Thoughts on the End Times

 Chapter 11- Supernatural Intent What jumped out to me in this chapter was the 3rd temptation of Christ. I never quite understood what the appeal of this temptation was as Jesus already was going to rule the nations, being the son of the Most High. Why would he be tempted by Satan who promised Jesus something that Satan had no control of? Knowing that after Babel, God assigned other nations outside of Israel to lesser gods to manage shines some light on this event. Satan assumed God was merely planning to reclaim the nations and didn't realize the plan went deeper than that. He was also planning to conquer sin and death. If Satan had known that, he wouldn't have encouraged or allowed Jesus to be killed.  Chapter 12 - The Cloud Rider The Daniel passages below are taking on a whole new meaning to me. Before, I think I was reading it too literally. I thought the horns were human leaders, and I was watching for a pact between 10 world leaders and then three of those would fall unde

 Chapter 10 - Holy War Like most people, I am uncomfortable with the total annihilation plan God handed down to the Israelites to thoroughly destroy the people who inhabited the land God set aside for them - especially the children and livestock. However, I guess I kind of see the point. The children could grow up to extract revenge and the livestock may be tainted by belonging to the people who were ruled by God's enemies (those who rebelled against him) and he wouldn't want them to be sacrificed to him at any point. Perhaps they were considered "unclean" and no longer fit for consumption by the Israelites. God's plan for the salvation of the human race being kept secret is also an interesting idea. I hadn't given it much thought before.  Chapter 11 - Hidden in Plain Sight What I found most memorable in this chapter is how cryptic God's plan with Jesus as the messiah to remove the curse of sin and death is in the Old Testament. We can read it today and se

 Chapter 8 - Sacred Space In this chapter Heiser points out some things I have completely missed or misunderstood. 1) While I knew about the Yom Kippur ritual of sacrificing one goat "for the Lord" and symbolically placing the sins on another goat (the scapegoat) and sending it out into the desert, I never understood the full reason behind it. I totally missed that the Israelites had been making sacrifices out in the desert to demons to try to appease them so they would be left in peace. Not knowing this, by reading the passage I assumed those sacrifices were to God, but they weren't doing it in the right place, bringing it to the tabernacle gates. My NIV says they were making sacrifices to the "goat idols" so I should have caught the problem. The Dead Sea Scrolls use the proper name Azazel which was the name of a demon. The goat is often associated with worshiping Satan, so I wonder if this is the connection. Not understanding that these Israelites were hedging

 Chapter 6 - The Word, the Name, and the Angel I think I knew that Jesus appeared to people of the Old Testament, but I didn't realize how often and that several saw him in human form.  It occurs to me that I'm a lot like Gideon: I know God CAN do anything, but I'm often skeptical that he WILL do miraculous things for me or use me in miraculous ways. That's one of my major hang-ups and often a barrier to my sharing the gospel. I'm afraid of looking foolish if he chooses not to glorify himself in a particular situation, and fear that by putting myself out there, I'm not only looking foolish and presumptive, but hindering rather than helping the cause because I "misinterpreted" God's intent in the situation. I'm often hesitant and the opportunity passes.  Chapter 7 - Rules of Engagement I wonder about the nations under the rule of other gods during the post-Babel times. I can understand God relegating the original participants in the building of

 Chapter 5 - Cosmic Geography This was a very interesting chapter, but some of the wording was a bit troubling. Heiser discussed "God's plan" and how the High Council is messing up or thwarting God's plan, so God has to do something different. This makes it sound like God was blind-sided by what they did and maybe He doesn't have everything under control. I prefer to see it as God having a goal in mind: using mankind to spread Eden throughout the entire planet, and knowing there's the easy way - simply following his commands, or the hard way, which is what was chosen because of our free will (and the High Council's free will).  I read Psalms 82 again today and it takes on a different perspective when I pay attention to who is being addressed in it. I guess I just assumed all the Psalms are the psalmist speaking to God, but this one clearly is taking the perspective of God speaking to the High Council as indicated in the first lines:                 God pre

 Chapter 3 - Once and Future Kings I guess the things that struck me most about this chapter is the idea that God and other supernatural beings lived in Eden - they weren't just stopping in for visits. Also, that the serpent who tempted Eve (Lucifer) wasn't literally in the form of a snake, but the snake is a metaphor for this spiritual being who hoodwinked her.  Also that when God said "Let us make man in our image." He wasn't talking to the other members of the Trinity but to the High Council. I'm still not sure about that one. Chapter 4 - Divine Rebellions What I found interesting about this chapter is the notion that Jude and 2 Peter are incorporating ideas from 1 Enoch even though 1 Enoch isn't considered part of the inspired cannon of the Bible. This is the part about the "sons of God" fathering children with "daughters of man" to create the Nephilim. Genesis 6:4 refers to them as "heroes of old, men of renown." This wa