If you are the average Christian, or have been exposed to the average Christian version of Christmas, and the birth and in the manager and Noah and the flood, your basic knowledge of God, the Bible and Christianity goes something like this:

God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day which is Sunday which is why we have to go to Church one day a week. God made Adam. Adam got lonely, so God took a rib out of his side and made Eve. Being a woman Eve was tempted by the devil who appeared as a snake in the Garden of Eden. She ate the apple and then got Adam to eat the apple from the tree of forbidden knowledge.

God got mad and kicked them out of the garden of Eden. Eve and Adam then had sex for the first time and Cain and Able were born. Cain killed Able. Time passes. Lots of people populate the earth, but God decides they’re all evil and decides to wipe out everybody and start over. But he sees this righteous guy named Noah and tells him to build an ark and puts two of every kind of animal on it and he and his family and the animals survive the flood.

If, like me and most of the Southern Baptists I know, your concept of Christianity revolves around all these holidays. You know the stories, but I’ve rarely met anyone who can explain WHY Jesus ended up being born and why exactly we worship him and what exactly it is He was sent here for. Trust me - it wasn’t to spoil our fun.

Let’s go back to Genesis - which is the first book of the Bible. Before God created man, or earth - he created angels. We know this because in Job 38:4-7, “the sons of God shouted for joy” when He laid the foundations of the earth. So, God had an audience while he was shaping the earth. (p.s. God talks literally about fire breathing dragons, unicorns and other creatures in Job too by the way).

These angels weren’t and aren’t the harp playing, frail and effeminate creatures depicted in far too many books and stories. When angels appear to men in the Bible the reaction of those who see them is to fall on their faces in fear and trembling. Remember when the angelic host appeared to the shepherds at Christ’s birth? They fell to the ground in fear. As a matter of fact - the first words out of almost every angelic encounter in the Bible seems to be, “Fear not,” as the angel tries to reassure the human being that they’re not in danger from the angel. And remember who guards the entrance to the Garden of Eden? Yeah - an angel with a flaming sword. I get the distinct feeling nothing is getting by him.

The appearance of these spiritual creatures in their natural state is apparently terrifying - whether from their size, or their wings, their glowing continence or whatever. They’re seriously impressive and intimidating no matter what their mission. They were created to serve God and throughout most of the Old Testament their job is as protectors and warriors. So who are they fighting?

Well, according to the Old Testament, they’re fighting other angels. According to the Old Testament the most powerful, beautiful angel ever created was Lucifer. He was God’s right-hand angel and very, very powerful. But his power went to his head and he decided he, not God, should rule the universe. Sounds a bit like Darth Vader don’t you think? Well, God - being God and being all-powerful, kicked Lucifer out of heaven. Apparently there was a huge battle and one-third of the angels in the universe were cast down to earth.

This is why Lucifer - who we know better as Satan - was so freaking pissed. He lost. Evil lost, God won. But Satan wasn’t a good loser by anybody’s standards. So when God created a new race - man - Satan went after man to ruin him in order to get back at God. He succeeded, managing to tempt Eve in the garden with what many people believe was having sex with him. After all the reasoning goes, why would God punish Eve with increased pain in childbirth and an increased sexual desire for Adam, and punish Adam with having to work harder to bring forth food from the earth for eating an apple? The sex question comes up because in Genesis 6:6 we learn that fallen angels, and non-human beings called “Watchers” came down from the skies (outer space) and mated with h human women. The offspring of the “sons of God” (which some believe to be Cain’s offspring and not angels) and the “daughters of man” were the Nephilim. The spirits of dead Nephilim are believed to be the demons we read so much about in the New Testament. They have a super natural knowledge of who Christ is and what his mission here on earth was/is. If you don’t read the New Testament much it’s pretty much all about demons, miracles and supernatural stuff. There are UFO’s in there, people being raised from the dead, and although there are as many UFO’s as in the Old Testament, which is just eaten up with them, (as are many historical and non-religious texts, paintings and carvings) it’s pretty clear that UFOs and the spirit world are very much real and there’s a lot of stuff going on way outside the commercial realm of Santa Claus and the annual manager scene.

