Question about Michael Heiser

[Guest]

  On 1/4/2022 at 1:50 AM, angels4u said:

I'm watching a video right now and it's very interesting!

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You have to remember Dr. Heiser is both a Hebrew and Greek scholar.  Unseen Realm was his doctoral thesis.  He has ample notes in Unseen Realm but the print is a little small for my 72 year old eyes. But it is so worthwhile, I am 350 pages into it, I will finish it as long as my eyes hold out.  There is a lot of good references in the notes, so they really shouldn't be ignored.  I have seen him on TV on shows like Prophesy Watchers.  He is an Old Earth Creationist, quotes some from 1 Enoch but does not believe it should be in the Biblical Canon.  He is my Number 1 go to writer not in the Bible. 

[other one]

  On 1/4/2022 at 3:09 AM, Saved.One.by.Grace said:

You have to remember Dr. Heiser is both a Hebrew and Greek scholar.  Unseen Realm was his doctoral thesis.  He has ample notes in Unseen Realm but the print is a little small for my 72 year old eyes. But it is so worthwhile, I am 350 pages into it, I will finish it as long as my eyes hold out.  There is a lot of good references in the notes, so they really shouldn't be ignored.  I have seen him on TV on shows like Prophesy Watchers.  He is an Old Earth Creationist, quotes some from 1 Enoch but does not believe it should be in the Biblical Canon.  He is my Number 1 go to writer not in the Bible. 

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get the Kindle version and make the print any size you want.

[Guest]

  On 1/4/2022 at 3:14 AM, other one said:

get the Kindle version and make the print any size you want.

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Yeh, I already have two hard cover books, a Kindle version should be free, right?  But I don't have much to go, in fact I was reading it today while I waited for my wife.  I could take pictures of it and blow it up that way too.

[missmuffet]

  On 1/4/2022 at 2:54 AM, angels4u said:

I know who he is and agree with his teaching

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Of course Dr. Charles Stanley has always been one of my favorites. 

[other one]

  On 1/4/2022 at 3:23 AM, Saved.One.by.Grace said:

Yeh, I already have two hard cover books, a Kindle version should be free, right?  But I don't have much to go, in fact I was reading it today while I waited for my wife.  I could take pictures of it and blow it up that way too.

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No it isn't free as far as I know.

[Sower]

  On 1/4/2022 at 3:23 AM, Saved.One.by.Grace said:

Yeh, I already have two hard cover books, a Kindle version should be free, right?  But I don't have much to go, in fact I was reading it today while I waited for my wife.  I could take pictures of it and blow it up that way too.

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Buy a pair of cheap reader glasses, 300-350 power at Walmart. I keep a pair for the close up work on intricate parts.
And the fine print directions on spray paint cans.......
 

[Guest]

  On 1/4/2022 at 3:51 AM, Sower said:

Buy a pair of cheap reader glasses, 300-350 power at Walmart. I keep a pair for the close up work on intricate parts.
And the fine print directions on spray paint cans.......

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Good suggestion.  But I'm already using 250 and I'm not even close.  Actually, if I have enough bright light, I could probably read without glasses. 

[The_Patriot21]

Unfortunately with putting a question like this out there on a public forum your going to get a dozen opposing answers. And the answers may all be informative, but in the end sometimes the only way to find out is to open the book and read it.

[GandalfTheWise]

  On 1/3/2022 at 11:04 PM, angels4u said:

He wrote a book called "Unseen realm"

I don't know much about the man,can somebody tell me if he has a sound doctrine?

Thanks,Angels

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I've not read any of his work but have read some summaries and have skimmed his web site.  As far as I can tell, he is a Christian and an actual Hebrew and OT scholar who is committing his life to this speciality.   He's not just someone who took a Hebrew course or two at some point and is called a "scholar" because they look stuff up in Strongs and and do a few teachings here and there on this type of topic. 

