Is there a person in the civilized Western world who has not heard the story of Goliath, the massive warrior slain by David? Even in our post-Christian era, the unbelieving among us acknowledge the giant, but simply regard the famous narrative as a harmless myth. However, the story bears the unmistakable stamp of authenticity and historical truth.

We know that David and his kingdom were real. His many adversaries were also real. Giants, too, were real. As we have stated in the past, the Bible gives us an authoritative history, both of the giants as individuals, and the reason for their origin.

In the past, we have studied the documentary history of their existence as a way of understanding the workings of Satan and his servants. As we revisit this study, we shall attempt to place the reality of the giants into the context of prophetic Scripture.

Goliath of Gath, the most famous of the ancient giants, was around 12 feet tall. To get some perspective on his size, try to imagine him standing in your living room. If he tried to stand up in an ordinary home, his bronze helmet would punch through your ceiling. From the chest up, he would be in your attic.

Better yet, imagine him trying to go through a seven-foot doorway to get to the next room. What begins as a comical thought soon looms into a frightening image. You’d be looking for a way to get out of the house! But remember, as the Bible measures giants, Goliath was probably on the short side.

Still, he was quite big enough for the Philistines to put him forward as their champion, and as strong as he was big. Based upon a shekel of .457 ounces, his coat of armor weighed about 143 pounds! At the tip of his huge spear, the head alone weighed 17 pounds. By the time he was loaded down with a brass helmet, leg and body armor, boots, sword and shield, he had to be carrying something over 200 pounds of extra weight. Yet he was still quite able to fight. His enemies trembled with fear. Only little David, with his faith, his five smooth stones and slingshot, would come forward to fight Goliath.

Just as we believe the reports of David and his life, we regard Goliath as an acknowledged historical character. Furthermore, he was one of many like him. They were called the Anakim.

They were the ancient residents of the Middle East. Apparently, they and their ancestors built many major architectural sites, renowned for their colossal size.

“And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.

“There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

“So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war” (Joshua 11:21-23).

The Anakim was only one tribe in a race of giants. Joshua destroyed the tribe as he took the Land for his people. It must be remembered that in the incident of the 12 spies, their original fear of entering into the Promised Land stemmed from their dread of the giants.

These monsters belong to a cursed class of beings called in Scripture, the Rephaim.

Og of Bashan

In a past study, we referred to the most noted of the breed, known as Og of Bashan. In Deuteronomy 3:11, his iron bed was described as being 9 cubits in length. Depending upon the cubit used for the measurement, this would make his bed between 13.5 and 16.5 feet in length! Using a nominal figure, that would come to approximately 15 feet! Og could easily have been 14 feet tall — a full two feet taller than Goliath.

As we noted, Og was apparently the last of the giants, or to put it more accurately, the last leader of a dominant culture of giants:

‘All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: [Heb., Rephaim] for these did Moses smite and cast them out” (Josh. 13:12).

Here, Og’s kingdom is the location of the last of the Rephaim. Later in this article, we shall see that he is a symbol of something much larger than himself.

Apparently, after his defeat, the power of the giants became somewhat dissipated. Yet, as we have already noted, his progeny continued to trouble Israel all the way down to the kingdom of David, about 400 years later. The Philistines, in particular, were fond of using giants as fearful fighting machines.

After David became king, he fought a war with the Philistines, in which not one, but four giants were defeated. As told in II Samuel 21:15 - 22, the four giants were slain in succession by heroes who sprang to David’s aid. The final verse tells the end of the matter:

“These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants” (II Sam. 21:22).

The Rephaim, Living or Dead?

We have long observed that the subject of the Rephaim is both curious and complex. Are they the living, or the dead, or both? As giants in the pages of Scripture, they are most certainly alive and kicking. The preceding example of Og is but one of many examples of the Hebrew term, Rephaim, being translated into English by the word, “giants.” They are the leaders of many of the Bible’s major battles, and are repeatedly mentioned as contemporaries of the Old Testament’s heroes.

But they are also presented as the leaders of the dead, who apparently maintain their importance, even in the place of the damned. In a prophecy against the king of Babylon, Isaiah writes about the great monarch’s final demise:

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations” (Isa. 14:9).

