The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he does not exist. So said Kaiser Solsa in that great movie The Usual Suspects. In assimilating information concerning the leader of the fallen “sons of God,” we find him first mentioned, in some detail, as early as the third chapter of the Book of Genesis. Nowhere as much as here has this elusive spirit-man covered his tracks and camouflaged his existence in a maze of fable and fairytale. For here we have the story of the Fall of Man. But here is no mention of an “apple” or of a “snake.” There is, however, mention of a “serpent” and of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Having created Adam from the dust of the Earth, Yaweh laid down some ground rules.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
Book of Genesis 2:16,17
This would appear to be a very clear-cut and straightforward pronouncement. If you eat of this particular tree (no mention of apples here), you will surely die. Now enters for the first time the “serpent”.
Now the serpent (Hebrew: Nachash) was more subtle (crafty) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman: “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”
The woman said to the serpent (Nachash):
“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say:
‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, or you must not touch it, or you will die’.”
The serpent (Nachash) said to the woman:
“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they realised that they were naked.
Genesis 3:1-7
The word serpent is the Hebrew word nachash and it requires closer scrutiny in order to provide us with a better understanding of its meaning. Figures of speech are used extensively throughout the text of the Old and New Testaments. A figure of speech is always used in order to bring attention to and intensify the reality of the literal sense and the veracity of the fact stated. So while the words used in the figure of speech may not be strictly true to the letter, they are all the more true to the truth conveyed by them. For instance, in the Scriptures, Herod is referred to as a “fox,” Nero as a “lion” and Judah as a “lion’s whelp.” These are figures of speech. So when Satan is spoken of as a serpent, it no more means a snake than it does when Herod is called a “fox.” When the word serpent is used, it is for the purpose of expressing the truth more impressively, and it is intended to be something much more real than the letter of the word.
Many times the Messiah is referred to as the “Lamb of God.” But we all know this is a figure of speech and does not literally mean a four-legged woolly animal. The same applies when Satan is called “the serpent”; it does not mean a literal snake.
Thus the Hebrew word nachash means to hiss, mutter, whisper (as do enchanters). It also has the meaning to be bright. Sometimes the word nachash is translated as fiery serpent. In the earlier passage quoted, we saw that Lucifer was an exalted celestial being full of wisdom and beauty. Nachash is similarly used to imply a glorious spirit being.35
In the New Testament, we are informed that Eve was beguiled by a serpent who is spoken of as an “angel (messenger) of light” (II Corinthians 11:3). So we have in all this evidence the word “serpent” meaning a glorious spirit being of superior aspect, knowledge and wisdom, full of beauty and fascination, with the ability to enchant and charm. It was to this bright shining angel of light that Eve paid such great deference and with whom she held a conversation. Not with a mere snake.
It is worth noting here that, in describing the fall of Lucifer in Isaiah 14, the text refers to him as being a “man,” just as Gabriel and Michael are referred to as “men.”
Is this the man who shook the Earth and made kingdoms tremble?
The man who made the world a desert . . . ?
Book of Isaiah 14:16,17
We are told that his heart was lifted up because of his beauty. Then he was told: “Thou corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness .” As a result of this corruption, it was then said: “I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee” (Ezekiel 28:17).
We are also told that the serpent was “more subtle than any beast of the field.” The word subtle means wise or crafty. The word beast is chay in Hebrew, which means “living being.” So the serpent was wiser than any other living being created by Elohim.36
The idea of Eve holding a conversation with a snake is hard to fathom. But we can appreciate her being enchanted and fascinated by a spirit being who appeared as an angel of light, a glorious personage full of splendour and possessing supernatural knowledge and wisdom. This is the serpent of Genesis 3 and the figure of speech is used to emphasise the truth and reality of the situation. It is also remarkable that the word nachash (serpent) is often rendered to enchant, fascinate, bewitch in many other places throughout the Old Testament.
Many believe that the serpent of Genesis 3 is exactly that, a snake. But the author would like to refer to an in-depth study of this topic in Appendix 19 of The Companion Bible by E.W. Bullinger. Most Biblical scholars acknowledge Bullinger as one of the most esteemed and learned of all Biblical authors. He spoke fluent Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and other languages and the breadth of work he did on scriptural writing is second to none. Bullinger asserts that the serpent is a figure of speech referring to Satan.
