We shall return later to more specifics on these evil spirit beings and their likely unforgivable acts (for the one and only object of the Flood was to destroy all mankind). But first we will examine the background to these sons of God, who they were and where they came from.
Let us once again search out the texts of the Hebrew scriptures and allow the words to paint a picture of these spirit beings known to most as “angels.” Is the image conjured up by this word the same as that portrayed in the words of the text of the scriptures?
One of the first appearances of these “men” occurs in a meeting between Abraham and three very important people in Genesis 18:
And the Lord appeared unto him (Abraham) in the oaks of Mamre; and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked and, lo, three men stood by him.
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself towards the ground.
And he said: “My Lord, if I have now found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
“Let a little water, I pray thee, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
“And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts; after that, ye shall pass on . . .”
And they said: “So do as thou hast said.”
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said: “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it and make cakes upon the hearth.”
And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man; and he hastened to dress it.
And he took butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
Genesis 18:1-8
Here we see Abraham displaying typical eastern hospitality. When he saw the three men he constrained them to wash their feet and take food and drink. Then, in keeping with the eastern culture, he served them and waited upon them but did not eat with them. But the most amazing aspect of this record is that the three men he spoke with and provided for were no less than the Lord (Jehovah) himself and two of his top aides.32
These three individuals are described as “men.” Furthermore, they sat down in the shade, washed their feet, and then enjoyed a good meal of veal with bread and butter and washed the whole lot down with fresh milk! We can assume that these men wore clothes and appeared, more or less, as normal people.
The lesson from this is that Yaweh resembles a man. Or, looked at the other way around, men resemble Yaweh. Remember in Genesis 1:26 during the creation we read: “Let us make man in our image: after our likeness.” This informs us that our “image” and our “likeness” is fashioned after this person called Elohim, and more often referred to as Yahweh or Jehovah in the Hebrew tongue.33 (See also Genesis 1:27; 5:1,3; 9:6; James 3:9.)
Many believe that God, being a spirit, does not have form. But, just as the angels are referred to as “ministering spirits,” they are always called “men” and appear as “men.”
In this passage, the Hebrew word for Lord is Jehovah; and, in the course of the chapter, Jehovah (Lord) appears no less than 12 times. So one of the men Abraham entertained and then had a discussion with was no less than Jehovah himself.
After the three had finished their meal, they continued on their journey towards Sodom. Abraham had a rather feisty debate with the Lord and endeavoured to make a bargain with him. However, the other two men journeyed on alone. We learn more from the ensuing passage:
And there came two angels (Hebrew: malak; agents; sent ones; messengers) to Sodom at evening; and Lot sat in the gate at Sodom; and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face to the ground.
And he said: “Behold now my Lords, turn in, I pray you, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way.” And they said: “Nay, we will abide in the street all night.”
And he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, compassed the house around, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.
And they called unto Lot: “Where are the men which came in unto thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them.”
Genesis 19:1-5
Once again we see from this record that these two “messengers” were mistaken for ordinary men. Firstly, Lot sees them and offers his hospitality to them. They at first refuse before accepting his invitation to food and a bed. These men, although spirit beings who abide not on this Earth, obviously have good appetites, for they enjoyed a hearty meal for the second time that day.
The entrance of these men into Lot’s house is not lost on the rest of the inhabitants of Sodom, for they all gather around Lot’s abode and insist on meeting the two men so that they might “know” them. This tells us that these two angels, apart from appearing as men, must have been extremely attractive individuals in order to have caught the attention of virtually everyone in the town!
We are told in other places throughout the Old Testament that these “men” or “messengers” are created spirit beings. We are also informed that they existed far beyond the creation of this present world as we know it. Concerning “angels” in Psalm 148:5, we read:
Let them praise the name of the Lord.
For He commanded, and they were created.
And in Psalm 104:4 we are told:
Who maketh his angels spirits;
His ministers a flaming fire.
In Job, Yaweh is debating the creation of the world and says, concerning angels:
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Book of Job 38:7
As discussed previously, the “sons of God” are angels which are created spirit beings. But, as we have seen, they can appear as men and look and eat and drink and talk just like human beings. Also note from the above verse that these sons of God are referred to as the “morning stars who sang together.” This will become relevant later as we look at the astronomical significance of spiritual beings and at the alignment of certain buildings with star groupings and other Zodiacal considerations.
To emphasise that these spirit messengers, or agents, are men, I would like to present a few more brief records. From the Book of Daniel, the names of two of the leading entities in Yaweh’s host are provided:
Yea, while I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
And he informed me and talked with me and said: “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.”
Book of Daniel 9:21,22
We learn from this passage that these agents have names and can fly, i.e. move very fast. Being spirit, they are not restricted to the laws of physics as we are. We see that this messenger’s name is Gabriel. His main duty is to deliver messages, as he does in many places, especially in the New Testament. He is usually accompanied by another messenger whose name is Michael. His job seems to be the security aspect of the mission, as we see from this next extract:
And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I (Daniel) was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel: Then I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz;
His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Then he said to me: “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou did set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard . . .
But the prince of the kingdo
m of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and remained there with the kings of Persia.”
Book of Daniel 10:4-6; 11-13
This man, who is still Gabriel, appears here not quite in ordinary clothes but in some beautiful raiment. Again he reiterates that he has been “sent” to inform Daniel regarding events which are to take place in the latter days. But then something unusual occurs. He tells Daniel that, while en route, he was impeded in his journey by a “prince of Persia,” who held him up for 21 days. Apparently this prince of Persia is another spirit being, but an evil one. For Michael, the military aide, had to come to the assistance of Gabriel and remove this other evil agent so that Gabriel could accomplish his mission.
