Michael Heiser’s Divine Council Heresy

By Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / June 2021

Satan has been working hard over centuries to remove the knowledge of Who the Holy Spirit really is from the church. He has succeeded so well that most people probably don’t bat an eyelid when they read in Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm that God is speaking to the divine council in Genesis 1:26. However, when you understand Who the Holy Spirit is, then you begin to realize how serious what Dr. Heiser has done by cutting the Holy Spirit out of Genesis 1:26 is.

In my previous article: Michael Heiser: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? I discussed a number of reasons why Dr. Heiser’s doctrine that God is speaking to the divine council in Genesis 1:26 is false. In this article I am examining his doctrine specifically in relation to Who the Holy Spirit is and how significant the Holy Spirit is. Looking at Dr. Heiser’s doctrine from this perspective introduces a number of further reasons why the doctrine is heretical.

The following information about the Holy Spirit is taken from my article: The Holy Spirit / June 2021:

Who is the Holy Spirit?

In Exodus 23 God told Moses that He was sending an Angel with him and that His Name was in the Angel:

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.

Exodus 23:20-22 NIV

The Patriarch Jacob wrestled with this Angel. Hosea 12:4-5 reads:

And, yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed. He wept and sought favour from Him. He found him in Bethel and there He spoke to us, that is Yahweh God of Hosts. His memorable name is Yahweh.

Hosea 12:4-5 Interlinear

The prophet Isaiah described seeing Yahweh God of Hosts as follows:

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:1-7 NIV

Unfortunately, the words ‘Lord Almighty’ which are used by the NIV translator in Isaiah 6:3 and Isaiah 6:5 do not actually appear in the original Hebrew text. If you take a look at the original Hebrew it says יְהוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת which should be translated as ‘Lord of Hosts’. Check it out in the Interlinear Bible at this link Isaiah 6.

Therefore, the seraphim are calling out: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts’ in verse 3 and Isaiah says: ‘….my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts’ in verse 5. They are not calling out: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty’ and Isaiah does not say ‘….my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’ as the NIV translator would have us believe. The mistranslation is covering up something very significant.

If you read Hosea 12:4-5 in the original Hebrew, you will see that the title ‘the Lord of the Hosts’ is used as the name for the Angel that Jacob wrestled with. Check it out in the Interlinear Bible at this link Hosea 12:4-5. Therefore, the Angel Whom Jacob wrestled with and the Person that Isaiah saw on the throne in Heaven are one and the same. The Old Testament is making it clear that an Angel is seated on the throne of Heaven.

I do not know why the NIV translator was trying to obscure this fact that an Angel is the Ruler in Heaven. However, things get even more interesting because in Isaiah 63 the Angel Whom God sent with Moses in Exodus 23 is described again. He is called the Angel of His Presence:

⁸ He said, “Surely they are my people,
    children who will be true to me”;
    and so he became their Savior.
⁹ In all their distress he too was distressed,
    and the angel of his presence saved them.^[a^]
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
    he lifted them up and carried them
    all the days of old.
¹⁰ Yet they rebelled
    and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
    and he himself fought against them.

Isaiah 63:8-10

Notice that verses 9 and 10 say that the Angel of His Presence is the Holy Spirit. I grew up thinking that the Holy Spirit was an amorphous Spirit Who was able to move inside church buildings during church services and Who can live within you. I did not know that He was an Angel, Who can manifest as a Spirit, or that He is the One Who is seated on the throne in Heaven.

It could be argued that I am reading Isaiah 63:8-10 incorrectly and that, in fact, the Angel of His Presence and the Holy Spirit are two separate entities. But further study of the Bible provides overwhelming proof that I am reading Isaiah 63:8-10 correctly and that the Holy Spirit is an Angel and that this Angel rules over Heaven. Let us examine the evidence that the Bible provides.

Further proof that the Holy Spirit is the Angel of His Presence:

Nehemiah 9:20 and Exodus 23:20-22:

Compare Nehemiah 9:20 and Exodus 23:20-22:

²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

Nehemiah 9:20 NIV

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.

Exodus 23:20-22 NIV

We see that both the good Spirit and the Angel are described as teaching and leading the Israelites. It makes the most sense that the good Spirit is the Angel of His Presence. Remember what Jesus said to the rich, young ruler about only God being good:

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

Luke 18:18-19 NIV

I suspect that He was referring to Nehemiah 9:20 when He did that. He wanted to make the rich young ruler aware that He was more than just a teacher, He was the incarnate Holy Spirit, the Good Spirit. However, a number of scriptures in John 14 and 15 in which Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit would seem to render it entirely impossible that Jesus is the Holy Spirit:

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—

John 14:16

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 14:26

26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

John 15:26

It would seem that Jesus is indicating that the Holy Spirit is an Individual entirely separate and different from Himself. However, a similar thing occurs when Jesus refers to the Son of Man.

