Nephilim? Angels? Sons of God in Genesis 6: Book of GENESIS Explained Bible Study 16

[Music] be kind of interesting every once in a while I would think you know what I'm gonna be presenting is really different than what most people have heard before are they gonna think I'm really out there but it doesn't matter I'm gonna teach the Word of God for what it says and then you go study the word and see if you don't find that what I'm saying is true now if you're visiting for the first time let me kind of explain a few things first of all Wednesday night services are different than Sunday morning services we go much more in-depth sunii services are normally topical in nature in other words I'll do a series on a specific subject I'm talking about things like marriage parenting finances five categories of sin whatever but I'll do it on subjects but on Wednesday nights we follow a different format instead of studying a specific subject we actually study a specific book of the Bible and we've covered quite a few books over the last 25 years most of you haven't been with me that long but some of you have so you've actually gone through a large number of books through the Bible verse by verse we've been through the book of Ephesians verse by verse we've been through the book of James verse by verse we've been through the book of Jude verse by verse in the book of Revelation I've also gone through the book of ecclesiastes paragraph by paragraph and we've studied the life and Ministry of Jesus Christ in chronological order and so basically what we did was we took the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and many of those stories overlap that's why they're referred to as the synoptic Gospels and what we did was we traced the Ministry of Jesus in chronological order so we would skip from Matthew Mark and Luke and basically we went through the ministry and life of Jesus almost all the way up into the crucifixion so most of you have been through the Gospels with me right now we're in the process of studying the book of Jim we're not studying at verse-by-verse because we don't have enough time to do that well actually we do have enough time because it took me five years to get through the book of Ephesians took about two to get through the book of Revelation and you know if we took us five years to get through Genesis it wouldn't bother me but I also understand most of you you don't like that so we're not doing it verse by verse we're not studying at paragraph by paragraph because that would take too long also instead we're covering the four main events in Genesis and the four main characters and at the present time were actually studying the flood which is the third main event now last week we covered the first two verses in Genesis chapter 6 I had hoped to cover the first four verses but I ran out of time I really thought I could did you notice how fast I was talking last week I thought I was Alan lege on steroids if you remember when Alan leche would would teach well he could speak a mile a min and I was trying to do that but I ran out of time and so what we're going to do is we're going to finish those first four verses tonight so go ahead and turn with me to Genesis chapter 6 and let's read the first four verses that came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them but the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose and the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh and thats it that is sad in a derogatory manner I hope you caught that yet his days shall be 120 years there were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown now this has got to be one of the most interesting passages of scripture in the entire Bible and it's also one of the most controversial now up until the 3rd century AD there was no controversy everyone believed that the phrase sons of God was referring to angels more specifically fallen angels and the reason they believe that is because they followed and hermeneutical principles to interpret this passage you see one of the fundamental principles of hermeneutics is that scripture interprets Scripture now let me explain what I mean by that if you're studying an obscure verse you need to look at that verse in the context of other scriptures that way you don't come up with some off-the-wall interpretation or suppose that you're studying a particular verse and you come upon an unusual phrase or an unusual word then you need to look at how that word is used in other verses in order to determine the meaning that's what that hermeneutical principle means scripture interprets Scripture does that make sense now the phrase sons of God is used only five times in the New Testament and if you want to get technical it's really six times but here in Genesis chapter six I'm even though it's mentioned twice we're referring to it as one time it's mentioned once here in Genesis chapter six three times in the book of Job and once in the Book of Daniel and every time it refers to angels listen to me every time so if we follow sound hermeneutical principles we have to conclude that the phrase sons of God is referring to angels in this case it's referring to fallen angels because angels were never created to have sex the Bible specifically states that so for an angel to have sex they have to rebel against God and the only ones that would have done this are the ones that had already rebelled the angels that had followed Lucifer when he rebelled so what this particular passage of Scripture is saying is that the sons of God fallen angels noticed how beautiful the daughters of men were and they had sex with them and this was the accepted interpretation of Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 until the 3rd century AD it was the accepted interpretation by Jews and Christians alike until Julius africanus came on the scene the idea to him that the angels could manifest themselves like men and have sex with human women scene Farfetch'd so he came up with an alternative interpretation he