Angels & Demons in the 21st Century, part 3
Angels and Demons in the 21st Century – part 3
Part 3. The Angels That Fell
Let’s skip back a few chapters to the first holocaust described in Genesis and ask, how would you react if someone started soap-boxing about an imminent flood? Probably the same as Noah’s contemporaries, which doubting Thomases, according to Genesis, were all wiped out by the ensuing waters. Only Noah, his wife, their three sons and their sons’ wives survived to reboot the human race. So where did it all go so wrong?
(The cute little ark in the first pic is how we tell it to the kids, whereas the other two offer a truer visual scale of the ark, as detailed cubit by cubit in Genesis. Think – a 100 storey apartment block, then lay it on its side and add some)
Going back to the last question, well, something that might well have royally pissed off the man upstairs is depicted in this passage from Genesis:
Genesis 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
In the bible, angels are often described as “the sons of God”, whereas human beings are described as “the sons of men”. Okay, now we’ve got that one straight, it’s fair to say that there were some real shenanigans afoot. Another biblical term used quite frequently is “came in unto” or “went in unto”, a term used to describe sexual relations between men and women, as used in this next related passage:
Genesis 6:4 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 bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
(All very romantically portrayed, don’t you think?)
The Hebrew word for these giants was Nephilim. Now does it ring a bell? Many Bible versions have since reverted to this word, and in doing so have captured the modern imagination.
Yet, if the Nephilim were wiped out with the flood, why are there so many later stories, e.g. Goliath, and references, like this one:
Numbers 13:33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
So did the Nephilim gene slip through the net of the flood, perhaps in one of Noah’s daughters-in-law, or did the angels just come on down once the flood had passed and do the nasty all over again? Depictions of giants come way beyond the flood, like this one of a Babylonian king holding a lion like his toy teddy bear.
Trey Smith, in his You Tube video, claims that there is evidence of Nephilim having existed in a big way throughout history and creates a narrative around strange sub-human remains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zz8_MxcnzY
He also uses the term “Fallen ones” to describe Nephilim: Fallen angels.
Smith’s film is 2 hours long, but there are plenty of more concise narratives on the Nephilim, as in this search result:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nephilim
Personally, I’m not presenting any of this as fact, only reiterating that many ancient Biblical ideas of angels and demons have survived to spark off our 21st Century imaginations. Many of my own short stories and both my upcoming novels incorporate such ideas, although I’d never claim they are based on fact.
So, what of these fallen angels, these alluring creatures who had their pick of earthly women. What was their fate?
Jude 1:6 – And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
But these fallen angels are just the support act. The star of the show mounted the stage in the very first act, at least in chapter 3:
Genesis 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. : And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Yes, the meanest, baddest angel of them all: Satan. However, though religious sects tend to stick by their guns on Satan, many modern scholars are dismissing the idea that The Devil broke off and became independent and an enemy of God, arguing that Satan is an agent of God just like the best of them, that his acts of temptation are actual tasks, if not set by the man in charge, brought to God’s attention, as with this passage from Job:
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
What follows is the testing of Job, with God’s permission, and it’s not pretty.
But why, if Satan is not trusted – and this is way after the serpent incident – is he allowed into the presence of God at all, and to hold council?
To me, in the Job chapter and going back to Eve’s encounter with the serpent in Genesis, the Devil is like one bitch of a mystery shopper, only rather than testing out the service in shops, he’s testing out the faith of humankind, then reporting back to God. And can’t you just hear the conversation up there: “Right, well, you know you said I could never get that Eve to eat the bad apples? Well, you’ll never guess what…”
And his arms slip into a fold, his head into a nod and his lips into a sardonic little smile as he revels in telling the tale. After all, he is vain.
Join me for Part 4, when I’ll be looking at Angels and Demons as portrayed in popular and modern culture, and who’s winning, the religious or the satanic?
COMING SOON – MELT, the novel: ‘Desecrating an ancient graveyard can unearth enough trouble to shake up the world.’
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