MORE QUOTATIONS REGARDING THE NEPHILIM AND “THE SPIRITS IN PRISON”
E. W. Bullinger wrote (Things
to Come, 10(9):104-105, March 1904):
Questions and Answers.
D.L. London. “Please explain
Isa. 26. In verse 14 it says the dead shall not rise; and in verse 19 it says
they shall rise. To whom do these words refer?”
The difficulty is only apparent,
and arises from the fact that the English Versions translate the words and do
not tell you what the Hebrew is. Even Newberry, who tells you in verse 19, does
not so in verse 14.
To see the beauty of the passages,
as well as to have the difficulty removed, it is necessary to see the structure
of the “song” which occupies the whole chapter (Isa. 26) You might easily make
this for yourself. And if you tried, you would find that it has two subjects: the
righteous and the wicked, which alternate throughout the chapter,
and from five pairs (or ten numbers in all):
A1/1-4. The Righteous. Their
Salvation.
B1/5,6.
The wicked. Brought down.
A2/7-9. The Righteous. Their way.
B2/10,11.
The wicked. Devoured.
A3/12,13. The Righteous. Their
God.
B3/14.
The wicked. Rephaim. No Resurrection.
A4/15-19a. The Righteous. Nation
increased, and Raised from the dead.
B4/19b.
The wicked. Rephaim. No Resurrection.
A5/20. The Righteous. Preserved.
B5/21.
The wicked. Destroyed.
The word translated “dead” in
verse 14, and in the last clause of v. 19, is Rephaim, and refers, not
to men, but to the Nephilim of Gen 6.4. The Nephilim were the
fallen ones; the awful progeny of the fallen angels, and are so called from
the Hebrew Naphal (to fall) (compare Gen, 6.1,2, with Jude 6-8
and 2 Pet. 2.4,5). These had to be destroyed by the Flood. But there was a
second irruption “after that” (Gen. 6.4). This second progeny had to be
destroyed by Israel. These Rephaim are called Nephilim in Num.
13.33, where (wrongly following the Vulgate) the word is translated “giants”;
they are also called Rephaim after a notable one named Rapha. (2
Sam. 21.16,18,20,22; 1 Chron. 20.4,6,8). They were identical with the
Canaanites (Gen. 15.20, Josh. 17:15). These had to be destroyed like the
former, Nephilim. But a flood was not necessary. Israel was used as
God’s sword: although today, poor “wise” man condemns God as cruel for this
merciful interposition and necessary judgment.
It is clear from these two verses
of Isa. 26 that they will have no resurrection. Verse 14 declares:
“The dead shall not live again.
The Rephaim shall not rise.”
It will be otherwise with the
Righteous, the righteous nation. Verse 19:
“Thy dead shall live.
Thy dead bodies shall arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in
the dust:
For thy dew is as the dew of
herbs.”
It is otherwise, however, with the
Rephaim for the next line says:
“But the earth shall cast forth
the Rephaim.”
The words “cast forth” have nothing
to do with resurrection. The Hebrew is Naphal, to fall (as in
verse 18). The meaning of the word is the very opposite. It means to cast
down, not to cast up. See Num. 35.23; 2 Kings 3.19 (to fall. So ch.
6.5). Job 6.27 (overwhelm, marg., cause to fall); 29.24; Ps. 140.10;
Jer. 3.12; Ezek. 32.12, 39.3; Dan. 8.10. Hence, the Nephilim are the
fallen ones. The word occurs only in Gen. 6.4, and Num. 13.33 (twice).
The Rephaim are the same
evil progeny, but they got their name from a prominent one named Rapha.
The Hebrew word Rapha (often translated plural) occurs in Gen. 14.5,
15.20; Deut. 2.11,20, 3:11,13. Josh. 12.4, 13.12, 15.8, 17.15, 18.16; 2 Sam.
5.18,22, 23.13; 1 Chron. 11.15, 14.9, 20.4,6,8. Is. 17.5.
The plural, , occurs in Job 26.5;
Ps. 88.10; prov. 2.18, 9.16, 21.16; Is. 14.9, 26:14,19.
