Tag Archives: Flood

The Exceptions

Fallen Angels

“… and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world …” (Revelation 17:8)

In my last post, “The Book of Life” I talked about the Book of Life that will be opened at the Great White Throne Judgment. Anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of Life is sentenced to an eternity in hell. I also expressed my understanding that everyone who has ever been born has their names written in the Book of Life initially, but whether they remain there depends on how they respond to God’s offer of salvation.

I said this was true with some exceptions, but I did not want to go into the details at that time. The reason I did not elaborate on the “exceptions” is because it might sound a little strange or even weird to some people, and trying to explain it in one or two paragraphs would be next to impossible. In fact, books have been written on the subject, so it would be difficult to explain in just a few words.

Just by way of disclaimer: what I am suggesting in the following paragraphs should not be taken as “gospel.” These are simply my thoughts based on studies that I have done, and are not meant to represent any kind of ecclesiastical dogma. There are many things in God’s Word that are not made clear to us, and to attempt to build a case on a shaky foundation is simply foolish. So, I recommend a healthy dose of skepticism before continuing. You may think I am full of bologna, and that is fine. This is something I “think” is true, but I wouldn’t bet my next paycheck on it. So, read on.

You remember in Genesis 3 that Satan came to Eve in the form of a serpent and tempted her to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She then shared the fruit with Adam who also ate of the fruit so that both sinned by disobeying God’s only commandment – that they should not to eat of that tree. God punished them, as He had warned them, by causing them to die in two ways: (1) they would no longer live forever (when God created man, He intended them to live forever), and (2) they were separated from their Creator. This is what we know as original sin, and all generations since Adam and Eve have inherited original sin. We all have a “sin nature.” That is why the Bible says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, emphasis added). God also cursed the ground from which man was taken so that all of God’s creation suffers because of man’s sin. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22, emphasis added). Adam’s punishment was that work would be hard for him, and Eve’s punishment was that she would have pain in bearing children.

Following that (about 1600 years later), we are told that violence increased in the world. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). That was bad enough, but the first verses of Genesis 6 talks about something that is very strange, and has puzzled biblical scholars for ages . It says:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose …
4 There were giants 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. (Genesis 6:1-2, 4, emphasis added)
 

The “sons of God” in the Hebrew is bene elohim. This term always refers to angels in the Old Testament. (See Job 1:6; Job 2:1; and Job 38:7.) There are two kinds of angels: Satan’s angels (demons) and God’s angels. (Something to keep in mind is that even the devil is God’s devil. God created him, and he rebelled against God. But the devil (Satan) cannot do anything without God’s permission. This is demonstrated in the first three chapters of Job.) So, these demons “mated” with human females to create a mighty race of men. Now, angels cannot procreate directly, so what probably happened is that these demons possessed human males in order to mate with the human females. This somehow altered the DNA of the children born from these demonic unions so that they created “giants.” The Hebrew word used for “giants” is nephalim, and it literally means “fallen ones.”

Imagine just how bad things got that God felt He had to destroy them all. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8) and “Noah was a just man and perfect in all his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, emphasis added). The phrase that Noah was “perfect in all his generations” does not mean that he was sinless. Remember, “all have sinned.” What this means, then, is that his blood line was not contaminated by the satanic unions of the others.

When I say that there are “some exceptions,” this is to what I’m referring. Revelation 17 discusses the apostate church during the Tribulation who the Antichrist will eventually destroy. About those who follow that apostate church it says, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Revelation 17:8, emphasis added). It is very clear that these were never written in the Book of Life – “from the foundation of the world.” It is as if these were never meant to be born.

One would think that the Global Flood should have taken care of all of the “bad seed.” Well, perhaps not all of them. As we continue the narrative in Genesis 6, God sent the Flood that covered the entire earth for almost a whole year. The Bible tells us that Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives were in the Ark for 371 days, before the earth was once again livable.

Then follows an incident where Noah got drunk, and his son Ham saw him naked (Genesis 9:20-29). Ham, instead of covering his father went and told his brothers, Japheth and Shem. So they went into Noah’s tent backward so as not to see the nakedness of their father and they covered him up. When Noah awoke from his drunk and discovered what Ham had done, he cursed Canaan, Ham’s youngest son. So the question is, why did Noah curse Canaan and not Ham or Ham’s other sons? The answer may be that Ham’s wife may have carried some of the “bad seed” of the Nephalim in her, and it showed up in Canaan. One of the characteristics of Nephalim is that they had six fingers. (Goliath’s father had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (2 Samuel 21:20).) Canaan was probably born with six fingers and when Noah saw it, he cursed him. So, some of these probably still exist in our world today with or without six fingers, but God knows who they are. These would not qualify to be written in the Book of Life.

Canaan’s descendants settled in the “Land of Canaan” which was given to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 13:14-18; 15:18-21). Genesis 10:15-20 describes who these people were and where they settled. “And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha” (Genesis 10:19). These are the people that the children of Israel had to face when they entered the Promise Land. As they prepared to enter into the land, 12 spies were sent in to spy out the land and report back what they encountered. The book of Numbers records the bad report returned by 10 out of the 12 spies. “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33). Again, here the Hebrew word for “giants” is nephalim – the “fallen ones.” In The Henry Morris Study Bible, Dr. Morris makes this note about this verse:

There were also other tribes of giants in the land. “That was also accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” [i.e., sons of Anak] (Deuteronomy 2:20, 21). Here, and in a number of other passages, the word for “giants” is Rephaim, evidently a tribe descended from the “Rephaims” associated with the “Zuzims” and the “Emims” of Genesis 14:5. The Emims also were called “a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Deuteronomy 2:10).