“The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.”

Matt. 13:41

“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they shall kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.”

Matt. 17:22-23

“Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Matt. 19:28

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

Matt. 20:18-19

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.”

Matt. 25:31

When Jesus refers to the Son of Man in these scriptures it also seems like He is referring to an entirely different person from Himself. However, in Matthew 16:15 Jesus identifies Himself to be the Son of Man:

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 16:13-17

It is clear from verse 15 that Jesus is Himself the Son of Man and that there is no separate or different Son of Man.

It would seem that in the verses in John 14 and 15 in which Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit in the third person that He is doing the same thing as when He referred to Himself as the Son of Man in the third person.

Although He speaks of Himself as the Holy Spirit in the third person, He indicates in John 14, that He Himself is the Holy Spirit. For example, in John 14:7 Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit lives with them:

17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you….. 

John 14:17

As the Holy Spirit only came on Pentecost and Jesus was the One Who was living with them at that time and the One that they knew, this indicates that Jesus Himself is the incarnate Holy Spirit.

In John 14:18-20 He says:

18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 14:18-20

Notice that at the end of verse 20 He tells them that He will be in them. Obviously there is no way that He could come and physically climb inside of them to live in them. The only way that He could be in them would be in the form of a Spirit. We know as Christians that the Holy Spirit is the One Who is in us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 18  Jesus is telling the disciples that He will come to them. This happened on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and filled the disciples. He tells them that He will come to them in a way that the world cannot see Him. The world cannot see Jesus living in a Christian as the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul seems to be the person who fully understood that the Holy Spirit is Jesus Himself. He described it as a mystery:

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:24-27

This is the glorious mystery that the Holy Spirit is Jesus Himself and that He lives within the Church. Years ago I asked the Holy Spirit what I should call Him because I thought it seemed very formal to call Him Holy Spirit. The answer came back as clear as anything. He said: ‘Jesus.’  

In Colossians 1 the apostle Paul distinguishes between Jesus’ physical body and the church as Jesus’ body:

22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 

Colossians 1:22

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 

Colossians 1:24

It is clear that Paul understands Jesus to be living inside the church as the Holy Spirit and that the Church is His body. A few verses earlier Paul described the Son of God:

12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and into him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1:12-20

In verses 15-18 Paul is clearly describing Jesus as He pre-existed as the Holy Spirit. Then In verses 18-20, Paul is describing the Holy Spirit after He became incarnate as Jesus.

Jesus identified Himself as the Holy Spirit, the apostles identified Jesus as the Holy Spirit and Jude identified Jesus as the Angel of His Presence:

In John 10:36 Jesus identifies Himself as the Holy Spirit when He says:

³⁶ what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?

John 10:36 NIV

The Greek word translated as ‘set apart’ is the word ἡγίασεν (hēgiasen) which means to make holy. So, Jesus is describing Himself as having pre-existed and that during that pre-existence He was made Holy by the Father. I think that it is not a great leap to understand that He was saying that He had pre-existed as the Holy Spirit.

There is no doubt that the early church understood that Jesus was the incarnate Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that the Lord is the Spirit and in 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul calls Jesus: ‘the Lord the Spirit’. In Philippians, Paul says: ‘For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance’ (Philippians 1:19 NRSV). In Galatians, Paul says: ‘And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father’ (Galatians 4:6 NLT). In Romans, Paul says: ‘But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ (Romans 8:9, 10 NRSV).

In Philippians 2:5-8 the apostle Paul, speaking about Jesus, says:

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:5-8 NIV

The NIV translates the word μορφῇ in Philippians 2:6 as ‘nature’:

However, this is not a good translation of the word μορφῇ. In Mark 16:12 in the NIV the very same word μορφῇ is translated as ‘form’:

¹² Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

Mark 16:12 NIV

It is very clear from the context of Mark 16;12 that the word means ‘form’ and not ‘nature’. Therefore, we see that Philippians 2:6 should actually be translated as: ‘Who being in very form God’.

Numbers 12:7-8 says:

Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to Face and even plainly and not in dark sayings and he sees the form of Yahweh….