disregarded hermeneutical principles and he proposed the theory that the sons of God are the descendants of Seth and the daughters of men are the descendants of Cain Seth represents the godly line and Cain represents the ungodly line so the godly descendants of Seth married the ungodly descendants of Cain and that was their sin so now you know where that theory comes from because last week I told you what the three theories are concerning who the sons of God are now it wasn't until Augustine it wasn't until him that this interpretation became the prevalent view or interpretation if you will once Augustine accepted this theory that the sons of God refers to Seth's descendants it became the standard interpretation of the Catholic Church now if you remember the Catholic the word Catholic means worldwide so believe it or not we were all part of that quote Catholic Church until the Reformation at that point there was a split in the church then you had the Protestants Protestants comes from that word protesters we protested the way they interpreted it but I want you to understand once Augustine came on the scene and he said you know what I think Julius was right I think that that's the standard interpretation he was so highly respected that that became the standard interpretation of the Catholic Church and many Protestants have accepted that Terr interpretation as well in fact it's about 5050 in Protestant circles today some believe that the phrase sons of God refers to sess descendants and some believe that it refers to angels now to me it's a no brainer and the reason it's a no brainer is because you can either apply true hermeneutical principles that allow God's Word to interpret itself or you can ignore hermeneutical principles and come up with your own theory which has no biblical basis so I'm here to tell you that the phrase sons of God refers to angels no ifs ands or buts I know it sounds far-fetched and that's the whole reason that Julius came you know what that sounds like it's really out there so that can't be what it is let's see if we can try to explain it differently but the truth of the matter is if we take what God's Word says and we apply sound hermeneutical principles and we allow scripture to interpret Scripture that's exactly what it's saying the sons of God refers to angels and these angels let their natural habitat sex with mortal women and they created a super race of people known as the Nephilim which we'll talk more about when we get to verse number four but first let's look at verse number three first three says and the Lord said my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is indeed flesh yet his days she'll be 120 years now there's two theories as to what this means I'm not going to give you both theories because one isn't right so I'm only going to give you the right one underline the words strive in verse number three my spirit shall not strive with man forever the word strive is translated from the Hebrew word doon and it can mean one of two things it can mean to judge or it can mean to plead within this context it means to plead with so what God's saying is that his spirit won't plea or continue to plead with man to repent forever there's a limit as to how far he'll go and so after warning them he gave mankind a deadline they had 120 years man had a hundred and twenty years to repent before God brought judgment upon the earth 120 years before the flood occurred so now we have a timetable here in Genesis chapter 6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood occurred we know that because of Genesis chapter 7 verse number 6 it specifically states that Noah was 600 when the rain began so most theologians believe that he was 480 when God informed him that he was going to destroy every living thing on the earth with the exception of Noah's family and the animals that were in the ark but there was a hundred and twenty year grace period for men to repent now you need to understand something about God God is a good God he is a loving God he is not willing that any should perish but they all come unto repentance and he therefore gives grace out and even during this very evil time when these fallen angels had done this very wicked thing and wickedness ran rampant and we'll look at that when we look at verses 5 through 8 God still came in and he said you know what I'm gonna give you a hundred and twenty years now people that's amazing it was even today we kind of get the attitude you know ever since Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago we've been looking for his return and I don't see it coming people I truly believe when you study Hebrew numerology we are the generation that will see the Lord's return when you see the prophecies that are occurring we are that generation but you must understand something about God God is long-suffering God his patience and God has grace but when he brings judgment he brings judgment in fact Noah will be referred to very or several times in the New Testament and it's all he's always mentioned when it comes to God's grace in the time of judgment all right now let's look at verse number 4 there were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of onde men of renown now I want you to underline the word Giants in fact if you have the NIV or the new American Standard you don't have to do this and the reason you don't is because you have the correct translation but the word Giants it says there were giants on the earth that word is translated from the Hebrew word nephal and it means fallen one the plural of methyl is Nephilim and it means fallen ones nephal is singular Nephilim is plural in other words more one so they bore children to them and these children were referred to as Nephilim the fallen ones now let me explain the etymology of this word nephal is derived from the hebrew verb Neph of which means to fall so an ethyl is one who has fallen hence the name fallen once Nephilim you'll hear that quite often as we go through the next few weeks now