In the article by Becky Ferreira titled Scientists Have Proposed a New Particle That Is a Portal to a 5th Dimension, an entrance to another realm is the subject of a new academic study that proposes “a portal to a warped fifth dimension that mediates the cosmic realms of light and dark.
“You would be forgiven for assuming that sentence is a science fiction synopsis, but it is actually the mind-boggling upshot of a recent study that seeks to illuminate some of the most persistent enigmas in science,” the article promises.[i]
Of course, an ambitious project like THE FINAL NEPHILIM SERIES we have launched also requires a preliminary discussion of concepts and terminology that, to cut to the case, necessitates defining what is meant by terms like “portals” as well as “the immortals” that historically navigated them and will again as we approach the year 2025.
Uh-huh. You read that correctly.
My late friend Chuck Missler believed that “we are being plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about any other period of human history—including the time that Jesus walked the shore of the Sea of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea!”[ii] In accepting that premise, it is a very exciting time to be alive, and the content within this series will prove useful to the motivated student of prophecy.
Who Are the Portal-Traversing “Immortals”?
The obvious starting point is to be specific as to exactly whose path this series is on. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “immortal” as one “exempt from death” or “imperishable.” It is important to note that this is not the same as “eternal,” which the same reference defines as “having infinite duration.” The key idea is that the immortal has a beginning in time, but the eternal has always been.
The psalmist addresses the angels (Hebrew: malak) and hosts (Hebrew: tsaba):
Praise ye him, all his angels: Praise ye him, all his hosts. Let them praise the name of the Lord: For he commanded, and they were created.…
He hath also established them for ever and ever: He hath made a decree which shall not pass. (Psalm 148: 2, 5–6, emphasis added)
In this passage, we see two groups of created beings who do not die: angels and hosts. However, it is more accurate to view these as job descriptions rather as than types of beings.
Beginning with an ancient book called Celestial Hierarchy, purported to be authored by the Athenian convert Dionysius of New Testament fame (Acts 17:34), one encounters two thousand years’ worth of angelology as a branch of academic theological study. However, this reflects the common error of defining “angel” as a type of being. For example, someone might say it was not a human, but an angel, who rolled away the stone of Jesus’ tomb. The term malak is the Hebrew equivalent of the English “messenger,”[iii] and there were both human and supernatural malakim, including the Angel of the Lord. A scholarly resource supports this plea for newfound precision in terminology: “The translation of malak by ‘angel’ in English Bibles obscures the ancient Israelite perception of the divine realm. Where English ‘angel’ is the undifferentiating term for all of God’s supernatural assistants, malak originally could be applied only to those assistants whom God dispatched on missions as messengers.”[iv] Similarly, the Hebrew word tsaba, “hosts,” is a military term and is often translated “armies.”[v] Of course, there are human and supernatural armies as well. Accordingly, a term like “immortals” is more precise and, we believe, useful for references to supernatural beings.
Among the immortals, we are honing in on a particular group who likely play leading roles in the eschatological scenario that we find ourselves living in the midst of. Among the immortals, divine messengers are usually depicted as indistinguishable from human beings (Hebrews 13:2; Genesis 19:1–22 and 32:25–31; Daniel 8:15; Luke 24:4; and Acts 1:10), but other times they are depicted in overwhelmingly supernatural terms (Daniel 10:6; Matthew 28:3). Apparently, they are ordered in ranks, because some are referred to as “archangels,” while others are simply “angels” (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9). Because most of these appearances recorded in Scripture are of male messengers, it is commonly assumed that there are no female angels.
In Sense and Nonsense about Angels and Demons, Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman conclude that “angels can appear in bodily form, but they don’t come in male and female varieties.”[vi] However, the authors simply ignore or overlook contrary biblical evidence. The prophet Zechariah recorded a vision entailing two female supernatural entities with wings on a divinely appointed mission:
Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. (Zechariah 5:9, emphasis added)
A stork is an unclean bird to the Hebraic mindset. Furthermore, these winged women are carrying another woman only identified as “Wickedness” (Zechariah 5:8). On one hand, it seems likely that these women are fallen angels, but on the other hand, one could argue that because it was a divinely appointed mission, it was not indicative of their status. Either way, the idea that the immortals are exclusively male seems to be based more on male-dominated tradition than on biblical exegesis.
