Posted on 04/02/2010 2:15:54 PM PDT by Perdogg
• No warfare between Israel and Iran, at least not until November.
• Six very large earthquakes are yet to come during the rest of 2010.
• A major tipping point will occur between November 8th – 11th, 2010, followed by a 2-3 month release period. This tipping point appears to be US-centric, and could be a dramatic world-changing event like 9-11 that will have rippling after-effects. The collapse of the dollar might occur in November.
• From July 8th, 2010 onward, civil unrest will take place, possibly driven by food prices skyrocketing, and the devaluation of the dollar.
• A second depression, triggered by mass layoffs, bankruptcies, and the popping of the "derivatives bubble," will see people moving out of cities.
• After March 2011, the revolution wave will settle down into a period of reformation.
• A "data gap" has been found between early 2012 running through May 2013. One explanation is that "our civilization gets knocked back to a pre-electronic state," such as brought about by devastating solar activity.
• A new benign form of capitalism will emerge during 2017-2020.
(Excerpt) Read more at coasttocoastam.com ...
History is not on our side.
The Scribes and Pharisees - the religious leaders of the day - were SURE they knew what the Messiah was going to be like. They had their checklist - tribe of Judah, a descendant of David, born in Bethlehem, etc. - but they were looking for a political leader to overthrow the Roman occupation. They didn’t recognize Jesus because he didn’t fit their preconceptions of what the Messiah was supposed to be.
I pray that my sight be based on Divine revelation - not my human preconceptions of what I want Him to be.
But I remember hearing a sermon once where they did know that the Messiah had to come twice, the first time to die, about 200 years before Christ came. During the period between the testaments.
It just was that when they became under Roman rule and had lost the right of the state to give a death sentence, they despaired and called God a liar. And forgot what they did know.
Will the Gentile church do better? Apart from God’s grace, probably not.
But given that there are double the prophecies of His second coming than His first, who knows? I would not be surprised that God is going to make it VERY clear that His Son will come back. I expect this time to be a bit different. It will rhyme, but not exactly.
I bet a large percentage are in Detroit.
It’s shocking, to me,
how much of our own USA history . . . has been trashed and literally . . . sorry to say . . . covered-up.
The pictures of the abandoned homes? Yep. They’re all in Detriot.
‘Detroit’
Thanks for letting me know. I have used these photos with my classes to demonstrate the basic principle that every enterprise requires someone to maintain it. When it is no longer worth it, no one comes back.
Thanks for the ping!
Do you have a URL where I can read more about these skeletons?
ping for later
I did a picture search in getting them so it’s just the URL of the picture itself. But I went back and tried getting a webpage from one of them and came up with the following ...
http://www.shweir.com/middle_east.htm
I would imagine if one wanted to do some research one could come up with a lot of information. I was only getting pictures.
Thanks, Star Traveler. One of my daughters was asking about it, and I didn’t know the background. I’ll do some hunting around, and I’m sure she will as well. Thanks again for the help! :)
Thanks, Star Traveler. One of my daughters was asking about it, and I didn’t know the background. I’ll do some hunting around, and I’m sure she will as well. Thanks again for the help! :)
I was half-asleep when I read that and posted back. I hate to tell you that I sometime even check FRee Republic when I'm in bed... LOL ... [I can do it on the iPhone and post that way, too...]
So, I didn't really get too much information for you.
But, let me tell you what this is all about. These particular pictures are not the "main story" here. The main story is in Genesis Chapter 6, and also involves why the world-wide flood came about, that is told to us in Genesis.
If anyone is to go "researching" it actually should be on the "main story line" here and not so much the pictures.
So, I'm going to gather up some materials that speak to that issue and post them here.
Some people may think that we're dealing with very little information here... so "slim pickings" so to speak. But, we know a lot of things from the Bible from just a few verses, on different subjects. And what we learn from the Bible and some "key" to understanding -- can, very many times -- hinge on just one word and understanding that one word in the original language, as it was originally intended and as it was given to us.
