Sabbath 17/3/30/120
Dear Friends
There is much talk at present about the prospect of cloning and creating warlike creatures and the possibility of recreating the Nephilim (see the paper The Nephilim (No. 154)).
There are two texts in the Bible that deal with such a possibility. The first text is in the Book of Jeremiah which deals with the fact given through a prophet of the latter-day house of Ephraim and Dan (see the paper The Warning of the Last Days (No. 44)). The setting is often assumed to refer to the destruction of Judah by Babylon. The princes, priests, and prophets were corrupted as they did in fact become in Judah after the days of Josiah’s restoration. In Jeremiah 4:6 God declares He will bring evil from the north and a great destruction. It is assumed that the term in verse 7 refers to the Lion of Babylon being the king, Nebuchadnezzar. However, the Lion is referred to as the Destroyer of the Gentiles; meaning the destroyer of the nations. He is gone forth from his place to make the land desolate; and the cities shall be laid waste without an inhabitant.
Jerusalem is told to wash her heart from wickedness so that she may be saved. In verses 15-16 we read, “For a voice declares from Dan and publishes affliction from Mount Ephraim. Make mention to the Nations; behold publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country; and give out their voice against the cities of Judah”.
The problem with this text is that it cannot refer to the captivity of Judah in 597 BCE, because Dan and Ephraim were long gone into captivity north of the Araxes River in 722-720 BCE under the Assyrians and did not live in the Levant.
In 4:23 God says, “I beheld the earth and lo it was without form and void; and the heavens they had no light”. Thus the earth became Tohu and Bohu, which is how it became before the creation of Adam. However, in 4:27 God says He will not make a full end even though He destroys the Levant and there is no man there and all the birds of the heavens have fled.
There are two words for Watchers in Hebrew. The common word used by the prophet Daniel in referring to the Heavenly Host is ‘iyr (SHD 5894) (Dan. 4:13,17,23) meaning an angel as a guardian. The word used in Jeremiah is another word natsar (SHD 5341) pronounced nawtsar. This word means to guard in either a good or bad sense. The bad sense conveys the concept of concealing or besieging. Thus it is sometimes translated as besiegers come from a distant land.
These are the warriors of the Last Days that have the same meaning as watchers or guardians but in a negative sense, and they act for the fallen Host. These beings are allowed to invade the Middle East in the Last Days and reduce it to desolation.
The next work that is an undated prophecy is Joel. It refers specifically to the events that bring in the Day of the Lord (see the work The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No. 192)).
Joel 1 refers again to the Great Lion that is come up on the Levant. He has great destroying power as is seen from Joel 1:4. The great army that comes has not been seen before and will not be seen again for many generations. This is the great army of the Last Days and its war machines that completely desolate the land.
Their appearance is like that of warhorses. Their discipline and structure is important in understanding the power and structure of this army.
The Bible uses many terms for man. The first word that is used in a positive sense is ‘adam (SHD 120). It means ruddy of complexion, being derived from the word of that meaning (SHD 119) and means the Human Species.
Another word for man is ‘iysh (SHD 376). Ish means to be extant or exist and is often not translated in some usage. It also means to act in a manly way (SHD 377). The name Ish Bosheth son of Saul means Man of Shame. Berith ish or British is assumed to mean Covenant Man. The word Zakar ((2145) means specifically a male.
There are also two words geber (SHD 1397; e.g. Dan. 8:15) which means a valiant man or warrior; and the Chaldean gebar (SHD 1400) meaning a certain man from which the Chaldean gibbar or valiant man comes.
The plural “men” is derived from a series of other words also. The word ‘enowsh (SHD 582) is also used commonly with 120 and 376 in Hebrew text. SHD 1121 is used of valiant men (2Chr. 26:17). So also are SHD 1400 and 4962 used. The term used for Images of men is SHD 2145.
Joel uses a distinction between 120 and 582 where the term in Joel 1:12 concerning the ones withered away from the sons of men is the sons of ‘adam. The term 582 is used for mighty men and the men of war.
The term used in Joel 2:7 is in fact the word gibbor or gibbowr (SGD 1368) which is used for the Mighty ones or giants. It is used in Numbers 13:33 when used of the Sons of Anak, the giants, and also in Job 16:14. The text in Numbers 13:33 uses also SHD 5303 identifying the Nephilim as the giants in question. 5303 is used of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33 where it is linked with SHD 1368. All other uses of the term giant or giants is derived from SHD 7497 which is Rapha or Rephaim that are also the Nephilim but not the sons of Anak.
It is thus a distinct possibility that in the Last Days we are looking at the cloning of the Nephilim or at the possibility of their attempted production by genetic mutation.
The term for old and young in 2:28 does not include a word for man except for 1121 re sons and 1323 re daughters.
