Ahmadinejad: Israel's Destruction Getting Close

TEHRAN, Iran —

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime [Israel] had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime," IRNA quoted him as saying.

"God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech to foreign guests who attended ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has lost public support after Israel failed to achieve its goals during last summer's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon — freeing two captured soldiers and crushing the militant group.

The war was sparked after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militants in a cross-border raid. The fighting ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that called for deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.

Ahmadinejad has made anti-Israel comments in the past.

In October 2005, he caused outrage in the West when he said in a speech that Israel's "Zionist regime should be wiped off the map."

His supporters have argued Ahmadinejad's words were mistranslated and should have been better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" — implying Israel would vanish on its own rather be destroyed.

YES! JUST AS IT IS WRITTEN....

Ezekiel 38:1-13

1 And the word of the LORD came to me saying,
2 "Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog,
the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against
him

3 and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog,
prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.

4 "I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will
bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of
them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all
of them wielding swords;

5 Persia, Ethiopia and Put with them, all of them with shield
and helmet;

6 Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts
of the north with all its troops--many peoples with you.

7 "Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies
that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.

8 "After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you
will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose
inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the
mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its
people were brought out from the nations, and they are living
securely, all of them.

9 "You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a
cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples
with you."

10'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that
thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil
plan,

11 and you will say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled
villages I will go against those who are (V)at rest, that live
securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or
gates,

12 to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against
the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who
are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who
live at the center of the world.'

13 "Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all
its villages will say to you, 'Have you come to capture spoil? Have
you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and
gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?'"'

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Who was Jesus? Why is He unique??

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The Cashless Society

Microchip Implants Vs Cash - The Race Is On

We first talked about this scenario in 1995. It is fascinating in a way that when we first told people back then about this technology and The Mark, people couldn't see the technology making it possible nor acceptance ever being possible. Well, here we are!

A hundred years ago or more, The Mark was an obscure prophecy few attempted to tackle.

The Church had nothing to say about it...just an obscure verse in Revelation that could have already happened or will happen in the future. In no other time since Jesus has The Mark become easy to spot.

Believe it! Shoppers could soon pay for goods using a microchip implanted under the skin, according to a report in The Times newspaper recently.

The idea, says the report, is already catching on with today's iPod generation, with one study showing that one in 10 teenagers and one in 20 adults already willing to have a microchip implanted to pay bills and help to prevent identity fraud.

The VIP Baja Beach Club in Barcelona already uses implanted human body chips to identify its exclusive clientele - ostensibly because wearing bikinis and shorts leaves nowhere to carry wallets and purses. Members use the chip to gain access and to pay for services.

Made by the VeriChip Corporation, the chip is a glass capsule which sits under the skin. It carries a ten-digit personal number that can be linked to a person's bank account.

For decades, certain prophets of our time - both Christian and secular - have warned that we're rapidly moving into a dangerously uncertain, cashless world.

For centuries, cash money ruled the world: a world where most people traded on a local scale and where nation-states could govern their own economies and produce their own currencies.

Today's world is very different. International trading pacts drive macro-economies and everything is linked to everything else all across the globe. A financial sneeze in one major trading center can cause whole nations to catch cold -- on the other side of the world.

To serve this new economic landscape, we've invented digital alternatives to cash.

The first step in the move toward a digital economy was the introduction of the now ubiquitous credit card. The process took a giant leap forward, though, when computer mchips were added to those cards.

Meanwhile, the mobile phone market offered hungry companies a hot new way to offer digital cash services.

Phones have three great advantages over cards. They have keys; they have transmitters ;and they have enough memory and power to handle big processors and software for encryption and accounting. The mobile phone is an amazing banking technology, because it's so convenient for the user.

The big new developments in the digital cash world are driven by tools such as Radio Frequency ID tags (RFIDs for short).

Each one of these tiny devices is basically a radio bar code. It's smaller than a grain of sand, yet it contains hardware, software, permanent memory, an operating system, and the ability to write and receive data. It transmits over small distances using short bursts of electromagnetic radiation and its built-in power generators could last up to 100 years (1).

Before we dump cash altogether, we should take a long, deep breath and consider a few facts.

First, despite all the bells-and-whistles technologies on offer, using cash still has its advantages: it doesn't require any special equipment, it's anonymous and there are no transaction costs.

Yes, digital money has the advantage of being able to handle large transactions instantly, even over long distances, but using it requires complex electronic systems. Transactions are not anonymous; they can be traced back to the user.

What's more, several studies have shown that when people with credit card debt are confronted with their spending in terms of cold, hard cash, they are shocked. They've never been able to weigh their spending against their earnings while money is nothing more than numbers on a screen.