Genesis Chapter 6 1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
In chapter 5, we just had a rundown of all the generations from Adam to Noah, so we could see his "genealogy"...
Verse 9 is sort of a wrap-up from the previous Chapter 5, when it says ...
This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
Noah was a just man (and that's "just" in the same way that we are "justified" in the Lord, today). AND.., in addition, Noah's "genealogy" was "perfect" -- or, in other words (and in the context of how it's to be understood) -- Noah's genealogy was "all human" and not "half-human and half-non-human".
In verses 1 and 2, we see it says ...
Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
There's your context for understanding what was going on here, and it also leads one to the realization of why the world-wide flood was required, too.
We see in verse 4 ...
There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.That wording, "sons of God" always means angels in the Hebrew Old Testament. It's never used of anything else, except one -- and that's Adam. And you'll see why. The angels were all creations, directly, of God, and thus they were all "sons of God". Now, Adam was also, an original creation of God, so that made Adam a "son of God" -- which he is referred to, also. Outside of just the instance of Adam, only the angels are "sons of God" -- so that's how it's understood. In addition, if we go to the New Testament (different language, though), we've got the terms "sons of God" there, too. It's a completely different context here, though, and you'll understand why and how that's "perfect" too -- in its use in the New Testament.
At the resurrection, we are "sons of God" (both men and women, of course). And how perfect is that, because we are "each one" -- "a new creation in Christ". We are directly made from the hand of God, at that point and are not of our father, here on earth, a "son of Adam"...Luke 20:34-36 34 And Jesus answered and said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36 nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
Note that for Jesus, the Messiah of Israel ...
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
- Hebrews 9:11
He is not "of this creation" (as "Son of Man", he is a new creation of God). He is not part of that creation of all that was and is, from that "creation" that we see in the beginning of Genesis.
And..., we shall be like Him...
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
- 1 John 3:2
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
- Galatians 6:15
We don't regard Jesus, the Messiah of Israel as someone "according to the flesh" (previously a "human being"), but as a "new creation of God" and "not of this creation". And likewise, the same of us, who are "in Christ".
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
I did the "rundown" of this in the New Testament to show that it also fits into what the Old Testament says about "sons of God". And so, in the New Testament, we're told about those who are also to be like Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, a "new creation" (a direct creation of God), just like the angels and Adam, in the Old Testament -- and we all will be "like the angels" in that regard -- and also we will not be "of this creation" just like Jesus is not of this creation. That puts us, in a higher order and status, over the angels, as we've been told.
Mankind initially was lower than the angels ..
What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
- Psalm 8:4-5
But, then as a "new creation in Christ" we are of a higher order ...
Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels?
- 1 Corinthians 6:2-3a
All that to come back to the "sons of God" in Genesis 6, and those particular angels who took women on earth for wives and had children by them, and that these were the "hybrids"....
Genesis 6:11-13 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
We see the destruction of mankind (except for Noah and his family, whose genealogy has been traced from Adam to his time) is going to happen, and this is told in context of the angelic corruption of mankind with hybrids. And God says the following, which I think indicates something in particular....
And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me ...
It appears to me that God is saying that He sees the end of mankind, as a result of this corruption by the angels, into the genealogy (and gene pool) of mankind. And thus, this would be a blow against God and His prophetic word in that a savior would come from mankind, to save human beings who are now under the judgment of God (a death sentence and separated from God).
God is not saying "I see this and I'm going to end all flesh because of this." No, He's saying "what He sees" and God sees that if He allows this to continue -- that He sees the end of all flesh coming before Him. He sees that as the result of this angelic corruption of the human race.
In this judgment of the world-wide flood, destroying all except for 8 people -- God has saved mankind, not that He was trying to destroy mankind. And in the process of saving mankind, God will still keep His promise of the ultimate salvation that He says will come (which we know now to be, the Messiah of Israel).
