“I was always interested in anything old and weird….”
-Dr. Michael Heiser
Courage is something we often don’t think of when it comes to Christian Theology. We usually categorize our thoughts about God into places that are safe and repeatable. We learn early, at least most of us do, to create traditional filters that place us in ordered lines with those in our faith communities. Principles and conventions merge with ethical prescriptions and make narrow roads for us to live by. While those are not necessarily bad, what ends up happening is that the story by which created our rules seem to hallow out and become monochrome. The vibrant and lush nature of the tale take back seat to our ‘systems’ we build. We need someone to wash our eyes and take off the scales of modern convention. This is what Dr. Michael Heiser did for me a few years back. His book “The Unseen Realm” gave me new eyes to see the Biblical text. He had the courage in his own life to seek out truth no matter where it took him. To tackle the weird and odd edges of the text and instead of waving them off he wrestled with them and was broken by them. While he never denied what the panoply of theologians have said throughout the century, his commitment to truth gave him a reflective tool to hermeneutically break free. He stretched the Christian world’s mind into new old places. Reminding us all that theology is a mosaic of ideas…colorful and ancient. Rest in peace my dear brother and may I one day have the same courage to seek and see the Bible for what it is…
Matt