It's only when they feel the cash in hand that they're able to attribute value to their earnings - and their spending.

There are even bigger human issues at stake, though; issues as fundamental as freedom.

Despite the relative merits of digital money, it's not hard to imagine how bankers and others are using it to slowly eliminate cash altogether. Twenty years ago, that would have sounded far-fetched, but not any more.

Multi-national companies are building global networks of interconnected computer databases. That's the reason we can bank, buy, receive social benefits and even pay our taxes electronically.

Real money is being replaced with virtual money and this may very well be sowing the seeds of eventual electronic enslavement.

Our reliance on cards is actually a reliance on chips and it is already leading to unacceptable invasions of privacy. As we grow more and more familiar with a microchip culture, the easier it gets for someone to centralise all the information contained on our cards.

One chip can easily contain all the relevant information about our health, banking details, buying habits, voting preferences and so on. The technology is already in place - what's missing is the public acceptance.

Once money becomes nothing more than numbers on a screen, our material wealth can easily be manipulated by other people.

Yes, cash can stolen, but when it is, fraudsters can't use it to steal your identity as well - as they can with cards. Stealing your cash does not give thieves access to personal information about you.

And the drive for a cashless society may well lead to sinister attempts to control individuals and even entire populations.

Already, miniature chip technologies are being used to turn us into an extension of our bank accounts - in a world where numbers, not individuals, rule.

Cash, though far from a perfect means of trade, equals freedom. If cash is eliminated,or downgraded even further, the stage is set for companies, national governments or even global bodies to monitor and manipulate our behaviour.


For more on this, watch Mal Fletcher's 30 min interview with futurist Dr. Patrick Dixon: High or Low quality version.

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Best Research Sites PART 2

FREE Bible Study Textbook Series!!

Many of you are familiar with the Bible Study Textbook Series (The Old Green Commentaries). These were very popular several years back and many of you have requested copies of these timeless treasures. Because reprint cost are so high we have chosen not to reprint but instead, we are offering them electronically for free. These commentaries are being made available for your personal use. Feel free to download them to your computer. These files are very large and may take a while even with high speed and DSL services. If using dial up service please be aware the your download times may be extensive and you may encounter problems during the download. If you have problems downloading these files you may want to consider using a download manager.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FREE COMMENTARIES!

I will be posting my "secret" tools of research that some of our readers may or may not know about and compiling them into a "tools of the trade" section on our main website. Enjoy!

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Genesis 6:4--Revealing Satan's Plan

Were the Nephilim sons of God?

Fallen Angels? Giants of Genesis 6:4?

A common belief which we share is that the "sons of

God" who did marry the "daughters of men" were fallen angels.

Why did God send the judgment of the Flood in the days of Noah? The strange events recorded in Genesis 6 were understood by the ancient rabbinical sources, as well as the Septuagint translators, as referring to fallen angels procreating weird hybrid offspring with human women-known as the Nephilim. This was far more than simply a historical issue, the unique events leading to the Flood are a prerequisite to understanding the prophetic implications of our Lord's predictions regarding His Second Coming. This is believed to have happened both before the Flood and after the flood. In Israel at the time of David, and before this when the Hebrews were scouting the land - there were tribes of these Nephilim - Goliath the giant of Gath is one example. Early Church fathers also understood this to be the case. It appears that these fallen angels were active all over the world. These bizarre giants living on the earth are also echoed in the legends and myths of nearly every ancient culture. The ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the South Sea Islanders, the American Indians, and most all the others have these legends.

The Hebrew word Nephelim (plural of nephel) (Nephilim) literally means "rejects". The Hebrew plural for Nephites would be "Nephi'im".

Satan probably put this plan to interrupt Abraham's "seed into motion, as soon as it was made known that the Seed of the Woman (Christ) was to come through ABRAHAM.

Bible Probe Note: Our use of the Word "irruption" in this article below means: act of rushing; act of breaking in; intrusion, raid; sudden increase.

Genesis 6:4 (Original KJV):

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,

when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and

they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which

were of old, men of renown.

Bible Probe Note: Note the words; "and also after that". This

probably tells of two "irruptions" by Satan's seed. One before Noah's

time and another after the flood. They were called “The Watchers” in The Book of Enoch.

Their descendents, called Nephilim (translated "giants"), were monsters of iniquity; and being superhuman in size and in their wicked character, had to be destroyed. Was this the one and only object of the Flood?

Genesis 6:12 (Original KJV):

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt;

for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Only Noah and his family had preserved their pedigree pure from Adam (Genesis 6:9). All the rest had become "corrupt" (shachath). The only remedy was to destroy it

defacto (Latin for "in fact"), as it had become defacto destroyed.