Satan, through those angels who sinned and had relations with the women of the human race, had hoped to corrupt the human race to the point where God's promise of the coming One who would be the salvation of mankind -- could not happen.
Satan, as always, is the opposer of God and Satan wants to thwart God at every turn. So, the worldwide flood, which seems so drastic to us -- and it certainly does seem drastic to kill off all of mankind except for 8 people -- was exactly what was necessary so that God "would not see the end of all flesh coming before Him..."
As always, God seeks to save mankind and Satan seeks to destroy mankind.
We can see here what is said in the New Testament about this ...
2 Peter 2:4-9 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)-- 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
More specifically ...
... God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly ...
Jude 1:6-7 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
We can see that this sin was so severe, that the angels who committed it were consigned permanently to being imprisoned and not allowed free (as the other evil angels are allowed, presently).
You can see that these are the angels of Genesis 6, as they are compared to thos of Sodom and Gomorrah, and "going after strange flesh" -- of which the Bible calls it something of a "similar manner" to those angels of Genesis 6.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day ...
AND SO..., this is the backdrop to what I'll post here, in the next few posts, from others who have written articles on it. And it's the backdrop to those pictures that were presented.
The pictures aren't the "real story" -- the real story is Genesis 6, the angels who left their abode and cohabited with women, and that it required a worldwide flood to prevent the total and complete destruction of the human race, as a result of that.
And... for you pingees... here's something of interest (no other reason than that to ping...), in regards to the world-wide flood of Genesis and the real and fundamental reason for it.
When initially considering the world-wide flood, in my early years, it always seemed to be a bit of "overkill" -- especially when we've seen the violence of mankind since then and the evil that is currently in the world. Sodom and Gomorrah came after that, but they were handled by wiping them out totally, in their own locale.
I had always thought (many years earlier) that there was "something missing" here in the understanding of it, from what I had generally heard from others. Well..., this Genesis 6 understanding from the plain and clear language of the text is that missing ingredient, if you "grab a hold of it".
When that is considered and when that is seen as to why God said that He could see the "end of all flesh" coming -- you then know why the world-wide flood had to happen, in order for God to save mankind. It was a blessing from God, in that His judgment upon the evil that had been perpetrated "against" mankind was wiped off the face of this earth, to allow mankind to live to that future time when the Messiah of Israel would come for the Salvation that God had promised from the beginning.
EXCELLENT POST, INDEED.
Why, Dear ST,
are folks—FREEPERS—Conservative Christian FREEPERS!!!!
STILL
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO QUICK AND STUBBORN
about labeling such “nutty?”
“fringe”
“tin foil hat”
????????????????????????????????
It’s almost as though they don’t believe The Bible even
or else try and read it with their heads in the sand????
I don’t think I understand that phenomenon near as well as I’d like.
It’s still mind bogglingly mystifying to me how such normally bright people could be so willfully blind.
Though I’ve clearly been willfully blind over some things in my past years as well. At some point, I woke up!
Sigh.
PING TO SOME OTHERS, TOO
EXCELLENT POST, INDEED.
Why, Dear ST,
are folks—FREEPERS—Conservative Christian FREEPERS!!!!
STILL
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO QUICK AND STUBBORN
about labeling such “nutty?”
“fringe”
“tin foil hat”
????????????????????????????????
It’s almost as though they don’t believe The Bible even
or else try and read it with their heads in the sand????
I don’t think I understand that phenomenon near as well as I’d like.
It’s still mind bogglingly mystifying to me how such normally bright people could be so willfully blind.
Though I’ve clearly been willfully blind over some things in my past years as well. At some point, I woke up!
Sigh.
You know, your post makes me think of when I read the “Lost Books of the Bible” and they were speaking of Lillith.
According to legend (or the Bible, depends on if you accept part of these works as the Bible-some do, some don’t- I personally don’t think King James’ priests were the end all be all of deciding what is valid or not, but whatever) Adam was created along side his first counterpart, Lillith. She was created just as he was created, whole and complete in her own right, and then she rebelled against Adam’s attempted dominion over her. She left the Garden of Eden to consort with “others” it said and I have always wondered if the “others” are as you state.
