Kingdom Against Kingdom

A Few Thoughts on Genesis 6, the Kingdom, and the End of All Things

Most of you will know about the recent collab with the good folk over at Blurry Creatures ( if you don’t know about either of those things, either the collab or their podcast, check them out ) -

I figured that in light of all this, I’d share a few quick thoughts on the inspiration and meaning behind the art - which means some of the theological concepts need to get flushed out a bit as well.

So let’s do it.

The Nephilim and Three Falls

Genesis 6 has become a pretty significant aspect of dialogue in both Christian and Secular domains - maybe it started with the explosive popularity of Heiser’s Unseen Realm, but I do know that as time has gone on, things I studied in my Old Testament Biblical theology course have become less confined to the classroom and been the conversation topic over pints at my local.

There’s three main interpretations for who these nephilim are,

1. The godly line of Seth intermarrying with the ungodly line of Cain

2. They’re the powerful kings / tyrants who ruled other nations at the time

3. They’re some kind of supernatural offspring of divine beings who had sex with human women

There is tons of literature on this topic, and I’m not really here to dive into the grammatical arguments - other than to say that, as far as my studies have shown, every use of the expressions “sons of God” refers to supernatural beings in the OT ( and in 2 Peter and Jude, btw ).

I’m pretty convinced, from a textual perspective, view three is the most consistent - but given that, there’s still lots to discuss around the genre of Gen 1-11 ( but that’s for a different day ).

These early chapters of Genesis, we can all agree, form a foundation for our understanding of the meta-narrative of Scripture - all the seeds of every doctrinal thread has deep roots in these few chapters.

One main idea to interact with is the ancient idea of the Three Falls.

Lots of us moderns, when we ask about the “origin of sin” give an answer of Genesis 3 - the forbidden fruit, the swirling serpent, the lies, the eating, the casting out. You know the story.

But the ancient view was a bit bigger.

They added Genesis 6 and 11 into the mix.

The belief, as far as I understand, was that this “intermarriage” ( clearly a scholarly euphemism - the hebrew words used are taking by force ) was a further introducing of sin into the world. While it is true that the book of Enoch goes into more detail about these unholy unions, and about the mechanisms around these Watchers taking human brides, a person doesn’t need to buy into the full Enochian worldview to understand what’s going on ( though, you can, as well - take the time to study it all ).

A central aspect of hermeneutics is understanding the culture, and clearly in the early readers ( and hearers ) minds was what happened in the book of Enoch - as in, whether it was mythological or not, the author of Genesis is leveraging an idea to explain a further introduction of sin - external rather than internal - spiritual forces who sought to destroy humanity.

Genesis 11 is the tower of Babel - and this is the final idea of falling in the ancient conception : a complete union between humanity and the dark spiritual powers in the creation of civilizations wholly opposed to God - humanity not simply captive to spiritual evil, but delighting in it.

Nimrod, whose name means rebel, is thought to be the key builder of Babel - and this Kingdom is an exaltation of self over God. Moses says that when God scatters this city He was actually handing humanity over to their own desires - these rebellious spiritual beings.

So there you have it; the fall in Eden, the fall with the Nephilim, and the fall of Babel - each with its own unique aspect of the nature of evil in the world ( again, for another day ).

The Old Testament

One of the main themes of the Old Testament is God seeking to redeem His people from the captivity that they have given themselves over to; God desiring His own to be who He made them to be - imagers, co-stewards of the cosmos with Him.

In order to fully understand what is happening in the narrative thrust of the hebrew bible, we need to see the double focus :

God and His People against the gods and their people.

This is most clearly seen in the Exodus story and the following conquest of Canaan.

Exodus 12:12 says this :

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. ( emphasis added )

Whatever is happening in those 10 plagues, it is clear to see that they are an attack on both Pharaoh, who has enslaved His People, but also the gods who have enslaved Pharaoh. Many have written on how these 10 plagues correspond to the 10 major gods of the Egyptian pantheon.

It is not simply a human enemy set up against God in the Old Testament, it is a divine enemy ( divine as in supernatural ); and these divine enemies must be defeated as well.

The Conquest sheds more light on this topic, especially concerning the Nephilim. When Moses sends some spies to scope out that Land flowing with both milk and honey, they return and they say the city is walled and that Giants roamed the land.

The spies say that they saw the descendants of Anak there, and the Anakim, these descendants of Anak were said to be a Rephaite tribe - a tribe of Giants associated with the Nephilim of Genesis 6.

So Joshua and Caleb say they can conquer the land, that they can defeat the Giants who roam there, they have that greater vision in mind - the liberation of people from the enslaving powers of the dark spiritual forces.

Anyways, we could spend forever going through this hermeneutical lens and talk about the wilderness, the wars led by Joshua, even discussing everything happening during the setting up of the kingdom, its subsequent splitting, and its eventual exile -

But we do need to move on.

The New Testament

Jesus is truly God and truly man, a holy union of God and Man, and His coming Kingdom follows that same OT trajectory - to liberate His people from the oppression of sin and the enslaving domain of darkness.

Except Jesus is going to defeat evil and Death at their source.

Jesus’s primary enemy is not humanity - His view is that the pain and suffering of this world had come because humans had, either willingly or by force, been in captivity to the domain of death and these evil spiritual rebels.

There are passages all throughout the gospels concerning this - the temptations in the wilderness, and from there, victorious over the Satan, Jesus begins proclaiming His Kingdom - liberating people by healing them and setting them free from all kinds of demonic oppression.

And in the crucifixion, when Jesus dies, He does so to conquer the great enemy of humanity, Death. He descends into Hades, shatters the bronze gates which held humanity, He grabs the keys of Death, and leads the righteous departed up out of the grave.

And when Jesus raises up, in the Resurrection, He conquers death, and makes the way open to us - to follow Him, the first fruits of resurrection Life.

When Jesus leaves, He commissions His followers to continue this mission - to be filled with His own Spirit, a Holy Union of God and Man, and to tear down the strongholds which enslave His people.

Paul says the same thing :

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The liberation of humanity comes by the power of the resurrection and a new life given by the Spirit of God.

The End of All Things

We don’t need to get into the nitty gritty of my eschatology to begin seeing that this same trajectory flows all the way into our final canonical book, Revelation.

At the cross and in His resurrection, Jesus defeated Death, but the story isn’t over - there are still skirmishes to be fought, wars to liberate captives, and the fighting gets fierce, and there have been many who have lost their lives in this war for Life and Freedom.

But this war will come to an end.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

This is what I wanted to capture in my art - The King of Heaven coming to make all things New - to defeat that Great Dragon and cast him into Hell, along with Death and Hades.

And at this, at the end of all things, at the end of this Divine mission, comes the New Beginning. One of Life to the Full.

As intended.

The message of the Bible is one of liberation, from the early lies of the Serpent in Eden, through to the oppression in Egypt, the possessions and demonic activity in the Gospels, and every dark power or principality at work, even in our own day.

The promise is that all this shall be utterly destroyed - right now, it happens the way Jesus fought, by laying down His life and by obedience to the Father in the Power of the Spirit.

That is how we fight the Great Serpent - with Love and Joy and Peace - for these can never be defeated.

And soon, Death and Hades and Satan, shall meet their end, and we shall be welcomed further up and further in -

Into the Divine Life.

If you wanna buy a print, grab it here.