Numbers 12:7;8 Interlinear

Let us read the words of Paul in Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created. And He is before all things and all things in Him hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 Interlinear

Philippians 2:6 and Colossians 1:15 make it clear that Paul regarded Jesus as having pre-existed as the ‘form’ or image of God. Numbers 12:8 makes it clear that the Angel of His Presence, the Holy Spirit is the ‘form’ of God. There can be no doubt that Paul believed Jesus to be the Angel of His Presence, the Holy Spirit incarnate. In 1 Corinthians 10:9 he identifies Jesus as the Angel of Presence Who was with the Israelites in the wilderness when he says:

⁹ We should not test Christ,^[a] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

1 Corinthians 10:9 NIV

In Mark 1:21-28 Mark portrays Jesus as the Holy Spirit incarnate casting out impure spirits:

²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” ²⁸ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Mark 1:21-28 NIV

The apostle John also grasped this truth. In John 1:1-3 we are told: ‘ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word. He was in the beginning with God. All things through Him came into being and without Him came into being not even one thing that has come into being.’ It is clear that John is referring to Jesus as the Spirit of God, Who is spoken of at the creation event in Genesis 1:2 and Who created everything.

John describes how Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples: ‘Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” ‘(John 20:22 CEV). Luke the author of the book of Acts also recognized that the Spirit of Jesus, was the Holy Spirit. He says in Acts 16: ‘ And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them (Acts 16:7 NASB).

For further proof that the apostles believed that Jesus is the incarnate Holy Spirit let us compare Job 33:4 with John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-16 and Hebrews 1:2-3

The Spirit of God has made me;
    the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Job 33:4 NIV

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5 NIV

He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created. And He is before all things and all things in Him hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 Interlinear

² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word…

Hebrews 1:2-3 NIV

It is clear from Job 33:4 that the Holy Spirit created human beings. The three New Testament verses make it clear that Jesus was responsible for creating everything. Human beings form a part of the creation of all things and are a part of the universe which Jesus created. Therefore, Jesus created human beings. Clearly, Jesus was the Holy Spirit before He was Jesus. There can be no doubt that Genesis 1:2 refers to the Holy Spirit because the three New Testament scriptures make it clear that Jesus, as the Holy Spirit, was both present at creation and that everything was created through Him.

Further proof that the Holy Spirit is an Angel is found in Jude 5 where Jude identifies Jesus as the Angel of His Presence. Jude refers to the incident in Numbers 16 when the Israelites made the Holy Spirit angry in the wilderness and things did not go well for them because the Angel became so angry with them. He initially wanted to destroy all the Israelites, but Moses and Aaron begged Him to destroy only those who were in rebellion:

²⁰ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”

²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’”

²⁵ Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” ²⁷ So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.

²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”

³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

Numbers 16:20-33

The incident is remarkably like the incident in which Ananias and Sapphira were also removed from the community of the believers in Jerusalem after they lied to the Holy Spirit Acts 5:1-11.

The removal of all those associated with Korah is not the end of the destruction:

³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

³⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”

³⁹ So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned to death, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, ⁴⁰ as the Lord directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the Lord, or he would become like Korah and his followers.

⁴¹ The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.

⁴² But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵ “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.

⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. ⁴⁸ He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, for the plague had stopped.^[c]

Numbers 16:35-50

In Jude 5, Jude describes what happened in Numbers 16 as follows:

⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord^[a] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Jude 5

There is no doubt that Jude had these incidences in mind because he says in Jude 11:

¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

Jude 11

Jude is speaking about Jesus in Jude 5 because the word ‘Lord’ in the original Greek is Ἰησοῦς» which is ‘Jesus’ in Greek. It is clear from Jude 5 that Jude is identifying Jesus as the Angel of His Presence, Who destroyed the rebellious Israelites in Numbers 16.

The Bible teaches that an angel can be a spirit:

In Hebrews 1:7 it says:

⁷ In speaking of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels spirits,
    and his servants flames of fire.”^[a]

Hebrews 1:7 NIV

Therefore, we see that an angel can also be a spirit because God makes angels into spirits. This is a quote from Psalm 104:4 and, so, it could be argued that the verse says that He makes His angels winds, and not that He makes His angels spirits. This is because the Hebrew word רוּח֑וֹת can be translated as either ‘spirits’ or ‘winds’ and the context of Psalm 104:4 better lends itself to the translation ‘winds’. However, in the Bible there does not seem to be much difference between winds and spirits. The Holy Spirit arrived on the day of Pentecost in the form of a mighty Wind:

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 2:1-4 NIV

In Zechariah 6:5 the same word is used for spirits as is used in Psalm 104:4 and the context makes it clear that the word is being used to describe angels.

The fact that the Holy Spirit is the Angel of His Presence is corroborated by other early Christian authors:

A man by the name of Philo, who visited the apostles in Jerusalem, made the following statement in a piece of his writing entitled The Confusion of Languages:

“And even if there be not as yet anyone who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to His First-born Word, the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names; for He is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God’s image, and He who sees Israel.”

