Disembodied:

Demons, the Nephilim, and the Hope That Burns Brighter

by Robert Rousseau — Candlefish Ministries

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

— John 1:5 (NKJV)

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🔥 1. Fireside Opening: Pull Up Close to the Light

Pull up a chair, friend.

These are strange days. You can feel it in the air—podcasts about portals and ancient giants, documentaries about fallen angels and hybrid bloodlines, a culture flirting with the occult while pretending it’s just “content.” The veil feels thin, and people are asking real questions about the unseen realm.

At Candlefish Ministries, we don’t chase sensationalism—but we also don’t pretend the Bible is a Hallmark card. Scripture speaks plainly about cosmic rebellion, about “giants in the earth,” about unclean spirits who crave bodies and hate the name of Jesus. If God put these things in His Word, He expects us to take them seriously—not to live in fear, but to live in clarity and hope.

So this is our goal in this study:

Not to make you demon-conscious, but Christ-conscious.

Not to glorify the darkness, but to magnify the light.

We’re going to walk from Genesis 6, through the early church, into our own prophetic moment—and then right up to the blazing certainty of our Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13). Some of this may stretch you. That’s okay. Keep your Bible open, your heart soft, and your eyes on Jesus.

Let’s begin where the trouble started.

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⚔️ 2. The Ancient Crime: Genesis 6 and the Divine Rebellion

Genesis 6 is only a few verses, but it rumbles like distant thunder:

“Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose…

There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

— Genesis 6:1–2, 4 (NKJV)

Three key pieces:

“Sons of God” — not just “nice guys from Seth’s line”

The Hebrew phrase bene ha’elohim (“sons of God”) shows up elsewhere in the Old Testament for heavenly beings, not human believers (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). Second Temple Jewish writers, and the early Christian fathers, almost unanimously read Genesis 6 this way: rebellious angels crossing a boundary God never gave them permission to cross.

I’m a literal-grammatical guy. I think that’s the fairest reading of the text. Michael Heiser helped many of us recover this in our day, but he didn’t invent it—it’s the ancient view.

A corruption of the created order

This wasn’t just “some bad marriages.” This was an ontological crime—a violation of categories. Spirit beings took human women and produced something God never designed: a hybrid race.

Genesis calls them Nephilim, likely from a root meaning “fallen ones.” They are described as “mighty men… men of renown”—not in a heroic sense, but in the way people still whisper about monsters. Violence fills the earth (Genesis 6:11–12). The human line through which the promised Seed would come (Genesis 3:15) is being polluted.

God’s response: a global reset

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD… Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

— Genesis 6:8–9 (NKJV)

“Perfect in his generations” (tamim) likely includes moral integrity, but many dispensational thinkers (and some Jewish commentators) also see a hint of unmixed lineage here—Noah’s family line had not been corrupted by the angelic intrusion. However far you press that, the point is clear: God wipes the earth clean with the Flood, preserving one family and their descendants.

The ancient transgression of Genesis 6 is not a myth; it’s the backdrop of the rest of the biblical story. But that raises a haunting question:

What happened to the Nephilim when their bodies died?

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👻 3. Spirits Without Bodies: The Origin of Demons

Here’s the core idea we’re tracing:

Fallen angels sinned in Genesis 6. Their hybrid offspring, the Nephilim, died in the Flood. Their bodies perished—but their spirits didn’t. Those disembodied spirits are what we now call demons.

Is that just speculation? No. It’s the dominant view in Second Temple Judaism and in much of the early church.

Books like 1 Enoch (not Scripture, but very influential in the first century) explicitly say that when the giant offspring of the watchers died, their spirits became roaming, malicious entities on the earth—evil spirits that oppress and seek to inhabit humans. Early Christians like Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, and Tertullian pick this up and connect it to the Gospels: demons are the restless spirits of the giants.

When you overlay that with the New Testament, a pattern emerges:

Restless and body-hungry

Jesus describes unclean spirits like this:

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’”

— Matthew 12:43–44

These aren’t lofty, strategizing angelic princes. They’re homeless, restless, craving embodiment.

In Luke 8, the “Legion” of demons begs Jesus not to send them into the abyss, but to let them enter a herd of pigs instead (Luke 8:31–33). Think about that: they would rather inhabit animals than be disembodied. That fits the profile of spirits that once knew physical existence and now claw for it.

Angels in chains, offspring on the loose

Peter and Jude both speak of some angels being bound:

• “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).

• “The angels who did not keep their proper domain… He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness…” (Jude 6).

Many see this as a reference back to the Genesis 6 watchers—locked up, awaiting judgment. If that’s right, it clarifies the picture:

• Fallen angels who participated in the rebellion: chained.

• Their hybrid offspring who died: spirits left roaming—what we call demons.

That’s why I distinguish Satan and his angelic realm from the “unclean spirits” in the Gospels. Same kingdom, different ranks and histories.

