“We are the children of God, destined to replace the defeated, disloyal sons of God who now rule the nations.”

I purchased Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm as a Christmas gift for a family member who had expressed interest in numerous matters the average modern American Christian doesn’t tend to look too closely at. I then binge read it over the course of three or four nights before I had to hand it over, leaving me without a reference copy to peruse at my leisure.

While Heiser’s text doesn’t cover the whole gamut of modern interests, it provides a solid foundation and clarifying lens through which to read the Scriptures such that the spiritual plane comes into a rough focus, allowing us to peek through the series of “filters” that have obscured it from us, most prominently post-Enlightenment rationalism. It does this by using biblical and extra-biblical elements along with recent scholarship to build for the reader an approximation of the ancient worldview through which the books of the bible would have been written and interpreted in their own time—a worldview in which the spiritual realm is alive, hierarchical, and intricately connected to the historical narratives in the bible; in which the Devil rebelled out of envy for God’s new creation, mankind; in which bodies literally become tabernacles. The Divine Council, the Trinity, the Garden of Eden, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the Burning Bush, the Binding of Isaac, the Angel of the Lord, Nephilim, Baal, Gog and Magog, Azazel’s scapegoat, exorcisms, angels, demons, baptism, the Crucifixion, Passover, the visions of the prophets, Pentecost—all of these subjects and more are taken up in this reading of the Scriptures to create a cryptic “mosaic” that stands in stark contrast to the sterile mindset of our current era where most of the bible’s tougher passages are downplayed. And many of them have direct implications on the theological topics we all know well: sin, salvation, and so on.

Many more fascinating connections are made (the seventy nations of Genesis 10 to the seventy missionaries sent out in Luke, for example) and arguments marshaled (he suggests that Armageddon is actually Jerusalem, not Megiddo). However, not all of them are equally convincing. Even the notion that we should strip away any non-ancient filters when reading the OT doesn’t make total sense when Heiser himself explains that it is only with Christ’s earthly life in full view that we understand how He fulfilled the messianic prophecies. There’s also a misplaced emphasis on a circular version of Arminianism (Heiser’s own irremovable filter, never mentioned outright) and what seems to be a committed pursuit of esoteric novelty for its own sake. At times it seems like Heiser is positing that ruling and reigning as divine council members is the chief end of man rather than to glorify God and enjoy Him for eternity. And a false dilemma is setup that pits creeds and traditions against the bible. Many other reviews have discussed the book’s merits and shortcomings in greater detail with more knowledgeable analysis than I can provide; here are a few insightful ones from Benjamin Noonan, David Instone-Brewer, and Thomas Howe.

Nevertheless, all of it works toward the author’s aim of instilling in the reader the desire to contend with the text and its cultural milieu on a deeper level. And not only that, but to let those studies spill over into our own spiritual walks as we contend for the one true faith in a world increasingly overrun with pagan and occult practices, a world that scoffs at angels and demons but is quick to believe in benevolent spirits and the healing power of Reiki crystals.

One need not accept all of Heiser’s conclusions for his premise to prompt meaningful rumination on the subject. Many readers, perhaps my gift receiver included, will approach this from a thoroughly modern context in which only God is divine and thus might struggle with some of the material, but such struggles should prove beneficial rather than detrimental as is the case with many lesser sensationalist works of pop spirituality.