Part 10

Before leaving the Book of Enoch, there are two other points I would like to bring to your attention which are in this book. The first is concerning the evil spirits which inhabit the earth, who, according to Enoch, are the spirits that remain after the death of the giants which are the product of flesh and spirit.

That is, the angels who are spirit, left their first estate and came to earth and lay with flesh and blood women. The product of this union of spirit and blood were the giants. But when the giants died, their spirits remain on this earth and are responsible for much of the pain and oppression which humans suffer today.

The Book of Enoch chapter 15 and 16 we read:

“Wherefore go, say to the Watchers of heaven…wherefore have ye left the high, holy and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives…and begotten giants as your son.

And now the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.

Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies because they are born from men and from the holy watchers is their beginning and primal origin. They shall be evil spirits upon the earth, and evil spirits shall they be called.

And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle and work destruction on the earth and cause trouble. They take no food but nevertheless hunger and thirst and cause offences. From the days of the slaughter and the destruction and the death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgement…”

Spirits cannot be destroyed. That is why we are told that the Lake of Fire is reserved for the Devil and his angels who will remain there forever and ever. When the giants were destroyed in the Flood, their spirits exited from the body and remained at large. And, according to Enoch, it is these spirits that inhabit the earth today and cause the mayhem that humankind has to endure today and all through the ages.

The other passage I want to relate is in chapter 19 of Enoch. The context is regarding the Abyss which is reserved for the angels who transgressed. Enoch sees there “seven stars like great burning mountains.”

“And Uriel said to me: “Here stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms, are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods…”

The interesting tid-bit here is that it says that these evil spirits can “assume many different forms.” I do not fully understand this statement. But on my journey to Egypt some years ago, I was taken by the many images of the various gods displayed in friezes and paintings in all of the temples there. These showed gods in different forms such as Horus, the Falcon headed god. Thoth who has the head of an Ibis while Sobek looked like a man with a crocodile head. The god Khnum had the head of a goat while Anubis was the god-man with the head of a jackal.

There are many other enlightening sections in the Book of Enoch which help us understand the hard sayings contained in the Book of Revelation. There is room for a comprehensive work to be done in connecting the two books. Enoch also sheds light on other areas of scripture which I shall not go into here.

But now I want to return to scripture and continue our journey into the prophecies of the Apocalypse. Perhaps the best way to do this is to begin at the beginning and see what we can glean from chapter to chapter. Again, this is no mean feat for when one endeavours to derive understanding from this mysterious book, it always seems to get curiouser and curiouser.

The very first verse in Revelation informs us as to whom it is addressed.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John…

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

There are five different personages mentioned in the first verse. Jesus got the revelation from God so he could make it known to his servants. Jesus in turn sent an angel (probably the man, Gabriel), who in turn gave it to John.

John was on the island of Patmos when he wrote this book. Some say he was there because he was imprisoned for preaching the Word of God. But we are not told that this is so. We are merely told John was on Patmos “for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” He may well have been instructed to go there in order to receive the revelation.

Patmos is just off the coast of present day Turkey not too far from the ruins of Ephesus. One of the tourist attractions in Ephesus is the house where Mary, the mother of Jesus, died. This would make sense as we recall that when Jesus was dying on the cross, he asked John to take care of his mother. And we know that the disciples of Jesus left Jerusalem and the surrounding areas because they knew of the destruction of it which Jesus prophesied while he was still with them.

John was supposedly an old man when he wrote Revelation. So it is very possible that Mary would have been close to John and may well have died in Ephesus around the time that John wrote this book in the nearby island of Patmos. Of course this flies in the face of the teachings of the Catholic Church who say that Mary was assumed into heaven just as Jesus was. Thus they celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. The reason they call it the Assumption is because they assume this happened. Is there any doctrinal proof for this or is it recorded anywhere in ancient writings? Of course not. This is merely a good example of the doctrines and traditions of men which transgress the truth of the Word of God. But that’s religion for you.

Please note that verse three of this first chapter informs us that whoever reads the words of this prophecy and whoever hears the words of this book, and takes to heart what is written, is blessed. This promise is reiterated again at the end of Revelation. This is the only book in the Bible where we are told that we are blessed if we read it or if we hear its words.

We are not told that we are blessed if we understand it. For it is hard to understand. But we receive a blessing when we read it or hear it read. For this alone, the book of Revelation is worth reading.

“Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Look, he is coming with the clouds,

And every eye will see him,

Even those who pierced him,

And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.

So shall it be! Amen.” Rev. 1: 4,5,7.

The Book of Revelation is a spiritual book. What we are dealing with here are spiritual matters. Although it deals with what is to happen upon earth in the coming Apocalypse, it also informs us of matters celestial and of things that occur in the heavenly realm. It talks of angels and spirits and demons and signs, miracles and wonders. If we are to learn any of its secrets, it will be only if these are revealed to us directly by the Lord himself. Whether or not we can unlock some of these mysteries remains to be seen.

From verse 4 above it talks of the seven spirits who are before the throne of God. We have discussed that spirits are angels. So these seven spirits are seven special angels who stand before the throne of the Most High. Again harkening back to the book of Enoch, he mentions the seven holy angels who watch and names them and tells us their roles.

“Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus.

Raphael, one of the holy angels who is over the spirits of men.

Raguel, who takes vengeance on the world of the luminaries.

Michael, he that is set over the best part of mankind and over chaos.

Saraqael, who is over the spirits, who sin in the spirit.

Gabriel, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim.

Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

Book of Enoch chapter 20

Gabriel and Michael we are familiar with as they are both named in scripture. If we can presume that other statements quote from Enoch have veracity, then we must presume that these names are the true names of the arch angels of God. The seven spirit men who stand before His throne.

Patrick Heron is best selling author of Apocalypse Soon (Anomolos Publishing www.survivormall.com) and The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse (Kensington www.neph.ie).