E. W. Bullinger wrote (Things
to Come, 12(2):23, February 1906):
J. S. We thank you for your very
kind letter re 1 Pet. 3.19-20. we do not, however, see with you that
this passage can be separated from 2 Pet. 2.4 (and Jude 6). In 2 Pet. 2.4 the
sin of those angels is associated with the days of Noah, as in 1 Pet. 3.19-20.
It is true that the words “cast them down to Tartarus” are not in 1 Pet. 3.
There we have en phulakh (en phulakē) instead. But can this really make
any difference? True in 2 Pet. 2.5 the verb Oulasso
(phulassō) is used. But while the verb means to keep, or guard,
the noun (as in 1 Pet.) is always used in a bad sense. It occurs 46
times in the New Testament, and is rendered prison 35 times; imprisonment
2; hold 1; ward 1; watch 6; cage 1. This, we think,
should settle the point. The question is: Can we, in the face of this fact,
take the word in 1 Pet. 3:19 in a good sense, when in every other place
it is used in a bad sense? For our part we dare not do it.
And, further, we dare not take
“spirits” as meaning other than angels, inasmuch as the word is never
elsewhere used of men in any form or condition. Man has a spirit,
but he is not a spirit. Moreover, we see good men marrying bad women,
and vice versa, every day: but we see no race of violent monsters
calling down the special judgment of God.
We quite agree that all this does
not affect us who experimentally know and enjoy our position in Christ – the
Mystery! But surely it concerns us to have a right understanding as to all that
God has written for our learning.
E. W. Bullinger wrote (Things
to Come, 11(10):110-111, October 1905):
“S” and “s” or THE USE AND
USAGE OF pneuma in the New Testament.
1 Pet. 3.19. “By (or in) which
[resurrection body] to the-in-prison-pneumata also, he went and made
proclamation”
…These angels “once were
disobedient;” and this disobedience here, is set in contrast with the obedience
of those “angels” spoken of in verse 22 as being “subject” and therefore
obedient unto Christ.
In Jude 6 we are told that “they
kept not their first estate, but left (apoleipw, apoleipō, to leave completely, or, leave
behind. Compare 2 Tim. 4.13,20) their own habitation (oikhthrion, oiketerion, used only here and 2 Cor. 5.2 of a spirit-body).”
What this means, or what it involves we cannot tell; and no one can tell us.
Whatever it was it made their sin possible; which, otherwise, with our present
knowledge, seems to us impossible (in Luke 8.29 a pneuma could tear and
rend a man).
That it was thus possible for them
to sin as recorded in Gen. 6.1-4 is clearly implied in Jude 7, where their sin
is compared to the sin of “Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them IN
LIKE MANNER giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange (eteroV, heteros, different
in kind) flesh, are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire”…
So awful was this progeny, and so
monstrous in every sense of the word, that it doubtless became the basis of the
heathen mythology. That mythology did not have its origin in the imagination of
man, but it had its historical bases in fact; and that fact the Scripture thus
explains to us…
So terrible were the results of
this fall of the angels… so universal was it, that only one family was found
untainted…
Infidels never tire of charging
God with cruelty, not knowing the awful ancestry, or the nature and character
of this corrupt race. The judgment executed by Israel was a mercy (Ps. 136.20)
to the whole human race.
It was the sight of these horrible
creatures that so frightened the twelve spies (Num 13.28-33). And it was the
first great victory over them that makes the destruction of “Og, king of Bashan,”
so celebrated in Israel’s history (Num 21; Read Josh. 12; 13; 15.8; 17.15,
18.16, Ps. 136.20.) David completed the work of destruction (1 Chron. 20.4,6,8.
Compare 2 Sam. 21.16,18,20,22)…
The context of 1 Pet. 3.18-22
shows that the passage is the continuation of what precedes, as it commences
with the word “For.”
The scope of the passage shows
that those to whom Peter was inspired to write, were suffering great and heavy
trials (See 1 pet. 1.7, 2.20-23, 3.14-17, 4.12-19.) and needed encouragement to
enable them to endure their suffering for well doing… FOR Christ also suffered…
But, He was raised again from the dead, and thus had a glorious triumph…
This is the scope of the
passage-and no other explanation of “the-in-prison-spirits” will satisfy the
whole context, of which this verse is only a part; being introduced by the word
“for,” which connects it indissolubly with what precedes.
