Dr. Michael Heiser’s You tube on this subject is just too good to pass up. Here’s the Cliff Notes version of one session. Let’s begin with Psalm 82:1-7, using the English Standard version:
God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
The first word of the Psalm, God, is Elohim in Hebrew; this is the standard word for God. But Elohim is also used for “midst of the gods” in verse 1, and “you are gods” in verse 6. Interestingly, whoever these mystery beings are, are also called “sons of the Most High” in verse 6 as well. The thing that disturbs us is, in these second and third use of Elohim, the surrounding Hebrew words definitely say it is plural. So now it looks like a pantheon, Greek and Roman mythology stuff, doesn’t it? Our God, and the mystery gods.
In this Psalm, who is God talking to? Who are these ‘gods?’ They seem to be in a ‘divine council’ with our God—and they are His sons! (Before you get carried away, the word “sons” here simply means “direct creation by God.” Adam was a son of God. Angels were too–including Satan.) To reconcile the use of Elohim in all these verses, some have suggested, ‘It’s the Trinity.’ But God is not talking to the other members of the Trinity, because He is chastising them for corruption; nor are any of the Trinity sentenced to death! So God is rebuking them and predicts His judgment upon them, yet they are also called ‘sons of the Most High.’ Hmmm. Could these be angels–since we know that some angels are corrupt–namely, those led by Satan, who was once an angel. Isaiah 14:12ff gives the event that they fell.
Modern commentaries suggest that God is talking to people, either Jewish elders or members of the Sanhedrin. But that can’t be; He calls them ‘gods,’ but God's Word is not suggesting that man becomes godlike. Also, Jesus never says or implies that men are actually ‘gods,’ somehow the same as Jesus (as some apostate religions teach today). So, the verses are not men either.
Look at Psalm 89:5-6, to learn more:
Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
The “assembly of the holy ones” or “heavenly beings,” or the “council of the holy ones,” or our “divine council” in Psalm 82 earlier—they are all “sons of God,” or “sons of the Most High.” And they’re also “gods;” and “gods” are all translations of Elohim in Hebrew, which we usually associate to our good God. And they are counseling with God Most High, in the heavenlies, “in the skies.” So, we’re thinking, who are these guys? How do they get a position in council with Him?
Well, here’s some thoughts an expanded brain might see. For those who ask, why does God need a council anyway? He’s omniscient. In our response, we might first ask, why did God create Man? He didn’t need us either; He’s not deficient for knowledge or lonely. The best guess is: He must like our company; maybe He liked the angels’ company–even after they became corrupt. If that seems hard to believe, consider: He has love for us–and we’re corrupted in sin.
I Kings 22:19-25 adds to this subject, but first a little background: The Jewish kingdom at this time was divided—Israel in the north, under Ahab, and Judah in the south, under Jehoshaphat. Ahab is trying to persuade Jehoshaphat to join him in conquering Ramoth-Gilead. Ahab asks his own prophets about the battle, but these are an ungodly Baal-worshiping bunch that, of course, predict his victory (whatever he wants to hear–just like many of our pastors today). But Jehoshaphat persuades Ahab to bring forth a godly prophet, Micaiah. So let’s pick it up at verse 19:
And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?’… 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And He said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ 23 Now therefore behold, (Micaiah said), the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; (but) the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
God is again partnering with likely a council of fallen angels in the heavens, this time called “the host of heaven.” But this group is not to be confused with the ones that serenaded the shepherds in Bethlehem. In this case, they are deciding how Ahab is going to die, to be judged for his life of evil. The fallen angels are evil spirits in His presence. They are ready to deceive Ahab.
Dr. Heiser concludes, after all this, that God has a heavenly council of spirits, made up of His first creation of “sons,” (remember, the Hebrew is defined as "direct creations") which were called ‘angels.’ But since some of them turned evil, these verses must be after some angels fell. Yet they are allowed to participate with Him, and they are correctly translated“ gods” (from Elohim) and “sons of God,” since they are a direct creation by our God. All under the term Elohim. But clearly, we can determine by things that are said, who the real God (also Elohim in singular) is; He is Higher than they are, and judges them as well. So clearly everyone in council knows that there is not an equality in the council. There are several verses that confirm that Yahweh, our God, is “God of all gods” (Psa 86:8, 95:3 for instance).