Returning to the core of the meeting between Lucifer and Eve, we note that the next verse, after they partake of the forbidden fruit, says that the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and they knew that they were naked. This is known as the “Fall of Man.”
Later, they made clothes of fig leaves to hide their nakedness. Then, when they heard the footsteps of Yaweh walking in the garden, they concealed themselves. Yaweh then confronts both Adam and Eve and Lucifer, and in His denunciation of their actions, He utters the first prophecy of the Messiah and that of the future doom of the serpent. In this one verse we have summarised the story of man’s fall and redemption, spanning the whole of history from the first days in Genesis to the future demise and destruction of the old serpent in the latter parts of the Book of Revelation. This one verse also includes reference to the death of the future Messiah and outlines the astronomical patterns which would dominate the celestial story. It is verse 15 of Genesis chapter 3:
“And I will put enmity between you (Serpent: Lucifer) and the woman; and between your seed and her seed; it shall crush your head and you will bruise his heel.”
Book of Genesis 3:15
This verse is the first great promise and prophecy and it is also a figure of speech. The seed of the woman here refers to the coming Messiah. Speaking to the serpent (Lucifer), Yaweh says “you will bruise his heel” – i.e. you will temporarily hurt the Messiah, the seed of the woman, referring to the Crucifixion. But ultimately the Messiah would “crush your (Lucifer’s) head,” meaning that the final victory would be accomplished sometime in the future, when the serpent would be utterly destroyed by the seed of the woman. Thus the figure of speech refers to a rather minor bruising of a small part of the body (the heel) in a non-critical manner. But, in contrast, that same heel would crush the head of the serpent, the head being the most important part of the entity insofar as it contains the brain, the mind and the very control centre of the entire body. Thus, the figure of speech is once again emphasising the truth and reality of what is said.
We are no
t quite ready to pursue the astronomical implications of this and other passages at this point. But we may observe that the “seed of the woman” here refers to the virgin who would in the future bear the Messiah. Thus the virgin is in the Zodiacal sign of Virgo. Her seed, whose heel would be bruised by the serpent, is the promised Messiah, star sign Leo (the lion). And the serpent who would bruise the heel of the Messiah, but who would have his head crushed in the final contest, is depicted in Scorpio.
But the story of Adam and Eve is only a fable, I hear you say. What about prehistoric man and the dinosaurs and fossils and the billions of years the Earth has existed? I can assure the reader that there is absolutely no contradiction between prehistoric man and prehistory and the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, but that is a debate for another day. For now, let us continue with our exposition of this angelic spirit being so full of splendour and wisdom and knowledge – this most highly-exalted and mightiest supernatural being ever created by Yaweh, the Most High God. Never was the serpent’s wisdom more craftily utilised than in securing universal acceptance of the traditional story of a “snake” and an “apple,” thus blinding us to the true identity of the nature of that wise and subtle serpent, Satan. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he does not exist.
STARGATE
The Great Pyramid of Giza, the temples of Egypt and the great monuments of Mexico, Peru and Cambodia all have one thing in common: they are aligned with the stars.
From whence did their builders receive this astronomical information? And why were their architects seemingly obsessed with the celestial bodies and their positions? It is widely held that the ancient Egyptians and other cultures possessed this knowledge and constructed these great monuments. But to suggest that the technology and mathematical knowledge plus the physical ability to construct these edifices came out of the heads of simple people living somewhere in a desert is beyond logic and probability. To give credence to such a notion is to believe that if you give a screwdriver to a chimpanzee he could construct a television set. Yet these ancient structures seem to have just popped up out of nowhere at a time when man was supposedly somewhere between the stone age and the iron age. Most experts state that the Great Pyramid was built by Khufu, known to the Greeks as Cheops. But if it was built in Khufu’s reign, which spanned 23 years, and over two million blocks were used, one block would have had to be moved into place every five minutes to complete the work.37
We have briefly touched on the astronomical associations of the men referred to in the old Hebrew texts as “agents” or “messengers” and whom we call “angels.” Let us now examine more closely many of the Scriptures relating to stars and their relationship with these spirit-men.
