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Divine Council Worldview resources

aka Deuteronomy 32 Worldview

(Icons are links to watch videos or purchase books. All videos are available free on YouTube.)

Books by Dr. Michael Heiser

• The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible
  • movie (1:12)
  • Q&A (1:14)
• Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World—And Why It Matters
  (this book contains the same information as The Unseen Realm, but with a lay focus rather than an academic focus)
• The Unseen Realm: A Question & Answer Companion, by Douglas Van Dorn

• Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ
• Angels: What the Bible Really Says About God’s Heavenly Host
  • video series (2:30)
• Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness
  • movie (:45)

related videos

• Divine Council intro from The Naked Bible Podcast site [YouTube videos] (2:00)
• YouTube playlists
  • “Unseen Realm 101,” AWKNG School of Theology (:18)
  • “Supernatural Seminar: What the Bible Says About the Unseen Realm,” AWKNG School of Theology (4:37)
  • “Animated videos,” Dr. Heiser (:45)
  • “The Unseen Realm,” Ring Them Bells
• “Behind ‘The Unseen’ Documentary,” Ring Them Bells

related podcasts

• Divine Council Worldview Podcast (Dr. Ronn Johnson & Mike Chu, MDiv; with Rich Baker & Mel Gever) ()
• Naked Bible Podcast (Dr. Michael Heiser)

What is a Divine Council Worldview?

by Dr. Ronn Johnson in episode 1 of the Divine Council Worldview Podcast

1. The starting point for all biblical interpretation is an attempt to understand the original writer, his intended audience, and the culture they shared. This means, among many things, that all biblical study must use original languages.
2. The cosmology of the Bible presumes a society of divine beings who were created by one deity. This single, Most High God, is named YHWH (“Yahweh”); and He exhibits eternal, unquestioned rule over all spirits and beings.
3. At an early point within the biblical story, Yahweh delegated authoritative power to a number of created deities over the physical world (nations, etc.). Judgement is yet promised upon a number of these beings for their misuse of this authority.
4. Jesus Christ has presently assumed, by the decree of Yahweh, the place of highest honor over all gods and humans.
5. The locus of the Gospel message throughout Acts and Paul’s epistles is loyalty to Jesus/Yahweh above all other gods.
6. In the next age, believers will assume the status of divineness, a position which will rival, possibly replace, the ruling gods of this present age.

key Bible verses (Bible quotes NET, except *)

• Genesis 6:1-4: (cf. 1 Enoch 6–16 [chapters 7–8 below]) notes from “More Unseen Realm”…
  • The Old Testament never references Genesis 3 as the cause of human depravity. Instead, it is Genesis 6:5 that makes the sweeping statement about depravity.
  • Julius Africanus & Augustine changed the church view away from the supernatural & away from 1 Enoch, and originated what is now known as the Sethite view.
  • cf. 1 Corinthians 11:10; 2 Peter 2:4-5,10; Jude 6
• Genesis 10 – 70 nations (72 in the Septuagint [ⅬⅩⅩ]), the presumed number of members of God’s Divine Council
  • cf. Exodus 24:1,9; Numbers 11:16; Luke 10:1
• Leviticus 16:8-10: Aaron is to cast lots over the two goats, one lot for [Yahweh] and one lot for Azazel. Aaron must then present the goat which has been designated by lot for [Yahweh], and he is to make it a sin offering, but the goat which has been designated by lot for Azazel is to be stood alive before [Yahweh] to make atonement on it by sending it away into the desert to Azazel.
  • not “scapegoat,” send the sin back to Azazel  … Azazel was the leader of the Watchers, see 1 Enoch quote at the bottom of this page
• Deuteronomy 4:19-20: When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—the whole heavenly creation—you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, for [Yahweh] your God has assigned them to all the people of the world. You, however, [Yahweh] has selected and brought from Egypt, that iron-smelting furnace, to be his special people as you are today.
• Deuteronomy 32:8-9: When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly [or “sons of God”]. For [Yahweh]’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession.
  • Sirach/​Wisdom of Ben Sira/​Ecclesiaticus 17:17: He appointed a ruler for every nation, but Israel is the Lord’s own portion. (NRSV)
• Deuteronomy 32:17*: they sacrificed to demons, divine beings they had not known
• Deuteronomy 32:43*: Cry out, O heavens, with him, bow down to him, all gods; for he avenges his children’s blood, and takes vengeance against his enemies. He repays those who hate him and makes atonement for his people’s land.
  • bold sections were removed in the Masoretic Text (authoritative source of the Hebrew Bible in Rabbinic Judaism)
• 1 Kings 22:19-22: Micaiah’s prophesy: Who will deceive Ahab?… Go out and do as you have proposed. (cf. 2 Chronicles 18:18-22)
• 2 Kings 5:17: Naaman: please give your servant a load of dirt … [I] will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than [Yahweh].
• 2 Kings 17:26-28: … they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.… one of the priests … from Samaria … taught them how to worship [Yahweh].
• Isaiah 6:8: Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?
• Isaiah 40:1-2a: Comfort, O comfort My people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem; And call out to her, (plural verbs)
• Psalm 82: the Council members are condemned for not upholding justice
  • see also “Psalm 82 and the gods,” AWKNG
• Psalm 89:5-7: For who in the skies can compare to [Yahweh]? Who is like [Yahweh] among the heavenly beings,
• 1 Corinthians 6:2-3: Or do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters!

1 Enoch 7–8

English translation by R.H. Charles (1913)

7 ¹ And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. ² And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: ³ Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. ⁴ And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. ⁵ And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. ⁶ Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

8 ¹ And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all coloring tinctures. ² And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. ³ Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Êzêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun, and Sariêl the course of the moon. ⁴ And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven …