Study the Word

Dwayne: Demons having sexual relations with humans, ushering giants into the world? Did that really happen? Let's study the word and find out. Welcome once again to Study the Word online at ccleb.com. Pastor Tom Keller is surveying the Book of Genesis and today we enter chapter 6. Here we're told that the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Their offspring were giants. Now this displeased the Lord greatly. But who were these sons of God? Well, not everyone agrees on the answer. While some suggest they were the descendants of Seth, there's good reason to believe that they were actually fallen angels.

Pastor Tom will weigh in on this in this intriguing lesson titled The Sons of God took Wives.

Pastor Thom Keller: As Dwayne said, this starts a series on Noah. And boy, what an great opportunity. But did you ever think what would happen if Noah was told to build the ark today? Let's say that God's plan to destroy the earth is given today, right now, with God saying, Noah, with all the technology you have available to you today, I'm going to only give you 6 months to build the ark before I begin bringing the rain. 6 months later, the Lord looks down and saw Noah weeping in his yard, but no ark. Noah, God roared. I'm about to send the rain.

Where's the ark? Forgive me, Lord, Noah begged, but things have changed. First, I needed a building permit. Next, I've been arguing with the inspector about why would I need a sprinkler system on the ark? My neighbors claim that I violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the ark in my yard and exceeding the height limits. Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future cost of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions to clear the passage for the ark. Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl.

I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owl. But no luck. When I started gathering the animals, the animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the ark until they conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood. The trade unions say I can't use my sons. They insist that I hire only union workers with ark building experience. That's funny. To make matters worse, the tax office seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.

So forgive me, Lord, I am trying. Suddenly, the sky is cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, You mean you're not going to destroy the world after all? No, said the Lord. The government beat me to it. Little too true, huh? Little too true. Well, let's dig in. We've got such good material this morning. Genesis 6:1. Then the people began to multiply in the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives.

Then 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, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years. In those days and for some time after, giant Nephilim lived on the earth. For whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, I will destroy every living thing, all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them. But Noah found favor with the Lord. What a subject to teach on. The subtitle to my chapter 6 in my Bible says Noah and the Flood.

You know, there's so much information that I could provide to substantiate the historical and geological evidence for a worldwide flood, but I'm not going to do that for two reasons. Number one, it would literally take days to delve into that subject. Books, countless books have been written on it. But number two, the most important reason why I won't is you would want to dive into this matter looking to an expert on the subject of whom I am not an expert. The only one point that I will mention which gives to me overwhelming credibility to the Judeo-Christian biblical catastrophic flood account is that there are at least 59 different people groups from the around the world on all continents who also have ancient historical accounts of a catastrophic flood, including the Aztec Indians, the Alaska Eskimos, people groups from Australia, as well as 19 different people groups from North America.

Those countries are all countries who people have with people groups who have a story of a catastrophic flood. 19 different people groups from North America in ocean away. Now explain that. And if it was only a regional flood, both how and why would 19 people groups from North America have heard about it and have it as a part of their historical account? And to remove all doubt, Jesus believed in the flood as found in the Book of Genesis because he says this in Matthew 24 Jesus speaking, When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day.

In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People then realized what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. So God said it in the word of God, Jesus confirmed it in the word of God, and we can believe it. So let's dig in verse one. Then the people began to multiply in the earth and daughters were born to them. It says in one translation, the human population began to grow rapidly.

Now just consider this fact that people, many people were living to be over 900 years old plus the fact that they had many children. Genesis 5:18 says when Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. At 162, he's having a child. Now it is safe to guess that these I should ask it as a question, is it safe to guess that these early couples were very fertile? I would think that they probably were. You know, I looked in the Guinness Book of Records for the woman that had the most children. This Russian woman had 69 children, certified in the Guinness Book of Records.

That face is when her doctor told her she's having one more at 69. But that's nothing compared to back in the day. Look, assume that one child is born every 2 years. Let's take it off not every year, every other year. Let's say from the age of 50 to the age of 600. That would be 280 children per couple. 280 children per couple. That would be 19 15 passenger vans just to get your kids to Sunday school. 19 15 passenger vans. Picture our parking lot. Wouldn't that be fun? Flood the city with vans. Or you might say, Well, look, let's not let's say they can't bear children toward the end.