verse 4 tells us that the Nephilim are the offspring of fallen angels and mortal women in other words they are half angel half men and if you want to get technical they are half fallen angel and half men look at verse number 4 again there were giants on the earth if you have the NIV ur than their new American sentence says there were Nephilim on the earth in those days and also after words when the sons of God and what's interesting the Septuagint translates this as when the angels came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them now people I can't make it more clear than that why should I expand on that if the sons of God refers to angels and we know it's fallen angels because of the context I can't get any more clearer than that there were Nephilim on the earth in those days who were the Nephilim well when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they more children to them than Ellen are the children that were born into them now look at the last part of verse number 4 there were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them those were the mighty men who were of old men of renown now I want you to underline the phrase mighty men that phrase is translated from the Hebrew word gibor which means hero in fact I want you to notice how the NIV translates this verse 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 they were the heroes of old men of renown so these Nephilim these children of the sons of God and daughters of men these children of the Fallen Angels and human women they were heroes of old men of renown now what this is implying is that these Nephilim were superior creatures physically they truly were giants and we'll know that as we go through the Book of Numbers and some other things but they truly were giants and I'll explain why I know that just a second but because they were half angel and half man they were bigger they were stronger they were quicker they were faster they were also more wicked because they were half fallen angel and that explains why a person who's possessed by demons is so strong I'm getting into demonology and I'm not going to be able to cover that tonight I don't think so because of time which if I have time and if you guys want to we'll talk about Jewish demonology at the time of Jesus Christ next week but it's kind of interesting because when you go into the Gospels and you see these men who were possessed by demons they were unusually strong do you remember the person that was possessed by Legion because there were many basically you couldn't even keep him bound with chains he would break them and everyone was scared and the night they locked the doors and he ran around in the tombs everyone's scared of him why because he was so strong those were demonically possessed had super natural strength why well it's all tied to the Nephilim and we'll find that out maybe if we have time to look at it next week now look back at verse 4 and I want you to notice the claws and also afterward in the middle of that verse says the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward do you see that Clause that's an important clause there's some discrepancy as to where it's supposed to be placed in the sentence it could be placed in the sentence where it is or it could be placed at the end of the sentence and it should have been placed at the end at least I believe that but before I explain why let me tell you why it was placed where it is right now first of all placing it towards the beginning of the verse seems to be the logical when you translate this verse from the normal original manuscript or Hebrew manuscript but different manuscripts have it placed closer to the end and that's very important secondly when the Israelites came into the Promised Land you remember after the Exodus and there with Moses and they're getting ready to go in the Promised Land and they're gonna send spies in and they go in and they go back it's a great land but when we came back we saw these giants the sons and Aynak and we were like grasshoppers in their sight so we're told that there were giants who were living in the promised land and they refer to those giants as what Nephilim go ahead and turn if you would to the Book of Numbers chapter 13 verse number 33 there we saw the Giants the descendants of anak came from the Giants and we were like grasshoppers in her own sight and so we were in their sight that's kind of interesting now we're kind of getting a picture of the sons of aining as some of the philistines were like this Goliath was one of these Giants in fact we find out in the book of Chronicles there was one that was so huge and he had six fingers on each hand and six toes and he was different and they thought he was a Nephilim now as I said the word Giants is translated from this Hebrew word Nephilim so it appears when you read this as some of the Nephilim must have survived the flood and that's why in Genesis chapter 6 verse number 4 they placed the claws where they did the interpreters I should say the translators wanted to give the impression that some of the Nephilim must have survived the flood because of what we read in the Book of Numbers and also of places in the book of Deuteronomy and that's why there were giants in the promised land at the time of Moses now let me explain why that's wrong and why I believe they should have placed that Clause at the very end of the sentence in other words it should look like this the Nephilim were on the earth in those days when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them they were the heroes vote men of renown and also afterward now can you see how that changes the meaning completely it's telling us that the Nephilim were heroes before the flood because they were giants they were superior physically they were bigger they were stronger they were quicker they were faster and they became legends after the flood in other words they were men of renown in their own time and then every now and even after the flood now you know that old