Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 37

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 163: Other Gods and Other Religions with Gerald McDermott

Gerald R. McDermott (PhD, University of Iowa) is Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. Before joining Beeson, he was the Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College. He is also associate pastor at Christ the King Anglican Church and Distinguished Senior Fellow in the History of Christianity at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

In this episode of the podcast we discuss two of Dr. McDermott’s books: God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? and Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land.

God’s Rivals raises the question of why there are other religions—why would God permit that? The content of the book takes note of the Deuteronomy 32 worldview discussed so often on the Naked Bible Podcast – that, for biblical writers, the gods were real and allotted to the nations (and vice versa) in judgment at the Babel event (Deut 4:19-20; 17:1-3; 29:23-26; 32:8-9 [per the Dead Sea Scrolls “sons of God” reading]; 32:17). Dr. McDermott surveys early church thinkers reflections on this situation and what it meant in God’s plan of salvation.

Israel Matters discusses the diversity of opinion (positive and negative) in the believing Church toward the people, land, and state of Israel.

Books referenced:

God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church
Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land
The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on Israel and the Land

Instagram and Novel # 3

Well, I’ve entered “novel #3 research mode.” Not sure what clicked in my head, but the last couple of days I’ve had a bunch of scenes and ideas fly into my head. I guess it’s time. I hope to start writing this fall.

Readers of The Facade and The Portent will know that one of the new characters introduced in the latter was Summit. That’s the nickname of my youngest daughter. Like her namesake character, Summit (real name: Simcha/Simmi) is something of a prodigy. In her case it’s drawing. Here’s something she just posted on her instagram account (she’s been watching the Anne of Green Gables remake, “Anne with an E”). It’s an hour’s worth of work. Free hand. Good grief. The girl that plays the part in the show “liked” it on Instagram, too.

Her picture actually reminded me that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that my wife started an Instagram account for me. It’s part of the Miqlat newsletter. Please subscribe! (Where else can you see genuine pictures of Bigfoot? … he showed up at our FringePop321 studio).

 

Mike’s Book, The Bible Code Myth, Now Available for Kindle

I wrote and self-published The Bible Code Myth over ten years ago. I don’t believe it was ever on Amazon (so long ago I can’t remember). I had sold it as a PDF as well.

Through a lot of help on the part of Peter Rust, a friend of mine who has helped out with other Kindle items, The Bible Code Myth has now been reborn as a Kindle title.

Here’s an extended description of the book

The fundamental premise of all Bible code research is that the every-letter sequence of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament has remained unaltered since God prompted the biblical authors to compose their documents. The actual manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, however, inform us very plainly that no two manuscripts are identical, different versions of biblical books exist in those manuscripts (sometimes involving thousands of letters), and the scribes who transmitted the Hebrew text at times made mistakes in transmission, and left notes in their copies about suspect readings in the manuscripts. These data testify unequivocally that the preservation of the every-letter sequence of Hebrew letters is uncertain. The author introduces the English reader to these phenomena so as to visually demonstrate that the certitude of the every-letter sequence required for the Bible code to be real is a demonstrable myth.

To take one example of how the manuscript evidence entirely undermines the foundational premise of a Bible code, the Dead Sea Scrolls, our closest textual witnesses to the original Hebrew Old Testament, have a markedly different way of spelling. In just a few verses there might therefore be dozens of letter differences due only to spelling convention (recall in English the word “color” vs. “colour”). The Hebrew text used by Bible code researchers is much younger than the Dead Sea material, and does not account for the ancient spellings. The significance of this can be dramatically illustrated. One Bible code proponent, Grant Jeffrey, claimed to have found dozens of coded names associated with Jesus in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Old Testament prophecy of a suffering Messiah. In just these fifteen verses, there are 115 letter differences between the text Jeffrey uses and the Dead Sea Great Isaiah Scroll because of spelling differences. Click here to see for yourself.

Unseen Realm Video Series on Faithlife TV

Faithlife TV has just added what they’re calling an “Unseen Realm lecture series” to the channel’s content. You need to subscribe to Faithlife TV to watch them. It’s very inexpensive (I think around $5 a month). I hope many of you will do that, as it will encourage Faithlife (my employer, the maker of Logos Bible Software) to do more of that sort of content. Let’s be honest … no one else is doing that. So it’s a good idea to let Faithlife know you want more.

The “lecture series” is actually a series of videos of me summarizing the chapter content of my book The Unseen Realm. These videos would be very useful for introducing people to the content of the book and getting them interested in reading it. So subscribe and show a few to folks that you know need to read The Unseen Realm!

PEERANORMAL Podcast Episode 09: Is Rh-Negative Blood Proof of Alien or Nephilim Hybrids?

Short answer: No.

For why, listen to the episode and read its associated source material.

Description: The idea that people with Rh-Negative blood indicates alien or nephilim ancestry is on the rise in fringe internet communities and websites. In this episode our panel is joined by someone with medical training (MD) who is familiar with blood typing and the genetics behind Rh-negative blood. The episode discusses the nature of Rh-negative blood, its genetic explanation, and speculations about other traits associated with Rh-negative blood.

Guest host: Mike’s pastor, Dax Swanson, an MD who practiced medicine for six years and did post-MD research on blood and immunology.

60 Second Scholar Books to be Re-published by Zondervan

Many of you have asked about the status of my self-published three-book 60-Second Scholar series. The books are no longer available for purchase on Amazon, and some folks have posted ridiculous prices for used copies. I had to “retire” the series on Amazon because I was in negotiation with several mainstream Christian publishers who expressed interest in picking them up for their own re-publication.

I can now announce that Zondervan has picked up the books for re-publication. The name should be familiar. Zondervan is owned by Harper Collins, and has been a major publishing house in the Christian world for decades. The 100 entries in each original 60-Second book will be trimmed to 80 entries and re-formatted a bit. Zondervan will release the series in May 2018.

This also means that the Logos versions of the series that went up on pre-pub just before negotiations began have been halted. Logos editions of the new series will be produced after the May 2018 launch.

David Burnett Speaking on the Divine Council at Mosaic Church in Austin, TX

June 23 … This is pretty cool. I’m glad to see churches have the courage to expose their people to the Bible in its own context. (Think about that statement).

David’s topic is: “The Divine Council: The Falling and Rising of the Sons of God.”

The event is scheduled for Friday, June 23, at 6:30 pm. The address is:

Mosaic Church Austin

12675 Research Blvd.

Austin, TX  78759

For more information, click this link to the event calendar.

It should go without saying that if you can make this event, please go. Churches who step up to give people content should be encouraged. And I know David would love to meet followers of the podcast and his own work!

Mike to Co-Host a Trip to Israel in May 2018

This has been in the planning for a few months, and now it’s official:

I won’t be the tour guide, but I will be doing some teaching and commentary at significant sites on the tour. As the banner notes, Derek and Sharon Gilbert will be contributing in the same way as well. I don’t know how large the group will be, but it should go without saying that space will be limited.

Click here or on the banner for more details.

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 162: The Evil Eye

The “evil eye” was a widespread superstition in the ancient world, one that continues on into the present day. The belief that one could cause someone harm merely by looking at them, or cast a spell over them by the same means, shows up in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamian, Greece, Rome, and Rabbinic writings. But does the Bible contain any reference to the notion? This episode explores biblical references to having an “evil eye” and discusses the meaning of those references in biblical thought.

The episode is now live.

Some Adjustments to the Roswell UFO Festival Conference Schedule

The updated link is here.

One of my speaking times has changed. You can of course see all the speakers and their topics at this particular conference.