– Philo, “On the Confusion of Tongues,” (146)

You see that Philo is saying here that the Word of God, Who we know to be Jesus, is the great Archangel. He is the eldest of God’s angels. He is also saying that the Word of God became a man.

Now let us read Colossians 1: 15-17 keeping this thought in mind that the Holy Spirit is described by Philo as the great Archangel:

Colossians 1:15-17 says:

He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created. And He is before all things and all things in Him hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 Interlinear

Another early Christian, Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century, wrote:

I shall give you another testimony, my friends,” said I, “from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, a certain rational power from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos.”

–  Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, LXI – (“Wisdom is begotten of the father, as fire from fire.”)

Justin Martyr confirms in the above quotation that the Holy Spirit is an Angel. I was so happy to find these quotes because they confirmed what the Lord has been showing to me over the past year and it confirmed that what I have been writing about in my blog was correct. It also confirmed that the early church called the Holy Spirit the Glory of God. The Lord had me blogging about this earlier this year.

It does not come through well in the epistles that Jesus was the Great Archangel before He became Jesus. I suspect that this was because Paul was writing to established churches about specific problems that they were having, so he wasn’t talking about the basics of Christianity because everyone that he was writing to already knew them. However in one of Paul’s letters Jesus is referred to as the Archangel:

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Paul is saying that when Jesus returns, He is going to use His archangel voice.

At this point it is important to mention that Jesus is NOT the archangel Michael. I have heard that some people teach that this is the case, and it is most definitely incorrect. In Daniel 10:5-6 the Holy Spirit appears to Daniel. He tells Daniel that the archangel Michael helped Him to fight the kings of Persia (Daniel 10:13). Therefore, it is impossible that He is Michael. The Holy Spirit is so much higher up in authority and power than Michael because He is God. He created Michael. It is the Holy Spirit Who appears to Joshua as the Captain of the Lord’s Army and not Michael. This is made clear by the fact that Joshua worshiped Him as God Joshua 5:13-15 NIV.

After considering all of the aforementioned evidence, I believe that there is sufficient proof to conclude that the Angel of His Presence is the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit became incarnate as the Man, Jesus Christ. As Jesus, the Holy Spirit became fixed in the form of a man. However, He also remains as the Holy Spirit. As I said in my previous article, the Holy Spirit appears in the New Testament as both Jesus Christ and as the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes Himself as being the Light of the world (John 8:12). Light can exist as both a particle and a wave. When the Holy Spirit became Jesus, He became different to what He was as the Holy Spirit because Jesus was also a man with a body of flesh which gave Him human emotions and made Him share in the difficulties of what it is to be human.

Further Proof that the Holy Spirit is the Ruler of Heaven:

The prophet Ezekiel saw an Angel seated in Heaven:

²⁵ Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. ²⁶ Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. ²⁷ I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. ²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him….

Ezekiel 1:25-28 NIV

This cannot be God the Father seated on the throne in Heaven because God the Father is an invisible Spirit (Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:16). It is clear that Ezekiel is seeing an Angel because He is described as being full of fire and that He looked like fire. Remember that Hebrews 1:7 told us that angels can look like flames of fire.

Ezekiel saw this Angel a second time in Ezekiel chapter 8:

⁴ And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north…….

Ezekiel 8:4-5 NIV

We see in verse 4 that this Angel is called the Glory of the God of Israel.

In 1 Peter 4:14 we read:

¹⁴ If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

1 Peter 4:14

Also, in 1 Enoch 27:2, the Holy Spirit is called God’s Glory:

27.2 Then Raphael, one of the Holy Angels who was with me, answered me, and said to me: “This accursed valley is for those who are cursed for ever. Here will be gathered together all who speak with their mouths against the Lord, words that are not fitting, and say hard things about His Glory.

http://www.bookofenoch.org/enoch26-36.htm

We know that this is the Holy Spirit being referred to as God’s Glory because Jesus was most likely referring to this verse when He spoke about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

In Numbers 16 the Glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites:

¹⁹ When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly.

Numbers 16:19

We know that the Angel of His Presence was accompanying the Israelites and instructing them, therefore it seems clear that the Angel of His Presence is the Glory of God. We have seen that the Angel of His Presence is the Holy Spirit and that the Glory of God sits on the throne of Heaven. Therefore, it is clear that the Holy Spirit is the ruler of Heaven. He is called the Father because He is the exact representation of the Father. To see the Holy Spirit is, for all intents and purposes, to see the Father.

Why is the Holy Spirit the Ruler of Heaven?