James Christopher Smith wrote
(Things to Come, 11(12):138-139, December 1905):
The Ages: Past, Present, and
Future. 5. The Main Cause of the Apostacy.
In all God’s ways with men,
effects follow causes with precision and fitness; and the question will come
up, viz., Could such a catastrophe as the Flood, involving the destruction of
the whole race (save one family) be caused by the sin of members of the race,
as such, either individually or conjointly? Or, Do we find that there was
another agency at work, another source of mischief operating; using the members
of the race, unwittingly, to accomplish their undoing?
Surely a fair treatment of the
verses 6.1-8 leaves no doubt as to the true answer to these questions.
When Satan fell, doubtless many
angels fell with him, and that event must have happened before the creation of
Adam; but no one can say that other angels would not fall, nor say how far
Satan might tempt others to fall. And though one cannot definitely say so by
the Word of the Lord, yet one’s conviction, from analogy is that the Temper
somehow induced these angels to leave their proper habitation as he had tempted
Adam and Eve to disobey God…
…The devil and his angels, and the
legions of demons are not shut up in Tartarus, nor yet bound in chains,
but they are very much at large indeed, both in heaven and earth. Who, then,
are these imprisoned angel-spirits who have a special repressive measure meted
out to them? Who, but “the angels that sinned” in the days of Noah, who went
after human flesh which for them was “strange (or different) flesh,” and left
behind them a progeny great in stature and mighty in mischief?
And this was not the only instance
of the same thing. It distinctly says, in Gen. 6.4, that “after that” (i.e.
after the flood), the same thing happened: and this is referred to in Numbers
13.33, as accounting for the presence of these Nephilim, or fallen ones,
who “come of the Nephilim” (see R.V.), in the land of Canaan. And
here, again, we have the root cause for the extermination of the Canaanites. It
was not at all a matter of unjust cruelty or vengeance on the part of Israel;
but it was a matter of moral necessity for the well being of the human race,
as such; and hence it was a command of God. In this case the sword
was the instrument of judgment. Joshua beginning the work, and David ending it…
…Let no reader imagine that this
is a new, twentieth-century interpretation… that these “sons of God,” by
creation, were angels, was pointed to in some MSS. of the LXX, where the
reading.. angels of God is found; and it was held by such representative
men as Philo, Josephus, Justin Martyr, Clement, Tertullian, Luther,
Rosenmüller, Ewald, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Hengstenberg and Alford, and it is held,
today, by many of those who lead us in Bible study…
… the punitive justice of God was
to preserve the race from absolute extinction, and secure the fulfillment of
His Word and Will in the coming of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3.15).
Col. G. J. van Someren wrote
(Things to Come, 20(6):64-65, June 1914):
When that hour is about to sound,
the great red dragon, Satan, shall be cast out of the heavenlies (Rev. 12.7-9),
and will summon all his forces for the last great campaign of the war that he
has waged continuously with the woman from the day he won the first battle over
her in the Garden of Eden.
Himself reproducing the sin that
brought the Flood on a world filled with a hybrid race (Gen. 6:1-13; Jude 6.7;
2 Pet. 2. 18-20; 1 Pet.3.18-20), he will set forth his own child the
antichrist, thus claiming for himself the seed of the woman, and will bring up
his own false prophet, who helped by the spirits of wonder working demons,
shall set forth the things concerning the Antichrist work, miracles and cause
all to worship the man of sin (Rev. 13.11-17; 16.13-14). Thus will the great
dragon, Satan, complete the blasphemous imitation of The Father, Son, and holy
spirit, but the mingling of seeds will but hasten the day of wrath and the doom
that awaits him, his offspring, his principalities and powers and his unhappy
human dupes. The stroke falls on the fourth Kingdom, the power of the Gentile,
controlled and energized throughout by Satan and more manifestly so in its
closing days, collapses; and the “God of Heaven” sets up a Kingdom which
endures, the long foretold Kingdom of Heaven. Then, and not till then, “shall
the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the
sea,” “the law shall go forth from Zion” “the city of the great King,” the
promise to Abraham that “in him should all nations of the earth be blessed”
will be fulfilled, for then “in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,” and
all things in heaven and earth and under the earth “confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Mr. W. H. Bacon wrote (Things
to Come, 21(4):41-42; 21(5):57-58 and 21(6):79, April 1915):
Spiritism is by no means a new
thing, but is a repetition of that which has been before; the present phase of
the evil, however, has not yet come to a head, although it is fast hastening
thereto.