This irruption of fallen angels before Noah's day was probably Satan's first attempt to prevent the coming of the "Seed of the woman" foretold in Genesis 3:15. If this could be accomplished, God's Word would have failed, and Satan's own doom would be averted.

Genesis 3:15 (Original KJV):

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between

thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt

bruise his heel. also see Isaiah 7:14

Satan's plan was to occupy Canaan with "his own seed" in advance of Abraham's seed.

As soon as it was made known that the Seed of the woman was to come through ABRAHAM, there must have been another irruption, as recorded in Genesis 6:4 (see above), "and also after that" (that is to say, after the days of Noah, more than 500 years after the first irruption). The aim of the enemy was to occupy Canaan in advance of Abraham, and so to contest its occupation by his seed. For, when Abraham entered Canaan, we read (Genesis 12:6) "the Canaanite was then (that is to say, already) in the land."

Also in Genesis we see two more attempts by Satan to interfere with Abraham's

seed before the birth of Isaac, as told in both Genesis 12:10-20 and in Genesis 20:1-18.

In the late 1950’s, during road construction in the Euphrates Valley of south-east Turkey, many tombs containing the remains of giants were uncovered. At the sites the leg bones were measured to be 120 cms (47.24 inches). Joe Taylor, Director of Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, was commissioned to sculpt the human femur. This Antediluvian giant stood some 14-16 ft tall (see below). Genesis 6:4 claims: "There were giants in the earth in those days;" Deuteronomy 3:11 states that the bed of Og, king of Bashan, was 9 cubits by 4 cubits (approximately 14 ft long by 6 ft wide).

Antediluvian Giants' bone below

Other human Fossil finds

A 19'6" human skeleton found in 1577 A.D. under an overturned oak tree in the Canton of Lucerne.

23-foot tall skeleton found in 1456 A.D. beside a river in Valence, France.

A 25' 6 " skeleton found in 1613 A.D. near the castle of Chaumont in France. This was claimed to be a nearly complete find.

A 9' 8" skeleton was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana (Indianapolis News, Nov 10, 1975).

In 1833 soldiers digging at a pit for a powder magazine in Lompock Rancho, California, discovered a male skeleton 12 feet tall. The skeleton was surrounded by carved shells, stone axes, and blocks of porphyry covered with unintelligible symbols. The skeleton had double rows of upper and lower teeth. These bones substantiated legends by the local Piute Indians regarding giants which they called Si-Te-Cahs.

In Clearwater Minnesota, the skeletons of seven giants were found in mounds. These had receding foreheads and complete double dentition.

"A miner fell through a hole in a mine in Italy and found this 11' 6" skeleton." believed to been found in 1856.

A mound near Toledo, Ohio, held 20 skeletons, seated and facing east with jaws and teeth "twice as large as those of present day people," and besides each was a large bowl with "curiously wrought hieroglyphic figures." (Chicago Record, Oct. 24, 1895; cited by Ron G. Dobbins, NEARA Journal, v13, fall 1978).

Almost beyond comprehension or believability was the find of the two separate 36-foot human remains uncovered by Carthaginians somewhere between 200-600 B.C.

Caius Julius Verus Maximinus, also known as Maximinus Thrax (235-238 A.D.) was a Roman soldier-emperor who spent his reign on campaign. Maximinus was born in Thrace to a Gothic father an Alanic mother in about 173 A.D.. He was reportedly 8' feet, six inches (2.59m) tall, and of tremendous strength.

In an ancient text of the Jews, we read an astonishing description of some of these gigantic Amorites whom the Israelites conquered. In Buber's Tanhuma, Devarim 7, the text tells us of a Rabbi Johnanan ben Zakkai's encounter with the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This event occurred in about A.D. 135, soon after the Roman victory in the Bar Kochba war, when the Jews rebelled against the Romans. The text reads:

"The wicked emperor Hadrian, who conquered Jerusalem, boasted, 'I have conquered Jerusalem with great power.' Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai said to him, 'Do not boast. Had it not been the will of Heaven, you would not have conquered it.' Rabbi Johanan then took Hadrian into a cave and showed him the bodies of Amorites who were buried there. One of them measured eighteen cubits [approximately 30 feet] in height. He said, 'When we were deserving, such men were defeated by us, but now, because of our sins, you have defeated us'" (quoted in Judaism, edited by Arthur Hertzberg, p.155-156, George Braziller, New York: 1962).

"Sons of God were fallen angels and not aliens"

Some have claimed that the Nephilim, or the "sons of God," both mentioned in Genesis 6:2-4, were aliens. This is a wild extension of a common view that the "sons of God" who married the "daughters of men" were fallen angels, and that the Nephilim were products of those "marriages."

