“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)
Apparently last week’s column about angels frustrated one of my readers because when I returned home from church last Sunday, my answering machine greeted me with this message: “Mr. Ruffin, I just read your column about angels. I wish you had researched a little more and looked at Genesis 6:1-6 and you’ll find out that that they (angels) did mate with humans.”
One of the observations I made in last week’s column was that angels did not marry or reproduce like humans and quoted Matthew 22:30 in support of my claim. Obviously, the caller’s point is how can you make such a statement when Genesis 6:2,4 says, “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose…The 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”? (Genesis 6:2,4)
Interestingly, there are at least three different versions of exactly what is meant by those verses. The caller’s opinion is one that is shared by a lot of Christians and often referred to as “The Fallen Angel Interpretation”. According to this view, the sons of God in verses 2 and 4 are fallen angels, which have taken the form of masculine human-like creatures. These angels married women of the human race (either Cainites or Sethites) and the resulting offspring were the Nephilim. The Nephilim were giants with physical superiority and therefore established themselves as men of renown for their physical prowess and military might. The flood recorded in Genesis 7 wiped out this race, along with the rest of mankind.
The second interpretation is that the “sons of God” were the descendants of Seth and the “daughters of men” were descendants of Cain. Their sin was the intermarriage of the godly with the ungodly. The Cainites were characterized by cleverness, sensuality and ungodliness while the Sethites were devoted to God, consecrated by God, and enjoyed fellowship with him.
The third view interprets the “sons of God” as pagan kings, often viewed in the ancient Near East as the offspring and representatives of the gods. These kings produced large harems and introduced unprecedented decadence.
I do not believe that the “sons of Gods” referred to in Genesis 6 were angels. Instead, I believe that they were the godly men of the Sethite line. The stage is clearly set for this conclusion in Genesis 4 and 5. Chapter four describes the ungodly generation of Cain, while in chapter five, we see the godly generation of Seth.
It is also important to point out that there are several references in the Bible to humans as “sons of God”. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John also said in 1 John: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3: 1,2) Even the Apostle Paul once exclaimed: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)
The greatest thing about Genesis 6 is it really doesn’t matter which interpretation you believe because the question raised is not fundamental to our salvation. What is important is that Christians are able to defend through Scripture the points of view that they share. To that end, I think I have honored God’s Word.
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