Days of Noah

“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6)

In Part 1 of this installment, I made the case from Scripture that the sons of God in Genesis 6 were angelic beings who descended to earth and took human wives for themselves, producing a hybrid race of giants called the Nephilim. In this post, I would like to answer the question, “Is that even possible?”

One of the first objections to the fallen angel paradigm in Genesis 6 comes from something our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 22. When speaking to his disciples about the future resurrection, Jesus said the following…

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30)

Does this one verse eliminate any possibility that angelic beings could somehow take on human form and sexually reproduce with mankind? Not in the least! As a matter of fact, I believe the words of Jesus actually do more to strengthen and support the case for the forbidden angelic incursion in Genesis 6 than anything else. Let me explain.

The first question we must answer is, “do we find any Biblical support for immaterial, angelic beings taking on human form and carrying out physical actions on earth.” The answer is yes. For sake of time I will share only a few.

Angels and Abraham

In Genesis 18, Abraham is visited by the LORD and two angels in human form. This is a pre-incarnate manifestation of God the Son (Christophany) and the physical manifestation of two angelic beings along with Him.

And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said… Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.” (Genesis 18:1-5)

To summarize, the LORD and two angels appear to Abraham in physical form and commence to rest, eat, drink and even have their feet washed. The two angels eventually go into Sodom on a rescue mission for Lot, where they remained in physical form. They even grabbed Lot at one point and pulled him back in the house (Gen. 19:10). But we also know that these were no ordinary men because they were able to strike the perverse mobs of Sodom with blindness. These are angelic beings interacting with men on a physical level.

Angels and Acts

Angels play a prominent role in the book of Acts, and in Acts 12 an angel is sent to rescue Peter from prison. Consider how this angelic being is described. “And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his hands. (Acts 12:7)

This angel was able to physically strike Peter on the side to wake him up. He obviously had taken on human form to rescue Peter, but the angel also had supernatural powers to break the bonds and open the gates.

There are many other Biblical examples of angelic beings taking on human form. Gideon, Sampson, Hagar, and Joshua, also had encounters with angelic beings appearing in human form. Therefore, it is not problematic for the angelic beings in Genesis 6 also to manifest in human form for the purpose of sexually reproducing with the daughters of men.

Some have proposed that perhaps these fallen “sons of God” used high level artificial insemination or biogenetic engineering to cross breed with humans, which produced the hybrid giant race of the Nephilim. I am open to this scenario as a viable option, but I believe the more likely scenario in view involves the perverse act of forbidden sexual immorality between two races that were never intended to “marry.”

Angels and Jesus

Now back to the teaching of Jesus, who says that in the resurrection, believers in Christ will not marry or be given in marriage, but we will be like the angels in heaven. In other words, in the resurrection and the kingdom of our LORD, we will no longer possess or express sexual desires but we will become like the angels who are in heaven. 

The angels in heaven – in the unseen realm – do not have the capacity for sexual relations or reproduction. This is precisely why I believe what we discover in Genesis 6 is a gross violation of God’s created order and clear perversion of the nature of the angelic host of heaven. These rebellious, angelic beings chose to leave their proper domain and enter into the physical realm in order to corrupt the entire human race. The Genesis 6 incursion was the highest act of treason against the Throne of Heaven, which brought about the total destruction of the earth and the end of all flesh, except Noah and his family.

Angels aren’t supposed to take on flesh apart from God’s good will, and especially not with the intent to carry out the most wicked act of corrupting human flesh in a violation of the created order. In light of this, Jude’s description of the Genesis 6 rebellion makes all the sense in the world.

“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6)

As we will see next time, this very same corruption of all flesh that occurred in the days of Noah is beginning to happen again today.