And here’s a pastoral note:

Demons are not majestic overlords of darkness. They are disgraced remnants of a doomed race, already defeated at the Cross and headed for the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). We don’t fear them; we don’t flirt with them; we stand in Christ’s victory over them.

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📜 4. The Forgotten View: When the Church Still Remembered

This “disembodied spirits of the giants” view is not some fringe YouTube theory. It’s how many early Christians understood the world.

• Justin Martyr (2nd century) linked the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 to angels who sinned, and said the spirits of their offspring were the demons that mislead humanity and impersonate gods.

• Irenaeus in Against Heresies connected demonic activity with that ancient rebellion.

• Athenagoras and Tertullian taught similarly: demons are the earth-bound spirits of those giants, and the pagan gods are simply these beings wearing new masks.

In other words, when Peter and Paul preached in a pagan world, they weren’t thinking, “Oh, these are just ideas.” They saw a real, personal spiritual ecosystem behind the idols (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:20).

So what happened? Why did most of the Western church stop seeing Genesis 6 this way?

The Augustinian detour

Augustine, brilliant and sincere, was also steeped in Greek and Roman philosophy. Uncomfortable with the idea of angels physically interacting with humans, he proposed a different reading:

• “Sons of God” = the godly line of Seth.

• “Daughters of men” = the ungodly line of Cain.

• The problem becomes “mixed marriages,” not a cosmic boundary violation.

That view eventually became standard in much of Western theology. But it flattens the text, ignores the Old Testament use of “sons of God,” and breaks continuity with both Second Temple Judaism and the earliest Christian interpreters.

As a dispensationalist, I’m not interested in baptizing pagan philosophy. I’m interested in letting Scripture speak with its own voice—even when that voice sounds stranger than our modern Western categories like.

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💡 5. Why This Matters Right Now

You might ask, “Okay, interesting… but why does this matter in 2025?”

Because how you understand the unseen realm shapes how you stand in it.

1. Clarity in spiritual warfare

Paul tells us plainly:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age…”

— Ephesians 6:12

If you reduce everything to psychology or politics, you’ll fight the wrong enemy with the wrong weapons. But if you see demons as disembodied, defeated remnants of an ancient rebellion, you’re not impressed by them. You’re grounded:

• Christ has disarmed principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

• You are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).

• The One in you is greater than the one in the world (1 John 4:4).

We don’t deny the battle. We just refuse to be intimidated by losers.

2. The “days of Noah” and our technological moment

Jesus said:

“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

— Matthew 24:37

In Noah’s day, there was more going on than general wickedness. There was a war on what it means to be human.

Look around. We live in an age of:

• Genetic editing and designer embryos

• Transhumanist dreams of merging man and machine

• A culture that increasingly says, “You are whatever you declare yourself to be”

I’m not saying CRISPR equals Nephilim 2.0. I’m saying the impulse is the same: “We will rewrite God’s image. We will cross boundaries He established.” Men like Mondo Gonzalez and L. A. Marzulli have been sounding that alarm from a prophetic lens for years—not to scare us, but to wake us up.

Genesis 6 isn’t just ancient history. It’s a warning label for the end of the age.

3. Guarding the uniqueness of Christ and the scope of the Gospel

Understanding demons as disembodied Nephilim helps protect two truths:

• Only Adam’s race is redeemable.

Hebrews 2:14–16 says Jesus took on “the seed of Abraham,” not the nature of angels. He became fully human to save humans. No hybrids. No “upgraded” species. No other line gets a cross.

• Christ is not a hybrid.

He is the eternal Son, truly God and truly man—not some half-breed of heaven and earth. The counterfeit always wants to blur that line. The gospel draws it boldly.

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🌅 6. The Blessed Hope and How We Stand

So where does all of this leave us?

Not huddled in fear.

Not obsessing over demons and bloodlines.

But anchored in the Blessed Hope.

• One day soon, the Lord Himself will descend with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise. We who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).

• A literal Tribulation will unfold on this earth, Israel will be refined, and the nations will rage.

• Christ will return bodily, crush His enemies, and reign for a thousand years (Revelation 19–20).

• Finally, Satan, his angels, and every unclean spirit—including those disembodied relics of Genesis 6—will be thrown into the Lake of Fire forever (Revelation 20:10).

The story that began with rebellious “sons of God” trying to corrupt humanity ends with the Son of God, crucified and risen, seated on the throne with every enemy under His feet.

So how do we live between Genesis 6 and Revelation 20?

• Refuse fear. You are blood-bought, Spirit-sealed, and held fast.

• Walk in the light. Stay in the Word. Stay in prayer. Fill your home with worship, not occult curiosities.

• Preach the gospel. Demons hate the name of Jesus because it’s the one word that rips people out of their grip. The Cross is our weapon; the empty tomb is our banner.

The darkness is ancient.

The warfare is real.

But the light has already won.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

— John 1:5, NKJV

Let there be light—until He comes.

In the sure hope of His coming,

Robert Rousseau

Candlefish Ministries John 1:5

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