Alien Intrusion

by Gary Bates

  The whole concept of a certain group of angels participating in perverse acts is very thought-provoking because Jesus was asked about the signs that would precede His second coming. He said in Luke 17:26:

  Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.

  Of course, Jesus was warning His listeners that the people of Noah’s day did not expect the catastrophe that befell them. But Genesis 6:11–13 also tells us that the world at that time was violent and corrupt.

  Some suggest the intriguing possibility that Jesus’ warning may have also referred to angelic sexual interference with humans. They also believe that this prophecy is being fulfilled today with “alien” abductions and their alleged associated sexual practices. In addition, some also believe that the modern hybrid alien/humans are real living offspring, similar to the Nephilim of Genesis 6. However, the difficulty with this view is that the original group of angels who procreated (as opposed to some who might just have engaged in sexual activity — if that is possible) were apparently locked up in tartarus to await judgment at the end of time. If the angels in Noah’s day were imprisoned for this sort of behavior, why wouldn’t all angels who partake in these practices today automatically be locked up by God as well? Unless, perhaps, it is a prelude to the “end times” (“just as in the days of Noah”) when literally “all hell breaks loose” before God finally deals with these matters on Judgment Day. At least this line of thought has some interesting parallels to our study.

  A few apologists suggest that fallen angels are distinctly different from demons, based on the view that wherever demons are mentioned in Scripture, they seem to require embodiment in a biological creature, whereas angels do not. These apologists believe that demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim destroyed in the Flood. Interestingly, the apocryphal (non-canonical) book of Enoch also describes the spirits of the Nephilim as evil spirits roaming about the earth. An account that would seem to support this idea is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5. After Jesus crossed the lake in a boat, the chapter says:

  When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him… . When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

  Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

  “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

  A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs (Mark 5:2–13).

  Note how the demons requested permission to possess the pigs. The view that the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim are demons is a radical view, but it does have some scriptural support.

  Although angels are described as spirits, so are human beings. Jesus was described as quickening spirit, there is the Holy Spirit, and God is spirit. It would appear the spirit is part of our being and not necessarily the sum of it. Additionally, in the New Testament, the expressions “demon” and “evil spirit” (as apposed to just “spirit” or even “ministering spirits”) seem to be interchangeable. Also note the following passage:

  The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons (emphasis mine 1 Timothy 4:1).

  This seems to distinguish between spirits and demons.

  The Nephilim

  As mentioned previously, some claim there was another reason for God invoking the Great Flood upon the whole earth. It served the purpose of destroying the Nephilim.

  A popular view is that these half-human/half-angel beings retained some of the supernatural characteristics of their fathers. This made them effectively superhuman, and they thus wielded undue influence over human affairs with their superior knowledge and strength. This view arose because of the description of the Nephilim as the “mighty men of old” and “men of renown” in Genesis 6:4. God had already said that He was going to shorten the days of mankind because He could not tolerate their wickedness any longer. It has also been suggested that the angels created the Nephilim in order to infiltrate the human gene pool. Satan had been warned in the Garden of Eden that enmity or hostility would exist between his offspring and the offspring of the first woman (and obviously the first man, Adam). In Genesis 3:15, Satan is described as having offspring in the same context as that of the woman. Satan heard from God that the woman’s offspring was going to crush his head. This “offspring” may be understood generically as all humans, but more likely it is a specific reference to Christ, who, although God, was born of a woman. Interestingly, a deeper look at the expression “offspring” reveals that most translations render the word as “seed,” as in a child born in the normal manner — it can also literally refer to semen.

  Is it possible that these “sons of God” were trying to corrupt the human line (through the daughters of Adam/men) from which the Messiah was to come, and that this was another reason that Noah and his family was spared? As well as their being God-fearing, does the Scripture also suggest that they were untainted genetically by any angelic influence? Genesis 6:9 also says that Noah was perfect in his generations:

  These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God (Authorized Version).

  The first mention of the “generations” of Noah in this passage refers to his family line (Hebrew toledoth). The subsequent “perfect in his generations” means that he was without spot or blemish (tamiym) in his time or in the generation (dowr) in which he lived. The Hebrew word tamiym refers to physical, or bodily, perfection, and is the same word that was used for animals of sacrificial purity throughout the Old Testament. Perhaps it was not exclusively referring to Noah’s spiritual or moral perfection.[7]

  Satan has conspired on several occasions to circumvent God’s plan of salvation. At the time of the birth of Christ, Satan tried, through the evil king Herod, to kill all the male babies who were born at the predicted time and city of the birth of Christ. Satan, knowing the Old Testament prophecy in Micah 5:2, knew the time and place (Bethlehem) of the birth of Jesus. Moreover, on several occasions in history, attempts have been made to exterminate the Jewish race.