"Sons of God" is clearly used of angels in Job 38:7 Orig KJV: "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?". The Septuagint (LXX) here translates "sons of God" as "angels of God." This need not mean that evil angels, or demons, actually cohabited with women. Jesus made it clear that angels do not engage in sexual activities, at least not angels in heaven. Matthew 22:30 Orig KJV: "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Nevertheless, evil angels on earth could have used the bodies of ungodly men, by demonic possession, to achieve their evil purpose of producing an evil generation of people (Genesis 6:12).[2]

There are other reasonable suggestions as to the identity of the "sons of God" and the Nephilim. Interestingly, the word Nephilim is only used here and in Numbers 13:33, where it clearly refers to the descendants of Anak, who were big people, but still people. Furthermore, "sons of God" is not used exclusively of angels -- the children of Israel are called "the sons of the living God" in Hosea 1:10 (see also Psalm 73:15; 80:17).

Numbers 13: 32-33 Original KJV:

32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

The Anakim: This was another name for the Watchers. It means “the descendants of Anak”, or Enoch, Cain’s son. Though it was said that a flood had been sent to destroy them, there were still entire cities of Anakim in Canaan as late as the time of Moses. And Jewish chronicler Josephus states that even in his own day it was not uncommon for people to dig up gigantic skeletal remains.

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp ... Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."

Reading further, both in 2 Samuel 21:16-22 and I Chronicles 20:4-8, we discover that Goliath had four relatives, also giants:

1) Ishbi-Benob, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels (more than seven pounds) and who said he would kill David;

2) Saph (or Sippai), another descendant of Rapha (the giant);

3) Lahmi (the brother of Goliath), whose spear shaft resembled a weaver's rod; and

4) a huge man (unnamed in the text) with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

Goliath and these four were all descendants of Rapha in Gath, "and they fell at the hands of David and his men" (2 Samuel 21:22 and I Chronicles 20:8).

David apparently knew in facing Goliath that these other four might also have to be reckoned with. So David prepared himself to take down all five giants, one stone per giant, if need be. The Bible tells us that the other four did fight against David and his army in later battles, and all four were defeated.

David's stone was a bullet of faith, launched from his sling at probably 100 to 120 mph, and with sufficient momentum to break through Goliath's skull bones. The boastful giant never knew what hit him. The text indicates that David ran toward Goliath as he launched his shot, thus adding to its momentum. We can assume from David's success in killing both bear and lion that he was a fast runner (Goliath could never have caught him in open field running) and an accurate shot, probably able to put a stone into a 3- or 4-inch circle consistently from a distance of 20 or 30 feet (an accuracy comparable to that of today's pro baseball pitchers).

Rulers in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia often proclaimed themselves as "sons of God" to enhance their power and prestige. So, another view with much support is that the "sons of God" were power-hungry rulers and despots, who, in their hunger for power and influence, took many wives in polygamy. They, and their offspring, through tyranny, became "mighty men." (Nimrod was described as a "mighty one" in Genesis 10:8.)

So, there is no need to resort to fanciful suggestions involving aliens to understand this passage of Scripture.

Good Angels do not marry

A contradictory yet enlightening statement about angel marriages was made by Jesus which was reported in Matthew 22:30; "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Here we read a statement from Jesus saying that angels do not get married. A possible explanation for this is that the "sons of God" were the descendants of Seth, and "the daughters of men" were of the godless Cainites. Remember, God later spoke of the people of Israel as His ‘firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22), and Moses called the people of Israel "children of the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 14:1).
Therefore, when they took wives it was an unholy alliance between Sethites (God's people) and Cainites (idol worshipers). Also, the word "wives" seems to indicate more that one and therefore a suggests taking more than one wife (polygamy).

How Big were the Giants?

(probably around *9.5-14 feet)

(Ancient Hebrew cubit remains unknown) *9 cubits using Egyptian Royal cubit (1.7 ft) =15.3 ft (subtracted 1 ft for bed's comfort)

Deuteronomy 3:11 Original KJV: For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man,

Giants

(1.) Hebrew Nephilim, meaning "violent" or "causing to fall" (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying "wonder," and hence "monsters" or "prodigies." In Num. 13:33 this name is given to a Canaanitish tribe, a race of large stature, "the sons of Anak." The Revised Version, in these passages, simply transliterates the original, and reads "Nephilim."

(2.) Hebrew rephaim, a race of giants (Deut. 3:11) who lived on the east of Jordan, from whom Og was descended. They were probably the original inhabitants of the land before the immigration of the Canaanites. They were conquered by Chedorlaomer (Gen. 14:5), and their territories were promised as a possession to Abraham (15:20). The Anakim, Zuzim, and Emim were branches of this stock.

