The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim

by Scott Alan Roberts

  “4 The sorrows of death overtook me, and the rush of ungodly people made me afraid. 5 The sorrows of hell overtook me: the traps of death captured me. 6 In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried out to my God, who heard my voice out of the sanctuary, and listened to my cry. 7 Then the earth quaked; the foundations of the hills were disturbed and shaken, because God was angry. 8 There went up a smoke out of the face of God, and fire out of the mouth of God, in which the flames consumed everything ignited by them. 9 God opened the heavens, coming down with dark smoke underneath, 10 riding on a cherub, a heavenly being, and flying on the wind, 11 making darkness the hiding place of God, with a shelter of dark waters and the thick clouds of the skies all around. 12 But the brightness that surrounded God was followed by the thick clouds that passed, with hail stones and flashes of lightening. 13 The noise of Yahweh rumbled in the heavens, and then the voice of the Most High God spoke through the hail stones and flashes of light. 14 Yes, God sent out bolts of electricity, scattering the enemies, shooting out like flashes of lightning, and destroyed them. 15 Then the outlets of water were seen, and the heart of the earth was uncovered at Your word, oh Yahweh, from the exhaust of Your face. 16-18 God sent from above, taking hold of me, and drawing me up out of much water, delivering me from my strong enemies, and from those who hated me, which were too strong for me, and who had shamed me in the day of my misfortune, but You, oh Yahweh, were my stay. 19 You brought me forward also into a large place and delivered me, because you delighted in me.”

  (Psalm 18:4-19)

  Of course, it could simply be a great songwriter/story-teller embellishing his tale with vivid, colorful imagery. It is interesting to me how so many Bible believers will entertain and believe the most garish, creative stories told in the pages of scripture, but will shun the notion of the existence of aliens and UFOs, because they are just too far-fetched.

  A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Very Close to Home…

  Another Psalm of David tells of God’s presence shaking the earth and the heavens descending like an object of silver and gold, with chariots of heaven numbering 20,000 containing thousands of heavenly beings. He described it as an inanimate object found in the feeding pens of a sheepfold that comes to life and flies through the air like a dove, shimmering with silver and gold, and glowing white like the snow. He described armies running in fear from its presence. Could this be a mother spacecraft with many smaller spacecrafts containing their occupants? Would these aliens come to the rescue of God’s chosen one?

  “7 Oh God, when You went forward before Your people, Israel, when You marched with them through the wilderness; Selah: 8 The earth shook and the clouds descended at Your presence: even Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Your people, Israel…. 12 Leaders of armed forces ran away, and our dependents at home received the benefits. 13 Though You’ve been as lifeless as a metal pot, yet you will fly as the silver wings of a dove, with feathers of yellow gold.

  14 When the Almighty scattered rulers in it, it was white as the snow on Mt. Zalmon…. 17 The vehicles of God are twenty thousand, in which are thousands of angels: my Sovereign God is among them, as in Mt. Sinai, in the holy place…. 32 Sing to God, You nations of the earth; oh sing praises to Yahweh; Selah: 33 To the Great One who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are eternal; see, the mighty voice of God sounds out. 34 We attribute strength to You, God: Your greatness is above Your people, Israel, and Your strength is in the skies. 35 Oh God, You are awesome coming out of Your holy places: It is You, God, who gives strength and power to Your people, Israel. God be blessed!”

  (Psalm 68:7-8, 12-14, 17, 32-35)

  The Ostentatious Power of the Remote

  If you are a follower of more contemporary UFO sightings and activity, you’ll have noticed that many of them take place in remote areas, such as deserts and mountainous regions, and over large bodies of water, despite the more recent advent of mass sightings over populated areas. Now consider some of the biblical events that have piqued the curiosities of ancient biblical UFO theorists: Moses was witness to a physical manifestation of God while hidden in the cleft of a secluded mountain outcrop; the prophet Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus, and two of his disciples on the very slopes of the same mountain where the Watchers are to have descended to the earth in the Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon; God protected the children of Israel with a pillar of cloud by day and one of fire by night as they wandered as a nomadic tribe of freed slaves after the first Passover and the Exodus. Are these accounts of God’s miraculous majesty and power or could they possibly be descriptions of events that might be linked to UFO and alien activity? The 29th Psalm describes some unusual activity in remote, out-of-the-way places that Ancient Alien theorists have linked to possible UFO sightings of a biblical proportion:

  “3 The voice of Yahweh is heard across the oceans: the God of glory rumbles, echoing over the seas. 4 The voice of Yahweh is strong and majestic. 5 The voice of Yahweh snaps the cedars in two; yes, Yahweh snaps the cedars of Lebanon completely in two. 6 Yahweh makes the volcanoes erupt. 7 The voice of Yahweh spews fiery flames. 8 The voice of Yahweh shakes the desert; the wilderness rumbles. 9 The voice of Yahweh makes the doe to bear, and unclothes the forests, and every one tells of the glory of God in the sanctuary. 10 Yahweh rules over the Tsunami; yes, oh Yahweh sits a Sovereign One forever.”

