The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

by Michael S. Heiser

That’s a truth we know all too well from our own struggles and experiences in a fallen world. Without genuine free will, imagers cannot truly represent God. We saw earlier that the image of God is not an attribute or ability. Rather, it is a status conferred by God on all humans, that of representing God.

Those gods become divine rivals, not servants, of Yahweh. Their rule is corrupt (Psa 82). The rest of the Old Testament pits Yahweh against those gods and Israel against their nations. To make matters worse, the residue of Genesis 6 lived among the inhabitants of those nations, on the ground that Yahweh had promised to Abraham. Yahweh’s chosen portion of land would be contested. War loomed.

That tactic is by now familiar—putting both figures on par to blur the distinction. But

But in another respect, Jesus isn’t God—he is not the Father. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Nevertheless, they are the same in essence.

There are two Yahweh figures in Old Testament thinking—one invisible,

the other visible and human in form. Judaism before the first century, the time of Jesus, knew this teaching. That’s why ancient Jewish theology once embraced two Yahweh figures (the “two powers”).6 But once this teaching came to involve the risen Jesus of Nazareth, Judaism could no longer tolerate it.

YAHWEH, THE MOST HIGH, THE GOD OF GODS, SHUNNED THE NATIONS. HE made himself known to his chosen people, his earthly portion, in the form of a man.

Yahweh is incomparable. No other god is like him. As I noted earlier, if the other gods were considered fairy tales by Israelites, this statement is at best a joke and at worst a lie.

Israel was Yahweh’s son. That may not seem profound, but it is. Once you realize that this pattern continues through the remainder of the Bible, the messaging becomes clear. Eventually, God will refer to the king of Israel as his son (Psa 2:7). The ultimate future king, the messiah, since he will sit on the seat of David, must be Yahweh’s son as well. And since we, glorified believers, will sit on that throne too, sharing that rule (Rev 3:21), we are God’s sons, his children. Every

believer is also Abraham’s offspring by faith (Gal 3:26–29). We are the current and eschatological sons of God. Our status began with Adam, was rescued in Abraham, and was fulfilled in Jesus, heir to David’s throne.

Since the Church, the corporate body of believers, inherited the promises given to Abraham (Gal 3:26–29), believers are the “true Israel” the New Testament talks about. When we inherit rule of the nations with Jesus at the end of days (Rev 3:21), we will displace the corrupted divine sons of God presently ruling the nations, who are under judgment (Psa 82). We are already, but not yet, Yahweh’s new council on earth. The

The heart of salvation in biblical theology—across both testaments—is believing loyalty to Yahweh.

Salvation in the Old Testament meant love for Yahweh alone. One had to believe that Yahweh was the God of all gods, trusting that this Most High God had chosen covenant relationship with Israel to the detriment of all other nations. The law was how one demonstrated that love—that loyalty.

The same is true in the New Testament. Believing the gospel means believing that Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to earth incarnated as a man, voluntarily died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin, and rose again on the third day.

But belief in a personal God as the Bible describes means embracing the supernatural.

Since believing loyalty to Yahweh was foundational to Yahweh’s protection and remaining in the land, the spiritual battle was just as much a threat as the physical one.

6 And again there was war in Gath. And there was a very tall man there, and he had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. He

The implication is clear—the people need to listen and will listen to the person who is validated by an encounter with the presence of God.

Yahweh would send his Spirit to indwell his people. They could not be trusted with their freedom, but he would not eradicate it, nor would he leave them without enablement.2 The first strategy, however, is much more cryptic.

messiah’s mission had been clear, the powers of darkness would never have killed Jesus—they would have known that his death and resurrection were the key to reclaiming the nations forever.3

Rather, Yahweh—the visible, second Yahweh—has been part of the biblical story in the form of a man since Eden.

He had to become a man to ensure that humanity, God’s imager, is not erased from the Edenic vision due to his mortal weakness and invariable propensity to use his free will to attempt to gain autonomy from God.

The Name and Yahweh were interchanged

trusting in “the Name of Yahweh” meant trusting in Yahweh. Likewise, trusting in the name of the Lord, who is Yahweh in the Old Testament quotation, is the same as confessing Jesus as Lord.

When God refers to Jesus as his “beloved” he is affirming the kingship of Jesus—his legitimate status as the heir to David’s throne.

The wilderness was a place associated with the demonic, so it’s no surprise that this is where Jesus meets the devil.