Here, the word “dead” is a translation of Rephaim. We have come to regard them as “the aristocracy of the damned.” We believe them to be the fallen angels and demons who are first seen in Scripture as they cohabitate with the “daughters of men” in Genesis 6.

How strange it is that they are given the same name as the giants like Og, who once roamed the earth. Is there a connection between them? Are they perhaps two manifestations of the same being?

In the Old Testament, there are many references to the Rephaim. Ancient writings from the Middle East, as well as the Bible itself, have long identified them as inhabitants of the underworld. They are described as the departed spirits of the dead.

Furthermore, though they may be weak and dissipated in their present state, they appear to be conscious and in possession of knowledge about their existing condition. They are also the recipients of some of God’s most severe judgments.

But defining them is not as simple as it may first appear, because there are also numerous references to living members of the Rephaim.

Perhaps the most ancient mention of this strange people is found in Job 26:5,6, where Job contributes to a discussion about the wicked dead:

“Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

“Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

Here, the word “dead” is the Hebrew rephaim, rather than the ordinary word for the dead, which is mooth. These are not the dead in the ordinary sense, but the unredeemed of the underworld. The Rephaim are repeatedly presented in Scripture as being beyond redemption. In fact, they seem to have done something that is especially displeasing to God. They are singled out for a special judgment.

Another example of Rephaim as the word “dead” is seen in Proverbs 21:16:

“The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.”

Here, we are given a picture of an assembly of individuals beyond the grave. They appear to be gathered into some sort of group. As we shall see, they are also conscious. Their strange congregation stands as a grisly warning to the man whose feet take him away from the path of righteousness. The Rephaim are the lost in the world of the dead.

Throughout the Bible, this assessment of the Rephaim is consistent and powerfully presented. Perhaps the best example is to be found in a remarkable passage in Isaiah 14. This significant chapter describes the fall of Babylon and its king, then proceeds to the fall of Lucifer. He is seen as the power behind Babylon’s throne.

Verses 12 through 14 give us details about Lucifer’s fall from grace, in which he finally proclaims, “I will be like the most High” (v. 14).

His open proclamation of rebellion is followed by God’s assessment of this brazen opportunist’s situation in verse 15: “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:15).

The Leaders of the Dead

What makes this historical event so interesting in the light of our study is its proximity to a further reference concerning the Rephaim. Just prior to the passage describing Lucifer’s fall is another compelling allusion to this peculiar group of the unredeemed dead.

Verses 9-11 record a bizarre reception committee as the king of Babylon descends into the realm of the damned:

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

“All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

“Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee” (Is. 14:9-11).

Here we see a gloomy, even horrifying procession of the unredeemed, as they descend from Babylon into hell. They are met by the “dead” — once again the Rephaim — who are here called the leaders of the earth.

Apparently, there is something of a hierarchy in hell, whose chief members were once the close henchmen of Satan. They were the possessors of great power. But now, they speak of having become “weak.” This is particularly interesting, because their name originates from raphah, a word root that can indicate “feebleness” or “weakness.”

Isaiah 26 is a song about Israel in the kingdom, after the nation has been lifted up and resurrected to new life. But significantly, there is one group whom Isaiah says will never see resurrection. They are the Rephaim, translated as “dead” in Isaiah 26:

“They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish” (Is. 26:14).

The horrible plight of the Rephaim begs the question, “What could they have done to deserve such a fate?” As we shall see, it was something quite monstrous, indeed.

New Testament References to “the Fallen”

It is quite possible that there are a number of New Testament references to this evil group. For example, in I Peter 3:18,19, we find mentioned a congregation of the underworld who were singled out by Christ after His resurrection:

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

“By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (I Pet. 3:18,19).

Having completed His work of redemption upon the cross, the Lord broke through the Stygian gloom of deepest Hades to proclaim His victory. No doubt, His message was most acutely aimed at the evil leaders of the revolutionary movement.

Those to whom He spoke were incarcerated, though some evil spirits (the “principalities … powers … rulers of the darkness …”) of Ephesians 6:12 seem free to torment humanity.

