Dr. Michael Heiser was an American Old Testament scholar and Christian author. He was certainly a groundbreaking author, speaker, and scholar pushing Christians to dig deeper into Scripture and to see things afresh. His book on “The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible” was a refreshing and eye opening for many, as Heiser spoke about the supernatural world that many scholars and pastors like to avoid. Heiser examined the ancient context of Scripture, explaining how its supernatural worldview can help us grow in our understanding of God. In one of the interviews, Dr. Heiser explained that the reason he decided to look deeply into the supernatural world was when one scholar colleague pointed Psalm 82 to him. This is when Heiser realised God was speaking about the supernatural world that scholar world very often prefer to avoid.
Let’s have a look at the Psalm 82 to understand:
“God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.
They do not know, nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
I said, “You are gods,
And all of you are children of the Most High.
But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth;
For You shall inherit all nations.” Psalm 82
Dr. Heiser’s viewed Psalm 82 as a scene in the heavenly court where Yahweh judges divine, non-human beings ( elohim) responsible for governing the nations. These beings were assigned to nations after the Tower of Babel but became corrupt, leading to their judgment and loss of immortality. This interpretation distinguishes these “gods” from human judges or kings, framing the Psalm as foundational to understanding the New Testament’s portrayal of Jesus as the Lord of the council who judges these fallen powers. Heiser argued that the elohim in Psalm 82:1 and 82:6 are supernatural, divine beings (members of the Divine Council), not human judges or kings. In the verse “nevertheless, like men you shall die,” Yahweh is stripping these corrupt divine beings of their immortality as punishment, proving they are not human. Heiser strongly refuted the “human judge” interpretation, believing it weakens the biblical narrative of spiritual warfare and the unique divinity of Jesus.
This was also my interpretation some time ago, however when I shifted my understanding on my aspects of the Bible, this Psalm also changed for me. And this is the power of perspective. The verses didn’t change, the words didn’t change, but my view has changed. Suddenly I saw the same Psalm I red so many times differently. And I would like to present you with that changed perception, that “the gods” Psalm 82 is referring to are actually people. This is not to put people on the pedestal equal to God of course, this is not a New Age teaching, this is looking at the Psalm and the scripture to understand more who we really are. To do this, we have to go back to the beginning and look at the book of Genesis and the story of creation.
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1: 26-28
Here we see that God created man in His own image and He “let them have dominion over all the earth”. We know of course, that after this, Adam and Eve sinned and they had to leave the garden, which resulted in the famous “Fall of men”. However, what I would like you to notice is the fact that Adam and Eve did not loose the dominion over the earth, but God cursed them or made their journey more difficult. However their dominion over the earth remained. The only thing that changed was how Adam and Eve perceived themselves. When Adam & Eve took the fruit, “then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked”. It’s not that they suddenly became naked, but they became aware of their nakedness, therefore they had a shift of perception. Nothing has magically changed for better or worse, they were still in the image of God, just their perspective shifted. Notice what God says after:
“Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man is become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3: 22-24
This is where a lot of people interpret this passage as God speaking to other spirits who were described as elohim or gods. In Christianity people are condemned to even think in categories as being gods. And history showed us that in the ancient times, people were actually thinking in those categories as being gods. That is why some gods were created out of people like in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. However, back then people were not ready to have that realization because they haven’t gone through the lessons yet to advance their consciousness. That information was too soon, which resulted in inflated egos, rebellion against God and not fully understanding their nature.
However in reality, God was speaking to another being like himself, created in His likeness. What is important to highlight is that by eating from the tree, Adam and Eve “is became like one of Us”, therefore Adam and Eve started their journey to become like God. This was an initiation process, however to start that process, they had to forget who they were to embark on the path of remembrance and rediscovering. “Is become” or is about to become – a journey, a process, a fall of consciousness. People had to embark on the path of “good and evil”, because to be like God, we have to share the same understanding of good and evil. This knowledge couldn’t be given without actual experience. We had to live through those painful experiences to understand what evil really is and what goodness can be. Through the contrast, we can see and appreciate different emotions. How could we know what is good without experiencing bad? How could we appreciate the sun without feeling the rain? Therefore humanity embarked on a journey of discovering their good and bad potential. This constant shift of consciousness could be seen in the times before the flood, where “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5
This was an example of deepening the evil side of humanity, mostly because of the corruption and the environment that was created due to corruption. Once people were emerged in those circumstances, it was difficult to be different or act differently. Yet Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was set apart from that environment and decided to not live in the same way and not get involved in the same activities, therefore he managed to maintain some sanity. That is why God decided to “cleanse” the earth out of this wicked environment and start afresh.
What about “like one of Us“, which suggests someone else other than God?
Another controversial statement in Christianity is to say that the Holy Spirit is a She. Of course, one of the doctrines of Christianity is the doctrine of Trinity, where God is the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit. Three beings in one. The male beings acting as one. While I don’t agree with this doctrine and explained it in my other post on Trinity, however my interpretation is based on the information from “the Gospel of the Beloved Disciple”. In that text, which I quoted many times due to the fact it hasn’t been edited or redacted, Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit as a Mother, who gave birth to him:
“And Yohanan (John) testified saying ‘In a vision I have seen the spirit descending like a dove out of the sky, and She remained upon him’” (GBC 4:2)
“And Yeshua therefore answered them ‘Do not murmur amongst yourselves. No one can enter the Kingdom unless they are born of the spirit. You speak well when you say that my mother gave me birth but, only from the truth I tell you, it was my true mother who gave me life” (GBC 18:3)
If we agree with the fact that Holy Spirit is the Mother and God is the Father, we have a Divine couple. Therefore it is most likely that God was speaking to the Mother Holy Spirit: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”. Moreover, when God created Eve and brought her to Adam, Adam then said:
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
Which would suggest that Adam had father and a mother that he was about to leave to join with his wife Eve. God was conversing with His wife, the Holy Spirit, our Mother.
The spirits or “elohim” that people interpret as angles are not the same and were not created in the likeness of God, therefore God couldn’t direct this to them. We are now treading on the territory of interpretations and translations, which can be tricky sometimes, especially if we don’t know the original version of that verse. However, the world Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) in Hebrew – meaning “Mighty ones”. Standard interpretation of this word is that they are referring to false gods, deities or angelic beings in the divine council.
However, the word Angel in Hebrew (מלאך – Malakh), means “messenger”. The role of the angels is to perform specific tasks or convey messages. Angels were never meant to have a dominion over the earth. This is of course what they wanted to have, that is why the conflict happened, however they were supposed to be helpers and messengers to humanity. Angels are also a class of divine messengers, occasionally called “bene elohim” (sons of God). However, while angels are spiritual beings with intelligence and will, they are considered a different order of creation to humans, often described as messengers or servants, whereas humans are created as direct image-bearers.
If we then look at the verse: “God stands in the congregation of the mighty”, we know that “mighty ones” means elohim and congregation in Hebrew is “eda” (עֵדָה) – which means assembly, flock, community. God on many occasions addressed people as ” the flock”. Moreover, if we look at the word “assembly” – in Greek it’s “ekklesia”, which means church. Therefore we can interpret this as “God stands in the midst of His flock” or “God stands in the church of His mighty ones”. However we look at this, it refers to people, not angels or angelic beings.
The next verse: “He judges among the gods” can be scary for people to unpack as people immediately shout heresy! As you can’t think about humans in the category of gods. However, as we said, the word elohim also means mighty ones, so we can also say: “He judges among the mighty ones”. Then this sounds more probable that it refers to people. Due to the popular perception that God was talking about other spiritual beings who were given dominion over people rather than humans, and therefore smaller gods, it was easier to explain the root of pagan gods. However, pagan gods like the likes of Semiramis or Tammuz were people with inflated egos, who evolved into a deity. One of the events that describes this is the story of the Tower of Babel. The Tower was a symbol of human pride, where people wanted to reach the Divine on their own terms. However, this is also an example that people viewed themselves as gods, but pride and ego overtook them. After the destruction of the Tower of Babel, God separated languages, divided nations and scattered people around. Here is where the confusion can come, depending on which Bible translation you are using. In the book of Deuteronomy 32 verse 8, according to the ESV translation, we see this verse as:
“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.“
However, according to the NKJV version or NIV, this verse looks like this:
“When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.”