Let's just from age of 50 to 300 they're having children. 1/3 life cycle they're producing children. That would be 140 children per couple. But the real point here is the fact that as they're producing children, their parents are still producing children. Their grandparents are still producing children. Their great grandparents are still producing children. Their great great grandparents are still producing children all at the same time. What a Christmas list those would be. They continue to grow. Ken Ham, who is the head of Answers in Genesis, which provides the Sunday school we use, he estimates that there were 16 billion people on the face of the earth when Noah built the ark.

16 billion. Today there are 8 billion on the face of the earth, twice the population. Just think about that a bit. And in the next section of scripture that we read, it is electrifying. Verse two. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Verse four continues that thought. In those days and for some time after, giant Nephilim lived on the earth. For whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children, the giants, who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. So the question is, who are these sons of God that had relations with human women?

Now biblical scholars offer three different interpretations as to who these sons of God were who had intercourse with beautiful human women. Number one is that these sons of God were human men of high rank. There's nothing in the Bible that supports that, and it would not explain why their offspring would be giants. Just because you're of high rank doesn't mean you're going to have giant children. Number two, second interpretation is that these sons of God were the descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men were the descendants of Cain. Genesis 4:25 it says Adam had sexual relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son.

She named him Seth, for she said, God has granted me another son in place of Abel whom Cain killed. So the idea is that Seth was favored, the daughters of Cain were disfavored, and so when they had sex, it was unapproved, and for some reason they had giants. Ellicott with this interpretation says these descendants of Seth quote married for mere lust of beauty, and as a result universal corruption soon ensued, end of quote. Now there's no real support for this position plus no modern commentator has shown how such marriages could produce giants. And besides the Bible says the daughters of Cain, it says why would the daughters of Adam be applied only to the female Cain descendants?

It says when the daughters of Adam The third position, a position that I hold to, the Chuck Smith holds to, the John MacArthur holds to, that a lot of other Bible teachers hold to is that these sons of God were fallen angels, they were demons. Now in support of this position, it's very important, lock this one away, that in the Old Testament the term sons of God is only ever used of angels. A Job 1 verse 6 says this, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came with them.

The sons of God again the angels came and Satan came with them. In the Old Testament, the term sons of God is only ever used for angels because in the mind of God only a direct creation, only something, someone he created himself is considered to be a son of God. Listen again, only a direct creation of God is considered by God to be a son of God. Adam alone was a son of God. The Old Testament calls him a son of God. But all born after Adam were sons of Adam. But each angel was directly created by God, not by birth, by God.

And thus they are referred to in the Old Testament as sons of God. A little side note, it's interesting in the New Testament era, we discover that by being born again, a person becomes a son of God. John 1:12 says this, But to all who believed him and accepted him, Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God. So those who are in Christ become on that day of their salvation. On the day of your salvation, you became spiritually a direct creation of God. Now as to this, who were these sons of God? Chuck Smith says this, quote, Who are the sons of God?

Now there are those who will make the sons of God the descendants of Seth, and they guess that the daughters of men were the Canaanites, the descendant of Cain according to their theory. And that the godly line of Seth began to intermarry with the ungodly line of Cain, and the product It's hard to explain how they get this. The product were giants. But that's their theory. Chuck goes on and says, But the term sons of God in the Old Testament is used elsewhere, but only of angels, never of man. He says it would appear that these are angels from Genesis that actually began to intermingle and intermarry.

You say, But wait a minute. Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. He says that's true. But Jesus did not say they were sexless. He just said there was no marriage and no giving of marriage. Also, if you think about it, why does it appear that these beautiful women were powerless to resist these sons of God? Because the Bible says quote they took any women they wanted. They could not resist. Fathers couldn't protect them, brothers couldn't protect them. How is it then that they were powerless to resist? Because I believe of the strength, the power of these demons.

And the Bible says the offspring were giants. Verse four says this, In those days and for some time after, giant Nephilim lived on the earth. For whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women who gave birth to children, who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. The Hebrew word there is and strong concordance says means giants, Nephilim. And we also know that Joshua and Caleb encountered these giants when they went out to spy out the Promised Land. And Numbers 13:33 as they report back to what they encountered as they went into the Promised Land, they said we even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak.