In Job 26:5 (R.V., "they that are deceased;" marg., "the shades," the "Rephaim") and Isa. 14:9 this Hebrew word is rendered (A.V.) "dead." It means here "the shades," the departed spirits in Sheol. In Sam. 21:16, 18, 20, 33, "the giant" is (A.V.) the rendering of the singular form ha raphah, which may possibly be the name of the father of the four giants referred to here, or of the founder of the Rephaim. The Vulgate here reads "Arapha," whence Milton (in Samson Agonistes) has borrowed the name "Harapha." (See also 1 Chron. 20:5, 6, 8; Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:13; Josh. 15:8, etc., where the word is similarly rendered "giant.") It is rendered "dead" in (A.V.) Ps. 88:10; Prov. 2:18; 9:18; 21:16: in all these places the Revised Version marg. has "the shades." (See also Isa. 26:14.)

(3.) Hebrew 'Anakim (Deut. 2:10, 11, 21; Josh. 11:21, 22; 14:12, 15; called "sons of Anak," Num. 13:33; "children of Anak," 13:22; Josh. 15:14), a nomad race of giants descended from Arba (Josh. 14:15), the father of Anak, that dwelt in the south of Palestine near Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). They were a Cushite tribe of the same race as the Philistines and the Egyptian shepherd kings. David on several occasions encountered them (2 Sam. 21:15-22). From this race sprung Goliath (1 Sam. 17:4).

(4.) Hebrew 'emin, a warlike tribe of the ancient Canaanites. They were "great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims" (Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:10, 11).

(5.) Hebrew Zamzummim (q.v.), Deut. 2:20 so called by the Amorites.

(6.) Heb. gibbor (Job 16:14), a mighty one, i.e., a champion or hero. In its plural form (gibborim) it is rendered "mighty men" (2 Sam. 23:8-39; 1 Kings 1:8; 1 Chr. 11:9-47; 29:24.) The band of six hundred whom David gathered around him when he was a fugitive were so designated. They were divided into three divisions of two hundred each, and thirty divisions of twenty each. The captains of the thirty divisions were called "the thirty," the captains of the two hundred "the three," and the captain over the whole was called "chief among the captains" (2 Sam. 23:8). The sons born of the marriages mentioned in Gen. 6:4 are also called by this Hebrew name

Genesis 6: 1-8 Original KJV:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

3 And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Another non-canonical tradition says that God's Angels swarmed down and killed the remaining Nephilim...

God seeing his creation on the brink of destruction acted to save man from this treachery, and he set out to wipe corrupt man (and beast) from the face of the earth. God did not do this so as to punish man but to save him from an evil he had no way of understanding. God saved Noah and his family and man began anew. As did the evil.

But it was the unauthorized act of revelation that outraged the archangels, and it was that act which God punished. "I shall restore the Earth, so that not all the sons of men shall be destroyed through the mystery which the Watchers made known." Divinely commanded, the obedient Watchers swept down and defeated their brothers, whose punishment was to watch the death of their children before being themselves imprisoned in the mountains and deserts of the Earth until Judgment Day, when they will be cast into the lake of eternal fire. (Azazel is the only Watcher whose burial place is believed to be known: under a heap of stones at the foot of the cliff of Haradan, in what is now the Sinai, where, regarded as a demon, he received every year the scapegoat driven into the desert with its burden of Israel's sins. --Alternately, he is sometimes said to have hurled himself into the sky and become the constellation Orion.) God sends the prophet Enoch to scold them in their imprisonment, saying that as spiritual beings they were never intended to have wives as mortal men do (of course, their creator could presumably have seen to it that they felt no longing for sex or love, but he apparently neglected to do so) and even scorning the knowledge they shared with humanity - "You were in heaven, but its secret had not been revealed to you and a worthless mystery you knew." - although the Four Archangels' concern surely contradicts this mocking remark. Other Apocryphal books say that even now they are held and tortured in the terrible Fifth Heaven, set aside for just this purpose. (I Enoch XIII describes the Watchers/Grigori as stricken mute with guilt and terror after Enoch's reproof, and indeed in II Enoch the Grigori imprisoned in the Fifth Heaven are voiceless giants.) The world, meanwhile, is swept clean in a great earthquake and flood, destroying the Nephilim's lands, to which many writers trace the worldwide legends of a catastrophic inundation.

