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Watchers, Nephilim, and Rock Hard Abs

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Watchers, Nephilim, and Rock Hard Abs

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Watchers, Nephilim, and Rock Hard Abs

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Aronofsky's Noah, debuted last Friday, March 28th, and has made a big splash at the box office, receiving a torrent of reviews, both positive and negative. This film embellishes on the true story of Noah on many levels, but this sermonette will discuss one facet of the movie, "The Watchers", and compare it to the Bible.

Sermon Notes

PRESENTER'S NOTES

Friday a week ago, Aronofsky’s NOAH hit the Box Office with a big splash! Even before it arrived, it had already created quite a torrent of commentary, much of it negative in Christian circles.

I have not seen the movie, nor do I intend to, so I will confess to you now that my observations about the movie are in the third person, relying mostly on published video and written reviews.

In the Bible, the story of the life of Noah and his family spans four chapters, with short references throughout scripture, too, leaving a lot to the imagination as to how life on earth was at that time and all the ways Noah and family would have successfully gone about doing the will of God in saving themselves and the animal kingdom from a great flood.

So, it is understandable how creative license might easily enter into a Hollywood picture purportedly designed to tell the story.

Here’s the only problem with that expectation. Based on reports I’ve seen and read, about the only facets of the movie that seem to possibly adhere to the story are the name of the primary character, NOAH, and maybe the believable rendition of dimension and structure of the ark.

Today, I want to focus on a discussion of something that is not found in the story of Noah, at least not the story of Noah found in the Bible, but is central to the story created by this movie.

Esoteric - intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

Gnosticism - a prominent heretical movement of the 2nd-century Christian Church, partly of pre-Christian origin. Gnostic doctrine taught that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, the demiurge and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit.

Kabbalah – oral transmission of mystic traditions in Judaism, usually used to try and define the spirit realm, be in connection with it, or seek to influence it.

In the movie, a group of fallen angels called “The Watchers” are convinced by Noah to help him build his boat. They are spirit beings that, when cast down to earth from heaven, were encased in the molten rock their fall created. Earlier in the movie, Adam and Eve are depicted as spirits that only became physical after eating of the wrong tree.

Well, let’s see if we can learn something about “The Watchers” in the Bible. Please turn with me to the Book of Enoch, chapter 6…

Are you there yet?

You won’t find the book of Enoch in the Bible, but there is a Book of Enoch supposedly written by Enoch, the father of Methuselah. Interestingly, the earliest manuscripts, however, appear to be from about 300 B.C. Enoch, of course, lived thousands of years earlier prior to the flood. I can just see Noah now reading the book of Enoch as he passes the time waiting for all the animals to come aboard the ark.

A short summary about the watchers found at remnantreport.com:

200 Rebel Watcher-Angels

According to the Book of Enoch the "watchers" were a group of angels God had commissioned to watch over the earth. Two hundred of these "watchers" rebelled against God and married the daughters of men. If interpreted literally they produced half-breed humans called the Nephilim. The Nephilim were monstrous, gigantic evil-beings.”

Okay, so, in the book of Enoch, the Nephilim are half-human and half fallen angels (or watchers), giant in stature, and evil.

Are Nephilim in the Bible? YES.

Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (ESV)

But can we conclude they are defined properly in the book of Enoch? NO.

Nephilim -5303 nphiyl nef-eel' or nphil {nef-eel'}; from 5307; properly, a feller, i.e. a bully or tyrant:--giant. see HEBREW for 05307

So, with this definition, we receive no information about physical or spiritual make-up. It can mean gigantic and it can mean a bully or a tyrant.

For an angel to help make a baby, the angel would have to be able to participate in intercourse, wouldn’t that be so?

Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.


So, if angels don’t have gender, and, therefore, don’t have sex, how can the giants, or Nephilim, be descended from them?

Because the Book of Enoch says so? NO. It’s not inspired text.
Because many in Christendom say so? NO. Jesus said it’s impossible.

Though the Nephilim are not clearly described in scripture, we can still appreciate these facts given by scripture.

  1. God’s word is truth. The Book of Enoch is not part of God’s word. (Ps. 119:160; Jn. 17:17)
  2. Jesus teaches the Sadducees that angels do not marry (a word related to gender distinction and union) (Mt. 22:30; Mk. 12:25)


And, third, scripture also provides us some clues…

Back in Genesis 6:4 there’s something strange in the statement made in that it explains the Nephilim were present on the earth in those days… AND afterwards, or, after that. How could Nephilim, if human, survive the flood?

Let’s turn to the Book of Numbers to see an important association that is made when Israel spied out the Promised Land.

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. (ESV)
Joshua 14:15 And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim).

Then the land had rest from war.

So, let’s follow some logic here. We know that the Book of Enoch is a later written work attributed to the pre-flood, so the concept of fallen angels marrying women is artificially injected into scriptural interpretation. We also learn from the words of Jesus that angels do not marry, so the “sons of God” in Genesis could not refer to any kind of spirit being.

We also learn from Genesis 6:4 that the Nephilim existed pre-flood and post-flood, further proven by descriptions in Numbers and Joshua. Additionally, these referenced passages clearly state that these giants are men, not angels.

Remembering that Nephilim can mean both “giant” and “tyrant” or “bully”, let’s make a quick note of some biblical facts.

From Ham, the youngest son of Noah, came Cush who fathered Nimrod, described as a mighty man in defiance to God; Egypt who fathered Casluhim, forefather of the Philistines & Goliath, and Canaan, who was the forefather of the Canaanites, the people who made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers.

Though we can confidently conclude that Noah and his sons were not Nephilim, each had a wife, and these wives are not described as to their origins. Looking at the lineage of Ham, we find clues that both defiant, mighty men and giants descended from him and his wife.

So, when tempted to watch a movie that itself willfully defies God, perverting both the definition of God’s nature and the definition of the righteousness of the saints, try to remember:

  1. God’s word is always true.
  2. Man’s word is a mixture of true and false
  3. God is holy, and so are God’s saints.

Better YET, just don’t watch the movie.