The Nephilim have always been a
controversial piece to our Biblical history. Who were they and what
were they? In the Bible the Nephilim make their grand and mysterious
entrance in Genesis 6.
Genesis
6:2-4, we see another theological mystery, the sons
of God.
2 that
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and
they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
3 Then
the Lord said, “ My Spirit shall not strive with man forever,
because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred
and twenty years.”
4 The
Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when
the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore
children
to them. Those were the mighty men who were
of old, men of renown.
Genesis
6:2-4
That's
it for their grand entrance in the Bible. What I would like to
address is the Nephilim and their role in
demonology. There are several different schools of theological
thought on what demons are. From my Benny Hinn library on
deliverance, I have the sermons where Benny Hinn believes demons are
a pre-Adamic race. When God wiped out the pre-Adamic race the spirits
became demons. My personal belief, and from examining scripture
closely, is that demons are fallen angels, and I will give my
thoughts and experiences shortly. Then, there is another theology
that has popped up which links the Nephilim to being demons. So we
have several categories of possible roots of evil spirits, pre-Adamic
spirits, fallen angels, and Nephilim hybrid spirits. All three cases surface in the different schools of deliverance and exorcism ministry.
Keep
in mind the Bible is full of controversy on angels and demons. We
have so many different schools of thought on what angels and demons
are and aren't. I recently heard one pastor preach he didn't believer
Lucifer was an angel and made the distinction between angel and
cherub. We have the controversy in the scriptures, the Sadducees
didn't believe in angels, demons or resurrection.
8 For
the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor
spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.Acts 23:8
Let's focus on the subject of the
Nephilim and how they entered into the fray of controversy in
demonology. The clues to this mystery are actually found in the New
Testament. The Nephilim may be the source of reference in the books
of Jude and 2 Peter.
Since I
am from the school of thought that demons are fallen angels I will
refer to them as such. In Jude and 2 Peter I believe we are clearly
dealing with angels that rebelled against God. There is no chance of
redemption for the angels that disobeyed God to his face and in the
presence of His glory. Their fate was sealed the moment they embraced
their sin.
4 For
if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell
and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
2
Peter 2:4
There is a
complimentary scripture in Jude.
6 And
angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper
abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment
of the great day,
Jude
6
However, I do believe in the book of 2 Peter and Jude, that the angels held in chains are the ones responsible for the Nephilim. It's my personal belief, and again, it's one of the many conversations I'll have with Jesus when I go on to my glory. At this point in time it's inconclusive.
The Book of Enoch Mystery
There is an
interesting curiosity here in angelology, demonology and theology.
Both Peter and Jude are referencing a book not included in the Bible,
called the book of Enoch. Many Hebrew texts were lost in first
century due to wars between the Jews and the Romans. The book
literally disappeared off the face of the earth. In 1773, a British
traveler and scholar, James Bruce, found copies of the text in a
community of Jews and Christians in Northern Ethiopia. They were
written in Coptic. Later, an ancient Greek version surfaced, and then
ancient Hebrew fragments were discovered with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Both Peter and Jude were citing text from the book of Enoch. Keep in
mind what we are about to examine raises more questions than answers
but needs to be addressed in this discussion.
Jude is
specifically citing the book of Enoch. How do we know this? A clue
appears in Jude 14,15.
14 It
was
also about these men that
Enoch, in
the seventh generation
from Adam, prophesied, saying, “ Behold, the Lord came with many
thousands of His holy ones,
15
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all
their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of
all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Jude
14-15
Jude
refers to Enoch as prophet, who prophesied the Second Coming of
Christ. Enoch is referenced in the book of Genesis in verses
5:18-24.
He is mentioned in the listing of the generations of Adam. Six short
verses in the family tree and then this verse.
24
Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis
5:24
There is no
mention of Enoch the prophet with a messianic prophecy. Where did
Peter and Jude get their information from? A matching text can be
found in the book of Enoch. Again, a book not included in the Bible
yet historically exists.