These are distinct from gibbowrim or giants (1368) referred to in Joel 2:7.
One might ask the question, who would be crazy enough to try to recreate the very beings for which the Earth was destroyed in the days of Noah?
The answer is simple. They will do it because they can do it and the technology is now there to do it.
The works of books such as Enoch (7:1-6) show that the sons of the God selected women as their wives and had children by them. The height of these giants is ridiculous (3000 cubits) but they do record that they ate so much that men could not sustain them and then they became cannibals and drank their own blood and ate their own flesh. The throw-away line in 7:5 is that they began to sin against birds and animals and reptiles and against fish. Then the Earth complained against the lawless ones.
The Book of Jasher carries this tradition on as follows:
Chapter 4
16 And all the sons of men departed from the ways of the Lord in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the earth with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices and they continued sinning against the Lord. 17 And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence. 18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
19 And the Lord said, I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth, yea from man to the birds of the air, together with cattle and beasts that are in the field for I repent that I made them. 20 And all men who walked in the ways of the Lord, died in those days, before the Lord brought the evil upon man which he had declared, for this was from the Lord, that they should not see the evil which the Lord spoke of concerning the sons of men.
21 And Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord chose him and his children to raise up seed from them upon the face of the whole earth.
It is a matter of fact that some species will interbreed with others but they will not carry on a fertile offspring. Lions will breed with tigers and produce ligers but they will not breed. Horses and donkeys have mules but again they are infertile. Most species will not interbreed. The text says that all men and all animals were corrupt.
Some plants can be interbred but many of these are simply hybrids and they are infertile also. Some cross-strains of plants will carry on, such as wheat and rye that make triticale, which is a plant species in its own right. There are, however, specific laws concerning these aspects in the Bible.
The way these texts are worded implies something much more involved than simple cross-breeding of horses and donkeys etc. The wording of these texts hints at genetic engineering.
There is a new movement emerging in the world of academia among scientists, bio-ethicists and sociologists that are agitating for the reconstruction of the Human Species into a Post-Human world.
We know we have the power to clone and we have done it. We can clone a Nephilim. Evolutionists are followers of their own religion. It is a matter of religious imperative that they begin to engineer their own species advancement.
It was for this very reason that the nations were dispersed at Babel and given new and diverse languages. The Bible says that they were scattered because they would become as Elohim and the world and the Plan of God would have been destroyed millennia ago. The Plan of God would have been corrupted.
It is now being allowed to run its full course over the Last Days. The build-up to the end of the six thousand years is occurring and we are watching genetic engineering take place in all fields.
The assertion of genetic mutations among the Gittites of six fingers and toes, making twenty-four in all, is referred to in 2Samuel 21:20, however, the reference to lion-like men in 2Samuel 23:20 is in fact a reference to men of Ariel, which is a proper name and occurs in that text and in Isaiah 29:1,2. Ariel means either a Lion of God as translated in 2Samuel 21:20, or the Altar-hearth of God (Ezek. 43:15,16). Jerusalem is called Har-el on ancient Egyptian monuments. In Isaiah 29:7 Ariel is plainly referring to Jerusalem.
Stem-cell research is currently being used to combine various human and animal genetics such as humans with rabbits and pigs and cows. Mice with part human brains are being developed in California. Tissue from dead people is now being used instead of human embryos to overcome ethical objections (cf. article Thomas R Horn, Did Ancient BioTechnology Create “Nephilim”? May 23 2007, NewsWithViews.com).
Genetic enhancement is now the next frontier in human genetics and the ethical structure has to be developed to cope with the developments in human engineering to enhance individual performance, looks and intelligence.
There is a division occurring within our society at present. The religious right are reacting to the science and the “Trans-humanists” are dedicated to creating a “Post-human” society of engineered humans.
The greatest market for these beings is in the war machine. Humans are subject to all sorts of pressures under war conditions and many are subject to post-traumatic stress disorders. So also are those who suffer from serious trauma induced by other things such as vehicle accidents etc. Drugs are also affecting modern society.
Soldiers can be modified to restrict normal human reactions and inhibitions and war becomes the nightmare we read of in Joel.
The problem is what do we do with such creatures when we have stopped using them? They are sociologically dysfunctional. Do we simply kill them? What ethical dilemmas for the society that creates such creatures! Do we create battle zones where they live in perpetual conflict? How would the world survive it and how do we keep them there?
The ethical and legal ramifications from this post-human creation are simply
enormous. That is why Satan’s time is cut short and Christ returns to save the
elect. Between 2007 and 2012 we will see this nightmare unfold. 2012 to 2027
will see the conflict played out in all the horrors of a modern movie. We will
examine this scenario over the coming months.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
© Copyright 2007 Christian Churches of God, All Rights Reserved