Michael S. Heiser is an American biblical Old Testament scholar and Christian author. His area of expertise is the nature of the spiritual realm in the Bible, namely the Divine Council and hierarchy of the spiritual order. He is Executive Director of the School of Ministry at
Celebration Church
Celebration Church is a global, multi-site church located in Jacksonville, Florida. It is a member of the Association of Related Churches. and is led by Senior Pastors Tim and Jen Timberlake.
The Church is based in Jacksonville, Florida with othe ...
in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. He was a distance-learning professor at
Liberty University
Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia ( Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Lib ...
and
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Kansas City, Missouri. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary also houses an undergraduate college, Spur ...
. Until 2019, he was scholar-in-residence at
Faithlife Corporation
Faithlife Corporation publishes and creates electronic tools and resources for Bible study. It produces the Logos Bible Software, but also publishes tools and resources under a number of other brands, and partners with more than 500 publishers to ...
.
He runs his own podcast, The Naked Bible and runs a ministry called Miqlat, dedicated to the production and dissemination of his content. Heiser appeared in the 2018 documentary film ''Fragments of Truth'' and in the 2019 documentary film ''The Unseen Realm''. In 2019 Heiser released the book ''The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things,'' referencing the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
series '' Stranger Things'' as analogies to Christian theology.
In 2020, Heiser was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In January of 2023, Michael Heiser announced on his Facebook page it had progressed to stage four with a terminal diagnosis “anywhere from a week, to several weeks”.
Education
Heiser was raised in Lebanon,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. He received an MA in Ancient History from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, and an MA and PhD in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" '' Semitic Languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
In many of his works, Heiser has stressed the role of the
Divine Council
A Divine Council is an assembly of deities over which a higher-level god presides.
Historical setting
The concept of a divine assembly (or council) is attested in the archaic Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, Babylon ...
in the Old Testament. Kevin Bauder calls Heiser the "most prominent evangelical defender" of the divine council interpretation of Psalm 82, and notes that he "has become a kind of evangelist for the divine council theory, giving it wide exposure in popular books and articles, and defending it through multiple Internet web sites."
Criticism of ancient astronaut theories
Heiser has spoken out critically against proponents of ancient astronauts theories, especially Zechariah Sitchin. Heiser appeared in ''Ancient Aliens Debunked'' as an expert on the
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...