On demons and exorcism (Part 4): The giants among us

Giants – in particular, the Nephilim – have become a hot topic among Christians of all sorts of late. With the news that the Trump administration is about to make public via the Internet, the government’s UFO/UAP files on a weekly basis – shades of The Edge of Night (and the first dump will already be out by the time I’ve posted this) – there are church pastors alarmed because these revelations will rock the Christian world, or so we’re being told. This week’s more sensationalist media outlets have sported headlines such as: “’Demons In Disguise’: Pastors Warn Donald Trump’s Alien Files Could Destroy Christianity” (International Business Times) and “Report: Pastors Told UFO Files Could Spark Panic” (Newsmax). Coming back down to the mundane from Space City, however, many, many, many more people dwelling here in the realm of “Real Life” are concerned about gas prices skyrocketing and whether their jobs will still be viable once AI hits the ground running. “Panicky” pastors there may be, but I’ve met a scant few; well, to be transparently honest, I’ve met none. But tied into the “disclosure” narrative, which – unsurprisingly – Spielberg is cashing in on with a “timely” new flick, is the buzz among Christian talking heads about the demonic nature of alien life forms whose existence, some allege, they have documented. And one hypothesis is that these entities are identical with the “sons of God” (in the Hebrew text) or “angels of God” (LXX) mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4, who descended upon Mount Hermon, that ancient seat of all things evil and idolatrous, and whose cohabitation with the “daughters of men” appears to have produced the “Nephilim” or “giants” of old. The influential pseudepigraphical work, 1 Enoch, which is directly cited in Jude’s Epistle and alluded to elsewhere in the New Testament, elaborates on the tradition mentioned in Genesis, adding such unlikely details that these Nephilim were of immense proportions (300 cubits or approximately 450 feet in height) and “consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them” (1 Enoch 7:3). To make a long story short, the “unclean spirits” mentioned in the Gospels – unclean means that they were a mixture of things that ought not to be combined (i.e., angelic and human) – were regarded as the ghosts of the dead and condemned Nephilim. By no means do I scoff at this narrative or the truth it conveys; I do, however, think that the ancient Christian method of reading such texts on two levels (literal and spiritual – see my previous post on the subject here) is the correct way to approach them. And, indeed, if we read them this way, with an emphasis on the spiritual reading of Scripture, we are more likely to concede that giants are very real, very evil, and very much among us still. Scoffing won’t even be an option. (And whatever comes of the UAP disclosures – and I’m not expecting they will amount to much – I think they will be small potatoes compared to the real Nephilim with whom we have to do.)

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