Next to them we felt like grasshoppers. And that's what they thought too. So what about these giants? Is there any proof that there were giants, that they ever existed? What who was the tallest man ever verified? I looked it up. Robert Wadlow, who died in 1940 was 8 ft 11 and 1/2 in. 8 ft 11 and 1/2 in. The tallest woman that I found was in Netherlands in 1633. Her name was Trijntje. She was 8 ft 7 in. And recently the tallest woman was an Ella Ewing, who lived in the US, died in 1913. She was 8 ft 4 in.

How tall were the giants that we read about in the Bible? Well, Goliath was 9 ft 9 in tall. Now that's only 9 and 1/2 in taller than Robert Wadlow, which I thought was interesting. The tallest man recorded by height given is King Og of Bashan. And all they tell us that he had a bed that was 13 and 1/2 ft long. 13 and 1/2 ft long, he might have been 10 to 13 ft tall. But it's interesting talking about stories coming out of other cultures. Listen to this story. Chuck Missler quotes from the autobiography of Colonel William Cody, known as Buffalo Bill.

The following Pawnee Indian account of the Nephilim of giants. Cody says this, quote, While we were in the Sandhills scouting out the Nairobi country, the Pawnee Indians brought into camp some very large bones, one of which the surgeon with the expedition pronounced to be the thigh bone of a human being. The Indian said that the bones were those of a race of people who had long ago lived in that country. They said that these people were three times the size of man of the present day. And that they were so swift and strong that they could run alongside of a buffalo, and taking the animal in one arm could tear off a leg and eat it as they ran.

These giants, the Indians said, denied the giants said the Indians, denied the existence of a great spirit. When they heard the thunder or saw lightning, they laughed and declared that they were greater than either. This so displeased the great spirit that he caused a deluge, a flood. Their water rose higher and higher till it drove these proud giants from the low grounds to the hills and then to the mountains. At last even the mountain tops were submerged, and the mammoth men were drowned. The story ends still quoting Cody. After the floods subsided, the great spirit came to the conclusion that he had made men too large and powerful.

He therefore corrected his mistake by creating a race of and size and strength of men of the present day. This is the reason the Indians told us that the man of modern times is small and not like the giants of old. He ends by saying this story has been handed down among the Pawnees for generations. Interesting story. And then the New Testament we find this little brief mention in Jude chapter 1 verse 6. And the angels who did not keep their own domain, who did not keep their first estate, some say, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Many translate this to mean that these angels that had sex with human women, these demons, they were the worst of the worst. And because of their sin, God has put them into a dungeon, chained. They cannot get out. They do not have access to freedom anymore. We do know there are demons that are on the loose. We know that these are not. And it's just interesting. Chuck Smith commenting on this says quote, In the New Testament we read that those angels who did not keep their first estate are reserved in the chains of Tartarus awaiting the day of judgment.

It seems that there were certain angels that did not keep the first principle or their first estate. Maybe these were the angels who came down and begin to intermingle and intermarry with men. It may have been. And for you Greek students, the word abode in Greek is and is only used one other place. They left their first abode. They left their abode. It's only found one other place, 2 Corinthians 5 where the word is used for believers who long to take possession of their new heavenly bodies. 2 Corinthians 5:2 We grow weary of our present bodies and we long to put on our heavenly bodies put on our new bodies.

So the idea here is in our chapter today, these fallen angels in like fashion took on took possession of human-like bodies. And by way of that had sex with human women. Now we know that it's possible at least of good spirits, good angels, because in Hebrews 2 13 verse 2 we read this, Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done so have entertained angels unaware, have entertained angels without realizing it. And it's also interesting that the Jews held to this third interpretation as well. The angel theory was the traditional rabbinical view as seen in the extra-biblical book of Enoch, Testimony of the 12 Patriarchs, and Josephus Flavius.

It was also the view of the early church fathers, including Philo of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Ambrose, and Julian. In fact, the Sethite theory never emerged until the 5th century. And as I said, a lot of leading scholars hold to this view as well.

Dwayne: You're listening to Study the Word and a part of a Study in Genesis from Pastor Tom Keller. It's been a fascinating look at the first eight verses of chapter 6, learning all about a time when the sons of God took wives producing giants. As you heard, there's good reason to believe these sons of God were demons. And we'll finish up this discussion next time. Hear it again at our website ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and you can watch our services live or on demand. For CD copy call 717 273 56 33.

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