Then of course Adam became lonely and so God said for him to have a mate, he would have to sacrifice and there’s where the rib came in.
Anyway, it kind of falls in line with what you are saying.
by Chuck Missler
Why did God send the judgment of the Flood in the days of Noah? Far more than simply a historical issue, the unique events leading to the Flood are a prerequisite to understanding the prophetic implications of our Lord's predictions regarding His Second Coming.1
The strange events recorded in Genesis 6 were understood by the ancient rabbinical sources, as well as the Septuagint translators, as referring to fallen angels procreating weird hybrid offspring with human women-known as the "Nephilim." So it was also understood by the early church fathers. These bizarre events are also echoed in the legends and myths of every ancient culture upon the earth: the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the South Sea Islanders, the American Indians, and virtually all the others.
However, many students of the Bible have been taught that this passage in Genesis 6 actually refers to a failure to keep the "faithful" lines of Seth separate from the "worldly" line of Cain. The idea has been advanced that after Cain killed Abel, the line of Seth remained separate and faithful, but the line of Cain turned ungodly and rebellious. The "Sons of God" are deemed to refer to leadership in the line of Seth; the "daughters of men" is deemed restricted to the line of Cain. The resulting marriages ostensibly blurred an inferred separation between them. (Why the resulting offspring are called the "Nephilim" remains without any clear explanation.)
Since Jesus prophesied, "As the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be,"2 it becomes essential to understand what these days included.
Origin of the Sethite View
It was in the 5th century a.d. that the "angel" interpretation of Genesis 6 was increasingly viewed as an embarrassment when attacked by critics. (Furthermore, the worship of angels had begun within the church. Also, celibacy had also become an institution of the church. The "angel" view of Genesis 6 was feared as impacting these views.)
Celsus and Julian the Apostate used the traditional "angel" belief to attack Christianity. Julius Africanus resorted to the Sethite interpretation as a more comfortable ground. Cyril of Alexandria also repudiated the orthodox "angel" position with the "line of Seth" interpretation. Augustine also embraced the Sethite theory and thus it prevailed into the Middle Ages. It is still widely taught today among many churches who find the literal "angel" view a bit disturbing. There are many outstanding Bible teachers who still defend this view.
Problems with the Sethite View
Beyond obscuring a full understanding of the events in the early chapters of Genesis, this view also clouds any opportunity to apprehend the prophetic implications of the Scriptural allusions to the "Days of Noah."3 Some of the many problems with the "Sethite View" include the following:
1. The Text Itself
Substantial liberties must be taken with the literal text to propose the "Sethite" view. (In data analysis, it is often said that "if you torture the data severely enough it will confess to anything.")
The term translated "the Sons of God" is, in the Hebrew, B'nai HaElohim, "Sons of Elohim," which is a term consistently used in the Old Testament for angels,4 and it is never used of believers in the Old Testament. It was so understood by the ancient rabbinical sources, by the Septuagint translators in the 3rd century before Christ, and by the early church fathers. Attempts to apply this term to "godly leadership" is without Scriptural foundation.5
The "Sons of Seth and daughters of Cain" interpretation strains and obscures the intended grammatical antithesis between the Sons of God and the daughters of Adam. Attempting to impute any other view to the text flies in the face of the earlier centuries of understanding of the Hebrew text among both rabbinical and early church scholarship. The lexicographical antithesis clearly intends to establish a contrast between the "angels" and the women of the Earth.
If the text was intended to contrast the "sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain," why didn't it say so? Seth was not God, and Cain was not Adam. (Why not the "sons of Cain" and the "daughters of Seth?" There is no basis for restricting the text to either subset of Adam's descendants. Further, there exists no mention of daughters of Elohim.)