Another dogma similarly lacking in support, but commonly assumed, is the belief that the immortals are fundamentally incorporeal, or without bodies. However, many passages indicate physicality. When Abraham was visited by three immortals on the plains of Mamre, they walked, talked, sat, and ate the food he prepared (Genesis 18:1–8). Also, the writer of Hebrews reminds us to “be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2), an admonition that carries no force, given their immateriality. From these examples, most theologians surmise that although they are incorporeal, they can appear as physical beings when it suits their purposes. But why must we assume their natural state is incorporeity?
The tradition is largely based on the opinion of Thomas Aquinas, famously known as the “Angelic Doctor,” who argued that things of the spirit realm consist of spirit, but things of the earthly realm consist of matter (earth). Yet, Aquinas assumed the pagan cosmology of Aristotle, which held that there are four elements (earth, fire, water, and air). Aristotle’s doctrine of natural place demanded that material beings were “of earth” and that beings like angels, residing in the heavens, were “of air” and could not be physical. Of course, Aristotelian cosmology has been discredited by science, so one wonders why such theological conclusions based on its tenets are still so widely accepted.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO:
WATCH: Ryan Pitterson Details How While Many Have Portrayed Antichrist To Be A Charismatic, Military Genius, He Will Actually Be Something FAR MORE SINISTER–THE FINAL NEPHILIM!
Other theologians do offer a biblical rationale for the tradition that the immortals are fundamentally incorporeal. For example, Boa and Bowman make this case from Scripture:
In biblical accounts of their visits to human beings, angels generally seem to appear suddenly and then disappear without any explanation. For example, when the women discovered Jesus’ tomb to be empty and the stone rolled away, Luke tells us, “Suddenly, two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them,” causing the women to fall on the ground in terror (Luke 24:4–5). (John refers to these two individuals as “angels” in John 20:12; see also Luke 24:22–23.) So, when angels did appear, their physical forms were evidently temporary ones taken for the purpose of interacting with human beings and not their own intrinsic forms.[vii]
There seems to be an assumed premise that only incorporeal entities can appear and disappear suddenly. Given that, the argument is structured as such:
1) Only incorporeal beings can appear and disappear suddenly.
2) Angels appear and disappear suddenly.
3) Therefore, angels are incorporeal beings.
But is this sound reasoning? An argument is valid when its conclusion follows from its premises, and it is sound when, in addition, its premises are true. This argument is valid but not necessarily sound. Why? Premise 1 that “only incorporeal beings can appear and disappear suddenly” is simply assumed without any supporting evidence. There are many possible explanations for why these beings seem to appear and disappear.
A biblical counterexample is Jesus’ sudden postresurrection appearance in a locked room to the astonished disciples:
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (John 20:19)
Eight days later, Jesus again appeared in a locked room and asked Thomas to touch His wounded body (John 20:28). Theologians would not likely argue that Jesus was inherently incorporeal from those appearances, so we conclude that the argument for the incorporeity of the immortals, based on sudden appearances and vanishings, is not sound. We offer the extradimensional hypothesis as a better explanation.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO
THOMAS HORN DESCRIBES A MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN WHERE A PORTAL IS SAID TO EXIST
A being existing in dimensions beyond our observable three dimensions would seem to appear abruptly as it entered our space and disappear just as quickly as it left. For example, if a three-dimensional pencil were to pass through a two-dimensional “stick figure” world on a sheet of paper, the pencil would suddenly appear as a small point growing to the width of the pencil, remain the same size as its length slides through, and then abruptly disappear. Should the two-dimensional, stick-figure eyewitnesses to this visitation conclude that pencils are nonphysical beings? Hardly… Therefore, when angels seem to appear at will, they might be taking advantage of extra unseen dimensions. We are not given enough information to make dogmatic statements about the nature of the immortals—some who completely defy the classification “angel.”
While the angels appear in male (Daniel 10:5) and female (Zechariah 5:9) human forms, not all of the immortals are so friendly to the eyes. Biblical scholar S. A. Meier points out that “an early Israelite from the period of the monarchy would probably not have identified the theriomorphic [having an animal form] cherubim and seraphim as malakim ‘messengers,’ for the frightful appearance of these creatures made them unlikely candidates to serve as mediators of God’s message to humans.”[viii] Because the Bible never mentions these immortals functioning as messengers, the classification “angel” is a misnomer.