They are a hierarchy of dark spiritual forces who roam the earth. But there is a group which has been locked away through several millennia.

Who are these imprisoned spirits? The Bible gives several clues to their identity and the reasons for their confinement. No doubt, they’re still there, awaiting the day when the Lord will deliver them to their eternal fate: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).

As previously stated, there seems to be a special caste of condemned spirits in Hades. Perhaps they might be termed “ringleaders,” or the “avante-garde” of the great rebellion, who joined in when Satan attempted to wrest the control of heaven from God. This fact, coupled with their name, makes it possible to identify them. Jude mentioned them in verse 6 of his epistle:

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”

These ancient residents of heaven must have been proud, powerful, and as deeply deceived as their leader. If, as seems to be the case, heaven has hierarchies of power, these must have been those close to the upper levels — close to Lucifer, himself. In Ezekiel 28:16, Satan is described before his fall as a “covering cherub.”

In other words, he was once one of the watchers assigned to duty at God’s very throne! He existed at the very top of God’s “chain of command.” The throng of angels who followed him must have included many of those in heaven’s most respected positions. From their lofty positions, they made a wrong decision of colossal proportions!

Peter further defines the group when he mentions them in II Peter 2:4,5:

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

“And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (II Pet. 2:4,5).

In these verses, the word “hell” is translated from the Greek tartarus (from tartaroo, or gloomy prison). It indicates the deepest, darkest, and most secure portion of Hades. These imprisoned creatures were once the royalty of heaven. But they chose to follow the false promises of Satan.

Once the elite of the revolution, they are now designated for special punishment. More than that, they are identified with Noah, as well as all those of the ancient world before the Flood, who were destroyed in a massive demonstration of God’s power in judgment.

The Giants of the Ancient World

And here, the story begins to get interesting, because some of those sinning angels mentioned by Peter and Jude are also implicated in the horrific perversions that led to the destruction of the world in the great Flood of Noah’s day. Their story is told in Genesis 6:4,5:

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:4,5).

Here, the “sons of God” are the b’nai elohim. Over the years, it has been greatly debated whether or not these are human beings. Many have said they are the sons of Seth.

But in the final analysis, we find that the term b’nai elohim is used several times in the Old Testament. In virtually all of its usages, the obvious reference is to God’s angelic creation. (See Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Dan. 3:25; Psalms 89:6.) Most expositors have concluded that these are fallen angels, the same as those whom Jude mentions as having left their first estate.

More importantly, when we look at the result of their infraction, it becomes more than obvious that they were those corrupted angels. They literally took human women as mates, resulting in a monstrous progeny that was totally committed to wicked behavior. Their offspring are called “giants.” But this word is translated from the Hebrew Nephilim, meaning “the fallen ones.”

Why then, are they called “giants”? Most likely, it is because the ancient Greek translations of the Hebrew Torah translated this and other references to these monstrous perversions of humanity as “giants,” from the Greek gigantes.

In fact, the evidence is strong that they really were giants. More than that, they seem to have displayed the superhuman powers that gave rise to the ancient legends of demigods.

In the first century, Josephus wrote (Antiquities I, III, 1) that “… many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength, for the tradition is that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.”

Those even slightly familiar with ancient Greek mythology will shudder at the implications of this statement. Those ancient tales are fraught with perverse combinations of men and beasts.

They tell of demigods whose powers were used capriciously to torture and enslave humanity. They reek of incestuous, occultic and twisted stories of power gone awry — of “gods” who took lives at a whim.

They were characterized by evil thoughts acted out in an orgiastic nightmare of abused power. Greek mythology is one continuous horror story, peopled with beasts and monsters of every description.

But Genesis refers to them simply as “giants.” A giant then, is some kind of perversion of that which is natural, originally designed by God to live in peace upon the earth. In fact, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament — called the Septuagint — refers not only to the Nephilim, but also to the Rephaim, as “giants,” But in English translations, this connection is, for the most part, lost. Instead, we find the use of the proper name, Rephaim.