And how does the "Sethite" interpretation contribute to the ostensible cause for the Flood, which is the primary thrust of the text? The entire view is contrived on a series of assumptions without Scriptural support.
The Biblical term "Sons of Elohim" (that is, of the Creator Himself), is confined to the direct creation by the divine hand and not to those born to those of their own order.6 In Luke's genealogy of Jesus, only Adam is called a "son of God."7 The entire Biblical drama deals with the tragedy that humankind is a fallen race, with Adam's initial immortality forfeited. Christ uniquely gives them that receive Him the power to become the sons of God.8 Being born again of the Spirit of God, as an entirely new creation,9 at their resurrection they alone will be clothed with a building of God10 and in every respect equal to the angels.11 The very term oiketerion, alluding to the heavenly body with which the believer longs to be clothed, is the precise term used for the heavenly bodies from which the fallen angels had disrobed.12
The attempt to apply the term "Sons of Elohim" in a broader sense has no textual basis and obscures the precision of its denotative usage. This proves to be an assumption which is antagonistic to the uniform Biblical usage of the term.
2. The Daughters of Cain
The "Daughters of Adam" also does not denote a restriction to the descendants of Cain, but rather the whole human race is clearly intended. These daughters were the daughters born to the men with which this very sentence opens:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. Genesis 6:1,2
It is clear from the text that these daughters were not limited a particular family or subset, but were, indeed, from (all) the Benoth Adam, "the daughters of Adam." There is no apparent exclusion of the daughters of Seth. Or were they so without charms in contrast with the daughters of Cain? All of Adam's female descendants seem to have been involved. (And what about the "sons of Adam?" Where do they, using this contrived dichotomy, fit in?)
Furthermore, the line of Cain was not necessarily known for its ungodliness. From a study of the naming of Cain's children, many of which included the name of God,13 it is not clear that they were all necessarily unfaithful.
3. The Inferred Lines of Separation
The concept of separate "lines" itself is suspect and contrary to Scripture.14 National and racial distinctions were plainly the result of the subsequent intervention of God in Genesis 11, five chapters later. There is no intimation that the lines of Seth and Cain kept themselves separate nor were even instructed to. The injunction to remain separate was given much later.15 Genesis 6:12 confirms that all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth.
4. The Inferred Godliness of Seth
There is no evidence, stated or implied, that the line of Seth was godly. Only one person was translated from the judgment to come (Enoch) and only eight were given the protection of the ark. No one beyond Noah's immediate family was accounted worthy to be saved. In fact, the text implies that these were distinct from all others. (There is no evidence that the wives of Noah's sons were from the line of Seth.) Even so, Gaebelein observes, "The designation 'Sons of God' is never applied in the Old Testament to believers," whose sonship is "distinctly a New Testament revelation."16
The "Sons of Elohim" saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took them wives of all that they chose. It appears that the women had little say in the matter. The domineering implication hardly suggests a godly approach to the union. Even the mention that they saw that they were attractive seems out of place if only normal biology was involved. (And were the daughters of Seth so unattractive?)
It should also be pointed out that the son of Seth himself was Enosh, and there is textual evidence that, rather than a reputation for piety, he seems to have initiated the profaning of the name of God.17
If the lines of Seth were so faithful, why did they perish in the flood?
5. The Unnatural Offspring
The most fatal flaw in the specious "Sethite" view is the emergence of the Nephilim as a result of the unions. (Bending the translation to "giants" does not resolve the difficulties.) It is the offspring of these peculiar unions in Genesis 6:4 which seems to be cited as a primary cause for the Flood.
Procreation by parents of differing religious views do not produce unnatural offspring. Believers marrying unbelievers may produce "monsters," but hardly superhuman, or unnatural, children! It was this unnatural procreation and the resulting abnormal creatures that were designated as a principal reason for the judgment of the Flood.