So evil gods—angels, after they fell— are all called Elohim, like our good God. We, as Westerners, like to associate unique, and good, attributes with the term Elohim—like omniscience and omnipresence, terms of a God who loves us–and we like to ignore any other possibilities. We also want to make Elohim in a singular context only–our God. We’re “used” to having only one God; and we get creeped out when the word is plural. And we wonder why God would allow His enemies to be present in heaven, even participate, in divine counsel. But, as we can see with Scripture (if we use an open mind), they plainly did. The Biblical writers were evidently unfazed by these gods, this expansion of the definition of the Hebrew Elohim—we have to believe they simply knew their Scriptures better than we do. Don’t forget, God is the ultimate writer of all Scripture, so we cannot doubt its truthfulness.
Elohim, as it turns out, is used for three different things that are not our God of the Bible: (1) The mysterious “council” in heaven, as we have already seen; (2) gods of the nations, called Elohim in I Kings 11:33–they are named, such as Asherah, Ashtaroth, Chemosh, and Milcom—each of which really was a powerful demon (the "best" demons ruled nations) worshipped and ruled, each as god of a nation close to Israel. While we’re on that, it seems to me, given the terrorism gripped in a nation like Iran, that the fallen angels still have a role as powerful demons over nations.
The third use for "Elohim" is demons. For proof: A relative word, "shedim," in Deuteronomy 32:17 is translated correctly as “demon” in the ESV (the bold word below). The thing I want you to note, is that it is the same creatures translated “gods,” Elohim.
They (Ed. note: Israel) sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
This Hebrew word shedim, gives us another bit of knowledge about demons. Shedim literally means ‘territorial entity.’ Compare that to “the gods of the nations” (Elohim), in #2 above, and we conclude that demons are ruling in different sizes of playing fields. This suggests a hierarchy of demons.
The above #3 example for Heiser’s sermon is in I Samuel 28:13, which is the story of Saul needing a medium (or witch) to prophesy the winner of his upcoming battle with the Philistines. When he approached her, she says, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” (speaking of a physical appearance of the dead. But she doesn’t really believe it will happen. She probably plans on producing a hazy mist of smoke and then convince him it’s Samuel). He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” (Samuel had died, don’t forget). She was totally surprised when Samuel actually appeared and spoke. (His appearance could have been an artifice of a body, too). She was afraid. Saul said, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” She said, “I saw a spirit…” The Hebrew word for spirit is Elohim. Another proof that Elohim is also used to describe disembodied human dead, as well.
Thus we conclude that Elohim is not simply used only for our God, with all His good attributes. There are lots of Elohim, in these cases demons, because there are lots of spirit beings. All are called Elohim. But no other Elohim is like Yahweh—simply by reading the text, you can deduce that. He is the Creator, He is sovereign over all. There is a judgment day coming for the other Elohim.
Let’s give another Scripture. In Daniel 4:13-24 we read of a vision of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel interprets it. The king learns that his vision was predicting God’s decree of temporary insanity upon him (because of his pride), such that he would be wandering in fields eating grass for food. These verses start with Nebuchadnezzar’s words:
“I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven. 14 He cried aloud and said…”And let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth.
16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man,
Let him be given the heart of a beast, And let seven (years) pass over him.
17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers,
And the sentence by the word of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men…
24 (Ed. Now Daniel speaks): This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king…
The Bible is consistent, as always. This decree was pronounced by the ‘holy ones,’ the fallen angels, but this time they are called the ‘watchers.’ Yet the decision was made by the Most High (our God). But there is still council participation … again allowed by God. He evidently likes to do that. We surmise that when He created spirits, He wanted children who were part of the family. The angels rebelled. But so have we. He feels that way toward us Christians, only stronger, because those of mankind who are saved will stay with Him; the demons will all end in the lake of fire. (I might surmise that God, for the angels who were left on His side after the angel rebellion, took away the good angels' free will so that no new dark angels will arise. Unfortunately, the evil angels are immortal like the good angels). God gives us the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) to have us participate in giving Him more children.