The Rephaim Were Giants

It is remarkable that the Rephaim are also mentioned in the Bible as real, living, historical beings. In fact, they were residents in the territory of modern Jordan and Syria, in the land that lies generally east of the Sea of Galilee. They lived in proximity with two other groups of giants, called “Emim” and “Zamzummim,” or “Zuzim.” In the ancient world, all of them were referred to generically as “giants.” Genesis 14:5 mentions them in conjunction with Abraham’s move to the promised land:

“And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim” (Gen. 14:5).

To this day, ruins may be found in this region that are of gigantic proportion. Here, and northward into Syria and Lebanon, there are the remains of ancient buildings and temples that stagger the imagination. For example, the ruins of Baalbek, in Lebanon’s Beqa’a Valley are so massive that some have suggested they could not be duplicated, even using modern building techniques. On the Acropolis of Baalbek, there once stood a temple dedicated to the storm god Hadad. It was 60 feet wide and 290 feet long, surrounded by 19 columns, each 62 feet high and over seven feet in diameter. But its flooring stones — still intact — are each larger than a modern railroad boxcar! No one has a clue about how they were moved into place.

And there are many other ancient examples of outsized ancient structures in the Middle East. We should not be surprised by their existence. Many times the early Israelites encountered people that they called “giants.”

Even later, when Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, giants were seen. Perhaps the most famous incident is in Numbers 13, in which a 12-man reconnaissance party is sent in to spy out the land. Ten of the 12 men are so frightened by the presence of giants that they declined to enter the land again:

“And they brought an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Num. 13:32,33).

In early Hebrew manuscripts, these giants are called the Nephilim, and were apparently thought by the spies to be descendants of a long line of these creatures, whom we first read about in the days before the Flood.

But if the pre-Flood world, with the exception of Noah’s family, was entirely destroyed, how did the evil giants survive? Here, we can only speculate.

It seems likely that the lineage of the Nephilim, Emim, Zamzummim, and Rephaim were somehow restarted even in the days after the Flood. One thing we know: after the Flood their behavior was continually evil, just like that of the pre-Flood Nephilim.

The strong suggestion is that humanity’s interaction with the evil spirits of ancient paganism is capable of disrupting man’s genetic heritage. The result seems to be a monstrous offspring.

Still another branch of the Rephaim went by the name of “Anakim.” We see them in Deuteronomy 2:10,11, where Moab is described as their area of habitation:

“The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;

“Which also were accounted giants as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims” (Deut. 2:10,11).

Here, the word “giants” is once again the Hebrew word Rephaim. They were an abnormal race. All of them seem to have been hated and feared by normal men. God sanctioned their destruction and eventually their lineage entirely disappeared.

Even the Zamzummims were a subclass of the Rephaim. Deuteronomy 2:20,21 mentions their destruction from the land of Ammon, while at the same time, designating their origins:

“That also was accounted a land of giants: [Rephaim] giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;

“A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead” (Deut. 2:20,21).

As can be seen from the various Scriptures we have quoted, the Rephaim existed in Moses’ day. The Lord even commissioned him to wipe out the last of their race.

Og, Archetype of the Latter Days

Earlier, we mentioned King Og of Bashan, the land of present-day Syria.

Prior to their entry into the Promised Land, Moses led the Israelites on a military campaign northward through Moab, Ammon and Bashan, lands today known as Jordan and Syria. His conquests were concluded with the defeat of Og, King of Bashan. Deuteronomy 3:11 describes him:

“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; [Rephaim] behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man” (Deut. 3:11).

We have already seen that Og was truly monstrous in size! The important thing to remember is that he was in the bloodline of the Rephaim. In fact, he was the last of that evil line. Joshua 13:12 punctuates this fact:

“All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants; [Rephaim] for these did Moses smite and cast them out” (Joshua 13:12).

Moses was responsible for the demise of the Rephaim. True, other giants arose after this period. Probably the best example is Goliath. But the period of dominant cultures of giants ended with Og. The living Rephaim, like their dead namesakes who wander in the congregation of the damned, seem to be the product of a dark and evil system that lies hidden in the history of humanity.

Among the Jews, it is even taught that some of the Nephilim survived the Flood of Noah, and that Og was the last of their lineage. This is certainly not borne out in Scripture. But there does seem to be a dark spiritual connection between Og and those monstrous predecessors. It is found in the phrase, “after that,” in a well-known Scripture verse.

