For all those who are interested in Fallen Angels and such, and have missed the obviously rather un-Christian ABC mini series that was broadcast over the weekend, you might be interested in reading a summary and commentary someone else posted on his blog:

http://rapturealert.blogspot.com/2007/08/fallen.html

While I cannot say anything about that mini series itself for I missed it too, not having watched television in years, I do have a few comments to make about the biblical background the author sums up – mainly because most of what he says seems to come from extra biblical sources, at best, or thin air, at worst.

The author gives background information on what a Nephilim is, since the main character of that series is identified as one.
Besides the fact that the author himself doesn’t seem to believe that Nephilim are giants – he says that many believe Goliath was a Nephilim, but he puts the word “giant” in parenthesis -, he presents a rather interesting version of how these Nephilim came into the world. He says that, when God threw Lucifer and those that followed him from heaven, some of those fallen angels didn’t go to hell with Lucifer, but chose to go to earth instead and have children with human women, those children being the Nephilim.

While it is certainly biblical that some of the Sons of God decided to go down to earth, marry daughters of man and produce offspring that we have come to know as the Nephilim, giants, men of renown, and while it is certainly true that those Sons of God as well as humankind did not go unpunished for this great trespass (see our biblical background post for a closer description of all this), the scenario described by the author of the mentioned article is conspicuously absent. If we want to consider the book of Enoch and follow some people in their assumption that Azazel was actually Lucifer, then we find that he was among those that defiled themselves and the women, and that he was the one who took most of the blame. But we do not really need to rely on assumptions or even hermeneutic gymnastics to find biblical proof for Lucifer being cast from heaven all on his own, and quite aside from the incident that created the Nephilim.

Let me quote three passages from the bible that all refer to an enemy of God being cast from heaven, condemned to be as lowly as one can get, to give you a more biblical idea of Lucifer’s Fall, quite aside from the whole incident in Genesis 6:

“The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” “(Gen 3:14-15)

As a side note: Gen 3 and Gen 6 indeed have something to do with each other when it comes to explaining who the “seed of the Nachash” actually is, this “brute of vipers” that we still encounter in the NT, and who the “seed of the woman” is, and why the whole bible can be viewed as a divine turf war, to put it a little flippantly, but that does not justify an idea like the one summed up above. We will explain this whole scenario in a different post.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” (Isa 14:12-15)

“And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ” (Luk 10:18-20)

If you look at these three passages, the similar feature in them is God’s enemy being cast down, onto the ground, into Sheol, from heaven. This is about as close as we can get to knowing what happened when Lucifer fell, and there is no indication that he took a flock of followers with him just then. Isaiah tells us that Lucifer wanted to be like God, in Gen 3 we see that the Nachash enticed the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit so that she would be like God, and Jesus points out that He, God incarnate, has given his followers the power to tread on serpents, after watching Lucifer falling. While there is no question that there are Fallen Sons of God who defile and lead astray those peoples that God gave up to them, there is little indication that this has a direct connection to Lucifer’s fall.

So this is our conclusion:
The bible does not support the view that Lucifer was cast out together with some followers who basically produced the Nephilim while taking a detour to earth on their way to hell, so to speak. Besides, it is also quite difficult to ignore the existence of giants in the bible, quite aside from Goliath, as we mentioned elsewhere. If you want to point at people presenting unbiblical views, and be consistent and believable in your criticism, it might be a good idea to get the biblical facts straight first, so as to not run the risk of becoming a false teacher.

“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (Luk 6:31)