This has given me another thought: this might explain another strange Bible verse that had left me puzzled. I’m talking about God creating Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:26-27:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea… and over the livestock over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
How does your Study Bible explain the plural “our”? Mine says it’s like a single king sovereignly using the plural to explain his individual action. So that "explanation" says, “God was taking counsel, and talking with Himself.” Sounds fishy. Or, it could be that God was speaking with the other members of the Trinity. But why couldn't it be, He was speaking to His heavenly council? If you take that view, note that when he is done speaking with the council, He creates us in His singular “image.” So it’s our God doing it, nobody else–we’re created in His image. The same wording is also in Genesis 11:7 at the tower of Babel, by the way.
And we can’t avoid Job 1:6 and 2:1, which start out with “the sons of God:” One of them is Satan. It seems shocking that He gave him permission to speak his accusations of God’s favorite child, Job:
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them….
So, it’s clear that Satan had access to the heavenlies. This further adds to our proof about these beings are fallen angels in the Elohim council. Thank God, someday He will no longer have to listen to these accusations. Scripture says He will banish him from His presence, and later throw them down to hell.
Yet my brain thought another question about “sons of God.” You may have asked this: How is Jesus the ‘only begotten’ son of God (John 3:16, King James) now that we know that other sons of God exist?
A different issue is raised, too: Some religions also say Jesus can’t be eternal if He is ‘begotten,’ which suggests His life began when He was born.
The answer to both questions is this: The problem phrase is the mistaken ‘only begotten,’ which was based on a study of ancient Greek manuscripts that had been dug up and were available in the 1600s. The Greek word the Apostle John wrote was ‘monogenes,’ but the word fell out of use and, 1500+ years later, men were uncertain as to its meaning. It was guessed that it was made up of two words, monos, or ‘only,’ and ‘gennao,’ or ‘beget, bear.’ But according to more accurate koine Greek (from earlier parchment found by recent archaeological digs), it should be ‘monos,’ or ‘only,’ and ‘genos,’ which means ‘class or kind.’ Thus, the ‘only begotten’ translation was wrong–it should be ‘one of a kind,’ or ‘unique.’ Jesus was/is eternal, a definitely unique characteristic. Jesus was the Immanuel, God with us. His uniqueness separates Him from the angels and demons. He WAS God, as other Scriptures prove.
There is still another interesting verse that raises yet another question: Hebrews 11:17:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son (ed. note: “only begotten” is a KJV translation, which is when they were still guessing its meaning. In the more recent ESV, it is translated as “only son”)
But neither ‘only begotten son’ nor ‘only son’ can be an accurate translation, since Isaac was preceded in birth by Ishmael. But it is correct
if we substitute the correct words, “his unique son” (ESV should have translated it that way). And Isaac was unique, unlike Ismael; born from a freewoman, Sarah, born when his parents were 100 and 90 years old, an impossibility. He was a child of promise, instead of a child of a slave woman (Hagar). In the same way, Jesus is ‘unique’ in John 3:16: Yes, because Jesus is God! Philippians 2:6 (NIV) says:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…
"Equality with God" is accurate, since Jesus was God.
Back to Dr. Heiser. He finishes his session by clearing up another difficult phrase, in John 10:33-36, when the Jews were ready to stone Jesus because He claimed to be God:
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? (Ed. Note: He is quoting Psalm 82:6, our head-scratching verse at the beginning of this paper) 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
Jesus, to defend His claim of deity, is saying, “Look, doesn’t Scripture have God speaking to other gods? So, Psa 82:6 asserted there are other gods, and sons of god, who are real. So, since our own Scripture says that category exists; therefore when I say that I’m more than a man, it’s possible. You can’t just assume I’m blaspheming if I make such a claim. So you only have to decide if I’m a fallen angel ‘god’ or God’s unique Son. If you want to condemn me, you can’t have as your ‘proof’ that I’m a mere man, and committing blasphemy. Your real proof of what I am can only be by my works. Do I do works of God? Or do I do works that demons do?
Was Jesus a great debater? Of course.
Let nobody say that Jesus did not claim to be God. He did!
I hope you enjoyed this paper and Dr. Heiser. I’ve got more from this knowledgeable man later.
No comments:
Post a Comment