As God created the world1, He gave it into the care of the angels to (paraphrasing a well known prayer) guard, guide, rule, and ultimately bring light to. The work of dealing with the physical laws of the universe was (primarily) given into the care of the middle orders, while the governance of the life within the world was delegated down to the lesser orders. This was not because the work of ruling and guiding those living on the Earth was less important, but because these lesser orders were less likely to overwhelm the free will of the humans for whom the world had been created.
Being lesser, these lower orders were also further removed from God, and perceived His will less clearly. They sometimes experienced moments of doubt as to what action would best enact the Divine plan that they were to guide humanity towards.2 Humans, being even more limited, could almost never differentiate between Divine Providence and Divine Judgement and more fallible angelic action attempting to enact delegated authority. Human theologies and mythologies came to represent different attempts in different times and places to make sense of the created world, including the unseeable spiritual component, and its Creator.
In these first “days” of creation, when all was yet new, some angels rebelled against their appointed role as stewards of creation. They saw their own power and magnificence, and, in their pride, desired to be worshipped. They wished to rule in their own name, and not on behalf of another. The Creator, out of love for His creations, chose not to destroy these rebellious subjects, and to allow them to persist despite the fact that they not only refused their role, but were both actively trying to thwart His plans, and to cause others to join them in their rebellion. Thus there was war across creation, between those angels that rebelled, and those who obeyed.
The Creator, delegated the bulk of the battle to the four lowest orders of angels. Their victories demonstrate both His power, not theirs, for they battle against orders of angels vastly superior in being to themselves. These victories also serve to glorify them through whom the Creator has acted, for the courage and steadfast faith in their Creator that has allowed them to serve as His proximate causes.
After the rebels were expelled from the Divine presence, the early victories appeared to be one sided, and largely on the side of evil. Humanity fell, not just once in the first sin, but again in the second generation, and with each subsequent generation sin seemed to grow more numerous and more varied. Few remained obedient to those beings sent by the Creator to be humanity’s light and guides.
At first both sides took a very visible role in human affairs, both to tempt and to guide away from temptation. This was the age that mythology only dimly captures, when angels, both fallen and unfallen, formed for themselves shapes like the bodies of men3 to walk the earth, and men frequently confused these beings for gods and demi-gods. It was during this time that the fallen, in their hatred for the Creator, pooled much of their might and power, and at last succeeded in twisting both their own nature and human nature until something that was not one, nor the other, nor the union of both, but distinct from each came into being. However, not being the Creator, these nephilim, as they came to be called, were a thing made, not created out of pure will and power like the works of the Creator. They were made from the beings of the fallen (both fallen angels and fallen humans, but existing beings), but from their being, and from abusing the Laws the Creator had built into the nature of humanity. Thus, like all works of evil, they were both corrupt, and represented a deficit from what is true, good, and right. They were, and are, a fundamentally flawed thing.
And yet, the Creator in His wisdom would not allow them to create a life that was wholly evil as they had desired. He would not be mocked by an anti-man to stand up against the centrepiece of His creation. Thus it came to pass that the Nephilim, flawed though they are, can turn away from the evil they were created from and in. And some did.
As per the Introduction, the theology here is a fictional mix of nonsense largely based on Many Waters.↩︎
In Many Waters there are several instances of angels debating between themselves as to what course they should take.↩︎
for angels have no true physical presence. They control their shapes more like we might control a puppet or a remote control toy.↩︎