1Behold,
he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon
them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for
everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed
against him.
Enoch
1:9
What we have is a
mystery or a theological puzzle that can't be resolved with the
information we have on hand. As you can see, Jude, in Jude 14-15, is
quoting Enoch 1:9.
Why
is this important? If Jude and Peter are referencing the book of
Enoch, which was in the synagogue in their time, we see another
mystery surrounding the chained angels held in darkness. In Genesis
6:2-4, we see another theological mystery, the sons
of God.
2 that
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and
they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
3 Then
the Lord said, “ My Spirit shall not strive with man forever,
because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred
and twenty years.”
4 The
Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when
the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore
children
to them. Those were the mighty men who were
of old, men of renown.
Genesis
6:2-4
Again, there is a
parallel text in the book of Enoch, found in Enoch 6:2-4.
1
And it came to pass, after the children of men had increased in those
days. Beautiful and comely daughters were born to them.
2
And the angels, the sons of the heavens, saw and lusted after them,
and said to one another: “Behold, we will choose for ourselves
wives from among the children of men, and we will beget for ourselves
children.”
Enoch
6:1-2
If the pieces of
this puzzle match then we have the defining sin that created the
Nephilim. Rebelling angels took for themselves earthly wives and
polluted God's creation with their wicked family lines.
In Genesis 6,
Moses tells us that Noah was a just man and perfect in his
generations.
8 But
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
9 These
are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man,
blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.Genesis 6:8-9
Was Noah spared
because he was a just man and his family line was pure from the
demonic DNA? We have a case for the Nephilim and the flood being a
result of angels leaving heaven to seek and conceive with human
wives. The angels held in chains in Peter and Jude could possibly be
detained to keep them out of God's creation. Most demons act as
tempters, in this case. these demons offense was that they defiled
creation itself. And for that reason they were exiled in chains into
the darkness of the pit. The book of Enoch raises more questions then
answers. Is it a missing book that should have been included in the
Bible? Who knows? Again, it is as much a mystery in it's content as
is the book of Tobit in the Roman Catholic Apocrypha. It is my
personal belief that the Nephilim were the product of rebelling
angels conceiving with earthly women. However, I don't believe the
book of Enoch is the definitive piece to prove my theory. Theologians
also believe the sons of God refer to the descendants of Seth and not
referring to rebelling angels.
Nephilim and Evil Spirits
Now let's discuss
where the belief that the Nephilim are the source of evil spirits on
the earth. Again, it is found in the book of Enoch, chapter 15.
8
And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh,
shall be called evil spirits upon
9
the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits
have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men
and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin;
10
they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be
called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their
dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon
the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.]
11
And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do
battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they
take no food, but nevertheless
12
hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise
up against the children of men and against the women, because they
have proceeded from them.
Enoch
15:8-12
This
is the key point the Nephilim spirit school of thought makes it's
argument. I am not a Biblical scholar, it is times like this that I
wish I had a PhD in theology. The fact of the matter is that these
pieces simply don't fit. It is my belief that hybrid spirits roaming
the earth is theologically impossible. This is the same reason I
don't believe in ghosts nor have I encountered one in the nearly 500
cases of demonic activity M16 Ministries has been involved with. Our
ministry team has worked in numerous cases involving the incubus and
succubus demons. We have seen people get raped during deliverance
prayer session by an unseen spirit. We have seen objects manifest
from the stomach through witchcraft. Putting two and two together it
doesn't take much more consideration that through sexual demons and
witchcraft, DNA can be moved from a male and placed in a female. And
there is a new life. Raise the child evil with no morality, and it's
possible you have a Nephilim. Wickedness can taint DNA. The DNA can
be manipulated but not created. We can manipulate DNA now and build
better and illegal athletes, hence drug and hormone testing. An evil hybrid human is not beyond the
scope of reasoning. The hybrid's will (part of the soul) can be raised and trained to be
evil. However, the spirit comes from God. This is the part of logic
which I find unsettling in the Nephilim spirits as being demons. God
makes it clear how the process of death works. If these are evil
created spirits that are part man, then they go to sheoul when they
die. They don't linger on, just like spiritists believe our souls can
linger on here on earth.