But the Watchers' teaching continued to influence humankind in the ages after the Deluge, even though now condemned and studied in secret. In Jubilees VIII:1-5, Kainam, Noah's grandson, "came upon a writing which men of old had carved on a rock...it contained the teaching of the Watchers, in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and all the signs of heaven. And he wrote it down and said nothing about it..." fearing punishment from Noah, who blamed the Watchers for the Flood and constantly warned his clan against any dealings with them or their descent. (Must have been one blessed huge rock, unless the Watchers' skills included micro-engraving.) This is especially notable because Kainam is the brother of Chesed, father of Ur, who is said in the Apocrypha to have founded the famous Chaldean city of that name. "And [they] grew up and lived in Ur of the Chaldees," says Jubilees (XI:7-8) of Serug and Nahor, Kainam's descendants, "and worshipped idols...and [Nahor's] father instructed him in the learning of the Chaldees, how to divine and foretell the future from the signs of heaven." It's most tempting to conclude that Kainam's grandchildren through generations inherited and studied the written record he had made from the stone; that the legendary wisdom of the Chaldeans, which amazes history, had descended to them from the Watchers themselves

The Nephilim - and, some say, their children, the Elioud/Eljo - were physically exterminated by the avenging angel horde. But, though their half-mortal bodies could be slain, their half-angel souls could not, nor could they be held in chains. They remain on the earth, wandering at will, and though chaotic and destructive will not be punished for their deeds until the Final Judgment "in which the great age will be brought to an end". Occult tradition holds that now and then a Nephilim spirit will incarnate in human form (the souls of those who quit the body violently, it's said, are most pure...).

The Apocrypha claim the disembodied Nephilim are the origin of demons, and accuse them of many crimes. Jubilees places the blame for the Flood squarely upon the fornication of the Watchers and the iniquity and bloodshed of the Nephilim. "And now the giants who were born from souls and flesh will be called evil spirits upon the earth," charges I Enoch XV-XVI, "From the day of...the slaughter and destruction of the giant Nephilim, the mighty ones of the earth, the great famous ones, the spirits that have gone out from their souls as from the flesh will destroy without judgment." Even the mortal women who are their mothers are cursed to become sirens and demonesses. In Jubilees X:1-6, Noah's sons beg him to protect their children from "unclean demons" who are "leading astray, blinding and killing" them; Noah, petitioning God to "let not wicked spirits rule over [my grandchildren] and destroy them", adds, "Thou knowest what thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, did in my day..." making it clear that the demonic spirits and the Nephilim are considered one and the same. (One wonders if Kainam was one of these grandchildren being "led astray" by a "demonic" Nephilim familiar. Maybe it was helping him interpret the stone...)

Archeology News
November 2005 Archaeologists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine's name, a find they claim lends historical credence to the Bible's tale of David's battle with Goliath.

While the discovery is not definitive evidence of Goliath's existence, it does support the Bible's depiction of life at the time the battle was supposed to have occurred, said Dr. Aren Maeir, a professor at Bar-Ilan University and director of the excavation.

"What this means is that at the time there were people there named Goliath," he said. "It shows us that David and Goliath's story reflects the cultural reality of the time."

Some scholars assert the story of David slaying the giant Goliath is a myth written down hundreds of years later. Maeir said finding the scraps lends historical credence to the biblical story.

The shard dates back to around 950 B.C., within 70 years of when biblical chronology asserts David squared off against Goliath, making it the oldest Philistine inscription ever found, the archaeologists said.

Scientists made the discovery at Tel es-Safi, a dig site in southern Israel thought to be to be the location of the Philistine city of Gath.

Maeir doubts an archaeological find can ever prove Goliath's existence, but said the shard was exciting nonetheless because of its depiction of life during the time period.

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Newspapers from around the world!

It may not be directly related to the Bible, but that is why we have a blog section....
If you want to read any online newspaper in English from around the WORLD, then click the link below...

GO TO EVERY ONLINE NEWSPAPER IN THE WORLD!

I will be posting my "secret" tools of research that some of our readers may or may not know about and compiling them into a "tools of the trade" section on our main website. Enjoy!

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Did Ancient Biotechnology create Nephalim?

By Thomas R. Horn

May 23, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

"The benei Elohim saw the daughters of Adam, that they were fit extensions" (Gen 6:2, Interlinear Hebrew Bible).

May 3, 2007 -- RaidersNewsNetwork.com -- In the study of the Old Testament Book of Genesis, beings of great stature called "giants" appear, which some scholars believe came into existence after powerful angels known as 'Watchers' descended to earth and used women (or their biological matter) to construct bodies of flesh, which they used to "extend" themselves into the material world.