  Taking this view a little further, Hebrews 2:16 (Authorized Version) talks about the act of saving grace of Jesus Christ and reminds us that this did not involve Jesus taking on the form of angels, but human form — as a physical descendant of Abraham:

  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

  There is no salvation for angels once they have rejected God and their heavenly abode. Only the physical descendants of the first Adam can be saved via the death and resurrection of the “last Adam.” Some adherents to the angelic view believe that once the human race had been genetically corrupted by angelic seed, they would have fallen outside of God’s plan of salvation for the human race (note Nephilim = “fallen ones”), since we need to be the literal descendants of Adam (1 Cor. 15:21–22), the first human who brought sin into the world.

  If God sent the Flood and destroyed the world because of the extreme wickedness of man and because angels raised the intensity of the battle a notch or two, is it possible that fallen angels have crossed the line again? Some think that the enormous and increasing UFO/abduction activity we are seeing today is a manifestation of what Jesus foretold — “just as it was in the days of Noah.” However, it may just refer to a time when fallen angels increase their deceptive practices upon mankind. The people of Noah’s day ignored the warning and perished. They missed the way of escape through the ark of salvation that God provided. Today, God has provided another
ark (figuratively) — that is Jesus Christ — for those who believe in His act of saving grace. Times similar to Noah’s, Christ said, would be a prelude to His return.

  And “after that,” the land of the giants

  The Authorized Version of Genesis 6:4 gives an important, but puzzling, description of Nephilim and other events before the Flood. The text says “and after that” (some translations say “afterwards”), but what is the order of events?

  There were giants [Nephilim] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

  “Afterwards” is often presumed to mean after the Flood and include the mentioning of the Nephilim when the Hebrew nation was about to enter the Promised Land after 400 years of slavery in Egypt (Num. 13:33). This interpretation would be a major blow to the view that God used the Flood to destroy the Nephilim.

  Genesis 6:1 refers to a time “when men began to increase in number upon the earth.” According to rabbinical (Orthodox Jewish) interpretations of Genesis 6, the Nephilim were so named because they were fallen and caused the world to fall.[8]It gives the impression that these events occurred at a time early in Earth’s history when mankind was starting to increase in number, and at this time the sons of God took for themselves any women that they wanted.

  It should be clearly noted that the Nephilim in this passage cannot refer to any people group or human beings who survived the Flood in addition to Noah and his family. Those on the ark were the only human survivors. The term “after that” simply contrasts to an initial time when the sons of God took women and then had children by them. The text says so — “and also after that, when … they bare children to them… .” Simply put, Genesis 6 describes how the sons of God started to take women, and after that, they had children by them.

  The fact that only the Noahic line survived the Flood means that the Nephilim in Numbers 13 cannot be descended from a pre-Flood group. But a closer look might reveal why they are mentioned in this passage. Moses, who authored Genesis, was writing for the Jewish nation as it was preparing to enter the Promised Land (the land of Caanan). Prior to entering and doing battle with its inhabitants, Moses sent 12 spies, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, on a reconnaissance mission. On their return, in verses 28 and 29, the spies commented that:

  … the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan (Authorized Version).

  And later a fuller explanation is given:

  And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants [Nephilim]: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:32–33, Authorized Version, emphasis added).

  Most modern translations have replaced the word “giants” and have reverted back to the original “Nephilim” because the expression “giants” is based on tradition or beliefs rather than a literal meaning of the text (see later).

  The descendants of Anak (the Anakim/Anakites) were obviously a group of large people. However, in verse 28 the spies also reported that many of the other people in the land were strong. There are several other passages that refer to the Anakim as a powerful group of people (Deut. 9:2, for example), but verse 33 in Numbers 13 is the only passage that suggests any Anakite relationship to the Nephilim. Once again, it should be remembered that these Anakim were descendants of post-Flood people. They could not be descended from the pre-Flood Nephilim. Chapter 10 of Genesis records the “Table of Nations”; that is, the descendants of Noah’s sons, and there is no mention of Anak or the Nephilim, post-Flood.