Isaiah describes the heavenly throne room and its attendant Seraphim:
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: The whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6:2–3)
The Hebrew is simply transliterated to “seraphim” in English Bibles, obscuring its true meaning. In later chapters of Isaiah, when sarap appears alongside the Hebrew verb uph for “flying,”[ix] it is rendered “fiery flying serpent” (Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6). The meaning should not be controversial. In addition to the four occurrences in Isaiah, the word sarap has three occurrences in the Torah, all of which refer to snakes (Numbers 21:6, 8; Deuteronomy 8:15). Scholarly consensus affirms that “the Seraphim are now generally conceived as winged serpents with certain human attributes.”[x]
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO:
On The First AND SECOND Coming Of Fallen Angels, Giants And The Nephilim With Dr. Thomas Horn And Dennis Lindsay
In sacred Scripture, Daniel mentions the Watchers four times, even revealing that King Nebuchadnezzar’s curse was “by the decree of the watchers” (Daniel 4:17). The Watchers are widely attested in intertestamental Jewish literature. The most famous example is the “Book of the Watchers” (1 Enoch 1–36), where the term is used for the fallen immortals, the sons of God, who fathered the Nephilim in Genesis 6, amongst other acts of debauchery against the created order. A variant version of the story in the Book of Jubilees has the Watchers come down to teach men holiness (Jubilees 3:15), but they are subsequently corrupted when they lust after human women (Jubilees 5:1). In Jubilees, the evil immortals have a leader named Mastema, who persuades God to let one-tenth of the evil spirits remain with him on earth to corrupt and lead humankind astray.
In a document fragment found in Cave 4 among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Amram, the father of Moses, sees the chief angel of darkness (a Watcher named Melkiresha) in the form of a reptilian (bracketed suspension points represent scroll damage/irretrievable text):
I saw Watchers in my vision, a dream vision, and behold two (of them) argued about me and said […] and they were engaged in a great quarrel concerning me. I asked them: “You, what are you […] thus […] about me?” They answered and said to me: “We have been made masters and rule over all the sons of men.” And they said to me: “Which of us do you choose […]
I raised my eyes and saw one of them. His looks were frightening like those of a viper, and his garments were multi-colored and he was extremely dark […]
And afterwards I looked and behold […] by his appearance and his face was like that of an adder [a venomous snake], and he was covered with […] together, and his eyes […]”[xi]
This reptilian Watcher seems to be an entirely different sort of creature than the human-looking messenger angels one encounters in the New Testament.
In the Bible, the Cherubim usually serve in one of two functions: as guardians of a sacred tree (Genesis 3:24) or as guardians and carriers of a throne (Psalm 18:10). While they have human features, Cherubim are chimeras, “the Israelite counterpart of the sphinx.”[xii] Ezekiel offers the most elaborate description (Ezekiel 1:10, 9:3; 10:15–22) in which they have the “likeness of a man” but “had four faces, and every one had four wings” (Ezekiel 1:6). In Revelation, they, or a similar creature, are also described as “beasts full of eyes before and behind” (Revelation 4:6). Minor differences in the descriptions might suggest a subjective element in mystical visions like the examples recorded by Ezekiel and John, or perhaps it indicates some variety in Cherub attributes. Stranger still, we believe these entities are “shape shifters” who can morph their physical forms. Whatever the case may be, the point we are driving at is that Cherubim are fearsome creatures, not the putti—plump rosy-cheeked winged babies seen in Renaissance and Baroque art—that they are commonly mixed up with.[xiii]
The Zohar Hadash, a book of commentary by rabbinic kabbalists, reveals that occultists believe that angels can shape shift. Although chained, certain fallen angels can still exert influence via magic.
Usually when angels descend to earth, they clothe themselves with air and take on temporary matter, of which they divest themselves when they are ready to go back on high. But the two angels were so eager to remain among women that they became more completely material, and they had been on earth for seven consecutive days, they could not return again to heaven. They begot children upon their mortal wives; then God chained them in mountains of darkness with iron chains which are fixed to the great deep. Were it not for these bonds they would obliterate the world. Even fettered they can still weaken the celestial family by the magic spells they know and which they teach to all who resort to them. These angels draw their vitality from the north, the “left side.” They are the anshe shem (literally: “men of name”) because they use the holy names in magical incantations.[xiv]
The cryptic reference to the “left side” likely reflects that north is to the left of the rising sun, but as a source of vitality, it indicates their false independence from God—the kabbalist concept of Qliphoth, denoting the character of evil and impure things and the realm of Satan and demons.
