/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

I got banned for mentioning his name on here before, recommended that someone look into him/his work in order to answer a question of theirs. Didn't really knowuch about him at the time (still don't too much atm tbh) but thought he could be a good place to start. Mods banned me saying he's a heritic and recommending him is a bannable offence. I've googled and couldn't find any trace of heresy. Listened to a few vids with him a couple weeks ago, liked what I heard, reckon he's got his head screwed on, although will qualify that with that I don't know his work well. Sorry for a pointless post.

>>549096

Really? He doesn't teach anything different than the Early Church Fathers mostly. Some of the cosmic geography stuff they didn't know about

>>549259

Interesting yeah, like I said I couldn't find anything particularly outrageous at the time when I searched. I believe one of the points of contention is his view of the nephelim and the sons of God, and the fact that "we" when used as God speaking in the OT doesn't refer to the trinity as most Christians are (seemingly incorrectly) taught (I will post pic related when I get back to my computer). The last video I watched though was him on what looked like (and was referred to by the host) as being a channel that expounds what are seen as 'fringe' beliefs (although the host and MH scoffed at this).

Something interesting I remember from one of the vids is that the difference between the explanation for our current state of affairs when described now by modern Christians and 1st century Christians is that a modern Christian would cite the fall as the reason for our state of affairs, while the 1st century Jews/Christians would cite x3 reasons: the fall, the incident at the Tower of babel and the impact of the "watchers." I can't even remember who the watchers are, what role they play and if they're related to the nephelim and the sons of God (my hunch is yes) but thought it was interesting nonetheless.

>>549299

Related, MH said in one of the vids I watched that Elohim is less of a title, or a definitive thing, and more of a point of reference, an address, to indicate where the entity being referred to is located (i.e. not of this world, in or of the supernatural, in the what is I assume the "unseen realm" of the title of one of MH's books). He seems to be a hardcore scholar though that book sounds like digestible layman expose of his research. Definitely on my (long) reading list.

>>549266

I've looked at a decent amount of his stuff (OP - on the phone).

>Gen 6 and the "sons of god"

Yeah, the "godly line of Seth" interpretation comes from Blessed Augustine, before that I think there were more Church Fathers who interacted with the Enochic viewpoint. Throughout the OT Scriptures the term "sons of god" (beney elohim) is a technical term for the high ranking angels of the Celestial Hierarchy. This stuff is important to know when refuting pseudo-academic atheists who say that the Yahwists were polytheists.

>Trinity in Genesis 1

Heiser denies it because it would be anachronistic for the writer to have known about the Trinity, and it is more likely to be God addressing the Divine Council. However, taking a philosophical/theological view - rather than a historical one - we understand that God only has councils of gods and men because He Himself is an inherently communal Being, being three Persons as One.

>Babel and the Watchers

Some of his most important work IMO.

>>549311

Given that Samuel's ghost is called an elohim I find that pretty likely. A ghost and God are not even close to being ontologically comparable.

Heiser covers some interesting topics but he can be pretty shallow and repetitive when he's talking about something that isn't one of his hobby horses. Like the way he always describes Cherubim as 'Divine Throne Guardians' as if they were Wadjet or Nekhbet defending the person of the Pharaoh and doesn't give much consideration to the scriptural themes of the Cherubs as being porters and celebrants of God's presence.

>>549381

Fair enough. Any suggestions for other good Biblical scholars? I've been getting into the OT a little more so looked Gerbrandt's book on the Deuteronomistic history and kingship but that's about it so far.

Being Orthodox, I like seeing the themes come out from Scripture that I've read in the context of the Fathers