THE SONS OF GOD, GIANTS, UFO’S AND BIBLICAL TRUTH?
Gen. 6:1 through Gen. 6:9 (NLT) 1When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, 2the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any they wanted as their wives. 3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, they will live no more than 120 years.”
4In those days, and even afterward, giants (Nephilim; fallen ones – my addition) lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old.
5Now the LORD observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. 6So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them. It broke his heart. 7And the LORD said, “I will completely wipe out this human race that I have created. Yes, and I will destroy all the animals and birds, too. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8But Noah found favor with the LORD.
Gen. 6:1 through Gen. 6:8(NIV) 1When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD
I. What is the point of my teaching today?
A. This portion of Scripture is equally important as every other Biblical truth.
B. If translated incorrectly (a misfortunate aspect of Study Bibles) it can perpetuate an unbiblical anti-supernatural bias held by many biblical interpreters of the past (although not the first 300+ years of Christendom)
C. Jesus said it would be like it was ‘in the days of Noah’ when He returned, it would be wise for us to see what happened in those days
THE HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION
I. All Hebrew Scholars, and the early Church Fathers took this text as it reads, the explicit teaching is simple –
A. Angelic beings ("sons of God") came to Earth, lustfully desiring the attractive daughters of men (literally Adam) (Genesis 6:2).
B. They took whomever they chose as wives (Genesis 6:2).
C. This angelic intervention occurred not only before but also after the time of Noah's Flood (Genesis 6:4).
D. The offspring from these unlawful unions were evil physical giants (Nephilim - "fallen ones" - in the Hebrew) (Genesis 6:4).
E. The fallen angels who committed this sin were incarcerated in Tartarus (the home of the wicked dead, Hell) where they now await judgment (II Peter 2:4 Greek).
F. Only a portion of the angels who originally fell with Lucifer committed this atrocity, since all who sinned this way (sexually with humans) were imprisoned, but there are other fallen angels who are not bound (Jude 1:6).
G. The sin of the angels was the same as that of Sodom and Gomorra; i.e., they gave themselves to fornication, specifically going after a different kind of flesh (literal) (Jude 1:7).
II. Many of the cultures around the world have myths about this
A. Greeks
B. Babylonian
C. Indians
D. Mayans
E. Romans
F. And many more
G. There are stories of roving ‘god-beings’, lustful orgies, and promiscuous, fickle and insatiable offspring who were hard to please.
H. Many of the ‘alien abduction’ stories of today (numbering in the millions) are sexual in nature, and leave messages of the ‘brotherhood of man’ (Babel), peace on Earth, and come by occultic means such as channeling (spiritism), automatic writing or other paranormal means.
III. Josephus was one historian who took the text at face value:
JOSEPHUS’ ACCOUNT
For many angels (11) 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. But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land.
2. Now God loved this man for his righteousness: yet he not only condemned those other men for their wickedness, but determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness; and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly lived, but one hundred and twenty only, (12) he turned the dry land into sea; and thus were all these men destroyed: but Noah alone was saved; for God suggested to him the following contrivance and way of escape : - That he should make an ark of four stories high, three hundred cubits (13) long, fifty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high. Accordingly he entered into that ark, and his wife, and sons, and their wives, and put into it not only other provisions, to support their wants there, but also sent in with the rest all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female, for the preservation of their kinds; and others of them by sevens. Now this ark had firm walls, and a roof, and was braced with cross beams, so that it could not be any way drowned or overborne by the violence of the water. And thus was Noah, with his family, preserved.
A. This view was held through the fourth century when the worship of angels became an issue and the more liberal elements that came into the church at that time found the true interpretation of the text ‘embarrassing’
B. Julius Africanus (a contemporary of Origen) introduced that the Sons of God were merely of the line of Seth, the daughters of men were of the line of Cain
IV. This is the view put forth in the Scofield Study Bible
A. Dr. Scofield's note on Genesis 6:4 in the Scofield Reference Bible has caused much unfortunate misunderstanding on this passage and is full of careless oversimplifications. His note reads as follows:
"Some hold that these 'sons of God' were the 'angels which kept not their first estate' (Jude 6). It is asserted that this title in the Old Testament is exclusively used of angels. But this is an error (Isaiah 43:6). Angels are spoken of in a sexless way. No female angels are mentioned in scripture, and we are expressly told that marriage is unknown among angels (Matthew 22.30). The uniform Hebrew and Christian interpretation has been that verse 2 marks a breaking down of the separation between the godly line of Seth and the godless line of Cain, and so the failure of the testimony to Jehovah committed to the line of Seth (Genesis 4:26). For apostasy there is no remedy but judgment (Isaiah 1:2-7, 24,25; Hebrews 6:4-8; 10:26-31). Noah, 'a preacher of righteousness,' is given 120 years, but he won no convert, and the judgment predicted by his great-grandfather fell (Jude 1:14,15; Genesis 7:11)."