This provides some interesting insight into the realm of the spirit world. Again, Gabriel is a man sent on a mission to deliver information to another man, Daniel. He is ambushed by an obviously powerful evil angel named as the “prince of Persia.” Yet another celestial being, a military man by the name of Michael, comes to the rescue and clears the way for Gabriel to continue on and deliver his message.
All the personalities involved in this saga are men. Not human, flesh-and-blood men as we are. But spirit beings. Men of a different nature to us but men nevertheless. Because they are spirit beings they can travel faster than the speed of light and commute between Earth and wherever their celestial abode is.
Now we move forward to the time of the Gospels and briefly look at some of the appearances of these men in the days of the Messiah and afterwards.
In the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel we are given the story of the birth of John the Baptist to his heretofore barren mother, Elizabeth, and her priest husband, Zacharias. While he carried out his priestly duties one day, an angel (Greek: aggelos: “messenger” or “sent one”) appeared to him:
And it came to pass that while he executed the priest’s office before Yaweh in the order of his course.
And there appeared unto him a messenger (aggelos) of Yaweh standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And the messenger (aggelos) said unto him: “I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of Yaweh, and I am sent to speak unto you and to show you these glad tidings.”
Luke 1: 8,11,19
Later on in this chapter this same man, Gabriel, appears to Mary and informs her that she will shortly give birth to the Messiah. Mary was probably only a young girl between 14 and 18 years of age at the time. But what she saw and what Zacharias saw was a man who then proceeded to have a conversation with them just as he had done with Daniel in the earlier account.
We now move forward 33 years or so to the time of the death of the Messiah. Some of the women returned to the tomb where his body had been lain in order to embalm it.
Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came into the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold two men stood by them in shining garments.
Luke 24:1,2,4
These two beings entered into a discussion with this group who had come to embalm the body of the Messiah. In all of the other Gospels we find a similar account. People arrive at the tomb to find it empty, but meet two men in white clothing who divulge certain information to them. Again jumping ahead a few more years into the first century AD, to the account of the movements of the original followers of the Messiah, who were then labelled “Christians,” there are numerous accounts of these spirit-men appearing to the disciples in order to give direction or help them out of difficult situations. Always these messengers are described as men.
Conclusion
Throughout the entire text of both the Old and New Testaments there are almost 300 mentions of these celestial beings. Always they are described as men. Sometimes they were mistakenly treated as ordinary human beings. These men ate and drank upon occasion and usually were clothed in white shining raiment. Some of the time they appear in twos. Gabriel is the one who is sent to deliver messages and he is usually accompanied by another being who is named in some instances as Michael. It would appear that this latter gentleman is sent along as security for Gabriel. What we might today refer to as “muscle.” We are also told that these entities existed long before the world, as we know it, came into being. They are created spirit-men as opposed to human beings.
So do the Scriptures describe another world wherein exists a different form of life, possibly superior in intelligence and power to that of our world? Yes indeed. These are men who look like us and their abode is a place called “Heaven,” which seems to be some considerable distance from our planet. Are they benevolent towards mankind and interested in helping us in our times of trial? The answer is yes. So the leader of this celestial group is well-disposed towards mankind? Yes. His name is Yaweh, although sometimes he is called Elohim, and he definitely seems to want to help mankind. So there are no evil angels who want to hurt mankind and do us ill? Well, yes there are, but so far we’ve only been talking about the good guys. So what’s the story with these evil guys? That’s coming up next.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Book of Hebrews 13:2
The “sons of God” who married the “daughters of men” produced children, who were called the Nephilim. This means “fallen ones.” The reason they are named thus is because these “sons of God” were fallen angels. They were part of a band of malevolent spirit beings who, we are told, rebelled against Yaweh and tried to usurp his throne. A battle ensued, and these evil, fallen beings got the boot, so to speak, and were cast out of the presence of Yaweh.
The leader of this rebellion is given various names. But one of his original names was Lucifer, which means “shining one” or “morning star.” We shall now look at the background to this particular spirit being and his host. Once we have done this, we will be better able to understand the situation which existed for several hundreds of years prior to the time of Noah.
CELESTIAL POTENTATE
Before time was, in a celestial kingdom ruled by Yaweh, there was an innumerable multitude of spirit beings known as “Sons of God.” Lucifer was one of the brightest stars of this angelic congregation. Full of wisdom, knowledge and beauty, we are told something of his former glory in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 28, where he is referred to as the “King of Tyre”:
Son of man, take up a lament against the King of Tyre and say to him:
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the Garden of God.
Every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created, they were prepared.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mountain of God.
You walked among the fiery stones.
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.
Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour. So I threw you to the Earth.”
Book of Ezekiel 28: 11-17
Bear in mind that this person is a man, a son of God or angel, a spirit being who was once created by Yaweh and given a specific task. But because of hubris, he tripped up and fell, thus becoming a fallen angel. We are provided with some more background information on this entity in the Book of Isaiah.
How you have fallen from Heaven, O Morning St
ar (Hebrew: Lucifer), son of the dawn.
You have been cast down to the Earth, you who once laid low the nations.
For you said in your heart: “I will ascend to Heaven.
I will raise my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds.
I will make myself like the Most High.”
Book of Isaiah 14: 12-14
Please note that the name Lucifer translates as the morning star34 and also that he said in his heart that he would raise his throne above the “stars of God.” It is clear from this that the morning star, which is Venus, was named after Lucifer (or vice versa). It is also clear, and we shall examine other passages to clarify the point, that the angels of God are referred to as “stars” and apparently are named after certain stars and planets. This will become important as we consider the associations of the pyramids and other ancient monuments with the movements of certain stars and constellations.
The Nephilim and Pyramid of Apocalypse Page 4