The Apocryphal books of Enoch, 2 Esdras, Genesis Aprocryphon and Jasher support the Genesis story, adding that the sin of the angels grew to include genetic modification of animals as well as humans. The Book of Jasher, mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, says, "After the fallen angels went into the daughters of men, the sons of men taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order to provoke the Lord"(4:18). This clear reference to the Genesis 6 record illustrates that "animals" were included in whatever cross-species experiments were being conducted, and that this activity resulted in judgment from God. The Book of Enoch also supports this record, saying that after the fallen angels merged their DNA with women, they "began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish" (7:5,6). The Old Testament contains associated reference to genetic mutations, which developed among humans following this activity, including unusual size, physical strength, six fingers, six toes, animal appetite for blood and even lion-like features among men (2 Sam 21:20; 23:20).

What if, by corrupting the species barrier in which each creature was to recreate after its "own kind," Watchers had successfully mingled human-animal DNA and combined the hereditary traits of different species into a single new mutation? An entirely new being—Nephilim—might have suddenly possessed the combined intelligence and instincts (seeing, hearing, smelling, reacting to the environment) of several life forms and in ways unfamiliar to creation.

Will modern biotechnology resurrect Nephilim?

Today, molecular biologists classify the functions of genes within native species but are unsure in many cases how a gene's coding might react from one species to another. In recombinant DNA technology, a "transgenic" organism is created when the genetic structure of one specie is altered by the transfer of a gene or genes from another. This could change not only the genetic structure of the modified animal and its offspring, but its evolutionary development, sensory modalities, disease propensity, personality and behavior traits among other things.

Such transgenic tinkering already exists in many parts of the world including the United States, Britain and Australia where animal eggs are being used to create hybrid human embryos from which stem cell lines can be produced for medical research. A team at Newcastle and Durham universities in the UK recently announced plans to "create hybrid rabbit and human embryos, as well as other ‘chimera’ embryos mixing human and cow genes." More alarmingly, the same researchers have already managed to reanimate tissue "from dead human cells in another breakthrough which was heralded as a way of overcoming ethical dilemmas over using living embryos for medical research."[1] In the United States, similar studies led Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine in California to create mice with partly human brains, causing some ethicists to raise the issue of "humanized animals" in the future that could become "self aware" as a result of genetic modification. Even the President of the United States, George W. Bush in his January 31st, 2006 State of the Union Address called for legislation to "prohibit…. creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos."

Not everybody shares these concerns. A radical, international, intellectual, and cultural movement known as "Transhumanism" supports the use of new sciences including genetic modification to enhance human mental and physical abilities and aptitudes so that "human beings will eventually be transformed into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label 'posthuman.'"[2]

I have personally debated leading transhumanist, Dr. James Hughes on his weekly syndicated talk show, Changesurfer Radio. Hughes is Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and teaches at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. He is also the author of "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future", a sort of Bible for transhumanist values. Dr. Hughes joins a growing body of academics, bioethicists and sociologists who support "large-scale genetic and neurological engineering of ourselves….[a] new chapter in evolution [as] the result of accelerating developments in the fields of genomics, stem-cell research, genetic enhancement, germ-line engineering, neuro-pharmacology, artificial intelligence, robotics, pattern recognition technologies, and nanotechnology…. at the intersection of science and religion [which has begun to question] what it means to be human…."[3]

In related development, Case Law School in Cleveland was awarded a $773,000 grant in April 2006 from the National Institutes of Health to develop guidelines "for the use of human subjects in what could be the next frontier in medical technology – genetic enhancement." Maxwell Mehlman, Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law, director of the Law-Medicine Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and professor of bioethics in the Case School of Medicine is leading the team of "law professors, physicians, and bioethicists in the two-year project to develop standards for tests on human subjects in research that involves the use of genetic technologies to enhance ‘normal’ individuals – to make them smarter, stronger, or better-looking."[4]

Other law schools including Stanford and Oxford have recently hosted "Human Enhancement and Technology" conferences where transhumanists, futurists, bioethicists and legal scholars merged to discuss the ethical and legal ramifications of posthumans.

In his book "Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenges of Bioethics," the former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, Leon Kass provided a status report on where we stand today regarding transhumanism. He warned in the introduction that "Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration, for eugenic and psychic 'enhancement,' for wholesale redesign. In leading laboratories, academic and industrial, new creators are confidently amassing their powers and quietly honing their skills, while on the street their evangelists are zealously prophesying a posthuman future. For anyone who cares about preserving our humanity, the time has come for paying attention."[5]