The Holy Spirit is the Image of God:

The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is seated on the throne of Heaven as the visible representation of the Father:

Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to Face and even plainly and not in dark sayings and he sees the form of Yahweh….

Numbers 12:7;8 Interlinear

He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created. And He is before all things and all things in Him hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 Interlinear

The Holy Spirit and the Father have the same name:

The Holy Spirit has the same name as the Father. In Hosea 12:5 it says that the memorable Name of this Angel is Yahweh. However, Psalm 2:7 confirms that the Father is also called Yahweh:

⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
    today I have become your father.

Psalm 2:7 NIV

The word translated as ‘Lord’ in Psalm 2:7 is the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh’. Check this out in the Interlinear Psalm 2:7.

In Exodus 23:20-23 the Father says:

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.

Exodus 23:20-23

In Isaiah 30:27-28 the Holy Spirit is called the Name of Yahweh:

²⁷ See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
    with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
    and his tongue is a consuming fire.
²⁸ His breath is like a rushing torrent,
    rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
    he places in the jaws of the peoples
    a bit that leads them astray.

Isaiah 30:27-28 NIV

The Holy Spirit is the Logos or Message of God:

The Holy Spirit was the Message of God to His creation. Angels serve as messengers of God, but the Angel of the Lord was not merely a messenger. The Angel of the Lord was the Message itself. The Greek word which John used in John chapter 1 when calling Jesus, the Word, is ‘logos’ which means ‘message’. The Message is the Father made visible. This is why people who saw the Angel in the Old Testament said that they had seen God:

In Exodus 3 verse 2 the Angel of the Lord appears as fire in a bush and is referred to as God both in verse 4 and 6:

1 “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvellous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” 

Exodus 3:1-6 NIV

In Genesis 16:13 Hagar calls the Angel of the Lord, God:

7 “Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”  9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”  10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”  11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.  12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”  13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.” 

Genesis 16:7-14 NIV

In Genesis 22:12 the Angel of the Lord calls Himself God:

1 “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
…
12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
…
15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

Genesis 22:1-18 NIV

In Judges 13:22 Manoah calls the Angel of the Lord, God:

16 The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)
17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”
18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.[a]” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.
22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” 

Judges 13:16-22

In Judges 6 Gideon also has an encounter with the Angel Who wishes to use him to save His people from the Midianites. It is clear that Gideon also recognizes that the Angel is God:

¹¹ The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶ The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹ Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah^[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

²⁰ The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹ Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. ²² When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

²³ But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

Judges 6:11-13 NIV

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the Ruler of Heaven because He is the Image of God, the Name of God and the Word of God.

However, the fact that the Holy Spirit is these three things is not the only reason why He is the Ruler of Heaven. He is also the Ruler of Heaven because He has been appointed ‘heir of all things’. In Hebrews 1:3 it says:

2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 1:2-3 NIV

We know that the Son that is being spoken of is the Holy Spirit because He is described as the One through Whom the Father made the universe. Unfortunately, there is a mistranslation in the NIV translation in the first part of verse 3. In the original Greek it says:

‘Who being the radiance, the Glory and the exact representation of the essence of Him….’

What the NIV translator did was to translate the Greek word τῆς (tes), which is the definite article, as ‘of’ instead of as ‘the’. The effect is to cover up the fact that the Holy Spirit is called the Glory of God. The mistranslation makes it seem like the Holy Spirit is the radiance of the Glory of God, when, in fact, the verse is calling Him the Glory of God. So, in the original Greek it is not saying that the Son is the radiance of the Glory of God. It is saying that the Son is the radiance, the glory and the exact representation of the Father. It is saying that the Son, the Holy Spirit, is the Glory of God.

You can check out that the Holy Spirit is being referred to as the Glory of God in the original Greek at this link, Hebrews 1:3, however, beware, because the English text under the verse in the Interlinear also incorrectly translates the word as ‘of’. However, if you place the cursor onto the blue lettered ‘tes’ above the Greek text, you will see that it says that ‘tes’ is the definite article. Also, if you check out the Strong’s concordance reference which is numbered 3588 you will also see that the word is the definite article.

Hebrews 1:2-3 is making it clear that the Son of God, Who is the Holy Spirit, the Glory of God, has been appointed as the heir of all things. It is customary that the heir of a business assists his father in running the business. In the same way, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit is ruling over all things on the Father’s behalf, which includes Heaven. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, came to the earth and provided purification for sins. We know that He did this by becoming incarnate as Jesus and dying on the cross. He then sat down, as Jesus, at His own right hand.

