The Deception of the Nephilim

About 18 months ago, our pastors took us through a study of the spirit realm.

As you are aware, there has been tremendous interest in alien encounters, UFO and other such things in recent years. In particular, there is a great resurgence of interest in the Nephilim.

The New Agers have ALWAYS been interested in these beings, and much of their "theology" concerns the return to earth of what they regard as the descendants of the Nephilim, who, according to them, were aliens who visited the earth a while back, and gave Mankind lots of good and useful information. They expect them to come back in order to help Mankind move into the golden "Age of Enlightenment" that is, supposedly, just around the corner.

Christians have, down the ages, latched on to the concept of the Nephilim being the descendants of the union between fallen angels and the woman of mankind. They base this on the fact that these beings were of great renown, assumed to of great size - giants, and on the term "sons of God", which they believe refers to angels.

However, NONE of this is actually true, according to the Biblical record. I was asking the Holy Spirit why there is such a fascination with Nephilim, UFO's etc, especially at this time, and why Christians are so curious and interested in them, and why there is such a common agreement that the Nephilim were the offspring of "fallen" angels and women.

His reply surprised me at first, but then on thinking about it, I saw the logic. (I'll get to this later - you first need to understand what the Bible says about this subject)

You first have to go back to the Book of Genesis, where it first introduces what we call now the "Nephilim". You find that these beings are around before Noah's Flood, and yet appear to have subsequent offspring AFTER the Flood (Goliath and his family for one, although, according to the Bible, these were the last in the descendants of the Nephilim).

The word "Nephilim" is transliterated (NOT translated) from a Hebrew word nef-eel which has the singular tense, not plural, as inferred, incorrectly, by the English transliterated word. This has the meanings: distinguished (CLV), or a feller, i.e. a bully or tyrant:--giant, according to Strongs #5303. Strong links this to primitive root word naphal, deducing that the word nef-eel is derived from this root word. However, it is not clear that the word nef-eel is actually derived from this root word, as the meanings are too removed and not consistent - something Hebrew is renowned for.

The word naphal according to Strongs has the meaning to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative):--be accepted, cast (down, self, (lots), out), cease, die, divide (by lot), (let) fail, (cause to, let, make, ready to) fall (away, down, -en, -ing), fell(-ing), fugitive, have (inheritance), inferior, be judged (by mistake for H6419), lay (along), (cause to) lie down, light (down), be (X hast) lost, lying, overthrow, overwhelm, perish, present(-ed, -ing), (make to) rot, slay, smite out, X surely, throw down. -- Strongs #5307

The Concordant Literal Version (CLV), which is regarded as being the most closely, literal, translation from the original text of the OT, renders verse 6 as:

Now the distinguished come to be in the earth in those days, and, moreover, afterward, coming are those who are sons of the elohim to the daughters of the human, and they bear for them. They are the masters, who are from the eon, mortals with the name. (emphasis added)

It is clearly states that these "distinguished' ones were mortal NOT angelic on origin. For some reason, the word nef-eel has been translated to mean the "fallen ones", which is the opposite of the meaning of the original Hebrew. I believe there is a reason for this, which I believe Holy Spirit explained to me - as I will recount later in this narrative.

The Flood killed all but Noah's family (8 persons). However, the Bible says that ONLY Noah was righteous in God's sight - this means that his wife (although not entirely likely, since Noah was a righteous man and would not have married anyone from the unrighteous line), his 3 sons and their wives were probably not. The reason that this is a very reasonable surmise, is that Genesis 6 clearly states that is was because the "sons of God" (Seth's righteous line) were marrying the "sons of men" (Cain's unrighteous line) that God determine to destroy mankind and start over.

It can therefore be surmised that one (or more) of the wives of the sons of Noah were descended from the Nephilim (Cain's lineage), thus allowing that blood line to continue after the Flood. The Bible does not give the genealogy of the wives, so we cannot know for sure. But it would explain how the giants were propagated up to David's time.

The critical phrase is the term "sons of God". The assumption that these were angels is based, predominately on the accounts at the beginning of the Book of Job - which, as far as I can determine is actually the oldest book in the Bible.

