Naked Bible 430: John Walton on Demons and Spirits
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Over the past two years Dr. Heiser has been asked a number of times to respond to the book Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in its Cultural and Literary Context, by John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton (2019). The book runs quite contrary to Dr. Heiser’s own work. In this episode Dr. Heiser responds to the book’s content and how he fears it might be used by opponents of the faith.
Absolutely WILD that this didn’t have more views! I want to have Walton on and respectfully debate him on this🙋🏻♂️🔔❤️
You can hear the passion in his voice, and how much he cared about the subject. But even if you divorce from that, his arguments are just plain very good.
If the Walton’s theological assessment of the Bible projects that there is no real spiritual conflict conveyed throughout the pages of the scriptures or that the agents of the adversary are not working against the plan and purpose of Almighty Elohim. It can only be concluded that this theology is aimed to prove that the controversy is very REAL AND PRESENT.
Listening now. Already watched your show called Heiser versus Walton.
✝️⚔️🛡️⚔️✝️
I find it amazing that Dr. Heiser really rips this book yet it has glowing reviews on the Logos website!
Well, I think you definitely can accept what the Bible says about cosmology.
What is totally missed in this whole critique is that John Walton consistently in all his books and his Biblical survey holds the view that the Bible"s purpose is to REVEAL God's plans and purposes.. it's about God., it's his story. Their book Demons etc is perfectly consistent with that. That is what is behind the distinction between "reference " and " affirmation". God's plans and purposes are what is affirmed and as such is the content of divine revelation. It's what without which we cannot know or understand.
We can know the existence of spirits, angels, demons and a spiritual realm without the Bible....that's what this program totally misses.
It just means we cannot use the text of scripture as our authority to prove or affirm the nature of reality of that.
# That does not discount evidence from empirical studies in philosophy, anthropology or even folk lore in Ancient Near Eastern studies or Greco-Roman world or Druid history. We have the same grounding as those not using the Bible as an authority on that .
ua-cam.com/video/-gWfTWMU0Nc/v-deo.htmlsi=vwwGLE8bJw3Bp8cl
John Waltons response
1:11:48 _"The reason we reject Old Testament cosmology is not genre, it's science."_ -Michael Heiser
I am not an expert in anyway but... If angels and demons are a later Second Temple cosmological/theological development as Israel adopted strict monotheism, why can't the existence of angels and demons as actual beings/entities be rejected? Angels and demons are the amended polytheistic gods of old (Deut 32:8-9 and Ps 82) due to Persian and Hellenistic influence. Just because the NT authors assumed their existence does not mean they actually exist. If were going to talk about genre, the gospels and Acts are a mythological origin stories for Jesus and Christianity serving as a polemic against Greco-Roman theology surrounding the Caesars and their relationship to the gods. They also mimic the popular and extremely influential Homeric Epics. Justin Martyr knew the gospels of Jesus were polemical myths when he said _"we propound nothing different from what you [Romans] believe"_ in his first apology to Emperor Antoninus Pius. If all this is true, I don't see why angels and demons can't be rejected on the basis that they are completely made up in the Second Temple period.
Well, Heiser argues that demons and angels were not made up during the 2nd Temple period.
You have misunderstood Justin Martyr... He was appealing to what they knew to argue the playability of Christian claims that were a cause of persecution. He wasn't writing to the church or Christians. Just a rhetorical technique
It sounds to me like you don't consider the NT authors to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. That's a very slippery slope. Additionally, Justin Martyr also believed married couples should be celibate. Do you agree with that? Early church fathers like Martyr were fallible, yet the Bible clearly says that ALL scripture is God-breathed, including that written by the apostles.