I think this is what has been confusing for Bible scholars over the years. They find it difficult to accept that essentially Jesus and the Holy Spirit are One and the same. This is because Jesus is the incarnate Holy Spirit. However, they are also two separate individuals because One is an Angel and the other is a Man. This is the mystery of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the exact representation of the invisible Father and Jesus is the Holy Spirit incarnate. The three are separate beings, as one is an invisible Spirit, one is an Angel and the other is a Man, but they are also One, because the Holy Spirit is the exact representation of the Father and Jesus is the Holy Spirit incarnate. The Holy Spirit’s role as the Message of God is now vested in Jesus. Jesus, the incarnate Holy Spirit, the Son of Man, is now the Word of God to the creation.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth in both the Old and the New Testaments

We are all familiar with the New Testament scriptures which describe the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth:

¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

John 16:13 NIV

¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[a] in you.

John 14:17 NIV

²⁶ ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me.

John 15:26 NIV

In the Book of Daniel chapter 10 Daniel describes having a vision of a light blue coloured Man:

⁴ Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the ^[c]Tigris, ⁵ I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! ⁶ His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Daniel 10:4-6  (NKJV)

Note that in verse 6 Daniel describes the Man as having a body that looked like ‘beryl’ (Daniel 10:6). Beryl is a type of stone. The name “beryl” is derived from Greek βήρυλλος beryllos which referred to a “precious blue-green color-of-sea-water stone.” This colour is commonly known as aquamarine.

Revealing the truth to us is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit. The blue coloured Man came to reveal the truth to Daniel in the same way that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, leads us into all truth. The blue coloured Man came to reveal to Daniel what was written in the Scripture of Truth:

²⁰ Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. ²¹ But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth.

Daniel 10:20-21  (NKJV)

Not only does the blue coloured Man come to reveal Truth to Daniel, but His awesome appearance indicates that He is the ‘form’ of God and Daniel addresses Him as Lord. Furthermore, His blue colour indicates that He is the Spirit of Truth. I Googled what the meaning of the colour blue is in the Bible and discovered that blue symbolizes truth http://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Colour/Blue.htm. Clearly, the blue coloured Man is the Holy Spirit. It seems appropriate that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, would be blue in appearance. In fact, I suspect that blue came to symbolize truth in the Bible because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

Hebrews 1:7 explains that an angel can be both an angel, a spirit and flames of fire. This explains why Ezekiel and Daniel’s descriptions of the Holy Spirit differed from each other. Ezekiel saw the Holy Spirit as a fiery man, but Daniel saw the Holy Spirit as a blue man. He was different in appearance because He changed from Angel to Spirit. The Bible teaches that He can also change into flames of fire. When He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, to the Israelites at Mount Sinai and to the disciples at Pentecost, He appeared as flames of fire. The fact that the Holy Spirit appears as flames of fire and as a spirit is further proof that He is an angel.

Interestingly, there are two aquamarine coloured gods in the Hindu religion. The two Hindu gods are NOT the Holy Spirit. This is clear from the fact that in Hindu art they are depicted as having four arms. At no point in the Bible is the Holy Spirit described as having four arms. He is always described as having the form of a man. The existence of these two aquamarine coloured gods in Hinduism, one of the oldest religions in the world, possibly indicates that other ancient people, and not only Daniel, had visions of aquamarine coloured spirits.

Reasons why Dr. Heiser’s teaching about God speaking to the divine council in Genesis 1:26 is false:

The Bible teaches that God the Father, an invisible Spirit, created an Angel to be a visible intermediary between Himself and His creation. The Angel relates to the material creation on the Father’s behalf. The Old Testament makes it clear that to see the Holy Spirit was to see the Father. This is because the Angel is the physical manifestation of the invisible Yahweh and, so they are One. They are identical in character and purpose even though they are not physically identical. You will recall that Jesus, the incarnate Holy Spirit, said: ‘I and the Father are One.’ John 10:30.

Revelations 3:14, Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:6 make it clear that God created the Holy Spirit, as the Beginning of His creation, the Firstborn of creation and that He then used the Holy Spirit to create everything else that was created. Therefore, there is a second divine Person clearly present in Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit, and He is too significant to merely be ignored. Genesis 1:2 places Him there and after the Father issues the commands about what must be created, the Holy Spirit does the creating. When God says in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…’ He is speaking to the Holy Spirit, Who is right there with Him. because the Holy Spirit has been creating everything:

² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word…

Hebrews 1:2-3 NIV

Dr. Michael Heiser has failed to consider the Old and New Testament scriptures that portray the Holy Spirit as the Agent through Whom the Father created the universe:

All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
³⁰ When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

Psalm 104:27-30 NIV

The Spirit of God has made me;
    the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Job 33:4 NIV

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5 NIV

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
    their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6 NIV

He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created. And He is before all things and all things in Him hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 Interlinear

By introducing the divine council into Genesis 1, Michael Heiser is diminishing the significance of the Person of the Holy Spirit. He has entirely missed the Angel in Genesis 1 and focused on angels instead. In Colossians 2:18 Paul warns his readers: “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.” Writing about the divine council for chapter after chapter, elevating it above the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1 and focusing people’s attention onto it in the way that Michael Heiser does in The Unseen Realm, makes me think about what Paul says about the worship of angels.

