The Two Doors, Part One: The Door In

Matt Palmer

“They who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.”

Abraham 3:26.

“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.”

Jude 1:6

God has appointed one lawful door to enter this world and one lawful way to ascend out of it. However, rebellious angels and spirits, eager to frustrate God’s work, seek to enter and ascend by other means. This essay will focus on the door into this world. A future essay will focus on the door to heaven.

In order to see these things, it is necessary to reimagine the war in heaven. The pop understanding of the war in heaven and the first and second estates among the LDS rests on false doctrines and assumptions that are contradicted by the Bible. The war in heaven is not some distant event in our past. We were/are/will be soldiers in it.

The First Estate

Without doubt, there are angels and spirits that followed after Lucifer and sought to add glory to his kingdom. However, many of them were here on this earth, many born of women and some as angels. Their story is told throughout the Bible, and it is told most plainly in 1 Enoch. Please bear with me as I lay some foundation that is essential to understanding this point.

The King James Bible records the Elohim stating, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:26. The Hebrew in this instance, however, may more appropriately read, “let us make Adam in our image, after our likeness.” The word Adam is used for man here, although it is not the only Hebrew word for man. I would contend that the name Adam invokes a certain type of mankind for reasons that will become apparent.

The Elohim said among themselves, “let us make Adam in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:26. We see later that this was some different type of creation, a spiritual creation, because in chapter 2, the Elohim note that mankind is not present to care for the earth. Adam is created again, this time not just by Elohim, but by The Lord God, or Jehovah Elohim in the Hebrew, “of the dust of the ground.” And into Adam Jehovah blew the breath of life and Adam “became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7.

Eve was created out of Adam’s rib, and the text is silent on the breath of life being blown into Eve by Jehovah. Adam appears to be the only human into whom this breath of life was blown directly by Jehovah. He received his physical and spiritual being from Jehovah. Everyone else received theirs from Adam. As we know, Adam would fall and bring sin into the world. Thus, “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22. Mankind receives his fallen, sinful nature through the transfer of the breath of life from fallen Adam down to us. This occurs through the process of begetting children, which is a particularly male activity. The act of begetting is not just physical procreation, but it includes the passing down of the spiritual essence each earthly father received from Adam and Adam received from Jehovah. Both are essential to creation in this realm.

Nevertheless, and this is crucial, Adam was created in God’s image and likeness. But as opposed to what? If Adam was created in God’s image and likeness, it is implied that perhaps other things were not.

The first divergence occurred at the time of the fall. Eve was to be the mother of all living. Note that Eve’s name is mentioned the first time in Genesis 3:20. This is peculiar. Adam had named all of the animals before Eve ever joined him in the garden. Prior to this point, the text refers to her simply as “the woman.” Yet, after they have partaken of the forbidden fruit, were cursed by God and sentenced to exile from the garden, the text records, “and Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” Genesis 3:20. The mother of all living. As Val Brinkerhoff carefully showed in his essay, The War of Worship Between Two Opposing Bloodlines, Cain was the son of Eve and Lucifer, and the forbidden fruit involved drunkenness from strong wine, which led to sexual sin between Eve and Lucifer. Cain, not being born of Adam, was not then necessarily created in God’s image. Even if Cain was created in God’s image, he was not animated by the spirit of life that Jehovah gave to Adam, but he would have received his spirit of life from Lucifer, which may yet explain Cain’s disposition to evil being greater than that of Adam’s children.[1] Right out of the gate, so to speak, Adam and Eve started this world with twins. Abel was born of Adam, in God’s image and with the breath of life given from Jehovah to Adam. Cain was the serpent seed, existing in a state of opposition to Adam’s line.[2]

By the time we get to Genesis 6, the population has grown numerous. Enter the Watchers, the fallen angels who lust after human women and abandon their station in order to mate with them. Ryan Pitterson has written an excellent book on the topic that I recommend, Judgment of the Nephilim. If you would like a condensed version of the argument in video format, I recommend this video from the pseudonymous author Aewar, who cites Pitterson and seems to rely heavily on his work. The video runs about eighty minutes.

Who are the Watchers? This is a name 1 Enoch gives to the “sons of God” who were mentioned in Genesis 6:2. Genesis records:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 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.” Genesis 6:1-4.

1 Enoch tells the story in greater detail. This text states that the Watchers were angels who lusted after human women. They agreed and swore an oath to each other that they would bear their curse together when they accomplished their design of producing offspring with human women. See 1 Enoch chapter 6. They had leaders among them, and one angel described simply as “their leader.” This angel’s name is Semjaza. 1 Enoch 6:7. Incidentally, the angels appear to have been organized in roughly the same manner as the Israelites. After naming their leaders, the text notes “these are their chiefs of tens.” The angels took human women as wives, and together they produced a horrible, gigantic offspring who ate all that men produced and then ate the men. It even appears they embarked on an effort to genetically degrade and modify the animal kingdom. 1 Enoch 7 notes that “they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and the devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood.”