  (Psalm 29:3-10)

  Columbus and the Psalmist

  The voice of God is described as enormously powerful in this Psalm. The flames and the rumbling noise, along with weapons that snap massive cedar trees in two, cause volcanoes to erupt, make the deserts cascade with voluminous rumblings and the forests to burn to ash. Can these all be interpreted as the manifestation of advanced alien spacecraft? Could a space ship hide in the depths of the ocean, as many ufologists already believe? Psalm 104 describes a very bright object resting beneath the water, then emerging and moving with great speed into the clouds.

  Interestingly, a UFO was spotted by none other than Christopher Columbus during his maiden voyage to America in 1492. Columbus recorded in his log that, as he was sailing through the waters of what is now the Bermuda Triangle, his compass began acting in an odd fashion. He and Pedro Gutierrez while on the deck of the Santa Maria, observed, “a light glimmering at a great distance,” as they observed it for several hours “in sudden and passing gleams.”11 Four hours later, they saw land. Columbus attributed the sighting to divine guidance to the New World.

  “2 Covering Yourself with light as with clothes: You who stretches out the heavens like a curtain: 3 Who lays the shafts of Your chambers in the waters and makes the clouds Your vehicle, moving on the wings of the wind: 4 Who makes the angels spirits; Your ministers a flaming fire.”

  (Psalm 102:2-4)

  Making a Way Through the Sea

  Unusual activity from the depths of the sea is also mentioned in Psalms 74 and 77. According to the Book of Exodus, God let a strong east wind blow all night, parting the waters of the Red Sea—or, as many biblical scholars believe, the marshy region of the Yam Suph to the far northern delta region of the Red Sea. What, other than an almighty God, could send a powerful force strong enough to part the waters and let the Israelites cross on dry ground, releasing it just in time to drown the whole of the whole of Pharaoh Amenhotep II’s mighty army? Psalm 77:19 tells us that God travels in the sea and the oceans, and that his path cannot be discovered. Is this a reference to underwater craft that traverse in obscurity through the briny depths?

  “13 You divided the sea by Your strength: You broke the heads of the dragons in the oceans. 14 You broke the heads of leviathan, the great sea beasts, in pieces, and gave them for meat to the people living in the wilderness. 15 You opened up the wellspring and the flood: You dried up mighty rivers. 16 The waters felt You, oh God, the waters felt You disturb them and the depths were troubled as well. 17 The clouds poured rain, the skies thundered, and Your lightening flashed also. 18 The voice of Your thunder was in the heavens: the lightning lit up the
world and the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way is in the sea, and Your path in the great oceans, and Your footsteps aren’t known.”

  (Psalm 77:13-19)

  One of the many gilded chariot wheels discovered at the bottom of the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aqaba, off Neweiba Beach. Coral does not grow on gold, but the wood inside had completely deteriorated. Inset: Chariot wheel on Egyptian tomb painting.

  Photo courtesy of Dr. Lennart Moller, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

  Wax On, Wax Off

  Is Psalm 97 a description of God or of an alien craft? Melting hills, enfolding darkness broken by fire, lightning, and illumination.

  “2 Clouds and darkness are around you: righteousness and judgment are the symbols of Your reign. 3 A fire goes before you, and burns up Your enemies everywhere. 4 Your lightning enlightened the world: the people of earth saw, and trembled.

  5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Sovereign One, at the presence of the Most Sovereign of the whole earth. 6 The heavens declare Your righteousness, and everybody sees Your glory.”

  (Psalm 97:2-6)

  Riders on the Storm

  Do God and His angels ride in spacecrafts? In one Psalm they are described as a cherub on the back of whom God rides down out of the clouds. Here, in Psalm 144, we have a description of God and His angels flying down out of the heavens in what is said by biblical alienists to be a spacecraft. What if that alien spacecraft contained what we know as God and the angels screaming down out of the heavens and laying waste to the mountains? Is this the description of a terrible ufological weapon, or the power of a divine God? The psalmist may have wondered the very same thing, as he questions why God would take special note of his people and destroy their enemies. In this verse he prays for God to open the heavens and come back down to destroy his enemies.

  “3 Yahweh, what are human beings, that You take note of them! Or the children of humanity, that You take account of them! 4 People are as nothing: their days are as a shadow that passes away. 5 Open Your heavens, oh Yahweh, and come down: You touch the mountains and they smoke. 6 Make lightning, and scatter them: shoot out Your lightening bolts, and destroy them.”

  (Psalm 144:3-6)

  Frogs and Locusts and the Angel of Death (Oh My!)

  Psalm 78 is a maskil of Asaph—a maskil being a particular style of song, much like we’d say ballad or love song—in which the psalmist recounts the mighty power of God displayed against the Egyptians when Moses led the Hebrews out of bondage. He speaks of the terrible wonders of God when he parted the waters of the Red Sea, turned the Egyptian sources of water to blood, spread blight, frogs, and locusts across the land, then engulfed the Egyptians in utter darkness so that pharaoh “could not see his hand before his face.” The devastation goes all the way to the house of pharaoh when the final plague of the firstborn takes the eldest child in every house of Egypt. Some have speculated that it was the power of alien forces that brought down the heinous plagues and executed the great geological miracles.

  “13 You divided the sea, and allowed them to pass through it; making the waters to stand up as a mountain pass. 14 You also led them with a cloud in the daytime, and through the night with the light of fire. 15 You split the rock in the wilderness, and gave them water to drink from a deep creek. 16 God brought streams of water out of the rock also, causing it to run down like rivers. 17 And they sinned all the more against God by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. 18 And they tempted God in their hearts by asking for meat for their appetites. 19 Yes, they spoke against God and said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? 20 Look, God split the rock, so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; Can God give us bread also? Can God provide meat for the people as well? 21 Yahweh heard this, and was angry: so a fiery wrath was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel, 22 because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in Your salvation, 23 though You had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, 24 and had rained down manna on them to eat, and had given them of the grain of heaven. 25 People ate the food of angels: for You, God sent them enough meat to fill them. 26 You caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, 27 and powerfully brought in the south wind, raining meat on them as dust, and quail like the sand of the sea, 28 and let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents. 29 So they ate and were well filled, because You gave them what they desired. 30 They weren’t kept from their appetites, but while their meat was yet in their mouths, 31 the anger of God came down on them, and slew the fattest of them, and brought down the chosen people of Israel….42 They neither remember God’s hand, nor the day when You delivered them from the adversary. 43 How God had wrought signs in Egypt, and wonders in the field of Zoan, turning their rivers into blood, making it so that they couldn’t drink it. 45-46 You sent different sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them, giving their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust also; destroying their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost; destroying their cattle also in the hail, and their flocks with hot lightning bolts; casting on them the fierceness of Your anger, rage, indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them; making way for anger; not sparing their soul from death, but giving their lives over to the pestilence; and striking all the firstborn in Egypt, their strongest rule, in the sanctuaries of Ham…. 52 But You made Your own people go forward like animals, 53 guiding them in the wilderness like a herd, leading them safely on, so that they weren’t afraid, while the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54 You brought them to the border of Your sanctuary, even to this mountain, which the hand of God had bought.”

  (Psalm 78:13-31, 42-43, 45-46, 52-54)

  Into the Belly of the Earth

  There was a great rebellion among the Hebrews led by a man named Dathan. Moses descended with the tablets of the Law after spending 40 days atop the fiery, tumultuous, God-inhabited Mount Sinai, only to find the people worshipping a golden calf they had erected as their god who led them out of bondage. In righteous anger, Moses breaks the tablets of the Law and calls out to the people to divide, the followers of Dathan on this side, and the followers of Jehovah on that. After they separate, the ground immediately opens up in a great earthquake and swallows up Dathan and his rebels. You can imagine the hushed silence that fell over the rest of the people. With all the miraculous wonders performed under the leadership of Moses during their great Exodus, one wonders how these people would do anything but follow Moses’ lead. Yet, Ancient Alienists believe there is more to this account than a simple miraculous tale of divine judgment. Was Moses not only being led by UFOs through the wilderness, but also being protected and upheld by a race of alien visitors? Here is how the book of Psalms records this event from the Exodus:

  “16 They envied Moses and Aaron, the saints of Yahweh, also in the camp. 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, and buried the followers of Abiram. 18 And a fire was kindled in the middle of them, burning up those sinful ones…. 28 They joined themselves also to the false god, Baal-peor, and ate offerings made for the dead. 29 So they provoked You to anger with their inventions, and a deadly illness came on them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment: so the deadly illness was stopped.”

  (Psalm 106:16-18, 28-30)

  And that’s just a few of the Psalms. Were we to mention every biblical passage that contains even a hint of the possibility of extra-terrestrial activity, there would not be enough room in a 10-volume set to list them, let alone comment on them. This sampling should have given you a taste of what is inside the Bible itself, when it comes to the imaginings and speculations of biblical alien theorists.

  When we consider all of the passages in scripture that seem to indicate miraculous deeds and divine actions, and if you place all those passages in the context of Ancient Aliens as opposed to the acts of Jehovah, you can see the wealth of information that is right at your fingertips, on the shelves of nearly every ho
me in Christendom.

  Clearly, if your perspective is one that is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christianity, you will see these passages as the amazing, almighty acts of a supreme being benevolently and sometimes violently imposing his majesty in the lives of his prophets and worshippers, making a display of his power and majesty. But if your beginning point is one that lies outside the realm of faith in the divine characters dwelling in these books, then you are outside the box looking in. Under that light, these pages can be filled with accounts of ancient UFOs, and alien races that appeared as God, angels, demons, and a host of other heavenly beings.

  If Moses, Ezekiel, David, the psalmists, and other biblical leaders and figures had in fact witnessed alien presences, and interpreted their experiences as encounters with God, then it would be absolutely appropriate of them to have warned others to fear God and obey his commands. In light of the passages we have examined regarding the Watchers and their offspring, as well as the ancient gods of the Sumerians, it is clear that the issue is wide open for debate and further examination.