The first detailed account of the
outbreak is recorded for our learning in Genesis 6.1-8… every family,
therefore, with the solitary exception of Noah’s, was thoroughly contaminated
through the wickedness of the unlawful marriages referred to in v. 2.
Now, that the same sin is to mark
the end of this dispensation is fully set out in the Lord’s own words: “As the
days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. For as
in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew
not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of
the Son of man be” (Matt. 24.37-39).
There is no sin in eating or
drinking, or marrying or giving in marriage… and we must consequently look for
some more reasonable explanation of these marriages that are to precede the
coming of the Son of man; and since the Lord compares them to the marriages
that preceded the flood, we shall not have much difficulty if we are discerners
of the times…
Knowing what I do of Spiritism, I
venture to say that, whereas the purpose of Satan in the first and second
irruptions of the fallen angels was to thwart the purpose of God, concerning
THE SEED which is CHRIST, the next attempt, which is verily near at
hand, if not already accomplished, is the bringing into the world “the mistery
of iniquity,” Satan manifest in the flesh, the personal Antichrist, who will
for a time pose as the Messiah, and whom the Jews will receive as such.
The Antichrist… is, I conceive, to
be born by the agency of Spirit Materialization…
That spiritist materialization is
no fiction the writer well knows from personal experience before his conversion
to God.
Many Christians deny the
possibility of materialization on the ground-they say-that materialization is
creation and that God alone can create. It is perfectly true that God alone can
create, i.e., “bring into being out of nothing,” but materialization is
the reducing of something which already exists to a state of matter of which
our senses can take cognizance…
Here are absolute proofs of the
possibility of Spirit Materialization-angels actually appearing and being,
therefore, regarded as men…
The fact that angels (spirits)
could and did materialize goes far to prove that spirits-although fallen-may
have still the power to materialize and de-materialize, and we think it
probable that herein is the meaning of the expression of Jude 6, “the angels
which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,” their evil
object being to cohabit with the daughters of men, which we are thoroughly
convinced is the ultimate object of the spirits today, not, of course, those
who are spoken of in 2 Pet. 2.4, who are imprisoned, “reserved into judgment,”
but another host of rebellious angels who will fulfill the prediction of the
Lord in Matt. 24.37-39…
Indeed, through the grace of God,
in the manifestation of His goodness and mercy to me in October, 1887, in
Instantaneously Delivering me from demonic possession which had come about
through my tampering with Spiritism, I was led by the Spirit of god to true
repentance and to follow on to know the Lord… it may well be imagined,
therefore, that I am deeply anxious not only to preach the gospel of the grace
of God, but also to warn all against the diabolical evil of Spiritism-Spiritualism
so-called-but which in dread reality is demonism, root and branch…
…I was easily beguiled into
Spiritism by a “religious” aunt, in whom I had then great confidence, as being
assuredly a good woman. She had lost a son, and upon my paying her a visit she
amazed me by stating that she had attended a “séance” where she was able
to communicate “with him”… I have seen… materialization of spirit in the
process, and de-materialization also.
I have seen materialized spirits
purporting to be dead friends but still “alive,” and I have proved them to
be merely LYING SPIRITS, and not the deceased person whom they pretended to
be…
…The dead… are dead; so dead
indeed, that the dead know not anything, as it is written: “For the living know
that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more
a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their
hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion
for ever in any thing that is done under the sun” (Ecc. 9.5-6)…
Spiritism in its present phase
could not exist a single day, if all believed the Word of God concerning them
that “sleep”-neither could Romish purgatory-but as long as men prefer Satan’s
lie to God’s truth, Spiritism will grow and develop until it covers the
earth,as it did in Noah’s days…
…To prove from the Scriptures the fact that death is death, for only by this means can Spiritism be successfully combated.