THE NEPHILIM HERESY
Satan’s Attempt to Pass Religious Fiction off as Bible
Truth
By Gary Ray Branscome
“No truth of scripture comes from any private
explanation. // Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you, and you are found
to be a liar.”
(2Peter
God wants His church to believe and
teach what He says in His Word, not what men think about it. Every doctrine
necessary to salvation is plainly stated in the words of Scripture; stated so
clearly that it does not need to be explained. It only needs to be believed and
taught.
“In
whatever matter Holy Scripture has definitely spoken the Christian theologian
must suppress his own views, opinions, and speculations and adhere unwaveringly
to the divine truths revealed in Holy Scripture. In no case is he permitted to
inject into the body of divine truth his own figments and fabrications.”
(Christian Dogmatics, by J.T.
Muller, page 39.)
In saying this, I am fully aware that
God’s Law has to be applied, and because of human limitations men often find it
hard to agree on how it should be applied. There are also many passages that
are hard to understand. However, the gospel only needs to be proclaimed and
believed. Therefore, the rule that must be followed in dealing with what the
Bible says is that the words of Scripture must stand as they read (Isaiah
Nevertheless, Satan wants just the opposite. Satan
wants those who read God’s Word to let their imaginations run wild. He wants
men to read unscriptural ideas into the text, to make up explanations for what
they do not understand, and to explain away anything in Scripture that does not
fit their own ideas. That being said, the purpose of this paper is to deal with
one of Satan’s attempts to do just that. The passage in question is Genesis 6:4
where we read:
“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.” (KJV).
The word translated “giants” in Gen.
6:4 is, “Nephilim”; a little used Hebrew word found
in only Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. Even Hebrew scholars are not one-hundred
percent certain of its meaning. However, that does not slow down spiritual
egotists. On the contrary! They see the word “giants” and their imagination
runs wild. They remember all of the stories about giants that they heard as
children, and they come up with a fairy tale about angels mating with humans
and producing giant offspring. Worse yet, their fairy tale does not stop with
that verse, but they twist verse after verse to fit their unscriptural ideas
until they have created a doctrine that does not consist of what the Bible
says, but of unscriptural interpretations welded together by fanciful
explanations. In their blindness they think that the more passages they can
interpret to support their made-up story the more support they have for it.
However, the opposite is true. The more passages they read unscriptural ideas
into, the further they get from the truth. Therefore, let me make one thing
clear. What I am calling heresy goes far beyond simply claiming that the “sons
of God in Gen. 6:4 were angels. The designation “heresy” includes much more. It
includes an entire fairy tale reality that has been fabricated to support that
one interpretation of Gen. 6:4, and many other passages that are twisted to
support it.
For example: The Bible never says that
the “Nephilim” are the children of the “sons of God” (mentioned
in Gen. 6:4). That is being added to Scripture. The Bible nowhere says that the
“sons of God” were angels. That is being added to Scripture. The Bible nowhere
says that these “giants” (Nephilim) were a race of
people, or that they survived the flood. That is being added to Scripture. The
Bible nowhere says that the “sons of God” were fallen angels. That is being added
to Scripture. And, the Bible nowhere says that the “anti-Christ” will be one of
the “Nephilim”, or a descendant of an angel or demon.
That is all being added to Scripture. And, the purpose of this essay is to
explain why it is all a lie.
Before I comment on
these many additions to Scripture, what if Genesis 6:4 were translated this
way.
“There
were great-ones 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.”
As you can see, translating the word,
“Nephilim” as, “great-ones” rather than, “giants” suggests
that they were “men of renown,” or tyrants, not physical giants. Moreover,
since the words, “and also after that” plainly tell us that the “sons of God”
fathered mighty-men at a later time, there is absolutely no reason to believe
that the “Nephilim” were the children of the “sons of
God” spoken of in that verse.
