest but is sufficient.
In short, this carefully-researched book synthesizes a large amount of biblical and hard-to-find scholarly data in order to develop both old and new ideas into a comprehensive model of the spirit realm. It is surprisingly easy to read, and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to read the Bible on its own terms—from lay people to scholars.
