What Are Demons & Evil Spirits? New Heiser Faithlife Original Answers

At the start of his academic career, Dr. Michael Heiser wasn’t interested in the supernatural world. It was only after two master’s degrees and PhD study that one verse startled him awake and led him down a path into the Bible few take—finding the truth about demons, angels, and the unseen realm.

In a recent interview with Scott Lindsey on Faithlife Live, Heiser revealed:

I was sort of provoked to looking at Psalm 82 in Hebrew. And it’s a dramatic thing because you have God, Elohim, taking his stand, or standing in the midst of the elohim. You have elohim twice in the same verse—one is singular, one is plural, grammatically. And that sounded like a pantheon to me, like Greek mythology.

That mystery drove him into the topic. He says, “I had to solve what was going on here.”

Heiser plunged into study—and shared what he found.

• The Unseen Realm (book or documentary) is the entry point to learning about the supernatural world of the Bible and understanding the answer to “What are demons?”
• Angels takes readers further into grasping the reality of the heavenly host.
• Now Demons explores demons and the powers of darkness; they’re not the same.

Heiser says, “What we think we know about demonology is largely filtered to us through Church tradition, and there are things about it that are muted or obscured altogether.” For instance, many Christians think they know why demons are called “unclean spirits”—but the answer isn’t what most expect.

He continues, “We have familiar concepts we know from our Bible, but we don’t see how those concepts are attached to these cosmic narratives.”

Watch the interview below for a glimpse of the deep insights you’ll find in Heiser’s new Demons book and Faithlife Original documentary, now available.

Pick up Demons: What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness book or documentary today!