saying men the older we get the better we were all right if you played sports the older you get the better you were when you played sports and the best thing that you can do is never pick up a ball after that move to a different city and then tell everyone how great you were right so most of us do that and so in our own minds we begin to believe our lies and we become a legend in her own time so in a sense these Nephilim were bigger they were faster they were stronger they were quicker they were giants they were half fallen angels and half human women and they were more wicked but what's interesting is they were heroes too because they were men of war and they could kill and they could destroy and so they became quote heroes or in a sense legends not just in their time but also afterwards in other words after the flood also so that's what this clause is saying when it's placed at the end of the verse it is saying that these were mighty men in their own time and they were legends after their time or in other words after the flood after they had perished look at that verse again the Nephilim were on the earth in those days when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and they had children by them they were heroes of old what does he say of ode back in the old days men of renown in other words legend and also afterward after what after the flood there were still stories they were legends about these people so why did they refer to the sons of Enoch as Nephilim in the Book of Numbers why did they do that if this is should be translated like this well because after the flood the word Nephilim became a figure of speech the sons of anak were giants and they had these legends about the Nephilim and the Nephilim weren't what Giants so they refer to them as Nephilim it was a figure of speech and nothing more a good modern-day example would be Amazon's if we saw a girls volleyball team come in here and there's maybe 12 of them because how many of you have on a volleyball team eight anyways there's eight and four substitutes and they're all six foot two and taller and they all have broad shoulders and they're all bronze bodies and they walk in someone would probably say whoo look at those Amazon's how does that mean they're truly Amazon's now it's a figure of speech because we know that Amazon were women warriors and they were supposedly just as tough and mean and bad as men when we see a woman that's big and strong and wide shoulders what do we say she's an Amazon and that's what they did we also know let me tell you why outside believe this that the flood destroyed every man woman and child including the offspring of the Fallen Angels and mortal women people no one including the Nephilim Nephilim survived the flood with the exception of Noah's family and the mammals or the animals that were on the ark everyone else were destroyed and the Bible explicitly states that no one survived the flood the Nephilim did not in any way survive the flood but stories about the Nephilim did survive the flood and that's what Genesis chapter 6 verse number four is telling us and that little bitty Clause when it says and afterward also and that's also why mythological stories from every corner of the world are so similar how many of you have studied mythology anyone had a class of mythology in college what's kind of interesting about mythology is that you'll find that they all tell similar stories of God's little G having sex with human women and producing offspring that became heroes and men of renown in fact what's kind of interesting is you can go to all of these different nations different cultures and different parts of the world and guess what in their mythology there's a flood and before this great flood there were these gods and these gods came down and they had sex with human women and they created these heroes men of renown and it doesn't matter where you go in the world each culture has its own mythology but these stories are very similar Hercules is the offspring of Zeus and a human woman Perseus is the offspring of Zeus and a human woman bowed or how many of you liked Lord of the Rings so basically believe it or not that's really based off the Nordic mythology did you know that in fact baldor it's kind of interesting but if you go and look at oten Odin this the Norse guy but he had the Hat like who was the gaff the lone beard who Gandalf yeah he looked like him if you go back and look at oten mythology but anyways bow adores the offspring of odin the Norse God and a human woman called Frigga now that also explains why the gods of Mythology are so promiscuous and evil when you go in and look guess what the things that they're describing in their mythology is everything that the book of Genesis chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 is telling us in fact when we get through first is 5 through 8 and we look man I'm telling you it was so wicked everyone was perverted sexual perversion was going on people were killing chopping people up doing all of these different types of things the stories of the Nephilim that existed before the flood and this is what verse number 4 that little clause is telling us were passed on by Noah's sons after the flood and those legends became mythological stories and that's why you have common roots in these mythological stories from every corner of the world you

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Keywords: book of genesis bible study, book of genesis summary, book of genesis free, book of genesis small group, book of genesis, genesis, cain and abel, noah, creation, babel, creation of good and evil, tree of knowledge, sin, noahs ark, adam and eve, creationism, cornerstone fellowship, allen nolan, genesis sermon, genesis series, introduction to genesis, introduction to bible, book of genesis explained, book of genesis guide, how sin affects the world, effects of sin, bible study

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Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020