All of these references indicate that there had been another irruption of the fallen “sons of God” just as in the days before the Flood. This time the irruption was probably in connection with the events surrounding the rebellion at Babel and the subsequent worldwide dispersion of the occult religious system introduced there. These demon-possessed men and women became the progenitors of tribes characterized by giantism, just as in the antediluvian days. (http://www.icr.org/bible/numbers/13:33/)

So, it is apparent that these nephalim somehow managed to survive the Flood. These who survived were descendants of Canaan, which explains why Noah cursed Canaan and not Ham. Oh, and by the way, Ham begat other sons before Canaan: Cush, Mizraim (Egypt), and Phut. Canaan was the youngest, but evidently, he carried the “bad seed.”

Now, to further complicate things, I am sure you have heard of UFOs and of aliens abducting humans. I believe (and I am not alone in this) that these are demons that are doing the same thing today as they were doing back in Genesis 6. (See my article “Aliens?”) These creatures, that may look very human, were never meant to be born, so their names are not written in the Book of Life.

Unless you are one of the nephalim (and you probably are not, if you are reading this), your name is written in the Book of Life. My question to you would be, is your name permanently written in the Book of Life, or is there a possibility that it could be blotted out? That choice is up to you.

Watch “On the Trail of the Nephalim” on YouTube with L.A. Marzulli.

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Only One Way In

Noah's Ark: Entry Door Looking Out (Image Credit: http://asknoah.org/art_gallery2)

Noah’s Ark: Entry Door Looking Out (Image Credit: http://asknoah.org/art_gallery2)

… and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof … (Genesis 6:16)

Doors are useful things. Doors work two ways: they allow us entry into a variety of enclosures, and they permit us to exit the same. Doors keep us safe inside while keeping unwanted intruders out. Most homes have more than one door for entry and exit. Most vehicles have at least two doors; some have four or five. Airplanes have only one door for boarding, but there are at least four doors for emergency exit. Multiple doors to any enclosure make for ease of movement. You may come in through the front door, and then go out the back door to enjoy your backyard. You would not normally come in the front door, exit again through the front door, and walk all the way around the house to get to your backyard. The more doors you have, the easier it is to go from one place to another. Doors are very useful things!

About 1500 years after God completed His creation (man in particular), the world and mankind had degenerated to the point that it was no longer the “very good” creation that God had initiated. Man had become wicked and “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Things had gotten so wicked that “it grieved [God] at his heart” (Genesis 6:6). This is not difficult to understand especially for us earthly parents who have invested so much of our lives in teaching a child the ways of God. Then when they leave our homes, they turn their backs on everything we stand for, and everything we tried to instill in them. Any parent who has experienced this knows the heartache. Multiply that by billions and that might begin to give a sense for how God felt to see His “very good” creation turned putrid. “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7).

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). God instructed Noah to build an Ark (Genesis 6:14). The Hebrew word translated “Ark” is têbâh and it literally means a “box.” God gave Noah the specific dimensions for this box (Genesis 6:15), and instructed him to build it with three decks (stories) (Genesis 6:16). He was to make a door – only one door – in the side of the ark – only one way in, and only one way out.

Noah was given 120 years to complete his project (Genesis 6:3). During that time as Noah was working on the Ark, he felt compelled to warn all who would listen about the coming cataclysmic judgment. Peter referred to Noah as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). We are not told in Scripture, but surely Noah must have been ridiculed and mocked. “Have you seen what that old fool is building!” many must have scoffed. But Noah was not to be dissuaded from his God-given task. “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:22).  When the project was complete God called all the animals into the Ark (Genesis 6:20). Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives went into the Ark (Genesis 7:13), “and the LORD shut him in” (Genesis 7:16). The only way in was now inaccessible. Those remaining outside could no longer enter. For 120 years they were given the opportunity for safe passage, but now it was too late. The only way in was now shut tight, and those inside were saved and safe from the disaster facing those outside. Then the waters came – not only rain, but the very fountains of the deep were broken open (Genesis 7:11). “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died” (Genesis 7:21-22, emphasis added).

Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9, emphasis added). Later He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6, emphasis added).

It is a very popular notion these days to believe that there are many ways into heaven. Even the Roman Catholic Church, who has for centuries staunchly held to the dogma that the only access to heaven is through the sacraments of the Church, has given way to universalism, i.e. that everyone – Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, yes and even Baptists – will all get to heaven. That is why they say we should strive to all get along together here on earth. This is the idea of many doors into the same place – very convenient! But that has never been the teaching of the Bible.

The Ark had only one way in, but access was available to anyone who would heed the warning. Those that rejected the message were destroyed. As at the time of the flood, where billions died and only eight were saved, we are facing a similar time of trouble. Jesus warned, “Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow [crowded or afflicted] is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14, emphasis added). Today, Jesus would be labeled as intolerant for His teaching. There is no other way. Everyone will NOT go to heaven, but everyone has an equal chance. There is only one way in, and that way is through Jesus Christ. “But as many as received him [Jesus], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). The Door will soon be shut forever. Have you found the only One Way in?

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