Not to be outdone in this regard by the National Institute of Health, DARPA and other agencies of the U.S. military have taken inspiration from the likes of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. In a scene reminiscent of Saruman the wizard creating monstrous Uruk-Hai to wage unending, merciless war, we find billions of American tax dollars have flowed into the Pentagon's Frankensteinian dream of "super-soldiers" and the "Extended Performance War Fighter" program. Not only does the EPWFP envision "injecting young men and women with hormonal, neurological and genetic concoctions; implanting microchips and electrodes in their bodies to control their internal organs and brain functions; and plying them with drugs that deaden some of their normal human tendencies: the need for sleep, the fear of death, [and] the reluctance to kill their fellow human beings," but Chris Floyd in an article for CounterPunch a while back quoted the Daily Telegraph and Christian Science Monitor, saying "some of the research now underway involves actually altering the genetic code of soldiers, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human specimen, one that functions like a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end.... mutations [that] will 'revolutionize the contemporary order of battle' and guarantee 'operational dominance across the whole range of potential U.S. military employments."[6]

In keeping with our editorial, imagine the staggering implications of such science if dead Nephilim tissue was discovered with intact DNA and a government somewhere that was willing to clone or mingle the extracted organisms to make Homo-nephilim. If one accepts the biblical story of giants as real, such discovery could actually be made someday, or perhaps already has been and was covered up. The technology to resurrect the extinct species already exists, and cloning methods are being studied now for use with bringing back Tasmanian Tigers, Wooly Mammoths and other extinguished creatures.

"Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again…" (Isaiah 26.14, Douay-Rheims Version).

The reference above from the Book of Isaiah 26:14 could be troubling, as it may reflect a prayer from the prophet, a petition to God not to allow the giants to incarnate again. Did Isaiah pray this way because he knew something about the future, something related to a future return of Nephilim?

The relationship between creatures called "Rephaim" and the Nephilim of ancient texts is enlightening, as Rephaim are viewed as the spirits of dead Nephilim in the grave. The word "Rephaim" carries with it the meaning 'to heal' or to be 'healed' as in a 'resurrection'. In the Ras Shamra texts, the Rephaim are described as both human and divine beings who worshipped the Amorite god Ba'al, the ruler of the underworld, where the Rephaim served as his acolyte assembly of lesser gods, kings, heroes, and rulers. These beings were believed to have power to return from the dead through incarnation in bodily form as 'Nephilim'. The ability of Rephaim to be reincarnated in this way as living Nephilim is viewed by some as the explanation for Nephilim existing before, and after, the Great Flood.

The book of Job may elucidate this idea when it says, "Dead things are formed from under the waters. . . ." (Job 26.5). The dead in this text are Rephaim and the phrase "are formed" is from "Chuwl", meaning to twist or whirl as in a double helix coil or genetic manufacturing. When combined with something my good friend Steve Quayle once wrote, the word "Chuwl" takes on added meaning:

"When the Greek Septuagint was created, the Hebrew word Nephilim was translated into Greek as 'gegenes.' This is the same word used in Greek mythology for the 'Titans', creatures created through the interbreeding of the Greek gods and human beings. The English words 'genes' and 'genetics' are built around the same root word as gegenes; genea meaning 'breed' or 'kind'. Thus, the choice of this word again suggests a genetic component to the creation of these giants."[7]

And what about this prophecy from Isaiah:

"The vision which Esaias son of Amos saw against Babylon. Lift up a standard on the mountain of the plain, exalt the voice to them, beckon with the hand, OPEN THE GATES, YE RULER. I GIVE COMMAND AND I BRING THEM: GIANTS ARE COMING TO FULFILL MY WRATH [emphasis added]. . . . For behold! the day of the Lord is coming which cannot be escaped, a day of wrath and anger, to make the world desolate. . . . And Babylon . . . shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. . . . It shall never be inhabited . . . and monsters shall rest there, and devils shall dance there and satyrs shall dwell there . . ." (Isaiah 13:1-3, 9, 19-22, [Septuagint Version]).[8]

Given what is happening in Babylon (Iraq) and biotechnology today, we may be witnessing the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

Footnotes:

1, Picken, Jane. Medical Marvels, The Evening Chronicle, April 13, 2007
2, Wikipedia, The Free Enclyclopedia. Transhumanism, 2 May. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
3, Grassie, William. What does it mean to be Human? A John Templeton Foundation Research Lecture Query, 2006
4, Case Western Reserve University. Case Law School receives $773,000 NIH grant to develop guidelines for genetic enhancement research: Professor Max Mehlman to lead team of law professors, physicians, and bioethicists in two-year project, April 28, 2006
5, Kass, Leon R. Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics, Encounter Books; 1 edition (October 25, 2002)
6, Floyd, Chris. Monsters, Inc.: The Pentagon Plan to Create Mutant "Super-Soldiers", CounterPunch, January 13, 2003
7, Quayle, Steve. Genesis 6 Giants. Bozeman, MT: End Time Thunder Publishers, 2002.
8, A vision which esails son of Amos Saw against Babylon

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