I also want to point out that what we
are dealing with here is not a matter of interpretation, but a matter of adding
to God’s Word. If it were just a question of whether the “Nephilim”
were physical giants, or tyrants (or both), that would be a matter of
interpretation [i.e. translation]. However, when people claim that these “Nephilim” were the hybrid offspring of angels and humans,
that they were a race of people, that the “sons of God” spoken of in Gen. 6:4
were angels or demons, and that the anti-Christ will be one of them that has
nothing to do with interpretation. On the contrary, they are making up
explanations aimed at supplementing God’s Word. And, because God has told us
not to add to His Word, we know that their explanations are not of God. Furthermore,
because those explanations are not of God, whenever they pass them off as the
Word of God they are lying in God’s name.
Rebelling Against God
Those who hold the “Nephilim” doctrine not only add to God’s Word, but by
explaining away the passages of Scripture that contradict their doctrine, they
take away from God’s Word (Revelation 22:18-19). For example, Christ said, “When
the dead rise, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are like the
angels who are in heaven,” (Mark
Furthermore, the Bible never refers to
angels as “sons of God”. However, to get around that fact they claim that the
“sons of God” spoken of in Job 1:6, 2:1 and a number of other passages were angels.
But, they are missing the point because the Bible never says that they are
angels. That is just assumed! And, to be faithful to God’s Word, our doctrine
must consist of what the Bible actually says, not what men assume. All assumptions are man’s word, not God’s
Word! In contrast, the Bible plainly tells us that believers are the “sons
of God,” therefore, when I say that the “sons of God” spoken of in Genesis 6:4
were believers, or that the “sons of God” spoken of in Job 1:6 and 2:1 were
believers who had been saved through faith in the coming messiah, and died
before the time of Job, I am interpreting Scripture in the light of what it
actually says, not in the light of an assumption (John 1:12). Furthermore,
nothing can change the fact that angels do not marry. As it is written, “When the dead rise, they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage; but are like the angels who are in heaven” (Mark
One man, who was trying to get around the
words of Mark 12:25, argued that, those words only say that angels do not
marry, they do not say that they cannot marry.” What he blinded himself to was
that fact that it also does not say that they can marry. He just used that
argument as an excuse to brush aside and ignore what Mark
When it comes to reproduction, we need to remember
that angels are not human. They are an entirely different life form. A
different created kind! Therefore, it would be just as wrong for them to mate
with humans as it would be for a human to mate with an animal (Leviticus
I have no idea where they get the idea
that the “sons of God” are fallen angels, or how any fallen angel can be a “son
of God” (Romans
Conclusion
The Keil and
Delitzsch Commentary, which is generally regarded as
the best in regard to the Hebrew, Says this about Genesis 6:4, “Luther gives
the correct meaning, ‘tyrants:’ they were called Nephilim because they fell upon
the people and oppressed them.” (Page 137).
That is why the Tyndale
(Rogers, Coverdale) Bible translates the first words
of Genesis 6:4 as, “There were tyrants in the world in those days”.
In dealing with this heresy, we do not need to refute
every interpretation that its advocates dream up in support of it. The very
fact that they are adding to “the body of divine truth… figments and fabrications,” makes it wrong. [See, Christian Dogmatics, by J.T. Muller, page
39.] Furthermore, because the Holy Spirit will never lead us to disobey Him by
adding to His Word, we can be certain that it is of the devil. Moreover, those
who promote it are doing the devil’s work because they teach others (by example)
to make up explanations, to add to God’s Word doctrines that consist of
explanations (instead of what the Bible explicitly says), and to explain away
passages that do not fit their ideas — instead of rejecting any ideas that
contradict Scripture (Isaiah
Because the Holy Spirit will never lead people to add
to His Word, or twist what it says, how can people who profess to love the Lord
and trust in Christ do just that? Is it because they
are double-minded (James 1:5-8)? One thing that I have noticed is that even
though those who abuse Scripture in this way profess to trust in Christ for
salvation, they often are not trusting in Christ for righteousness. Oh, they
might say that they are, but when you get to know them you find that they are
really trying to earn God’s favor by their works. Some have certain rules about
dress, hair, and tithing that they try to keep; but more often they believe
that they must “obey” unwritten commands, given through “still small voices” in
their minds, in order to have God’s favor. And, if that is what they are trusting in to bring God’s favor, they are not trusting in
Christ. At least they are not trusting in Christ alone, and that is
double-mindedness.