Before and After the Flood

Genesis 6:4, which we examined earlier in a different context, gives these two words a special meaning:

“There were giants [or nephilim, “the fallen ones”] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4).

The ancient world of the Jews, Greeks and Romans abounded with tales about how the gods came down and intermarried with mankind, producing demigods, heroes and half-man-half-beast monstrosities. The ancients believed that a kernel of truth lay at the center of these stories.

Here, the Bible even says that this happened both prior to the Flood of Noah and also at some later time “… after that …” that is, after the great deluge.

But under the current mindset, theologians now object to the idea that disembodied spirit beings (even if they exist) could intrude upon the physical world — and especially to mate with human women. Yet, in the millennia prior to Sir Francis Bacon and the men of modern science, with their methods of empirical science and inductive reasoning, that is precisely what was taught and believed. The flaw in his method is that man makes assumptions (hypotheses), based upon his own beliefs and prejudices.

From modern man’s point of view, perhaps the chief objection to human/angel interactions is that they just don’t “make sense.” He has been conditioned to think in terms of observation and proof. The scientific method cannot prove the existence of the spirit world. And even if it did, there is still another question: How is it possible that a spirit being could actually become “physical” enough to walk among men—and women?

But a moment’s reflection reveals that the Bible gives many examples of righteous angels who did just that. In Genesis 18, Abraham receives three visitors, whom he welcomes into his home for a meal. Apparently, they are just like ordinary men, even to the point of eating and drinking. But the common explanation is that they are angels who have taken the form of men. Their demeanor is “physical” in every way.

In Genesis 19, two angels visit Sodom to warn Lot that he must leave the city before it is divinely destroyed in a rain of fire. Again, they seem like men, rather than the common picture of winged angels in glowing white clothing. Even the perverted men of Sodom related to them as ordinary humans.

It is obvious that angels regularly circulate among human beings. Their appearance is so utterly “human” that it is possible to meet a supernatural being without even suspecting that you have had a transaction with an angel. The simple conclusion is that angels can transition in and out of our world with ease. And there is ample historical evidence to conclude that this includes evil, fallen angels, as well as the righteous angels who never left their assigned sphere of righteousness.

The conclusion is both obvious and simple. In ways we don’t completely understand, demonic forces can physically intervene in normal human affairs. They can introduce genetic transformations in their subjects, resulting in a variety of alterations that suit their needs at the moment. Monsters are the result. Human beings have traditionally viewed these new creatures as gigantic or heroic in proportion.

Both before and after the Flood, they were the despots whose rule came from force and power. They were real then … the fallen ones called “giants” in the ancient world. And they are real now, or so says the testimony of many thousands of witnesses.

Giant Hairy Bipeds

In particular, as we witness the waning influence of God’s Holy Spirit in these latter days, demonic influence will become progressively unleashed. As Paul put it in I Timothy 4:1, “ … doctrines of devils …” will begin to come to the foreground. Today’s occultic books and movies abound with unspeakable tales of titanic powers and monstrous giants, aroused as if from some long sleep. In fact, this is a prevalent theme among such productions. But they are only the precursors of the real thing that is shortly to come.

During the days of the prophets and on through the Christian era, the old giants receded deeply into the background of history. But they seem tantalizingly close to public realization once again. Beginning particularly in the last half of the present century, the world is hearing more and more about a class of creatures whose very existence is questioned. The prevailing belief is that giants will never exist again. Og and his people are gone forever.

But thousands firmly believe that they have seen, tracked and in some cases met, one or more of the giant creatures. In every case, these creatures seem to want nothing more than to be left alone. They flee at astonishing speeds when confronted by human beings. They are true giants, ranging in height from eight to twelve feet! Their footprints have been measured at fourteen to twenty-four inches or more!

These reticent anthropoids are known by many names: kaptars (Asia), yowies (Australia), yetis, or abominable snowmen (the Himalayas), kangmi (Tibet), sasquatch (northwestern American Indian), or bigfoot (western north America, Canada). Some naturalists simply term them Giant Hairy Bipeds, or GHB’s for short.

