A famous former New Age convert to Christianity, Doreen Virtue, recently released a series of videos criticizing the theology of the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser. While she does great work on her YouTube channel in discussing the dangers of New Age practices, her videos attacking the teachings of Dr. Heiser are very troubling and frankly strange.
My friend Nikola who hosts the Myths, Mysteries and Majesties YouTube channel invited me to participate in his response video. I came in late (about the 15 minute mark) to the discussion.
To be frank, I questioned the need for a response video since many others also have responded brilliantly on YouTube and elsewhere. However, Doreen Virtue’s page has 300,000 subscribers, and all the channels responding put together may not reach that. Plus, my daughter Zoe said my reticence was (in her words), “an attack of the enemy.”
Generally I found the criticisms shocking in that they appeared to not be very familiar with Dr. Heiser’s work or were misconstruing it in ways he certainly did not intend. Eventually, the discussions devolved to personal attacks, which caused me to grieve greatly.
She engages a Bible scholar, Dr. Wave Nunnally, from Evangel University (a private Christian university) in the criticisms, and I found his discussion baffling because it seems he had not honestly engaged with Dr. Heiser’s work at all.
As my friend Carey Griffel of the Genesis Marks the Spot podcast noted, “This is a screen shot from a newer critique video of Dr. Wave Nunnally reading from The Unseen Realm, and he literally misreads what Dr. Heiser writes.
“Dr. Heiser writes that the plural of majesty does exist for nouns (the passage hinges on a *verb,* not a noun, is his point), but Dr. Nunnally reads the opposite–saying that Dr. Heiser denies the plural of majesty–and continues down the plural of majesty refutation without engaging with the verb properly.”
That Dr. Nunnelly actually mis-reads what is on the screen, and then goes on to criticize what he said was written but was not, is very upsetting.
While his conversations regarding Dr. Heiser’s work was intellectually dishonest (because he mis-represented the work and the man), Dr. Nunnelly should not be judged for this sloppy work. Perhaps he was set up to be made to look foolish. No doubt, he does great work at Evangel and I’m aware he leads wonderful trips to Israel. I don’t know why his work is so sloppy here, but as Hannah Montana once said, “Everybody has bad days; everybody makes mistakes…”
Generally, I found the whole exercise very grieving to my heart. But I hope you enjoy the response video, which is the first of a series.
Great rebuttal video, Doug, and thanks for introducing me to your friend’s podcast. As you all commented, it’s terribly frustrating to see people totally misstate, misquote & mischaracterize what Dr. Heiser said, and then argue against their own manufactured claims. I believe that’s properly referred to as a strawman argument. This does nothing beneficial for the Body of Christ. Glad you & others are refuting it.