Angels are not mentioned in Genesis 1. If God had wanted them mentioned there, He would have mentioned them in a straightforward, explicit manner. Michael Heiser has had to coin the term ‘imager’ to try and squeeze angels into Genesis 1. However, as we have seen, a consistent theme runs through the Old and New Testament about the Holy Spirit. He is the Image of the Father. He sits on the throne of Heaven. The Father created everything that is in existence through Him and He is holding everything together by His word. Given the significance of the Holy Spirit it would be very strange indeed if He did not appear in the very first chapter of the Bible, or that He only gets a mention in Genesis 1:2 and then is ignored in Genesis 1:26. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that angels are created in the image of God, as Michael Heiser suggests is the case. The Bible makes it very clear that only one Angel is created in the image of God.

However, someone suggested to me that perhaps Michael Heiser and I are both correct about Genesis 1:26 and that the Father is speaking to both the Holy Spirit and to the divine council. This is not correct because if it were the case the author would have introduced the angels prior to speaking to them, in the way that he introduced the Holy Spirit in verse 2. However, most importantly it would degrade the Holy Spirit if He were merely lumped in with the divine council as if He were at their level. We have seen that the Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is no mere angel. He is the Angel Who is also God. He is equal to God and, therefore, would most definitely be differentiated from other angels if, in fact, the Father was speaking to all the angels together in Genesis 1:26.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is the One Who is doing the creating. Why would the Father say to all the angels: ‘Let us create man in our image and likeness…’ when they didn’t have any power to create man. The Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit was the One doing the creating after the Father issued the commands. Clearly, the Father and the Holy Spirit are the ‘Our’ that the Father refers to in verse 26. Michael Heiser uses a pizza analogy to try and explain his way out of this, by suggesting that someone can suggest to a group of people that they buy pizza, but then pay for the pizza himself because it was his suggestion. But this pizza argument is weak because it is not a man speaking in Genesis 1:26, but almighty God and He is very specific and clear when He speaks. He does not say: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…’ to a group, if He does not mean “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…’ He would have phrased it differently if He did not mean it. If He was speaking to the divine council He could have simply said: ‘I am going to create mankind in My image and likeness’ and then He would have gone ahead and done it.

Michael Heiser is trying to make us believe that God is a poor speaker who does not express Himself clearly. However, God created speech. I don’t think that He has any difficulties in expressing Himself clearly. The truth is that He is saying: “Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness…’ to the Holy Spirit and that when it says in Genesis 1:27 that God created man in His image, it says this because the Holy Spirit was the Image of God. Therefore, there was only one image that needed to be reproduced, the image of God. This image was shared by both of Them. By tampering with what the meaning of image is in Genesis 1:26, Michael Heiser is leveling a blow at the divinity of Jesus, which is founded on the fact that He is the image of God.

The fact that we are created in the image of God explains why Satan hates us so much. How angry it must make Satan to know that puny little men were created in the image of God, but that he wasn’t. He set about destroying the image of God in man, marring it with sin. However, through what the Holy Spirit did when He became Jesus and died for us, and by what He is doing by living in us, the image of God in man is being restored:

²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:13

These verses show how important the theme of the Image of God is in the Bible. By replacing Image with ‘imager’, Michael Heiser is tampering with the very heart of Christianity. He is removing the Image of God from Christianity and replacing Him with angels.

A thorough examination of the Bible’s teaching regarding the Person of the Holy Spirit makes it clear that Michael Heiser’s argument that God is speaking to the divine council in Genesis 1:26 simply does not hold water. The Old and New Testaments are united in proclaiming that the Image of God is the Holy Spirit. It is clear that the Holy Spirit is the only other Person present with the Father in Genesis 1 and that They create the heavens and earth together. They then created man in the Image that They both shared because They are One in nature and purpose. To suggest that God is speaking to the divine council in Genesis 1:26 and not to the Holy Spirit is heresy.