It is more or less widely known that these creatures exist. Their vocalizations (including a strange language) have been recorded. But their reality is curiously fleeting. This has caused many casual observers to dismiss the thought of their existence as foolish. But they do exist, in many cases acknowledged by anthropologists and attested to by convincing photos, hair and footprint evidence and even motion picture footage.

An entire pseudo-science, called crypto-zoology, has emerged. It is devoted to the study of these strange, giant man-apes.

In the fifties and sixties, hundreds of similar sightings were reported, as the “abominable snowman” became the rage of the world’s news media. Many hunting parties trekked into the Tibetan high country and the towering Himalayas to be the first to bring back a specimen worth millions. They all failed.

But in the late sixties, seventies and eighties, reports began to filter in from all over the world. Especially in the Western U.S. and Canada, tales about “bigfoot” were rife. And once again, the hunt was on. American Indians had long spoken about the “giant hairy men” who lived deep in the forests. In the northwest, the local tribes named them “sasquatch.” Indians believed that these creatures lived in family units, sought out remote areas, hated contact with humans, and were possessed of special “senses” that made it impossible to find them.

Actually, these massive and shaggy creatures have been reported virtually all over the world. In our country, sightings have ranged from coast-to-coast and border-to-border. But they are particularly observed in Washington, Oregon, California, Indiana and states throughout the Midwest.

Worldwide, there are literally thousands of similar reports, continuing to the present day. Usually, the creatures are accompanied by a retching odor that people describe as the worst thing they’ve ever smelled. This has led to another common nickname, “Skunk Ape.”

Back in the woods of the northwest and Canada, vigorous reports continue unabated to the present day. Such reports are so common that the creatures are now protected by law in many communities. They are thought to be so “humanlike” in appearance that it is considered a capital crime to kill one.

Enter the Demon What is not widely known is that GHB’s are commonly accompanied by phenomena usually attributed to the race known as demons. Their appearance is likely to be accompanied by ghostly rapping in the homes of nearby residents, unidentifiable noises, the levitation or translocation of ordinary household objects, disembodied voices and flying lights in the night.

In one of the most famous cases, two GHB’s were seen walking away from a flying “bubble of light,” after it landed on the Pulaski farm near Greensburg, Pennsylvania. On the night of October 25, 1973, state police were summoned, after residents of the family farm were literally frightened out of their wits by the hairy giants who walked toward them. Stephen Pulaski tried to shoot them with a hunting rifle, but they seemed unhurt, and merely walked back into the woods.

Those who have studied the GHB phenomenon quickly realize that these monstrous animals exhibit all the transitory, will-o’-the-wisp characteristics described in traditional demonology. They are virtually always accompanied by the accouterments of the occult, the spiritualistic and the metaphysical. This is, of course, the most obvious explanation of their mysterious ability to resist discovery. Over the last forty years, literally thousands of hunting parties have vied for the honor of being the first to bring this “new species” into the light of society. To a man, they have failed. Sometimes, their hunts have taken place within very small tracts of woods. They have literally had the giants surrounded, but their ever-tightening circles converged upon nothing!

Demons Dead and Alive

Does this remind us of anything else? Yes indeed, it does. It reminds us of the long-standing belief that the demon is able to transition back and forth between different states of existence.

It can be both a spirit creature and a physical animal. And it also reminds us of the ancient Rephaim, who are named in Scripture, both as condemned spirit beings and as giants.

Modern man is bedeviled by many such phenomena. Hauntings, poltergeist phenomena, “psychic” behavior, and GHB’s all exhibit the vexatious tendency to avoid capture.

Thus, the “scientific” mind, operating with the prejudice that such things cannot exist to begin with, remains smugly satisfied. Respected scientific journals and media outlets never treat these common subjects with anything resembling objectivity.

And woe be unto the unprejudiced observer who, after an encounter with these “nonexistent” phenomena, must prove his sanity.

But you’re saying, “Wait a minute, the giants of the Bible were visible and real. They didn’t disappear like spooks.” And right you are, to a point. In fact, however, they did disappear into the dusty pages of history … for the second time.

