Last week, Bishop James, the Dean of our seminarian/priesthood Holy Orders program, suggested I share the info below with you Mystery School initiates.  It looks most intriguing!

Bishop James writes: “Dr. Heiser is a fundamentalist Christian with a paranormal, esoteric, twist.  It is interesting material, and he does back up what he says with peer reviewed sources.

Here are links to the homepage and podcasts of Dr. Michael S. Heiser,  one of the developers of the well-known Logos Software and an instructor in the almost equally well-known (notice the intentional neutrality of the term) Liberty University Distance Learning Program.

One of his recent publications is The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. A major academic interest is the Divine Council (quoted from his site):

Psalm 82:1    God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

“The term divine council is used by Hebrew and Semitics scholars to refer to the heavenly host, the pantheon of divine beings who administer the affairs of the cosmos. All ancient Mediterranean cultures had some conception of a divine council. The divine council of Israelite religion, known primarily through the psalms, was distinct in important ways.”

http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/

He also writes about the paranormal, ghosts, demons and UFO’s. He says “I am most intrigued by high technology in the ancient world, cultural diffusionism, archaeological / artifactual anomalies, and western occult and esoteric traditions.”

I encourage you to review his site: http://drmsh.com/

Materials on the Unseen Realm: http://www.moreunseenrealm.com/

And I especially encourage you to listen to his podcasts: http://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com/

As you may imagine, our approach in Holy Orders III is somewhat different. Nevertheless, it is important to be informed about the different theories and approaches in the Biblical disciplines.

Please let me know what you think about his materials.  If your reply will be of interest to most seminarians, please post it to the critical thinking module.

Bishop James