We have already seen that, in the King James Version, Isaiah 14:12 translates as:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.
But in the New International Version this same verse is rendered thus:
How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!
We see in this that a clear connection is drawn between this person spoken of (Lucifer), and the morning star, which is Venus. This is the bright star which can be seen in the east at dawn when the other stars have vanished from the sky. So this being is named after, and associated with, the morning star.
This distinction is again made in Job 38:4-7, where all the celestial beings are coupled with stars:
“Where were you when I laid the Earth’s foundations? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who marked off its dimension? Surely you know.
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone?
When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
In the New International Version this last phrase “sons of God” is rendered “all the angels shouted for joy.” Again we see that these “sons of God” are the angels and are referred to as “stars.” This is illustrated in many places throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. For instance, we are informed in the Book of Revelation that when Satan was cast out of Heaven he took one-third of the “stars” with him.
And there appeared another wonder in Heaven; and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew a third part of the stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the Earth . . .
Book of Revelation 12:3,4
As if we were in any doubt as to who the dragon and the stars are, we are told in verse seven:
And there was war in Heaven:
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the Earth and his angels were cast out with him.
Book of Revelation 12:7,9
We glean from this that when the “morning star,” that most highly-exalted of supernatural beings, decided to mutiny, he convinced one-third of the other “stars of heaven” to rebel with him. Thus one-third of the “sons of God,” created spirit-men, made an eternal, binding decision to side with Lucifer in his bid to usurp the throne of Yaweh, the Most High. But their coup was unsuccessful and they were cast out of Heaven. Now, as a result, these once holy servants of Yaweh became diabolically opposed to Yaweh.
In chapter one of the Book of Revelation we are given a description of the Son of Man, and he is seen here with seven stars in his right hand. Later on, in verse 20, we are told:
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
In chapter nine of the same book, we are told of another “star” in action:
And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the Earth: and to him (i.e. to this “star,” “angel”) was given the key to the bottomless pit.
And he opened the bottomless pit . . .
Book of Revelation 9:12
Because they are spirit, they can be invisible. For one cannot see spirit beings unless they take form and substance, which they of course do in many places throughout the Scriptures. But just because one cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist.
It is evident from the above that the original “sons of God” were created before the foundation of the world. It is also clear that these entities were party to the creation of the universe, for we are told that, on completion of the construction of the world, the “morning stars sang together and all the ‘sons of God’ shouted for joy.” Job 38:7
Apparently these “sons of God” are associated with the actual stars, for they are called “stars” and Lucifer means “morning star.” Perhaps each of the angels has a star and is thus named, for we are told that Yaweh both numbered and named the stars:
He determines the number of the stars, and calls them each by name.
Psalm 147:4
We have established that there is a clear link between stars and the created spirit-men called angels. But why this obsession with Zodiacal constellations? To find out why these astronomical pictures appear in so many of the ancient monuments and temples, we must go back once again to the most ancient of the Hebrew texts and piece together the stellar information provided.
STAR WITNESS
Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Pentateuch, circa 1490 BC. So for 2,500 years prior to this (see Appendix), there was no written record of the story of man’s fall, his plight in the interim and his ultimate redemption. Did Yaweh leave no clue or witness to His plans for mankind in these intervening years or did He use some other means to communicate His blueprint for the generations?
The answer is given in the very first chapter of Genesis.
And God said: “Let there be lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.
And let them
be for lights in the firmament to give light upon the Earth.”
And it was so.
And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
Genesis 1:14-16
The word signs comes from the Hebrew root aveh, meaning “to mark.” So the stars are to mark or to signify someone or something to come. Thus at the first mention of the celestial bodies we are informed that one of their functions is to mark out or signify someone or something special to come.38
We have already seen that all the stars are named and numbered by Yaweh (Psalm 147:4). Most of these names are lost, but over 100 of them have been preserved down through the centuries in the Semitic languages. Originally, all these names and their meanings would have been known to the patriarchs of old and handed down by word of mouth. Josephus assures us that Biblical astronomy came down via Adam, Seth and Enoch and was passed on in this manner.39
The Nephilim and Pyramid of Apocalypse Page 5