(More correctly, the "book" was transmitted down through history as oral tradition - which was the normal way history and knowledge was transmitted in those days, and which was the standard way of maintaining knowledge between generations, until the written form of communication became more widely available. On this basis, you can regard the accounts in Job as actual fact, which God has ensured are still available to us, some 4000 years later).

Now, Christian tradition has assumed that the reference to the "sons of God" in Job 1:6 refers to angels, solely on the fact that:
1) God was there, and, more importantly (significantly?), or so it would seem
2) Satan was there.

This is solely deduced from the fact that all concerned were in God's presence, but from other accounts in the OT (notably that of Ezekiel Ch1), God's Throne can come down to the earth at any time. Therefore, you cannot categorically say that the events of Job 1 took place in Heaven, but far more reasonably you can say God came down in His Throne (probably to Mt. Moriah where Jerusalem is now), and the "sons of God", the righteous men and women, gathered before His Throne to worship and have fellowship with Him (because if you think about it, the unrighteous wouldn't want to be anywhere near God if they could help it).

Satan on the other hand, since his attempt to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden, has been limited by God to the Earth (Genesis 3:14). In fact, when Lucifer and the 1/3 of the angels that sided with him were thrown out of Heaven (see the account in Revelation 12:7-9, which must have happened BEFORE Adam and Eve were created, since the passage in Rev 12 deals with what happened in the spirit realm, not on earth) and Jesus' comment that He had seen Satan fall (past tense - Luke 10:18) - also recorded in more detail in Ezekiel 28:11-19), Satan, as he is now called, has been permanently banished from Heaven, and has no more access to it. In fact, he is securely imprisoned within the earth's atmosphere (remember Jesus called him the "prince of the air", and the "prince of this world"), and cannot even venture out into the 2nd Heaven - the rest of the universe. (The 3rd Heaven is where God resides - where His Throne Room is).

Now according to Peter and Jude, the 1/3 of the angels that left their first abode (heaven) when they were thrown out of Heaven, along with their leader Lucifer/Satan, by God and the righteous angels, under the command of the angel Michael, have been reserved in darkness and in chains for judgment, so that they have no access to the earth, let alone heaven, and it is therefore impossible that they could be the "sons of God" in Genesis 4, especially since they had rebelled against God, and certainly no longer were righteous in God's eyes. Which means (and this upsets some) demons, such as the ones Jesus dealt with, are NOT fallen angels, but some other kind of spirit beings, that also live here on or in the earth. They must also be subject to Satan, in other words, he has the right to be their lord and master for some reason, but they are not angels. Furthermore, according to Jesus, these demonic spirits are always seeking a physical body, so it would seem that at some point in the past they had physical bodies of some sort which they lost. However, there is no definite account in Scripture as to where these beings originated from, or what form they took, other than being like us to a degree (they were not like us humans, since only we are created "in the image of God", even if they may have had a superficial resemblance to us), and who were spirits with a physical body, which they somehow lost. - one can surmise based on a number of passages in the Bible what may have happened - but this is another topic, which I cover briefly at the end of this article).

However, if you look in Job 38:7, God specifically refers to "sons of God" as those beings that existed BEFORE man, who sang and shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. This was before He had created Mankind to be His children, made in His own image. There were no other beings that God could call "sons of God" at that time, and nothing had ever been created before "in His image". This is the ONLY reference in Scripture that definitely calls angels the "sons of God"

I believe that this is why God created Mankind, to demonstrate to the angels (good and evil) and all other principalities and powers in the heavenlies and on/in the earth (see Ephesians 3:8-10), including these demons, that His way of righteousness was the only way, and that through this new creature Man, He would fashion a family (His sons and daughters) that would, by choice, chose to live for Him and with Him, in righteousness, throughout all eternity. We, the Church, will stand as a testimony to the power and grace of God for all eternity, that His righteousness will always overcome any sin and rebellion, however serious. This will be a perpetual warning for the rest of eternity, to all of His creation, as to the folly of rebellion and sin against Him.

