Heiser, Michael. The World Turned Upside Down: The Gospel in Stranger Things. Lexham Press.
You have to be careful using a pop culture piece to illustrate the gospel. Too often it sounds like the Boomer youth pastors who try to relate Marvel to Jesus. I’ll be honest, I read this book primarily to see what Heiser’s take on Stranger Things would be. From that angle, it’s fun. The book isn’t deep or profound, and if you have read anything from Heiser then you know what to expect.
He does deal with some angles that evangelicals and conservatives might not want to approach, mind control and spiritual warfare. Regarding mind control, I just want to link the info Heiser gives. Of course, if you have been aware of MK-ULTRA for some time, none of this is new.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/searc…
I always thought “the upside down” was a brilliant description of Sheol. Sheol/Hades isn’t a burning furnace, pace popular imagination. It is the realm of Death. It is where the Rephaim live.
Speaking of which, the section on spiritual warfare was quite good. He recaps his take on the Nephilim. Although Esau’s relatives killed off the Nephilim in Moab (Dt. 2:8-22), they were still in Bashan and Canaan (Dt 2:23-3:11; Num. 13:22, 28ff; Deut. 9:1-2; Josh. 11:21-22). God specifically targeted them in the invasion.
While the Bible doesn’t specifically say that demons are the spirits of the dead nephilim, we do have some clues. In the NT a demon is called an unclean spirit. Things that are unclean are improperly mixed. These spirits resulted from the improper mixing between man and heavenly beings
Scholastic Tory 