  It should be noted that the spies brought back a bad, or evil (Hebrew dibbah, “to slander, whisper, or defame”) report. That report included a parenthetic insertion that the large people known as the sons of Anak were descended from the Nephilim. The NIV simply puts it as:

  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim) … (Num. 13:33).

  At first reading, this may seem like a factual account, but it is part of the quoted false report of the spies. Of the 12 spies, only Joshua and Caleb, trusting God, were keen to enter and take possession of the land; the other 10 did not want to. Because of the false report, the whole nation was too terrified to enter the Promised Land, and they turned against Moses for bringing them there. God responded:

  The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? … I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them” (Num. 14:11).

  How can we be sure that it was a false report? To start with, God intended to strike down all of the people with a plague for their unbelief, but Moses interceded on their behalf. However, there were some that were not going to escape God’s justice. Why? Because they brought back an untruthful report. Numbers 14:36–37 says:

  Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord (New King James Version).

  Some Christians have actually added to the (false) account of the Nephilim in the Promised Land. They say that during the time that the children of Israel wandered in the desert (38 years), fallen angels were once again cohabiting with women to produce more Nephilim as part of a satanic strategy to prevent the Hebrews entering the land. This is unlikely because, although they encountered the Anakim, they defeated them, as well as many other inhabiting tribes. When they eventually entered the land of Canaan, there was no mention of the Nephilim or encounters with them. Surely, among the descriptions of all the battles that ensued, encounters with Nephilim would have been mentioned if they occurred. And it should be remembered, according to the fallen-angel view, the original angels who stepped out of line in this manner were now in chains in tartarus. There is no account of these supposedly post-Flood Nephilim having been destroyed, so where are they today?

  The “giant” legend

  It seems likely that the real Nephilim of Genesis 6 were given iconic status, in a sense, endorsing the “superhuman” view. In the “evil report,” it would appear that the spies gave the descendants of Anak an unwarranted embellishment as to their power by suggesting they were descended from the Nephilim. If the Nephilim were “super beings,” as traditional Jewish beliefs subscribe to,[9]it is no wonder that the people were too scared to enter (some claim that the Nephilim “beliefs” are imaginary Jewish legends only).

  The expression “the mighty men” in Hebrew is HaGibborim, and the rendering in English is a correct analogy of the Hebrew term. The same expression is used for the mighty ruler and hunter Nimrod in Genesis 10, who built the great city of Nineveh, among others. Nimrod is commonly believed to have been the instigator behind the Tower of Babel, and possibly one of the worst offenders in the worship of false deities. The tower was an enormous structure, planned to reach into the sky (or “unto the sky,” as many similar structures of ancient Babylon were used as astrological observatories to foster the demonically inspired worship of the stars). Its builders intended it to symbolically usurp God’s authority, to be a focal point for humanity’s flouting of God’s command to disperse across the earth. So God punished the society with a confusion of languages, causing them to disperse anyway. Nimrod’s fame was legendary, and he is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture (1 Chron. 1:10). The term “men of renown” comes from the Hebrew shem, which describes men of reputation, well known, famous, or even infamous. So we can glean
that the Nephilim were similarly well known by reputation for their deeds. Whoever or whatever they were, they had an influence, and created an impact, on the world.

  For example, some Bible versions render the term Nephilim as “giants” because some of the words are derived from Greek translations of the Hebrew texts. In this case, the Greek word gigentes has been translated into English as giants. But this is not entirely accurate because gigentes is the Greek word for “Titans.” In Greek legend, the Titans were well known as the giant offspring of Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (Earth), and were regarded as half-human and half-god. The most famous of the Titans was Cronus (whose name is interestingly linked with Nimrod in some legends), who, legend has it, led the Titans in a war against Zeus, the most powerful of all the Olympians and the supreme ruler of all of the gods. Zeus defeated and punished the Titans by banishing them to tartarus.

  The mention of tartarus is noteworthy, and these types of stories are not limited to Jewish and Greek cultures. The Romans had very similar legends — they knew Cronus as Saturn, linked to the planet which bears that name today. (We saw in chapter 8 that various false deities worshiped in the Old Testament were also associated with this planet.) Egyptian and Indian legends abound with similar stories, and different cultures of the world all have tales of god-like visitors coming down and intermarrying with humans. In the same way, stories of the great flood of Noah’s time can be found in practically every culture, although distorted from the original.