As far as I can tell, one thrust of his research is to better understand the beliefs and cultures of the peoples and lands surrounding those who were the focus of the OT.  This provides a context for understanding what are similarities and what are differences between the people of Israel (and their forebears) and the general culture and place they lived.   This helps give us a better understanding of how people in the OT saw the world and God's interactions with them.  For example, we can plainly see in a few NT stories that the disciples' world view contained the idea that health and wealth were a sign of God's favor and that Jesus' role was that of a military/political leader.  We can acknowledge that some disciples believed those things without we ourselves believing those things.  Delving into how those in the OT saw the world around them does not change the OT, it gives us better insight into how those living in those times themselves would understand various parts of the OT.

This type of approach necessarily means he has to look at existing literature, languages, and archeological evidence outside the Bible to learn from.  This also means that part of his work will be conjectural in nature (which will require more work from himself or others to delve into in the future to learn more about).  Finally, some of his work will simply show our western and traditional understanding of some parts of the OT will be incomplete or in error.

The main criticisms I've found of his work fit these categories.  Some seem angry that he is looking at literature outside the OT to learn about the surrounding cultures and religions.  Some seem to equate this with adding those things to the OT or replacing the OT with those things.   Others hop onto more conjectural points that differ from traditional views as proving he doesn't know what he is doing and use this to discredit those things he writes that are on a more solid footing.   Then there are those criticisms from those I think of as heresy hunters who look for single out of context sentences and passages to make accusations of heresy about.  

As with many scholars, there are two sides to his work.  There is his detailed academic side and there is his popular/colloquial side where he attempts to summarize his findings in a way that non-specialists can understand.  I'm actually intrigued about his work now and will probably read some of his books in the future.

[Alive]

  On 1/4/2022 at 1:14 PM, GandalfTheWise said:

I've not read any of his work but have read some summaries and have skimmed his web site.  As far as I can tell, he is a Christian and an actual Hebrew and OT scholar who is committing his life to this speciality.   He's not just someone who took a Hebrew course or two at some point and is called a "scholar" because they look stuff up in Strongs and and do a few teachings here and there on this type of topic. 

As far as I can tell, one thrust of his research is to better understand the beliefs and cultures of the peoples and lands surrounding those who were the focus of the OT.  This provides a context for understanding what are similarities and what are differences between the people of Israel (and their forebears) and the general culture and place they lived.   This helps give us a better understanding of how people in the OT saw the world and God's interactions with them.  For example, we can plainly see in a few NT stories that the disciples' world view contained the idea that health and wealth were a sign of God's favor and that Jesus' role was that of a military/political leader.  We can acknowledge that some disciples believed those things without we ourselves believing those things.  Delving into how those in the OT saw the world around them does not change the OT, it gives us better insight into how those living in those times themselves would understand various parts of the OT.

This type of approach necessarily means he has to look at existing literature, languages, and archeological evidence outside the Bible to learn from.  This also means that part of his work will be conjectural in nature (which will require more work from himself or others to delve into in the future to learn more about).  Finally, some of his work will simply show our western and traditional understanding of some parts of the OT will be incomplete or in error.

The main criticisms I've found of his work fit these categories.  Some seem angry that he is looking at literature outside the OT to learn about the surrounding cultures and religions.  Some seem to equate this with adding those things to the OT or replacing the OT with those things.   Others hop onto more conjectural points that differ from traditional views as proving he doesn't know what he is doing and use this to discredit those things he writes that are on a more solid footing.   Then there are those criticisms from those I think of as heresy hunters who look for single out of context sentences and passages to make accusations of heresy about.  

As with many scholars, there are two sides to his work.  There is his detailed academic side and there is his popular/colloquial side where he attempts to summarize his findings in a way that non-specialists can understand.  I'm actually intrigued about his work now and will probably read some of his books in the future.

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You about nailed it. I would add that he is a pleasant brother to listen too.

He also has a ministry translating bibles into languages without scripture and worked tomdevelop Logos bible software.