commentary: Conspiracy Theory (Part Eighteen)


John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 25-Apr-15; Sermon #1264c; 11 minutes

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The meteoric rise of immorality and crime in this country has made it dangerous, leading people to select charismatic but tyrannical leaders to lead them into safety, security, and dependency. These dominant leaders in government, education, media, and economics resemble the tyrannical Nephilim who brought the world to perdition before the Flood. For the past 500-600 years, these dominant charismatic luminaries have been drawing people to their teachings, creating the means for the Beast and all his horrific forces to bring the world to the brink of destruction.




I continue hearing of events that give evidence of how far America has declined in terms of quality of life since my boyhood. I recently heard of a family in Maryland that experienced the following. According to the police report, their twelve-year old son and six-year old daughter were walking home, hand-in-hand, after spending an hour or so at a local playground. A policeman spotted them and took them to the station in his auto. He then called the parents to come down and get them. When the parents arrived at the station, they were informed that if their children were apprehended again under the same circumstance, the parents would be heavily fined and subject to having the children taken from them by the Maryland Child Protective Services.

What were they guilty of? Well, they were guilty of permitting their children to go to the local park unaccompanied by a parent. It seems that it is now illegal in Maryland, even though the park was only a few blocks from their home. The children had full parental parental permission to go. They were returning home at the specified time. They had done nothing wrong at the park, and it was something that they often did.

Politicians in Maryland now perceive that America is so dangerous that all children must be accompanied by an adult at a city park just a few blocks from their home. So they created a new ordinance, thinking that it would make things safer.

For me, considering this against the backdrop of how much liberty I had as a twelve-year old to move about, this is incredible. The article did not say what city this took place in, but things look so dangerous in Maryland as to bring such a thing on. Assuming that the city fathers were not simply mean-spirited and attempting to deliberately make life difficult for the citizenry, but attempting to head off a potentially injurious or even death-dealing circumstance, I would have to assume that they determined it's pretty dangerous in Maryland.

This is a tiny, tiny item in the overall picture, but again, it's another indication that we seem to be moving toward a situation in which the law abiding citizens are virtually prisoners in their own home, bravely exiting only at considerable risk, while the evil and the careless are free to move about outside

Last Sabbath, I closed my commentary mentioning the nephilim. Modern day nephilim have impacted this situation. Most of you are familiar with the term, but perhaps it hasn't been explained for a while. 'Nephilim' is a fairly important term for the next series of commentaries ["Mightier Than the Sword"].

Nephilim appears in Genesis 6:4 in association with extreme wickedness of that time. Nephilim is an obscure plural noun left untranslated in English Bibles. The term, according to Strong's, literally indicates "a feller; somebody who knocks things over." Through the passage of time and usage, it is more frequently thought to indicate giants of some kind. This is confirmed because the verse says that they were also mighty men. The NET Bible says in a comment that they were heroes. It's an important point—that is, they were personalities who attracted a lot of attention, and with that, a large following. The verse also parenthetically says that they lived after the Flood as well. They were not confined only to the pre-Flood period of time.

One thing is clearly certain: They were completely and totally human beings. Let me make it clear that they were not the offspring of demons cohabiting with human women. This is because God's word says each kind reproduces only after its kind. Angels and humans are different kinds. They cannot—it's absolutely impossible to—reproduce together.

Another important item impacting on this reproduction element is that the verse uses the term "sons of God." One commentator hastened to let his readers understand that the Bible does not say they were "the sons of Yahweh." This is important because "God" in this verse is translated from elohim, and the Bible does not—I repeat, does not—use elohim exclusively for the Creator. The Bible also uses it to indicate very human judges and magistrates. In other words, humans in positions of authority leading other humans.

Today we would probably term the nephilim, who apparently were hugely popular, as despotic military/governmental figures. They also have the reputation right within Hebrew history in the Bible of being greatly feared tyrants, dominating as leaders of cities, nations, and as in this in this case, Nimrod. a more modern example of someone of the Genghis Kahn-type, or even more modern than that, a Stalin or Hitler. They were apparently of large stature. But the giantism aspect is only partly drawn from their large stature in relation to other humans. Rather, Genesis 6:4 suggests giantism is the result of being dominant leaders with large followings in a very different sense.

So, they were sons of leaders. The term "giant" is the term of choice by modern translators, suggesting persons who dominate in some field of endeavor in which they compete against others—and they almost always win. Like a Rockefeller, who was a giant in the economic sense. In politics, the Roosevelt family and the Kennedys. In sports, like a Babe Ruth, who not only was a very good baseball player, but he also had a bombastic, outgoing personality that attracted people to pay attention to him and to follow his career closely. He was their hero.

I am borrowing the usage of the term nephilim from a writer named Kevin Swanson, who used it to suggest teaching personalities who attracted a great deal of attention with their writings and drew people to listen to and adopt their anti-God teachings that Satan deceptively spoon-fed into their minds for the purpose of misleading men.

Our world is rapidly becoming like the time before the Flood, as Jesus prophesied it would, in which wickedness is reigning supreme. This did not happen overnight. It has been building toward a peak of wickedness over the centuries. I figure at least 500 or 600 years ago.

The reason it has taken so long is because not only the mindset for having a heart like those in the times of the Flood, which God says was only evil continually, but something else is needed. Recall that God Himself personally brought that evil time to an end through the Flood. This time it will be brought to its end through the cooperation of Satan and mankind. And thus we also need the mechanical, electronic, and nuclear means to destroy all life, combined with the will and human leadership to accomplish it. All of this must come together in a circumstance in which the Beast and all his horrific forces can arise to challenge God, and the nephilim will once again have a major role.

JWR/aws/dcg












 


 
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