Connecting the Dots; The Book of Enoch, Part 4

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.   Genesis 3:15

We know the fallen angels lusted after human women. This also fits into Satan’s plan of battle with God.  Remember that God had a little chit-chat with Adam, Eve, and the Serpent.  God makes two critical statements in setting the course of history and His plan of salvation.  He refers to Eve’s seed and Satan’s seed.

We know that, ultimately, Eve’s seed is Jesus, but that includes everyone in between too, right? Here’s the real question.  Who is Satan’s seed?  There are several possibilities, none of which are necessarily mutually exclusive.

The Anti-Christ of Revelation is often referred to as the son of Satan. Whether that’s a literal description or an honorary title of sorts is open to guesses.  No one has been able to find him yet let alone define his parentage.  Still, it’s possible.

I pose the question of whether the Nephilim might be considered the seed of Satan. Recall that they are the offspring of fallen angels and human women.  They certainly play into Satan’s plans to attempt to thwart God’s redemption plan.  Satan’s seed and Eve’s seed have contended ever since, starting most notably when the Israelites entered the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness.  Given also that Satan and his minions hate humanity as much as God loves them, anything they can do to see us damned or at least suffering here on earth is nothing if not gravy for them.

That being gravy, what’s the underlying purpose for Satan? If he corrupts the entire human stock, there will be no pure humans to produce a sinless Christ, both God and man.  Christ had to be the new Adam, so he had to be of Adam’s human stock.  Hence the proscription to the Children of Israel not to inter-marry with the current inhabitants of the Promised Land.

What was the purpose in getting into every species on earth? I can’t help quoting Alfred from the Batman trilogy: “Some people just want to watch the world burn.”  That seems to go double or more for demons.

Remember that God decided to use The Flood to destroy “all flesh.” Not just humanity, but all living things.  Why all life?

An answer to this question lies both in The Book of Enoch and a modern book, 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese.  This is the story of the author’s trip to hell, courtesy of God.  God prefers using carrots in bringing humanity to salvation, but He’s not above using a stick.  Remember all of the choices He gave the Israelites in the wilderness; “I set before you today a blessing and a curse.”

The message to Wiese was that God wants to re-introduce humanity to the stick of hell. What better way to do that than to take someone there, filter the pain so as not to destroy him, and then have him tell his story.  And, by the way, there is a whole community of people he discovered who have had the same experience.

The critical part of 23 Minutes in Hell for the purposes of this article is his description of rising through a large shaft, leading away from hell.  He saw demons of every shape and size, from insects to giants:

…I noticed that I was standing in the middle of a cave. The wall wrapped around me and led to the vast expanse of the pit.  As I looked at the walls, I saw that they were covered with thousands of hideous creatures.  These demonic creatures were all sizes and shapes.  Some of them had four legs and were the size of bears.  Other stood upright and were about the size of gorillas.  They were all terribly grotesque and disfigured.  It looked as though their flesh had been decomposing and all their limbs were twisted out of proportion.  Some displayed immense, long arms or abnormally large feet.  They seemed to me to be the living dead.  There were also gigantic rats and huge spiders at least three feet wide and two or three feet high.  I also saw snakes and worms, ranging from small to enormously large.

Enoch notes how the giants also sinned against all flesh, not just humanity. It looks as though they sired off-spring in just about every corner of the animal kingdom.  While not stating such explicitly, Enoch writes that  “…they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish…” Enoch 7:5b.

First, why would God feel the need to destroy “all flesh?” Second, Where did that whole spectrum of creatures come from in 23 Minutes in Hell?  The answer to both question is one in the same, and we’re getting closer to that answer.

Next – When the Bible talks about God being revered “above all gods,” just whom were they talking about?