What Does God Want?

by Michael S. Heiser

Publisher:

Blind Spot Press

, 2018

Overview

What does God want? Sounds like a simple question, but if you give it a bit of thought, it’s really not. For starters, you have to know who’s asking the question. People will ask it for a lot of different reasons. It’s pretty obvious that the question is a religious one. Questions about God naturally get filed in that folder. If you’ve spent a lot of your life in church, you might think you already know the answer. You might know parts of it, but I can guarantee you’ll see a lot that’s new here. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill “Christianity 101” book. Unfortunately, the thing that most often gets in the way of the wonder of the story is religion, and that isn’t what this book offers. And if you’ve never been in a church or heard much about the Bible, don’t worry. You’ve got nothing to unlearn or re-learn. It’s all fresh. That makes you an ideal reader. So what does God want? Best-selling author, Dr. Michael S. Heiser, shows readers that the answer is pretty simple. God wants YOU. That might surprise you. You may doubt it. That’s okay. But it’s the right answer. But it isn’t enough of an answer. You can’t get a sense of how amazing and profound the answer is by just that one sentence. There’s actually a long, remarkable story behind the answer—one that isn’t well known by most people interested in the question.

Key Features

• Introduces the basic themes of the Bible
• Examines the family-centered language of Scripture
• Explores the essential truths God wants you to know

Contents

• Preface—Please Don’t Skip This
• Introduction 1

Part I: The Story

• God Wanted a Family
• God Still Wanted a Family
• God Was Betrayed by His Family
• God Joined His Human Family
• God Pursues His Family
• God is With His Family Forever

Part II: The Gospel

• What’s The Gospel?

Part III: Following Jesus

• What’s Discipleship?
• What Does a Disciple Do?

Top Highlights

“God wants ‘the obedience of faith.’ You obey the gospel by believing it.” (Page 58)

“Every other religion either denies sin is a problem or says the solution is human performance—repeating rituals, saying prayers, observing religious days, or otherwise being good.” (Page 59)

“Imaging God means being God’s representation on earth.” (Page 11)

“God wanted us to exist in order to enjoy us (and to have us enjoy him in return).” (Page 9)

“Guilt blinds us to the love of God shown in the gospel.” (Page 61)

Product Details

• Title: What Does God Want?
• Author: Michael S. Heiser
• Publisher: Blind Spot Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 116
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Theology

About Michael S. Heiser

Dr. Michael S. Heiser was a former Scholar-in-Residence for Faithlife Corporation, the makers of Logos Bible Software. He then served as the Executive Director of the Awakening School of Theology and Ministry. His varied academic background enabled him to operate in the realm of critical scholarship and the wider Christian community. His experience in teaching at the undergraduate level and writing for the layperson both directly contributed to Logos’ goal of adapting scholarly tools for nonspecialists.

Dr. Heiser earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages and holds an MA in ancient history and Hebrew studies. He was the coeditor of Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology and Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations, and he was able to do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Ugaritic cuneiform. He specialized in Israelite religion (especially Israel’s divine council), contextualizing biblical theology with Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion, Jewish binitarianism, biblical languages, ancient Semitic languages, textual criticism, comparative philology, and Second Temple period Jewish literature. In 2007 he was named the Pacific Northwest Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature.