1 – What is the Alien Gospel?
2 – Invasion by the Forces of Darkness
3 – Invasion by the Forces of Light? UFOs? Hybrids/Giants?
4 – Apocryphal Works: Old and New
5 – Reverse-Engineering/Embellishment of Artistic Works
6 – “As the Days of Noah. . . Seed of the Woman”
7 – Staying on Track
8 – Where to Draw the Line
APPENDIX 1: “Mingle themselves with seed of men” (Daniel 2:43)
APPENDIX 2: Why the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch
APPENDIX 3: What’s wrong with the Book of Jasher? 
APPENDIX 4: How Canon Scripture Differs from Apocryphal Literature

APPENDIX 1: What means the phrase “mingle themselves with seed of men” in Daniel 2:43?

There is a popular idea floating nowadays in eschatological circles that demons are going to interact and mate with human beings and produce hybrid offspring who will become leaders in the Antichrist world of the future. This may sound bizarre, but there is some Scriptural basis for thinking along these lines. It can be difficult to translate ancient Hebrew correctly, but certain Scriptures do seem to say that in days gone by fallen angels did materialize and mate with earthly women. (Genesis 6:1-4). These strange unions resulted in offspring who became “men of renown” – influential persons in those ancient times.

So the theory goes now that something similar will happen in the very near future as part of the build-up to the final anti-Christ empire. Much of this theory is based on interpreting Daniel 2:40-44 as a reference to this sort of hybrid mingling of demons with humans in the End Time.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. . . (KJV)

The argument hinges on the question of who does the “they” (and the word “kings”) in verses 43-44 refer to? The case is often put forward that these words refer to hybrid aliens – who are thought to be represented by the ten “toes” (or “ten horns/kings” of Revelation 13 and 17). According to the “mingle themselves with the seed of men” phrase, it is assumed that these ten “toes” will procreate and mix genetically with humankind, which in turn is assumed to have disastrous consequences for the human race.

It would be helpful now to take a close look at this critical passage, which zeroes in on the historical situation of our present day. Firstly, there is the “fourth kingdom” of ancient Rome, a strong kingdom – “as iron breaks in pieces”. Then come the “feet and toes” made of “iron” and “clay”. As a result of this iron and clay mixture, the “kingdom (referring to the “fourth kingdom” of ancient Rome) shall be divided”.

We can observe this in our modern world; governments are no longer dominated by the “iron” military and republican features inherited from ancient Rome; instead they must share power with the economic-industrial forces (represented by the “clay”) that have grown so powerful in the modern world. (For more information about the interpretation of these symbolic aspects of the Daniel 2 “image” vision, see Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 in the  Shape of the Future series.

Revelation 18:23 brings to light the rise of this peculiar “clay” feature about our modern world: “your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” The ultra-rich, behind-the-scenes powerbrokers have ascended to a higher level of control in our modern world, especially in the empire of the Harlot (whose calamitous downfall is outlined in the series of  posts on Revelation 17-18).

This “clay” power works with (and against) the military-political rulers who, in ancient times, generally dominated the governments of the world. As a result “the kingdom (“fourth kingdom” of Rome) shall be divided” in the “feet and toes” of the “image”. Daniel’s description then moves on to the “toes”, which could be a way of signaling the very End of the “feet” era of history.

At this point it would help to backtrack to verse 38 where Daniel tells king Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold.” This is similar to the vision in chapter 7 of a “lion” who was “made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it”. (7:4) The “head of gold” and the “lion” beast, besides symbolizing the Babylonian empire, also symbolized the person of Nebuchadnezzar.

So, just as the pronoun “you” refers to the “head of gold”, likewise it shouldn’t seem odd to think that the pronoun “they” in verse 43 refers to the “feet partly of iron and partly of clay” (2:42,33), and probably also to two specific persons. From elsewhere (Revelation 13:1, 11), we learn that there are two “beasts”, or empires, who will dominate the earth in the End Time – one from the “sea” and the other from the “earth”. (13:1,11)

It is fairly obvious too from the descriptions of them in the Revelation Book that these “beasts” are also symbolic of the two specific persons who head those empires, the Antichrist and False Prophet. So it should be safe to say that, for the feet of iron-clay, the “dreadful and terrible” beast from the sea (the Antichrist) with his 10 horns is represented by the iron in the feet; and the Beast from the earth who speaks “like a dragon” (the False Prophet) is represented by the clay. (Daniel 7:7, Revelation 13:11)

The “beast rising up out of the sea” matches with the metal parts of the Daniel 2 “image” – these strong political-military empires. The “beast coming up out of the earth”, however, is much different. (Revelation 13:1,11) His empire is based on economic power, as we might gather from the verses in Revelation 13 about his control over the world’s new buying and selling system. (13:16-17) This economic power also enables the “earth-beast” to exercise considerable spiritual authority in the earth; he persuades the masses to adopt his religion of Materialism and Antichrist-worship.

This “earth-beast”, who appears only in the End of the Age era, matches then with the “clay” part of the Daniel 2 “image”, which also appears only in the End Time “feet” portion of the “image”. We could then paraphrase verse 43 to read, “They (Antichrist and False Prophet, the two “kings” of the final End Time empire) are represented by the iron and clay in the feet of the image.”

Similar to how Daniel’s statement in verse 38 refers to a specific person – “You (Nebuchadnezzar) are this head of gold” – so the words “they” and “kings” in verses 43-44 would also refer to two specific persons, namely the “kings” of “iron and clay”, the Antichrist and False Prophet.

It is interesting to note that, because Daniel’s vision of the “image” had a human form, then, besides being a portrayal of future empires, the vision was also meant to portray the counterfeit religion of man/emperor worship that has prevailed throughout history. Daniel’s statement, “You are this head of gold”, underscores the fact that the different parts of the image can be symbolic of kings, not just their kingdoms. And these kings were worshipped.

This was certainly true of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, as we know from the “fiery furnace” account in chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel. And it will certainly be true of the Antichrist, whom the Book of Revelation states will be “worshiped” with the help of the False Prophet who “causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast (the Antichrist).” (13:4,10,11)

The “image” vision also symbolized the different characteristics of the successive kings and their kingdoms according to the type of material and body part that symbolized them. Thus, when we come to the “iron and clay feet”, this “double-duality” feature (2 feet – 2 materials) signals to us a special arrangement of two different and powerful empires allied together to form this final regime that will dominate the earth prior to Christ’s Second Coming.

And this goes along with Revelation 13, where we learn that in the End Time there will arise two “beasts”: an empire of the Antichrist and an empire of the False Prophet, each ruling over their respective domains of influence. (For more information on this subject, refer to Posts 5, 6, 8 in Shape of the Future series.)

This will be a peculiar political-economic arrangement that has not occurred before in history. There were dual empires in the past – Medo-Persia and east-west Rome – but these were single empires split in two and were made of only one material (silver and iron respectively). Probably that means the different parts of those empires were actually not all that different from each other. Whereas in the End Time the spheres of influence are quite different. One rules in the economic domain (“clay”); the other in the military-political domain (“iron“).

And so it was that the dual empires from ancient times were referred to in the singular – “another kingdom (Medo-Persia) inferior to yours” and “the fourth kingdom (east-west Rome)”. (2:39-40) But for the dual End Time kingdom, the plural form of “they” and “kings” that we find in verses 43 and 44 is used to refer to the two powerful personages who will rule much of the world in the near future.

So, all that to say, it seems more likely that the pronoun “they” is referring to these two powerful End of the Age “kings”. In the passage it is fairly straightforward; the word “they” links with the words coming just prior to it – namely, the “iron mixed with miry clay”, and to the same in the second part of this verse: “they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”

The “they” stands for the two separate (yet allied) powers of “iron” and “clay” that will dominate the earth in the End Time (and to the two “kings” of these “iron” and “clay” superpowers); this makes good sense too in that there is no need to depart from the overall context of the rest of the passage about the previous empires of gold, silver, bronze, and iron.

And what about the “toes”? If they are to represent anything, then they are simply the ten nations/kings who “will give their power and authority to the (Antichrist) beast” as explained in Revelation 17:13,17. There is nothing really to suggest that this symbolic picture represents anything more than a political arrangement of ten nations and their earthly kings who join with the “beast from the sea” in the future war against the “great harlot” of Revelation 17-18. (To learn more on this topic, see the post “Ten Horns Coming into View?“)

In Daniel chapter 7, the Antichrist is pictured as a horn that had “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words”; the rest of the horns had no special features and seem to be followers, nations or kings, under the Antichrist’s control. (He “shall subdue three kings” – Daniel 7:24). To conclude, there doesn’t seem to be much in these prophetic words that might suggest an “alien gospel” scenario of ten “hybrid aliens” working with the Antichrist.

Getting back to the words in Daniel, “they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” As mentioned, it fits the context of the passage to think that this is referring to these two different political systems who are having trouble integrating with each other. The internal unity of the Antichrist government runs into trouble because of the suppressed animosity between the economic side (represented by the “clay“), the industrialists who want to control everything, and the militarists (represented by the “iron“) who also want to control everything.

The vision of the “image” was meant to be a symbolic portrait of the political-military-economic-religious empires that have dominated, and will dominate, the Middle East, and particularly the land of Israel. The description of the “feet” portion nicely reveals the paradoxical situation of two empires who ally together (“mix”) yet contend somewhat with each other (“shall not cleave”).

An example of this love-hate relationship between a commercial power and a more militarized one can be seen even in our present historical situation: for a brief time after 2010, the European Union (EU) and Russia were talking euphorically about joining forces, but soon after, due to the Ukrainian crisis, the two started moving apart. (See here for more information.)

But now, what about the “seed of men” phrase in the previous sentence? “As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men.” (2:43) What is the meaning of this peculiar “mixing” feature found in the feet and toes of the “image”? The purpose appears to be so they can “mingle with the seed of men”.

In other words, because of the broad base they’ve established by joining forces (“iron mixed with miry clay”), they have a greater appeal and greater ability to rule over the world, (“the seed of men”). It is like a play on words: the mixing of the kings and their kingdoms enables them to mix better with mankind and thus rule over them. (“Mix” and “mingle” are the same word in ancient Hebrew.)

But there is much debate about this. Could this “mingling with the seed of men” be referring to genetic procreation of alien fallen angels with mankind? Could “iron” symbolize these aliens, and the “clay” symbolize the people of the world? Well if so, such an interpretation would yank this part of Daniel’s description out of context from the rest of the symbolic portrait of past (and future) empires that he has described; and for that matter out of context from the symbolic portraits of the same found in the Book of Revelation.

There is a tendency here to read quite a bit more than is called for into these words “mix”, “mingle”, and “seed”, and to come up with an interpretation that stands in isolation from the rest of the passage and ignores how the iron and clay kings “mix”, or try to mix, in the political-economic-military-religious sphere. Without considering the context, one could make a case that the passage is talking about demons mingling genetically with mankind instead of understanding that it is talking about these kings and their empires getting mankind swept up, or “mixed up” in their “cause” so to speak

Looking at the overall context, however, it seems natural to understand that these wordings should not be taken to refer to something that is inconsistent with the preceding verses; it also seems very natural to see that the pronoun “they” should refer to the two “iron and clay” kings (which, of course, might include their ten “toes”, or the “ten horns/kings” of Revelation 13 and 17, who are attached to the Antichrist Beast).

A bit more about these words “mix”, “mingle”, and “seed”: “mix” and “mingle” are both translations from the same Aramaic-Chaldee word arab which appears 4 times only, all in this Book of Daniel chapter 2. It is almost identical in meaning to the Hebrew word arab which appears 22 times elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Most often, this Hebrew word was used to refer to things like “being surety”. The Book of Proverbs contains several warnings about getting “mixed” up with strangers, pledging to guarantee the debts of others. A couple of times arab is translated as “associate”. (Prov 20:19, 24:21) Again, these are warnings against getting “mixed” up with, in this case, flatterers and rebels. Only twice is it used in the sense of getting “mixed” up sexually with strangers (non-Israelites in this case). The term “mingle”, therefore, does not have to be confined in its meaning here to sexual procreation since it was used in so many other ways in the Scriptures.

Thus, by mixing in the political and economic spheres, the two kings are able to mix with the world’s people and rule over them politically, economically, and religiously. With the help of the False Prophet “beast from the earth”, the Antichrist “beast from the sea” will rise to great prominence in the earth. “And all the world marveled and followed the beast. . . And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him.” (Revelation 13:3,7-8)

So this combo of political-economic cooperation, involving the Antichrist and False Prophet, seems to be the kind of mixing it’s talking about rather than mixing in the sphere of sexual procreation. And this in turn causes their dual empire (including their “ten horns/kings”) to “mingle” with the people of the world and succeed in ruling over them. As with the rest of the “image” vision, which symbolized political realities in the ancient world, so this part of the vision symbolizes the soon-coming political reality of the Antichrist – False Prophet empire.

But now what about the word “seed” which, of course, does refer to offspring and procreation and so on? “Seed” is a word that is used here in a figurative sense to refer to the world of humankind. In Psalm 22:23 we read, “All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him” (KJV). “Seed of Jacob” is referring to the population of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, or his “seed”. In the NKJV the same is translated, “All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him.”

So, all that to say, “seed of men” in Daniel 2:43 is nothing more than a colorful or figurative way of referring to the future population of the world; we’re all the descendants (“seed”) of our ancestors. To apply “seed of men” to theories of genetic manipulation appears to be an attempt to dig out more from this phrase than is actually there.

The passage is not saying that “they” (who are assumed to refer to the “ten kings” who are assumed to refer to demonic angelic intruders) are going to sexually procreate (“mingle”) with the “seed of men” (and create genetic hybrids who will rule in the Antichrist kingdom). It just means that “they” (the “iron and clay” kings) are going to interact with and rule over (“mingle with”) the “seed of men” (the world’s population).

To conclude: This digression on the meaning of Daniel 2:43 isn’t trying to say that strange unions between demons and humankind can’t possibly happen; the main point here has been to show that Daniel 2:43 should not be invoked as the Scriptural basis for such a belief.

Daniel 2:43 describes the modern world situation with its peculiar mixture of the military-political domain with the economic domain; it does not seem correct or consistent with the rest of the passage in Daniel 2 to apply this verse to the notion that demon-human hybrids might emerge in the End Time era during the reign of the Antichrist.

In fact, using Daniel 2:43 in support of the “alien gospel” sounds a bit like what the apostle Peter wrote long ago about being “untaught and unstable” and about those who “twist (the Scriptures) to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:16) Or uncomfortably close to what the apostle Paul said to Timothy and Titus long ago, warning them against “an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words.” (1Timothy 6:3-4 ESV) “Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.” (Titus 3:9 ESV)

(NEXT)  APPENDIX 2: Why the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch