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144 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just okay, April 2, 2007
I bought this book because I wanted to do more research on the issue of the identity of the "sons of God" and the Nephilim in Genesis 6. Among evangelical biblical scholars there is disagreement regarding who these beings were. Some scholars say that the "sons of God" were Sethites who intermarried with Cainite women; some others say that they were warriors descended from Cain; and others say that they were angelic beings who fell from their glorious state in heaven.
Patrick Heron does an excellent job demonstrating that the "sons of God" were fallen angels who took on fleshly form and mated with human females. I was never fully convinced with the Sethite and Cainite view of the sons of God because of their weak exegetical and historical foundations (the Sethite view cannot explain why the "daughters of men" must refer to Cainite women, and the Cainite view was unheard of before the 2nd century AD). Heron provides intriguing evidence to point out that the sons of God were indeed angels: the pantheon of gods in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman mythology (one can include the mythologies of other Indo-European cultures like the Norse and Indics); the practice of genetic manipulation in antiquity (demonstrated by records of hybrid beasts in stone tablets and murals); and vile religious practices of these ancient people.
Though many Christians may find the angelic theory of the sons of God/Nephilim/ancient gods far-fetched, Heron still does an excellent job showing why there is a vital connection between the fallen angels and the "heroes of old" (ancient gods/goddesses). He reveals how the ancient pyramids of Egypt, Southeast Asia, and pre-Columbian Americas are intricately tied to these sons of God and the coming apocalypse. (Heron's theory is backed up by recent findings in the last century of huge skeletal frames found in various parts of the world. Some of these skeletal frames are as tall as 20 feet. These findings show that in ancient times there existed humanoid giants that roamed the earth and caused havoc among native civilizations.)
However, despite these positive and enlightening points, Heron's book takes a downward turn in the second half. The second half of the book is basically an advocacy of the dispensational pretribulational view of the end-times. Though I am strongly premillennial and futurist in my interpretation of Revelation, I just thought that Heron made major assumptions and leaps in trying to fit his whole theory into a pretrib/premill eschatological schema. Yes, I believe that there will be bizarre events in the near future signalling the beginning of the end (and I believe that these fallen angels will play a large part in the coming catastrophe), but that can all be found in the Book of Revelation. In short, the second part of the book read like another one of Hal Lindsey's end-time books with some interesting things thrown into the mix.
Overall, I would recommend this book ONLY for the information on the sons of God and Nephilim. Many Christians will find Heron's advocacy of the pretrib/premill position problematic. One can definitely find better books elsewhere if one wants a more scholarly work on eschatology.
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77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get's to the point, and it's a big one., February 14, 2005
This review is from: The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse (Paperback)
Years ago I read an editorial featuring the outlandish teachings of a Bible college professor who was attempting to answer questions his student's had raised about UFOs. They wanted to know what he thought the anomaly was, and if the Bible had anything to say about "them". Dr. I.D.E. Thomas began what he later told me "would be a couple of chapels on the issue," never knowing that his research would ultimately lead to months of lectures and finally his legendary treatise and groundbreaking book on the subject, "The Omega Conspiracy."
Years after his astounding book was first published, I had the privilege of getting to know Dr. Thomas through my fellow fiction writer and best selling author, Lynn Marzulli. I found myself intrigued by the professor's conclusions, especially those linking the giants of the Bible - also known as the Nephilim - with Unidentified Flying Object activity.
In those early days, Biblical Ufology came to be met with more scorners than believers. The "sons of God" of Gen. 6:4 were the offspring of Seth, we were told, not fallen angels, and especially not demons flying down in space ships to breed with antediluvian women who afterward gave birth to giants. As the successful pastor of a large church, I found myself wobbling on the fringe, wondering if it would be wise to challenge this status quo. Finally, setting my ego aside, I wrote my own best seller, "The Gods Who Walk Among Us," doing the Coast to Coast (Art Bell) thing and talking about the Christian viewpoint of little green men and other planets. Always at my side was the initial investigative theories of Dr. I.D.E. Thomas.
When the mid 90's rolled along, a lull seemed to be developing in the quest to deepen the church's insights into the question of UFOs and biblical history. The governing mouthpieces of Christendom had taken a look at Missler and Eastman's excellently written book on the subject - Alien Encounters - and for the most part rejected it as dribble.
Then, when all hope seemed lost, qualified thinkers began emerging from out of nowhere: David E. Flynn of the famous Watcher's Website, Dr. Michael Heiser with The Facade, and others came on the scene with fresh and meaningful proof that argued powerfully that indeed something... or someone... was at the UFO portal. UFOlogy was once again on the ecclesiastical doorstep, and this time it appeared the issue wouldn't be ignored.
Now, as if on cue, Patrick Heron has stuck his neck through the associated veil. His non-fiction entry, "The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse," is currently riding the wave of Amazon's top sellers.
"[Patrick's] book purports to explain the past existence of giant beings referred to in the Bible as the Nephilim," says World Net Daily. "Heron delves into the history of the pyramids....[and] goes to the questions of who built the structures, how they acquired such mathematical and astronomical knowledge, and what advanced technology was used in the construction."
