The more I immerse myself in the study of Scripture, the more I find that good theology is rarely a matter of selecting one isolated concept over another. It is, rather, an exercise in allowing the entire counsel of God to speak in its own voice, even when those voices seem to operate on different frequencies. Over the past several years, I have found myself standing at the intersection of two profound influences: the clear-eyed apologetic narrative of Greg Koukl and the unsettling, supernatural recovery of the late Dr. Michael Heiser.
At first glance, these two thinkers seem to inhabit different worlds. Koukl, the seasoned apologist, builds a bridge of logic and narrative coherence from the modern mind to the ancient text. Heiser, the Semitic scholar, builds a bridge from our modern domestications back to the "weird" and wild worldview of the biblical authors themselves. Yet, I am convinced that they are not offering competing ideas; they are offering different levels of resolution.
1. The Aerial View: Greg Koukl and the Story of Reality
In his seminal work, The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl presents the Christian faith not as a collection of religious "values," but as a coherent account of the way the world actually is. He invites us to step back and look at the "big picture": the aerial view of the landscape.
Koukl’s paradigm is elegant in its simplicity, focusing on the essential movements of the cosmic drama: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. Through this lens, we see that God created a good world, that humanity staged a rebellion that fractured reality, and that God initiated a rescue plan through the nation of Israel, culminating in the person and work of Jesus.
For many of us, this is the "tame" version of the story: not tame in the sense of being powerless, but tame in its familiarity and its logical accessibility. It provides the necessary interpretive horizon for making sense of human suffering, the objective nature of morality, and the historical necessity of the resurrection. Koukl’s strength lies in his ability to show that Christianity is the "only story that explains the way things are."
"The Christian story is not just a story for those who like religion; it is a story that claims to be the true account of the world we all live in."
2. The Trail View: Michael Heiser and the Cosmic Geography
If Koukl provides the satellite image of the terrain, Michael Heiser invites us to put on our hiking boots and step onto the trail itself. In The Unseen Realm, Heiser argues that most modern readers, even those with deep theological training, have been blinded to the supernatural architecture that the biblical authors took for granted.
Heiser’s work centers on the "Deuteronomy 32 worldview," a concept that many find "weird" or even primitive compared to our modern, sanitized interpretations. Heiser pulls back the curtain to reveal that Genesis is not merely the story of human rebellion but of a fractured heavenly family. He identifies three watershed rebellions that shape the biblical narrative:
- The Fall in Eden: The original rebellion of the nachash [1] and humanity.
- The Genesis 6 Incursion: The "sons of God" who abandoned their post to corrupt the human race.
- The Tower of Babel: The moment God judged the nations by "allocating" them to lesser spiritual beings, while choosing Israel as His own unique inheritance. [2]
This "wild" reality explains why the Old Testament is so fixated on the "gods of the nations." These were not merely psychological projections or wood and stone idols; they were real, rebellious spiritual powers. When we understand this cosmic geography, the entire New Testament begins to glow with a new intensity. The Great Commission is not just a recruitment drive; it is a territorial reclamation project. Every time a person is brought into the Kingdom, a "principality" or "power" loses ground.
"The biblical authors lived in a world where the supernatural was not a separate 'religious' category, but the very fabric of their reality."
3. Synthesizing the Landscapes
I believe that to choose between Koukl and Heiser is to rob myself of the depth of the text. Koukl gives us the why and the what: the grand purpose and the logical coherence. Heiser gives us the how and the who: the supernatural mechanics and the identity of the entities we are contending against.
When I combine the aerial view with the trail view, I achieve a higher resolution of the biblical reality. I see that sin is not merely a legal error, but a cosmic infection. I see that the cross was not just a transaction to satisfy a debt, but a masterstroke of cosmic warfare that disarmed the powers of darkness. The "tame" assumptions of modern rationalism are dismantled by the "wild" reality of a God who rules over a council of heavenly beings and a world teeming with spiritual activity.
4. Where I Differ: The Futurist Horizon
However, as much as I have benefited from Heiser’s recovery of the ancient worldview, I find myself parting ways with him when it comes to the specific mapping of the future. Heiser was famously reluctant to embrace detailed eschatological systems, often suggesting that "every system cheats" to make its timeline work.
While I appreciate his humility, my own interpretive horizon is more closely aligned with the futurist premillennialism advocated by scholars like Michael Svigel. While Heiser tended to view the "already-not-yet" through a more amillennial or historic-premillennial lens, I maintain a robust dispensational futurism.
Specifically, I believe that the Deuteronomy 32 worldview actually strengthens the case for a literal, future restoration of national Israel and a physical 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. If the nations were literally divided under the sons of God at Babel, then the final "Restoration of All Things" must include a literal reversal of that judgment: where the nations walk in the light of a restored Jerusalem, and the physical earth is governed by Christ and His glorified family. Heiser’s tendency to "spiritualize" or leave these details in a non-systematic fog feels like a missed opportunity to see the Deuteronomy 32 narrative reach its logical, physical conclusion in the Millennium.
"A consistently biblical worldview must account for the literal fulfillment of God’s promises to both the heavenly family and the earthly family."
5. Final Authority: Submitting to the Living Word
In the end, I must realize that frameworks- whether they come from the brilliance of Koukl or the scholarship of Heiser- are merely maps. They are tools meant to help us navigate the vast and glorious territory of the Word of God.
I should be grateful for the clarity Koukl brings to the story and for the "weirdness" Heiser restores to my imagination. But I must never allow the map to replace the landscape. Any framework, no matter how helpful, must ultimately submit to the text itself. The goal is not to become a disciple of Koukl or Heiser, but to become a better reader of Scripture.
Footnotes:
[1] For more on nachash, see this research note.
[2] Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (ESV): "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."
References:
- Koukl, Greg. The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between. Zondervan, 2017.
- Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Lexham Press, 2015.
Leave a Reply