Therefore it really depends which Bible translation you are using. I always want to check in the Hebrew Bible to make sure not much has been changed. The same verse in Hebre Bible is:
“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.”
The children of Israel would make much more sense, because the separation in the book of Genesis chapter 11 describes Shem’s Descendants and Terah’s Descendants, therefore people.
Going back to the Psalm 82, God is judging among the gods, or the flock or the people and criticizes their corruption and constant patriality with the wicked:
“How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.”
This is what God is expecting from us and this is also part of God’s Law: justice, righteousness, carrying for the poor, for fatherless, for widows, for needy, defending from the wicked people. This is also what Jesus was preaching about when he was on earth. Jesus also highligted that we are gods, which was one of the reasons he was condemned by the Jews. Jews were not ready for this message or they didn’t want for people to realise their potential. Power of the system and control of people was much more convenient than having people realising who they are and reaching their full spiritual independence and unity with God. Jesus in the Gospel of John said:
“The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? John 10: 33-36
This was of course the reason Jesus was crucified, however the main problem in Christianity is the fact that Trinity makes Jesus as God the Father, as Yahweh, worshiping Jesus and forgetting about the Father. Yahweh is the creator of this world and Yeshua was a fruit of the Divine couple. Jesus never asked to be worshiped and always directed people to the Father, who we should worship only. Jesus, by saying or reminding Jews “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”, not only wanted to bring them on the path of remembrance of who they are, but also to connect them back with God as God always intended it to be. Yet Pharisees were not ready to hear this, they chose physical system of temples and sacrifices than choosing to open their hearts and shift their perspective.
Was the Fall really a fall in that case?
Should we look at the Fall as really the fall or was this an inseparable element of consciousness expansion? If we know God is all knowing, therefore God knew that placing a tree would result in dissobiedience at some point. Therefore God placed the tree in purpose and this was the process of initiation into first falling or forgetting, to then remember who we are. However, there was another tree next to it – the tree of life.
“Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man is become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” Genesis 3:22
The tree of life is the tree we have to climb in our mind to rediscover that we are eternal beings that live forever and this body and this material world is just a tool on the path of becoming. Our body is just a garment and everything we do or say we are, are just expressions of our ego. This assentation to the state of “I AM” is very well explained in the teachings of Mary Magdalene, written in the Gospel of the Beloved Companion. More detailed version of the teachings you can find in my post. In those teachings, Mary explains the process of overcoming different powers and ascending to the higher state of consciousness. However, there is still a difficulty to climb those branches, because at the bottom of the tree are leaves that cover the light “so no light penetrates to illuminate the way”. Yeshua explains that this is the reason Adam and Eve “felt into darkness”, as they were not able to find the light and the way. This tells us that Adam and Eve felt into a state of depression after the shift of their perception. When they realized they were naked and they had to endure in all this work and walk in the path of the unknown outside of the guidance of God, this was all too scary and too difficult for them. However this was the only way to learn.
Each level of ascension symbolized different state of consciousness, from very physical and body conscious to more ego driven to spiritual and finally arriving at the state of consciousness of light and goodness that is the spirit. When Mary completed all levels and overcame all powers, she arrived at the state of peace and happiness.
And then, as if from a great distance, I heard the voice of my Master tell me: ‘Miryam, whom I have called the Migdalah, now you have seen the all, and have known the truth of yourself; the truth that is I AM. Now you have become the completion on completions’. And thus, the vision ended.” (GBC 42:13)
Jesus explains, that at the end of the journey we arrive at the truth that is I AM. The truth that we just are. Anything beyond I am is just your ego attaching a label that wants to be comfortable with. We live in the world of labels and attachments, however the journey is to strip back all those layers, attachments and labels and be comfortable with just being. Remember, you are a human being, not a human doing, therefore what you as a job do does not define you. What defines you is your character which you can only develop through the trials and tribulations that we have to go through here on earth. Each time you act with compassion, love, understanding and unity, you move forward on the path of remembrance, to remember of who you are.
By Dagmara Z.