Pitterson argues convincingly several points based on biblical analysis: 1) that the Watchers were convinced by Satan to procreate with human woman in a deliberate attempt to frustrate God’s plan to defeat Satan expressed in Genesis 3:15, that the seed of the woman would defeat Satan, 2) that it was among Cain’s seed that the Watchers first found willing wives (although Pitterson does not delve into the claims that Cain is the serpent seed), 3) that the seed of the Watchers, the Nephilim, were overtaking mankind such that by Noah’s day only Noah and his sons were still “perfect in [their] generations,” which is to say fully of Adamic blood untainted by Nephilim DNA, and 4) the flood, while justified by the wickedness present in the world, had the purpose of destroying mankind at a time when nearly none of them were created in His image and animated by the breath of life breathed into Adam, and restarting the population through Noah’s children, 5) that Ham’s wife passed on some portion of Nephilim DNA through Canaan, who became the father of the nations of giants who existed in opposition to Israel, 6) that Abraham’s children, through Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, were tasked with preserving a perfectly Adamic bloodline through which Christ could be born as the Son of Man to defeat the serpent and the serpent seed.

Hopefully by now it is apparent why it was important for Genesis to note that Jehovah breathed the breath of life into Adam. Eve would have received that breath of life from Adam, being made from his rib. Eve, however, would not have been able to pass that breath of life along to her children, as the act of begetting is solely a male function. The Nephilim, therefore, lacked the breath of life that Jehovah gave to Adam, and therefore their spiritual essence was something distinct from those created in God’s image.

It should come as no surprise that wherever we find giants they have a disposition to do evil, to destroy God’s people and God’s work. The last remaining giants in the land of Abraham’s inheritance were Goliath and his four brothers. Goliath, as it is recorded, “defi[ed] the armies of Israel,” and “cursed David by his Gods.” 1 Samuel 17. Such behavior can be seen from giant peoples throughout the Old Testament.

The judgment of the Watchers was to be shut up in the bottomless pit. “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.” Jude 1:6. Enoch saw the place where these fallen angels were held, recorded in 1 Enoch 18. He noted “the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even for ten thousand years).” 1 Enoch 18:15-16 (emphasis added).

The judgment of the Nephilim was to become unclean spirits to tempt and torment mankind. 1 Enoch records, “Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms [their hybrid offspring, the Nephilim] are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand) till the day of the great judgment in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.” 1 Enoch 19:1-2.

The War in Heaven

The LDS understanding of the war in heaven contains some truth and some teachings that are not consistent with scripture. This is from the LDS Bible Dictionary entry “War in Heaven”:

“This term arises out of Rev. 12:7 and refers to the conflict that took place in the premortal existence among the spirit children of God. The war was primarily over how and in what manner the plan of salvation would be administered to the forthcoming human family upon the earth. The issues involved such things as agency, how to gain salvation, and who should be the Redeemer. The war broke out because one-third of the spirits refused to accept the appointment of Jesus Christ as the Savior. Such a refusal was a rebellion against the Father’s plan of redemption. It was evident that if given agency, some persons would fall short of complete salvation; Lucifer and his followers wanted salvation to come automatically to all who passed through mortality, without regard to individual preference, agency, or voluntary dedication (see Isa. 14:12–20; Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:4–13; D&C 29:36–38; Moses 4:1–4). The spirits who thus rebelled and persisted were thrust out of heaven and cast down to the earth without mortal bodies, “and thus came the devil and his angels” (D&C 29:37; see also Rev. 12:9; Abr. 3:24–28).”

As we can infer from what is recorded in the Bible and 1 Enoch, this is at odds with scripture. And the scriptures cited in that Bible Dictionary entry do not support the various claims made in the entry. For example, they make an assumption about who were the “hosts of heaven” mentioned in D&C 29. The scriptures do not say the hosts of heaven were the collective humanity of God’s spirit children. In fact, the language in D&C 29:37-38 is quite consistent with 1 Enoch: “and they were thrust down, and thus came the devil and his angels; and, behold, there is a place prepared for them from the beginning, which place is hell.” This sounds like the Watchers and the pit into which they were placed by the archangels.

It does not appear that the Watchers ever had mortal bodies obtained in this creation. But consider more closely what they did that provoked God’s wrath to such an extent. They literally, carnally procreated with human, mortal women. These angels had tangible bodies capable of making babies with human women. These were not spirits. I will conjecture that they were exalted individuals from a previous creative period. These were glorified, resurrected men from a previous creation. They almost certainly already had mortal bodies and were resurrected under the auspices of their Christ before this world was created. They left their station behind to reject Christ and Father and to follow after Lucifer in his play for this world and his attempt to frustrate Christ’s victory over him. They were “stars,” luminous bodies.

But what of their offspring? What of the Nephilim? I cannot see the justice in an eternal punishment for a being that was created evil. If the Nephilim were evil solely due to the circumstances surrounding their creation, then they are beings without agency, and their damnation is patently unjust. It would be no more just to throw a baby to hell for crying out in hunger.

Why, then, might it be just to punish the Nephilim for their evil acts on earth when they were born with an unquenchable thirst for evil and a profound desire to defy God? First, it could only possibly make sense if we include the true teaching that people are not first created in these bodies. We all preexist our conception and birth in this earth. We chose to come here. I submit the punishment of the Nephilim is just because these were beings who entered by the wrong door. Yes, they had mortal bodies, quite noticeably so. They came to earth born of women. But they did not come in the appointed manner, a deliberate choice made with the intent to frustrate the work of God and Christ in this world.