Even more, it seems likely that the Prince of Darkness himself is of the Cherub family. Ezekiel likens the downfall of the proud king of Tyre to the fall and curse on the serpent (Genesis 3:14–15) in an amazing lament (Ezekiel 28:11–19). It sees through the proud human despot to the evil power behind him. It harkens back to the immortal “anointed cherub,” in the “garden of God” and on the “mountain of God” (Ezekiel 28:13–14). That ancient serpent (Hebrew Nachash) who fell and deceived the first humans in the garden is later positively identified as the devil or Satan (Revelation 12:9).
Hebrew Bible scholar Michael Heiser argues that the so-called serpent in the Garden of Eden was no snake. The noun spelled Nachash in Hebrew can mean “snake or serpent”[xv] or, as a verb, “to practice divination,”[xvi] but as an adjective, it means “bright, brazen.”[xvii] In Hebrew grammar, it is common for adjectives to be used as nouns or substantivized.[xviii] Thus, it is a valid option to translate Nachash as a noun meaning “shining one.” Heiser concludes, “Eve was not talking to a snake. She was speaking to a bright, shining upright being who was serpentine in appearance, and who was trying to bewitch her with lies.”[xix] This makes the Genesis account seem all the more plausible; after all, snakes do not have vocal cords and Eve was not immediately taken aback as one would expect, given a talking snake, suggesting that perhaps she was even accustomed to seeing such entities.
It is rather satisfying to know that even in light of what we have learned from Ugaritic and Egyptian texts concerning the ancient context of Scripture, the controversial Hebrew Bible passages (Genesis 3, Isaiah 14, and Ezekiel 28) classically used to describe the devil of New Testament theology (often to the disapproval of scholars) can now be rigorously reconciled. Heiser addresses all three passages as a composite sketch:
- Genesis 3: The Nachash (“Shining One”) is “put down on the ground” (denoted by the “eating dust” reference in 3:14).
- Isaiah 14: Helel (“Shining One”) is “brought down to Sheol” (v. 11); “cut down to the earth [erets]” (v. 12); “thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit” (v. 15).
- Ezekiel 28: The brilliant, shining Cherub is “cast from the [cosmic] mountain of God” (v. 16) and “cast to the ground [erets]” (v. 17).
Heiser explains: “All three have a shining supernatural being in Eden who rebelled against God, who sought to usurp the headship of the divine council, who was cast from God’s presence, and who was placed beneath the created things he vowed to rule, sentenced to the domain of the Underworld.”[xx] We believe that the time draws near when the final aspect of Satan’s sentence will be executed and all hell will break loose on earth when the portal to the abyss is opened.
UP NEXT: What Is a Portal?
[i] https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vkny/scientists-have-proposed-a-new-particle-that-is-a-portal-to-a-5th-dimension
[ii]Chuck Missler, “Bible Study: It’s Time to Get Serious,” KHouse (accessed February 11, 2015).
[iii] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000), 521.
[iv] S. A. Meier, “Angel I,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) 47.
[v] Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Enhanced Hebrew and English Lexicon, 838.
[vi] Kenneth D. Boa, Robert M. Bowman Jr., Sense and Nonsense about Angels and Demons (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009) Kindle Location, 503.
[vii]Ibid., 507–514.
[viii] Meier, “Angel I,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons, 47.
[ix] Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, 1998).
[x] T. N. D. Mettinger, “Seraphim,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) 742.
[xi] “4Q Amramb (4Q544),” Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, revised and extended 4th ed. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 312. (Previous ed.: London: Penguin, 1987.)
[xii] Mettinger, “Cherubim,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons, 189–190.
[xiii]“Putti” at arthistory.about.com.04-13.-2012, http://arthistory.about.com/cs/glossaries/g/p_putti.htm (accessed February 11, 2015).
[xiv]Zohar Hadash, Ruth 95c in Bernard J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan’s Realm (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 2006) 179.
[xv]James Strong, #H5175, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1996).
[xvi]Ibid., #H5172.
[xvii]Ibid., #H5153, #H5702.
[xviii] B. Waltke and M. O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 1990) 261–262.
[xix] Michael S. Heiser, “The Nachash and His Seed: Some Explanatory Notes on Why the ‘Serpent’ in Genesis 3 Wasn’t a Serpent,” Dept. of Hebrew and Semitic Studies, UW-Madison, http://www.pidradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/nachashnotes.pdf.
[xx] Michael S. Heiser, The Myth That Is True (first draft, January 2, 2012, of what will be published as The Unseen Realm in 2015) 70.
Category: Featured, Featured Articles