In Genesis 1:27 we see that God created Mankind (man and woman) in His image, with the freedom to make choices between good and evil - our gift of "free will" - the angels were NOT created in His image, they were created by God to serve Him. Mankind was created as a spirit being, given a soul (mind, will intellect and emotions) with free will, and a physical body. There are no other beings like that in the universe.

One of the key differences between Mankind and angels is that Mankind have physical bodies, and were designed to have sexual relations in order to procreate. God create the ordinance of marriage solely for Mankind, specifically so that a man and woman would become one flesh, and so that they had a structure in which they could fulfill God's commands (in Genesis 1:26-28, 2:24 ) to go forth and multiply and take dominion over the earth.

Angels do not procreate. They have no ability to do so, in crude terms they have no sexual equipment. They cannot get married, as one of the primary reasons for marriage is the sex act (see Hebrews 13:4 - the term "marriage bed" translated from the Greek is koite from which we get the English word coitus, which has roughly the same meaning). Jesus makes this VERY clear in Matthew 22:30, when he said that in Heaven, there is no such thing as marriage - which was instituted for the first time for Mankind (for the reason given above) - it is deeply connected with who God is - His character and Being. It is only in the conjoining of a man and a woman in marriage, as the founders of a family (and the sex act is only the physical part of being "one flesh") do we see the full outworking of what it means to be "made in the image of God". That is why the enemy is so determined to destroy marriage and the family.

So, on the first count, it is impossible for angels to cohabit sexually with women, and have children.

There is a second, very important fact that must also be taken into account. When God created animal life on earth, He created them so that like would beget like - Genesis 1:25 - what botanists and zoologists call the "differentiation of species" (which Biblically speaking is called the "Law of Reproduction"), which is how they can categorize them (a the resultant tree like structure is called taxonomy), and determine the relationships between the various families of fauna and flora.

This is the biggest single stumbling block to evolutionists, because for their theory to work, there must be "transition species" where one distinct type of animal has successfully mated with another, different kind, to produce a new specie - no one has ever found such a specie, popularized by the term "missing link". For example, you cannot, in the natural, mate a dog with cat. You can mate different types of cats, or different types of dog and get offspring. You can even mate a horse with a donkey and get offspring (a mule). In the latter case, it seems that although there are significant genetic similarities between horses and donkeys, they are not of the same family tree, and the offspring are always sterile.

This is even more clear to us now, since the discovery of DNA, where we see that we can trace descendants of mankind over thousands of years through just a small sample of DNA (see the Genographic project being run by IBM and National Geographic here).

Thirdly, based on the Biblical record, the term "sons of God" is used in the NT to referee to those man and women who believe in and have faith in God, never angels. In fact God created mankind to be above the angels - a higher spirit life form, if you will. We replaced the angels as the "sons (and daughters) of God" the moment Adam and Eve were created.

Since God never changes, and the Bible always explains itself, the use of the term "sons of God" must therefore mean the same thing in the OT. If you take the position, that some scholars do, that the "sons of God" are in fact the descendants of Seth (Genesis 4:25 - 5:32), then the reference to the "sons of God" in the Genesis account in the time just before Noah's Flood must also mean godly, righteous men (and women).

It also makes sense that this is the case if you also consider Paul's statement that we, as believers, should not be unequally yoked to unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:13). This is obviously a key requirement of God for those who would follow after Him.

The "sons of God" being righteous men, would have incurred God's displeasure and anger by mating with the unbelieving "daughters of men", who by definition were descended from Cain's line (see Genesis 4:17-24) (who by the way, NEVER repented of his sin).

It is this inter marriage between the two lines of Seth and Cain that caused God to decide to limit mankind's allotted length of days to a maximum of 120 years (see Genesis 6:3).

From these (illegal) unions were born the mighty men of renown - the Nephilim (which is the correct meaning of the original Hebrew). (See Genesis 6:4) However, God regarded the wickedness that resulted from these things of sufficient gravity that He decided to destroy all mankind except for Noah's family, in order to ensure that the blood line of Jesus (from Adam through Seth up to Noah at this point) was saved, not diluted anymore, and to eliminate as far as possible the destruction by the enemy of that line before Jesus could be born.