The Two Doors Into this World

It seems apparent that this world is set up to be a place for mortal men and women to grow in a state of intense opposition. But we take it for granted that this world is largely a place of action by mortal men and women. It is the agency of mankind that drives this world. Angels can and do intercede. Demons attack and possess. Ultimately, however, this world was made for mortals, and to fully influence it, one must be born of a woman to enter this realm. Consider that God Himself, in order to atone for mankind and defeat evil, had to have been born of a woman to enter this realm and complete His work. He was begotten of the Father and born of a woman, the only begotten of the Father, which kept His nature as both fully God and fully man. But His birth to a mortal woman gave Him the right and the ability to take this world upon Himself in righteousness. The womb is the door into this world, and the procreative act creates the portal by which it is accessed.

Thus, the Watchers did not just come here to pose as gods. They came to create a seed in opposition to Adam’s seed. Their ability to intervene in this world seems to have been limited by their nature as creatures of another realm. Their attempt to frustrate God’s work required them to create mortals born of women, the Nephilim. The Watchers were merely the engineers that broke open the wicked door to permit the Nephilim to invade this realm. This is where the greatest danger and rebellion was.

I described God’s appointed path to this world above. Jehovah created Adam and blew into Adam the breath of life. Eve was created from Adam’s rib, receiving the breath of life that was given to Adam. It is from Adam that we were intended to receive our spiritual essence, to be begotten. Adam passes along to us what Jehovah gave to him. I believe this is what it means to be created in God’s image and likeness.

As noted above, Jesus Christ was to be born of a woman from a purely Adamic bloodline. I don’t know why this had to be, but is seems to have been essential, as the continuation of the Adamic bloodline from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Judah, was a point of particular concern to Moses in writing Genesis.

The Nephilim came to earth in an attempt to wipe out the Adamic blood and to seize this earth for their god, Lucifer. They did not have the breath of life given to Adam. Their first earthly fathers were the fallen angels, the Watchers. Their spiritual essence and animation came from another source, one that was not prescribed by Jehovah. The mere act of coming to earth born of a Watcher was an act of total rebellion against Jehovah. It was to reject His image and likeness. It was to reject Him as one’s Father and creator and to choose Lucifer as one’s eternal father, quite literally. Therefore, I posit that the Nephilim and their seed were not rebellious as a consequence of their creation. Their existence as mortal men and women lacking the spiritual essence of Jehovah through Adam was in furtherance of their rebellion.

This is captured in Genesis 3:15, which specifically notes that the serpent that beguiled Eve would have seed in this world. Note further that Joseph Smith did not reject this concept. The Joseph Smith Translation maintains the text about the serpent’s seed. Moses 4:21 states: “and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; and he shall bruise they head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The fact that this concept is notably absent from Brigham’s temple endowment should be regarded as a red flag for those who hold Joseph Smith as a prophet.

Thus, the appointed door into this world is to be born of Adam’s line, animated by the breath of life Jehovah gave to Adam to give to us. The other door to this world is to come by another father, another breath. It is no mistake to come this way. It is an act of open rebellion against the one true God.

The popular notion that the spirits that followed Lucifer never received bodies is misleading. The Watchers had angelic bodies already. The epistle of Jude refers to them as “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” 1 Enoch refers to them as “they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times.” These are they who mated with human women. They left their station in an act of rebellion. But these souls were quite few in number, so far as we know. Enoch records there being only 200 of them. It seems implied that the “hosts of heaven” were a relatively small set of angels who had reached a station of responsibility in their realm. The hosts of heaven is not a term for the collective preincarnate mankind.

The Nephilim sought after Lucifer and were born as giants in this world. They had bodies, right here in this world. They were destroyed by the flood, although some element of their DNA survived. Where that DNA is and who they are, I don’t know. But consider that Christ plainly stated that there were those on this Earth in His day who chose the devil as their spiritual father:

“Jesus said unto [the scribes and Pharisees who challenged Him], If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

John 8:42-44

In a future essay, I will explore another means by which the serpent attempts to frustrate the one true God: the door from this world to Heaven.

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[1] I would like to be clear that the distinction between Cain as a son of Lucifer is not something we should blithely assume is alive in racial differences today. I don’t see this justified by the text of the Bible, and I believe such a notion would be contradicted by the text of the Book of Mormon. The distinction here is something fundamentally different than racial differences, as should be apparent by the end of this essay.

[2] This truth was not lost on the Lenape people, likely descendants of Lehi, who inhabited New York and surrounding areas when the Dutch arrived. One Lenape legend was recorded thusly: “the first human being fell from heaven. This was a woman cast out from the upper regions by her husband. Shortly after her fall from heaven, she was delivered of twins, from whom the inhabitants of this land are descended.” Mythology of the Lenape, by John Bierhorst at page 30. I strongly recommend this book or even just a study of Lenape and Algonquin mythology. They had a firm grasp on many important truths.