If Yahweh is merely the most powerful among a pantheon of gods, that still leaves Heiser with far too many gods. Perhaps not as many as the Mormons, but like the JWs [Jehovah’s Witnesses], even if there are as few as two, that is still one too many. 

Our friend, the  late Dr. James Sire, wrote a very helpful book, released on October 1, 1980, titled Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible.  This book has been a great help to many trying to understand the various ways the Bible can be misread.  People often misread the Bible quite unintentionally, simply because they do not understand the context of a particular passage. However, when it comes to cults and false teachers, the “misread” is more likely intentional. For example, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) deny the deity of Christ and claims He was merely a created being. One of the ways they attempt to defend their teaching with Scripture is to tie a portion of 1 Corinthians 1:24, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,” to Proverbs 8:22-23 where Wisdom is quoted saying:

The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up,

Simply because the same words appear in the text does not mean that read in context, they have the same meaning. Bible Hub gives a helpful description of understanding context:

Topical Encyclopedia

Understanding context is a crucial aspect of biblical interpretation and study. It involves examining the historical, cultural, literary, and theological settings in which the biblical texts were written. This approach ensures that the Scriptures are interpreted accurately and applied appropriately in the life of the believer.

For example, in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle is contrasting the death, burial and resurrection of Christ against the thinking of both Jews and Greeks:

the power of God in Jesus’ death on the cross reveals God’s power to save people from sin and death and thus shows His power to redeem seemingly irredeemable situations (like the problems at Corinth). The description of Christ as the power of God also challenges the Roman Empire’s use of crucifixion as a symbol of its own power. Resurrection hinges on God’s ability (see 1 Cor 15:17, 53–57; compare Isa 53:12).

the wisdom of God Christ can be described as the wisdom of God because His death and resurrection uniquely express God’s mysterious plan of salvation (1 Cor 2:7; 4:1). Christ demonstrates the paradoxical nature of God’s plan to save people from sin: it requires a death to save people from death (compare Isa 53:1).¹

Proverbs, on the other hand, is Wisdom literature which personifies Wisdom. To make our point in a discussion with JWs, we often have to go back a few verses in Proverbs and read:

I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, (Proverbs 8:12)

We ask the JW who prudence is?  Is that Christ’s roommate?  We also read in Proverbs 9 that Wisdom is a female who built a house. Is this perhaps where Wisdom and Prudence dwell together? Wisdom literature, poetry like Psalms, and historical narrative such as the Gospel and Acts, should be understood in their differing literary contexts.

When we look at the late Dr. Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm, we find similar issues. As we pointed out in our “How Many True Gods Are There?” and “Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should,” Heiser believed he had discovered something that was life-changing in the area of theology:

The God of the Old Testament was part of an assembly—a pantheon—of other gods.²

Heiser moved from Psalm 82, carrying what he believed was a newly recovered “Deuteronomy 32 worldview,³ into other passages. His next stop was Deuteronomy 32. A great deal of Heiser’s new understanding seems to hinge on Deuteronomy 32:8-9, where The KJV reads:

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

The ESV reads:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

The difference between these translations stems from the question of whether to follow the Masoretic Text, favored by Jewish scholars. the KJV, NASB and many other translations, or the Septuagint, favored by the ESV and others. A brief explanation of each may help:

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