Satan has tried to cover up the knowledge regarding Who the Holy Spirit really is. It is important for him to do this because it breaks the link between the Old and the New Testament. In the Old Testament Jesus was present as the Holy Spirit revealing Himself to the Patriarchs and to other important Old Testament figures. If the link between Who He was in the Old Testament and Who He was in the New Testament can be broken then the Bible loses much of its power because now the two Testaments don’t link together well. I believe that Satan has been actively working throughout the church age to reduce this knowledge.

Also, Satan and his angels don’t want us to know that the Holy Spirit is a powerful Angel, because they want people to sin. Knowing that the Holy Spirit is so powerful makes you frightened to sin. He is the Name of God and in Isaiah 30:27-28 He is described as:

²⁷ See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
    with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
    and his tongue is a consuming fire.
²⁸ His breath is like a rushing torrent,
    rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
    he places in the jaws of the peoples
    a bit that leads them astray.

Isaiah 30:27-28 NIV

He told Moses in Exodus 33:23 that His face must not be seen.

²³ Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

Exodus 33:23 NIV

And in verse 20 He told Moses that no one can see His Face and live:

²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

Exodus 33:20 NIV

The Angel of Yahweh usually appeared to people in the form of a man. However, in Exodus 33 He decided to appear to Moses in the form of the Angel that He truly is. This is why Moses could only look at His back. Do you feel like sinning after reading about Who He is and what He did to the Israelites in the wilderness when they made Him angry with Him? He has lived with me for over 40 years now, since I was ten years old, and I know Him to be amazingly loving, kind and patient, but, I also know that you can’t mess Him around and that He doesn’t tolerate sin. He will judge His creation because He is the Ancient Angel Who created the creation:

⁹ “As I looked,

“thrones were set in place,
    and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
    the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
    and its wheels were all ablaze.
¹⁰ A river of fire was flowing,
    coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
    ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
    and the books were opened.

Daniel 7:9-10 NIV

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelations 20:11-15 NIV

Also, it is empowering for us to understand the power of the Person who is living in us and Satan and his angels don’t want us to feel empowered. They do not want the church to understand that the Person Who is living within us as a Spirit, is also the Person Who is sitting on the throne of Heaven as the visible representation of Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. The Holy Spirit is an extraordinarily powerful Angel Who is able to manifest both in a visible corporeal form and as a Spirit. The Holy Spirit is able to live within the church as a Spirit and is an individual Guide and Councillor to each believer and the Provider of the gifts of the Spirit and the Power to do the work of the ministry, while simultaneously being the Ruler of Heaven. It is very hard for our human minds to comprehend this, but the Bible makes it clear that this is indeed what is happening. The enormous Power that the Holy Spirit wielded to create the material universe is now available to the Church.

Another reason why Satan wants the knowledge of Who the Holy Spirit is to be hidden from the Church is that Satan does not want us to understand how loved we are by God. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was loyal to His people and cared for them:

Jacob experienced this Angel’s care for him throughout his lifetime. He tells his son Joseph about the Angel before he dies:

And he blessed Joseph and said: ‘The God Whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac walked before. The God Who has fed me all my life to this day. The Angel Who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys…’

Genesis 48:15-16 Interlinear

Also, Satan does not want us to know that the Holy Spirit will fight for us because He is the Commander of the Father’s hosts:

¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

¹⁴ “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord^[a] have for his servant?”

¹⁵ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua 5:13-15

In 2 Kings 6, the Commander of the Lord’s army opened the eyes of the servant of Elisha so that he could see the army of angels protecting them:

¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

2 Kings 6:17 NIV

He has these same angels protecting us. Satan does not want us to know that.

Also, Satan does not want us to know we have a wonderful future ahead of us because of the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Church’s Bridegroom. As I am writing this, the Holy Spirit is busy creating a new universe especially for us. He said through Jesus:

² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

John 14:2-4 NIV

In the traditional Jewish wedding system the bridegroom would build an extension onto his father’s house during the betrothal period for the wedding couple to live in after the wedding day. The extension that the Holy Spirit is building onto His Father’s house for the Church and Himself to live in is a new universe and a new earth. Can you imagine how big the Father’s house is, if a universe is a mere extension to it. If there are many rooms in the Father’s house and each room is a universe, we can only wonder about just how many other universes exist. The Bible makes it clear that our universe is just one of many. We have a very great God and Satan doesn’t want us to know this. Although I do not believe that he is aware that he is doing this, by taking the Holy Spirit out of Genesis 1 and replacing Him with the divine council, Dr. Heiser is helping Satan to hide the knowledge of Who God really is.

Bibliography:

Heiser, Michael S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ISBN 978-1-577-99556-2

E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). Bible Meanings: Spiritual Meaning of Blue. http://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Colour/Blue.htm

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