So, having, hopefully, shown that the "sons of God" referred to in Genesis 6 were NOT angels, we come to the question I asked Holy Spirit about.

"Why is there such fascination amongst Christians, and frequent dogmatic statements that the Nephilim were the descendents of the sexual relationships between women and angels, that demons are the fallen angels, and that UFO's and alien encounters are the result of or a reappearance of the Nephilim?"

The answer is very simple. Remember what Adam said when God brought to his attention that he and Eve had sinned by eating of the Tree of Good and Evil" his immediate response was "The woman whom You gave me to be with me - she gave me the fruit, which I ate". (Genesis 3:12)

In other words, Adam's response to having been found out was first to blame God, for having given him Eve, and then to blame the woman.

However, when you read the Creation account in Genesis 2, you see that God gave Adam the law concerning the tree of good and evil (v17) BEFORE He created Eve out of Adam. When Eve was created by God and brought to Adam, He established the first marriage, making Adam the head of this first new household of Mankind. Now according to what the NT says about the marriage relationship, a man is responsible for the welfare and maintenance of his family, both spiritual and physical.

Adam obviously did not properly explain to Eve concerning the rule that they were not to eat of the tree of good and evil. So, when Satan turns up, Eve has no real answer to his question, "Has God really said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?" It's almost as if she didn't know the answer. That is why God blamed Adam and not Eve. That is why God threw Adam out of the Garden of Eden, and not Eve. That is why God, in Genesis 3:15, prophesied that it would the Seed of a woman that would crush the Serpent (Satan) (women do not have seed - only men do, but since Eve was not the one guilty of the sin, just Adam, the redemption of the world would come through a woman, Adam and his male descendents having forfeited that opportunity).

Eve, in spite of the warning God gave her (in Genesis 3:16) that if she followed Adam, she should would be snared by her desire to be with her husband, resulting in grief and painful child birth, and would come under her husband's authority, obviously followed him out of the Garden, because we read in Genesis 4:1 that Eve has become pregnant by Adam and is expecting a child.

Now we come to the explanation of why the tradition of the "Nephilim" was started. I believe this explanation is direct from Holy Spirit, and I believe it is totally consistent with the whole counsel of Scripture. It is also very simple and straightforward.

The tradition that arose, from that time and ever since, that started calling the Nephilim the offspring of angels, came about because of the same basic reason that Adam tried to pass the blame onto Eve for his sin. Mankind, after the Flood, wanted to find some explanation (read excuse) as to why God had elected to destroy almost all of His creation. Instead of accepting that it was their sin (the sin of the righteous line sleeping with and having children with the unrighteous line), they came up with the idea that they could blame "fallen angels" for the situation, just like their father Adam did. If you think about it, Satan is the father of lies, and he would have no compunction about putting the blame on his fellow angels, if it meant he could maintain some form of deception over mankind that helped keep them from repenting and finding their way back to God. It seems that Adam's sin of trying to pass the buck, and his refusal to accept responsibility for his sin by lying, is deeply embedded in the human psyche, because this is still a major problem today. I understand now why Jesus called the Pharisees "sons of the devil" - they really were.

So, in conclusion, all this talk of alien invasions, Nephilim, fallen angels interfering in the affairs of men (with the exception of Satan, but one of him is quite enough!) is actually all just a deception of Satan. I do not believe there is any factual (biblical) basis for such things. Such things are constructed by the enemy to keep people believing the lie that was propagated by the survivors of the Food, to distract and confuse mankind, in order to prevent them from seeking out the one true God of Heaven. It also reinforces the lie behind the tradition of the Nephilim - which as you have already witnessed, has great credence amongst even spirit filled believers today.

However, I would add that there is an almost certainty that the events in Genesis 6 were actually orchestrated by Satan and his demons, NOT fallen angelic beings.