These Nephilim were giants - literally 9-36 feet tall. They eventually ate everything on earth and then began eating each other - they were cannibalistic. Numbers 13 (Old Testament) confirms this. These demi-gods are the basis for the Roman and Greek Gods - because they literally did have the powers of angels and stature of men. (While you’re researching angels, Nephilim and tribes you’ll come across descriptions of the Ananuk or Anunnaki. Yep. In the Bible. They’re deities we might (and do) call “aliens” or extra-terrestrials. Moses sent spies into the promised land to see what the Jews were up against and his spies ran into these giants. They’re described in both the Torah and the Bible, among others.

God saw this and saw the mingling of his creation - man, with Satan’s fallen angels - the ones who opposed His rule, and he decided to destroy them. The old “don’t intermarry” laws of the Old Testament weren’t about marrying blacks and whites - but about marrying hybrids - those born from a parentage of human/fallen angel or Nephilim. If you’ve tried to get through the genealogies of the Old Testament and wondered why genealogies were so important, it’s because it was very important to those who worshipped God that they not intermingle their DNA (although they called it their bloodline) with evil/Satan. the flood was His eradication of the hybrid races. Noah was the only man whose family had not bred or intermarried with fallen angels. That’s why he was righteous in God’s eyes. Noah worshiped God and hadn’t intermingled his bloodline.

In case you don’t follow Anne Rice and the Vampire novels, or pay much attention to the bloodline of rulers (Kings, Presidents and Queens) you may not have realized that in the bloodlines of rulers all the rulers are related to each other. Didn’t you know that many, if not all of the presidential candidates and presidents throughout USA history are related to each other? It was considered the “Divine Right to Rule or the Divine Right of Kings,” and is why the Queen of England got so fraught over Princess Diana marrying Charles. Not to worry though. Diana is said to be of true royal blood - and more powerful than Charles ever was - thus the fascination with her children, particularly Prince William and the future of England. Bored yet?

Trust me. You DO NOT get this in the Baptist church, or any church really. But it is all in the Bible, and if you study the Bible, history and the prophets as well as the news and politics, it all begins to make sense. Christ was born into the world to save those who believe and understand the larger battle. If you recall in the Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings - all the classic literature we all love and “wish” were real - this same battle is fought - evil vs good. And only a handful of heroes know about it. It’s happening right here on earth. Only a handful of people understand or belief it. We see the UFO’s. We watch world events. We see who the players are. We understand why Jesus was born and was hidden and protected until His time came.

The rest of the muggles and sleepers think Jesus and God and sin and conspiracy theories are all silly religious rituals designed to keep them from having fun, doing what they please. The joke is on you if you believe that. A larger story has been playing out for centuries and it’s about to culminate in a huge battle and those in the know - know it.

If you’re thinking “Baby Jesus, oh how sweet,” you didn’t get to the chapter where he straddles the mountains of Jerusalem and kicks some serious, serious ass. We’re not talking hell. We’re talking what the Bible says is happening NOW, on earth, and will happen. Grab your hot chocolate or Starbucks and sing “Holy Night” if you want to this year, but you might want to look into the words to Handel’s Messiah as well.

For those of you who have differing points of view, like the Bible is not a literal document, or this is all BS, you’re welcome to your interpretation and point of view. If you don’t believe there is a God, you’re welcome to that too. My point here is to share what I what I believe to be the “greatest story every told,” as told by the Bible, the Torah, history and civilizations throughout time so people get a chance to explore for themselves and to decide for themselves what they will believe. It’s not about being right or wrong. It’s about seeking and finding a living God and savior, not a parody of one like so many of the churches and religions of today would have us swallow hook, line and sinker. You are all free to believe what you will, but I urge you this season, really LOOK at what you believe and WHY you believe it. Don’t take anyone’s word for what happened. Read the Bible for yourself and see.