SUPERNATURAL BY MICHAEL S. HEISER

 The sub-title to this post should be entitled "Judging a Book by its Cover."

Whenever I am asked to look at a book that someone has recommended, I first like to know a little about the author, if I am not already acquainted with him or her. I must admit, right off the bat, that I am a bit of an academic elitist. If I am going to accept someone else's word regarding the interpretation of the Bible (since I admit that I am not an expert on Scripture and have never taken a religion class of any sort in my life), it is very important to know what the author's qualifications are.

A fair amount of information can be gleaned before even reading a word of the text. Here are my observations regarding Supernatural:

Positive: The large print title on the front cover with the word SUPERNATURAL is a bit on the sensationalist side, but that may have been done by the publisher just to attract more readers. To offset that fact is Heiser's concerted campaign to oppose sensationalism he has encountered elsewhere in areas such as belief in ancient aliens.

Positive or Negative: The author does not have “Dr.” in front of his name. If he doesn't have a doctorate in a pertinent field, then it is a huge negative in my mind. However, if he does have an earned doctorate but hasn’t put it before his name, it is a large plus. My reasoning may sound strange, but let me explain. I have noted that not one of the 300 commentaries in my library has “Dr.” in front of the author's name, even though almost all of them have some sort of doctorate in a pertinent field. It is just assumed that they have earned doctorates or the publishers wouldn't have bothered with printing their books in the first place. On the flip side, friends have often shown me books that they swear by in which the cover lists the author as having a doctorate. Without fail, a little investigation shows that these are not earned doctorates from recognized academic sources but either come from non-accredited colleges, were granted by individual churches, or (in one case) diplomas actually purchased on-line.

Negative: To look into the matter a little further, I checked up on Michael Heiser on-line. Wikipedia says that he received his undergraduate degree from Bob Jones University. That is not a very good sign in my mind and indicates that he may tend to be overly literal and fundamentalist in his biblical interpretations.

Positive: To more than offset that point, however, his detailed CV is very impressive. It shows that he not only has a valid PhD in Hebrew Studies, but has also published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and taught on a university level at several schools. I even realized that I had already read four of his articles for the Dictionary of the Old Testament series of books, a very prestigious publication. The only nit-picky comment I might possibly have is that most of his publications and the schools he has taught at would not be considered in the top-tier. But they do demonstrate that he can easily hold his own in scholarly conversation with others.

Negative: With all of Dr. Heiser's credentials and on-line followers behind him, I am a little surprised that he is publishing in Lexham Press rather than in one of the more usual evangelistic presses such as IVP, Eerdmans, Baker, Word or Zondervan. There may be many valid reasons for this and it could have been the author's purposeful choice rather than being turned down by these more prestigious firms. More troublesome reasons for not being published there include possible doctrinal problems or too much unsubstantiated speculation. It will be something to look for as I read this book.

Positive: Inside title page: Sometimes one can learn a lot by looking at the translations of the Bible being quoted in a book. In this regard, Heiser relies on a variety, including some excellent translations such as NIV and ESV, a popular paraphrase such as TEV, and (understandably) the publisher's own translation. Personally, I flee from any book that exclusively quotes from the King James Version, New King James or any so-called “literal” translations.

Mixed: Back Cover: Heiser has endorsements from John Ortberg, a very popular evangelistic personality, and Brian Godawa, a fiction writer in the sci-fi genre. The first endorsement demonstrates  that it is unlikely Heiser will be espousing any heretical ideas, and the second one indicates that the book is intended for a popular audience attracted to the more “exciting” aspects of Bible study.

Negative: Back Cover: “You may never read the Bible in the same way again” is unwarranted hype and gives the clear impression that this book contains THE secret to understanding the Bible that has been lost throughout the ages and only recovered recently by Dr. Heiser.

Negative: Back Cover: The description of the book contains a totally unwarranted and sneering put-down of other Bible teachers who don't agree with him. Heiser may not have actually written this blurb but he certainly approved it.

Negative: Back Cover: The description of the book also includes the sentence “To Dr. Heiser, the more puzzling a passage is, the more important it's likely to be.” If that is indeed his credo, then I couldn't disagree with him more. There are quite valid reasons for not concentrating on obscure areas of Scripture such as ancient cosmology, eschatology, demonology, and angelology. There is simply not enough detail in the Bible concerning those areas to fully satisfy our curiosity regarding all the details we would like to know. And so we resort to eisegesis, faulty hermeneutics and speculation to fill in the gaps. From a practical view, overly concentrating on these areas totally distracts from more clear and important teachings in Scripture. Not only that, but all too often it leads to a Gnostic mentality, reveling in knowing some “hidden truth” that no one in our congregation knows but us and those we deign to share it with.

Note that whenever Jesus was asked a question regarding future events, he gave purposely vague replies or refused to answer at all. And even in the Old Testament, we need to heed the statement: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, to observe all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)   Our preoccupation should rightly be with those teachings in the Bible that reveal God's will for our lives here on earth rather than details of the supernatural world.

A reading of the whole book may make me decide to take back some of the observations I have made above, and certainly none of the caveats are serious enough for me to simply refuse to read any further. However, I must admit that I will keep some of the potential problems in mind as I read.

The main purpose of this short post is not so much to critique Heiser's book itself, but to demonstrate that there are a number of important tip-offs one can, and should, glean before even opening to page one of a new book.