I do not believe demons are fallen angels, but some other form of evil spirit beings - possibly spirits of a pre-Adamic race that were Lucifer's subjects on planet Earth before the events described in Genesis 1:2 onwards. This is alluded to in Exekiel 28:11-19, but even more explicitly in Isaiah 14:12-21. In verses 16-17 in the passage refers to the fact that Lucifer (i.e. BEFORE his fall from Heaven made him into Satan) made the world as a wilderness, destroying its cities. Now either this has yet to happen (which some say is recorded in Revelation 12:7-8, and say that this will happen during the Tribulation period at the end of days, although how they can square that interpretation with Jesus' statement that He had seen Satan fall like lightning (past tense) - a direct reference to the passage in Isaiah 14, I cannot fathom), or, by virtue of the fact that Lucifer is now Satan, and had already fallen from heaven BEFORE the creation of Adam and Eve, then this passage MUST refer to something that took place BEFORE Genesis 1:2 and onwards.

It would also explain why the earth was without form and void, covered with water in Genesis 1:2. When Satan fell, he fell like lightning. A huge lightning strike unleashes tremendous power - and, in the case of Lucifer's fall, since he was one of the most powerful angelic beings of light ever created, the energy released by his fall would have been enough to utterly destroy the earth's surface, rendering it "without form and void" according to Genesis 1:2. If this is the case, then the passages in 2 Peter 3:5-7 are in fact referring to the destruction of the world that was occasioned by Lucifer's fall, NOT the flood of Noah (all the other times the Bible refers to a Flood - except Genesis 1:2 - there is a reference to Noah). In fact, the flood described by Peter states that it destroyed the whole world that then existed, and that the present heavens and the earth, were created by the Word of God and which are "now [being] preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." - which is exactly what is described in Genesis 1.

Indeed Peter says that it is mankind's wilful forgetfulness that makes them not accept this fact!. I think Peter is actually referring to not just the destruction of the physical world, but also the then existing "world system", the political, economic, social and religious organizations, structures and beliefs). Jesus said that Satan was the "god of this world" - which, if Isaiah's account and Exekiel's account are to be accepted, he was ruler - god - of the earth at some distant time past, ruling over kings and countries, who were also physically destroyed when Lucifer fell from heaven. These beings were not the same as humankind, but seem to have been spirit beings with physical bodies, in the same sense that we humans are. It is their spirits that now manifest as demons, "seeking a body", according to Jesus.

If you consider Noah's flood on the other hand, a complete destruction of the earth did not happen at that time - first because Noah and his family was saved, second, within days of the flood waters receding, there were trees growing leaves - as confirmed when the dove returned with an "freshly plucked olive leaf" (Genesis 8:11), and thirdly, the year after Noah and his family had left the ark, they were planting crops again (Genesis 9:20). In actual fact, a vine takes about 3 - 5 years to grow to a point where it gives fruit, so this passage confirms that Noah was farming the land almost immediately the land was dry enough to do so. So, by most normal assessments, the earth was not totally destroyed, merely flooded long enough for evil mankind and the majority of the animals and birds and insects to be wipe-out - but the animal life forms in the Ark survived, as did the aquatic life. The earth (and its plant life) quickly recovered and was able to sustain both human and animal life within a matter of months, quickly enough that all the animals in the ark had food to survive on after they left the Ark, so that they could restart the natural birth-life-death cycle to repopulate the earth. You also need to remember that the earth's atmosphere COMPLETELY changed at this point - previous to the Flood, there was a "firmament" of water above and surrounding the earth, between the atmosphere and outer space (what the Bible calls the 2nd Heaven) - this fell to earth during the Flood, and now the earth has an atmosphere open to the heavens, that we are familiar with.

If this is the case, that the "Nephilim" were demon possessed humans, then we are likely to see a great increase in such things in these last days - not aliens, but ungodly, unrighteous evil men, empowered (possessed) by demons under Satan's control, who will come to power to prepare the way for the Antichrist and his rule and reign of terror and destruction (from out of the New Agers, Humanists and the like).

This is why I am convinced that all this talk of aliens, UFO's alien abductions, "lights in the sky" are merely a means to an end - the deception of large numbers of mankind, to ready them for the event of the Rapture (I expect that there will be an almost universal belief that the Christians have been abducted from the earth by the Nephilim - aliens). What is disturbing is the fascination by so many Christians in these matters today, as a means of explaining the UFO phenomenon - instead of searching what the Bible has to say.

Anyway, that's my take on all this stuff.

John