The first time they disappeared was in the Flood of Noah. The Bible tells us that only Noah and his family came through the Flood.

Yet somehow, the giants came back again to plague Abraham, Moses and the Davidic kingdom. While we cannot be dogmatic, we would say that somehow, the demon interceded in fallen man’s development, producing the living Rephaim.

The Rephaim, Both Spiritual and Physical



This would seem to provide an answer to the nagging question about why the Bible refers to Rephaim as both living and dead. Perhaps they are “shades,” or spirits, who are able to affect the physical world from time to time. This may particularly be true in societies given over to the worship of various evil spirits, including demons.

Their two states of existence in Scripture may help to explain the basic and troublesome question mentioned above: How were the giants of Genesis 6 able to come back to trouble the world after they were destroyed in the Flood? Might they have later influenced man genetically in some way, causing him to become a mutant — a giant? One of the giants of Gath was said to have six fingers and six toes on his hands and feet. This would certainly indicate at least the possibility that there was some perversion of the human genotype.

Here, we become involved with the twisted world of the fallen angels and demons. In this dark and alien arena, we must proceed with caution. Still, though the subject may seem strange, there is ample information for a careful study. This should not be a theme unfamiliar to Christians. After all, even Paul writes to Christians about the truth of our spiritual battle:

“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” (Eph. 6:12).

While it is impossible to be precise about the enigmatic order of the occult power structure, the three groups mentioned here are the rulers [Gk., archon], authorities [Gk., exousia] and lords of this world [Gk., kosmokratoras]. These are the demons who infest the globe under the direction of Satan.

Historical observation of this miserable race always yields one interesting and to some, perhaps unexpected trait. Namely, under great effort, when it suits their cause, demons are apparently quite able to manifest themselves in the physical world — in physical bodies.

Furthermore — given the proper spiritual environment and a little time — they are apparently capable of making their presence permanent. That is, by altering the human species, they produce beings who are more appropriate to their plans.

The Prophetic Conclusion

Those plans include the rise of a new era of despotism. Given their ancient behaviors, it is probably safe to say that they are even now involved in the malevolent practices that marked their past intrusions.

As earlier noted, we are now living at the end of the Christian era, a time when evil supernatural manifestations have been suppressed. The restraining power of God’s Holy Spirit is without doubt, the agency responsible for this blessed condition. Regarding the unveiling of latter-day evil forces, specifically the Antichrist, Paul writes:

“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (II Thess. 2:6-9).

Paul tells us with extreme clarity that the Antichrist will be revealed on a wave of demonic activity, no doubt including the alien phenomena that we have discussed in this and other articles on the subject.

Today, the demon and his ilk are steadily re-emerging in more and more blatant displays of strange activity. Current stories of UFO abductions, grotesque animal mutilations, genetic experiments and pseudo-technological razzle-dazzle are capped off by the furtive manifestations of the GHB.

Just beneath the surface, these phenomena are definitely connected. There is a web of activity that will produce the same sort of evil that characterized the antediluvian era. We have only to remember that ancient historians linked the demigods of old with the intrusion of Satan and his minions with the Nephilim. The fallen ones of that day seem to have been the result of dark experimentation … a celestial attempt to link the unseen world with our physical reality.

In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus stated this fact directly:

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:37-39).

Demonic activity will be unleashed in ways that have been long forgotten. It will produce the horrors of the Great Tribulation. For a time, there will be a literal “hell on earth.” It is likely that giants will become dominant and quite public once again. The goal of such spiritual interference is to disrupt God’s desire to redeem mankind. But their plans were cut off once, and they will be thwarted again.

When the Holy Spirit is finally “… taken out of the way …” who knows what evils will hurl themselves upon the world’s naïve societies? It is not beyond reason that when spiritual restraints are finally removed, the giant Rephaim will once again tread out their grim oppression upon the earth. Today, they live in vaults of Hades and the shadows of the forests. One day soon, their horror may appear in broad daylight.

The message is this: As these phenomena become increasingly prominent, it will be another compelling reason to believe that we are living in the closing days of the Church Age. As Hebrews 10:24,25 says:

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

We definitely see it approaching!