The
book of Enoch sure explains a lot if it were true and accurate. But
we don't know. I consider the book of Enoch to be an interesting
piece of spiritual literature and history. But nothing more. It's one
of those things I am going to have to have a conversation with Jesus
about in Heaven. But I think I received the word of wisdom on this
book loud and clear.
My Encounter with an Angel of Judgement
One of my most eye opening experiences
and encounters with a demon happened on the Friday Night Strike, on
the weekend of Father's day, in 2008. I remember this weekend
specifically because my wife and I were attending a conference that
weekend hosted by Georgian and Winnie Banov, Hiedi Baker, and Bill
Johnson, in San Jose. So I am able to lock in the time frame for this
experience I am going to present as my evidence for fallen angels being demons.
I had a team ministering on the streets
of San Francisco. On the team there were three young women from a
local church from the San Joaquin valley, and my son. We were praying
for homeless people on the streets when this obnoxious man
approached us. I was going through a weird spiritual season during
this time of my life where the Holy Spirit was having evil spirits
walk up to me and identify themselves. This loud mouth man approaches
us and as he comes closer to us I notice I can only see the whites of
his eyes. No pupils. He is walking down the street blabbering loudly
with his eyes rolled in the back of his head. He approached our team
and walked straight over to me. We were pretty much face to face when
this spirit identified itself as an angel of judgement. I won't give
the exact name, but it clearly identified itself as an angel. From
the encounter I believe it was an angel of judgement waiting in the
city. Now, I don't want you to go off the deep end and start saying
the city is going to hell in a hand basket. This is not the case. I
believe the angel is in waiting if there is no change of heart in the
city. Working with some incredible homeless ministers, who live on
the streets, we have witnessed in the past several years since then
an incredible move of the Holy Spirit over the city. It's some
exciting times in the city right now.
Now back to the angel of judgement
story. These were my early days of God teaching me about deliverance
ministry. I thought since this guy was demon possessed I could simply
cast the demon out of this individual. I was filled with the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit and so was my son. We tried to cast
the demon out. Thank God for the Lord's Grace and Mercy! As my son
and I tried to operate in the prophetic and get the demoniac's name,
my son got a word of knowledge, Philip. We tried to no avail to cast
out the evil spirit. So the man stepped aside from us and walked on
down the street, with his eyes still rolled up in the back of his head, and we watched him walk away. As we turned around,
the man, was NOW right in front of us again as if he had teleported. My
son and I looked at each other and we looked at the demon possessed
fellow. The guy strolled by us again. I looked over at the three
young women who were with us and they were petrified. I know one of
the women was a youth pastor. Needless to say, after several months
of serving Night Strike we never saw their faces again after this incident. It freaked
them out.
Now, the name Philip my son got as a
word of knowledge, let me direct you to the book of Acts .
(8:26-40).
36 As
they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch
said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being
baptized?”
37 Philip
said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch
answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
38 And
he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch
went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
39 When
they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took
Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his
way rejoicing.
40 Philip,
however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel
in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Acts
8:36-40
Philip was whisked away by the spirit.
What we witnessed was a demonic imitation.
For this reason and many other
experiences I strongly discount that the Nephilim are the source of
evil spirits. The Nephilim are an enigma and make for an interesting
study in the Bible. Especially, when the giants show up again the
post Noah flood scriptures. I have seen on youtube where prophets are now prophesying about the return of the Nephilim and the plan of evil spirits. I don't believe this at all. Go ahead and throw tomatoes my way if you will. I have seen too much in the battlefield for me to think otherwise.
If you're learning Deliverance ministry, I strongly recommend you pick up my book.
Blessings.
Rev. Mike