The answer to "who built the Great Pyramid", says Heron, is the Nephilim.
Not since reading "Prophecy in Stone" some years ago - a small book by Dr. David Webber and N.W. Hutchings - have I felt that a book cuts to the chase and makes its argument so effectively as Heron's does. Whether you agree or disagree with his conclusions, you won't be confused or bored by the read, and in at least one part of the book you may find yourself startled by what the author suggests and how effectively he makes his case.
In correspondence with Patrick I found him to be intelligent and quick on his feet. I picked this up listening to him on the radio as well. This is not a man who takes his material lightly, and neither should you, for if his ideas about the Pyramid of the Apocalypse is correct, we all have a very big surprise coming, and soon.
One side note: I asked Patrick what he thought the prophet Isaiah meant when he said, "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt:" (Is. 19:19-21a). I won't repeat what Patrick told me. You can find out by reading his book. But do YOU know what the "pillar" was that was standing on the old border dividing Lower and Upper Egypt in Isaiah's day, and why the prophet would point to it as a Last Days sign unto the Lord?
Thomas Horn, author of this fall's highly anticipated novel, The Ahriman Gate http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/fringe.htm
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365 of 415 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed Book: Some Good Thoughts But Faulty Logic, May 19, 2005
This review is from: The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse (Paperback)
The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse deals with a fascinating subject and has its strong points, but it could have been much better. It's level of scholarship is limited and it assumes a lot, though it does include a few good insights and can be understood by popular audiences. I do agree with many of the author's major points. GOOD: I accept the basic premise, that the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 were indeed fallen angels, that they somehow were involved in genetic manipulation, and that the "Nephilim" giants resulted (I think Jude and 2 Peter make this clear), BAD: BUT some of the author's claims are based upon faulty logic and inaccurate (or, at best, unsubstantiated) information.For example, he uses a 25.025 inch cubit, whereas the common cubit was 18 inches (the length of a man's arm from his elbow to the tip of his middle finger) or the royal cubit 20.5. Don't know where he got the 25.025 inch one. He claims that if you do some fancy multiplication with the dimensions of the Great Pyramid, you come up with 91,840,000, the exact number of miles from the earth to the sun (p. 12). But the unit we call a "mile" was not developed for millennia after the pyramid was built! He does the same with inches (page 13). He also refers to the year "zero" (there is no such year; we go from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.) BAD: He accepts the questionable theory of the Bible code, and theorizes that the ancient half-animal/half-man deities were actually genetic manipulations by the fallen angels. But if that is the case, how come there is no mention of them in the Bible? Such traumatic sights would surely have been referenced in Genesis or Exodus. The suggestion that there are still Nephilim hiding out in remote areas seems incredible to me. And if the Pharaohs were giants, why do we not find giant mummies? BAD: The author also believes that the Great Pyramid survived the Flood. This would be a problem for most creationist scientists who believe in the cataclysmic nature of the Flood. This would require a period of de-population in Egypt and then a completely unrelated people (Noah's descendennts) taking up the old Egyptian religion and culture in a new environment (Egypt would not have been arid before the Flood). Since the earth spoke only one language before Babel, it was very unlikely Egyptian! So how could they take up where the ancient Egyptians left off? BAD: His arguments for the Nephilim are sometimes based on Greek words (like "Apollos,"), or Greek translations of the Hebrew Old Testament, but the Greek language had not been developed until well after Babel, not before the flood. GOOD: His viewpoint of the Gospel in the Stars (and especially his correlation with Revelation 12) has great merit. Readers can pick up some important insights here. But, in my opinion, he overdoes it, assigning unobvious meanings to too many constellations. Nonetheless, if taken with reservation, this section is informative. BAD: Additionally, the author quotes the Apocryphal book of Enoch as though it were true (authoritative and trustworthy), though his only arguments for its trustworthiness are that it adds needed information and was quoted in Jude, a poor criteria indeed. The problematic quotation of Enoch in Jude is difficult, but Bible-believing Christian Scholars do not accept Enoch as a trustworthy book (at least as we now have it). GOOD: Enoch's value is to give us an idea of what some Jews from the 3rd century B.C. believed, and they certainly believed that the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 were fallen angels, an important argument for the author's viewpoint. This is its main value, and it is an important consideration. GOOD: The author's beliefs about the Magi are well founded and quite possible (even probable); BUT he sets the date for Christ's birth about 3 B.C. and has the Magi visiting Herod in 2 B.C. The problem is that scholars believe that Herod died in 4 B.C. Yet, to those who have not heard about the origin of the Magi, there is good information here. GOOD: It is reasonable to wonder whether the ancient heathen legends about the gods mating with women were distortions of what actually happened in Genesis 6, a point that the author addresses well. GOOD: Much of the book is a survey of Bible prophecy from a pretribulational, dispensational viewpoint. For someone who has never been given a crash course in end time prophecy, this might be valuable and helpful. MISSING was the connection between the "sons of god" and the UFO phenomenon. OVERALL, this book will certainly shed some light on the Nephilim for those who have never studied the subject, but the author's logic and scholarship need some work.
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