B. Some of the mistakes in this note need to be recognized.
1. First, the precise term "sons of God"(B’nai Elohim) is used only of angelic beings in the Old Testament, Isaiah 43:6 included.
a) It does not occur there.
b) Adam, a direct creation of God and not a person who was born, is singularly referred to as a "son of God" in the genealogies of Luke (Luke 3:38).
2. Secondly, angels are not spoken of in a sexless way; the fact that angels are consistently masculine, and never feminine, is one proof that is very obvious.
3. Thirdly, the uniform Hebrew and Christian interpretation was not the Sethite view, which Scofield claims. On the contrary, the historical interpretation of Genesis 6 was uniformly that the "sons of God" were angels until the fourth century A.D. when heresy regarding angelic beings (previously mentioned) brought about a shift to the Sethite view.
4. In addition, as was said, Josephus and many of the early Church fathers record a consistent testimony at this point.
5. The Sethite view, which Dr. Scofield and many others have favored, just does not hold up under a sensible analysis. The following list, for example, clearly bears this out:
a) If the Sethites were so godly, why did they choose to marry the "ungodly' Cainite women?
b) Genesis 4:26 does not state that Seth's line was completely godly, and Cain's completely ungodly (by silent implication).
c) Why did physical giants result from these spiritually "mixed" marriages?
d) Why were the giant offspring always evil?
e) Why don't evil, physical giants result today from the marriage of a saved man and an unsaved woman if they did then?
f) Why should all the Sethite men be godly and all the Cainite women be ungodly? What about the Sethite women and the Cainite men? Weren't there any?
g) God says the whole Earth was full of men's wickedness (Genesis 6:5). Where is the godly line here?
h) Why does the corruption extend to "all flesh" even including the animals if only Cainites and Sethites were involved?
i) Why does the same problem recur after the Flood when there are no Sethites and Cainites to intermingle?
6. The answer is clear. Genesis 6:1-4 records a unique intervention of certain fallen angels into the affairs of humanity.
7. They intervened by inbreeding with women, and their horrendous offspring – part angel and part human were doomed to genetic failure and judgment.
8. This was an attempt on the part of Satan to pollute the "seed of the woman" (Genesis 3:15) so that no conqueror could eventually come and defeat him.
9. The elaborate plan almost succeeded, but God spared Noah, keeping him unpolluted, "perfect in his generations" (Genesis 6:9), thereby preserving the way for Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
1 Peter 3:18b through 1 Peter 3:20 (NIV) He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
2 Pet. 2:4 through 2 Pet. 2:10 (NIV) 4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH
Matt. 24:37 through Matt. 24:38 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
WHAT WERE THE ‘DAYS OF NOAH LIKE?’
(A LIST OF END TIME CONDITIONS THAT WE SHOULD BE AWARE OF)
Just as world conditions in the days before the Flood pre-staged that early catastrophe, so will world conditions in the last days of this age foreshadow a potentially greater catastrophe.
Some of the more notable characteristics of that age which will also attend the times prior to the second coming of Christ include the following:
1. Preoccupation with physical appetites (Luke 17:27)
a) So concerned with eating and drinking that God was forgotten
2. Rapid advances in technology (Genesis 4:22, Daniel 12:4)
3. Overly materialistic attitudes and interests that keep people from focusing on Him (Luke 17:28)
4. Conformity on philosophies (e.g. secular world view, the ‘brotherhood of man) (Noah was alone in his obedience to God’s decree (Hebrews 11:7)
5. Inordinate devotion to pleasure and comfort [Phil. 3:19)
6. No concern for God in either belief or conduct (2 Peter 2:5)
7. Disregard for God’s warnings (I Peter 3:20)
8. Population explosion (Genesis 6:1,11), widespread violence (Genesis 6:11,13)
9. Corruption throughout society (Genesis 6:12)
10. Widespread words and thoughts of blasphemy (Jude 15)
11. Demonic activity intended to keep people from salvation (the seed of the woman) (Genesis 6:1-4)
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
I. Realize that the signs of the end of the age are upon us – that Christ is coming soon.
A. It may be within our lifetimes
B. It may be after
C. But in the grand scheme of things, it is soon
D. Look at the words of Jesus and Paul
1 Thess. 5:1 through 1 Thess. 5:6 (NLT) 1I really don’t need to write to you about how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, 2For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. 3When people are saying, “All is well; everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is about to be born. And there will be no escape.
4But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. 5For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. 6So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be sober.
Matt. 24:42 through Matt. 24:45 (NIV) 42“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
II. Be alert
III. Be ready, if you are not walking with God, really serving Him with your life, now is the time
IV. Realize that it is the intent of the evil one to take away the supernatural direction the Kingdom of God takes
A. We will be very ineffective fulfilling the words of Jesus without doing His works
1. Healing
2. Casting out demons
3. Realizing that the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk only but of power
1 Cor. 4:20 (NIV) 20For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