The very absence of any such adulteration of the human genealogy in Noah's case is also documented in Genesis 6:9: Noah's family tree was distinctively unblemished. The term used, tamiym, is used for physical blemishes.18
Why were the offspring uniquely designated "mighty" and "men of reknown?" This description characterizing the children is not accounted for if the fathers were merely men, even if godly.
A further difficulty seems to be that the offspring were only men; no "women of reknown" are mentioned. (Was there a chromosome deficiency among the Sethites? Were there only "Y" chromosomes available in this line?)19
6. New Testament Confirmations
"In the mouths of two or three witnesses every word shall be established."20 In Biblical matters, it is essential to always compare Scripture with Scripture. The New Testament confirmations in Jude and 2 Peter are impossible to ignore.21
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:4-5
Peter's comments even establishes the time of the fall of these angels to the days of the Flood of Noah.
Even Peter's vocabulary is provocative. Peter uses the term Tartarus, here translated "hell." This is the only place that this Greek term appears in the Bible. Tartarus is a Greek term for "dark abode of woe"; "the pit of darkness in the unseen world." As used in Homer's Iliad, it is "...as far beneath hades as the earth is below heaven`."22 In Greek mythology, some of the demigods, Chronos and the rebel Titans, were said to have rebelled against their father, Uranus, and after a prolonged contest they were defeated by Zeus and were condemned into Tartarus.
The Epistle of Jude23 also alludes to the strange episodes when these "alien" creatures intruded themselves into the human reproductive process:
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 6,7
The allusions to "going after strange flesh," keeping "not their first estate," having "left their own habitation," and "giving themselves over to fornication," seem to clearly fit the alien intrusions of Genesis 6. (The term for habitation, oivkhth,rion, refers to their heavenly bodies from which they had disrobed.24)
These allusions from the New Testament would seem to be fatal to the "Sethite" alternative in interpreting Genesis 6. If the intercourse between the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" were merely marriage between Sethites and Cainites, it seems impossible to explain these passages, and the reason why some fallen angels are imprisoned and others are free to roam the heavenlies.
7. Post-Flood Implications
The strange offspring also continued after the flood: "There were Nephilim in the earth in those days, and also after that..."25 The "Sethite" view fails to meaningfully address the prevailing conditions "also after that." It offers no insight into the presence of the subsequent "giants" in the land of Canaan.
One of the disturbing aspects of the Old Testament record was God's instructions, upon entering the land of Canaan, to wipe out every man, woman, and child of certain tribes inhabiting the land. This is difficult to justify without the insight of a "gene pool problem" from the remaining Nephilim, Rephaim, et al., which seems to illuminate the difficulty.
8. Prophetic Implications
Another reason that an understanding of Genesis 6 is so essential is that it also is a prerequisite to understanding (and anticipating) Satan's devices26 and, in particular, the specific delusions to come upon the whole earth as a major feature of end-time prophecy.27 We will take up these topics in Part 2, "The Return Of The Nephilim.")
In Summary
If one takes an integrated view of the Scripture, then everything in it should "tie together." It is the author's view that the "Angel View," however disturbing, is the clear, direct presentation of the Biblical text, corroborated by multiple New Testament references and was so understood by both early Jewish and Christian scholarship; the "Sethite View" is a contrivance of convenience from a network of unjustified assumptions antagonistic to the remainder of the Biblical record.
It should also be pointed out that most conservative Bible scholars accept the "angel" view.28 Among those supporting the "angel" view are: G. H. Pember, M. R. DeHaan, C. H. McIntosh, F. Delitzsch, A. C. Gaebelein, A. W. Pink, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Henry Morris, Merril F. Unger, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Hal Lindsey, and Chuck Smith, being among the best known.
For those who take the Bible seriously, the arguments supporting the "Angel View" appear compelling. For those who indulge in a willingness to take liberties with the straightforward presentation of the text, no defense can prove final. (And greater dangers than the implications attending these issues await them!)
For further exploration of this critical topic, see the following:
Endnotes
The idea of a demon/human hybrid is just too NASTY!
You got that right... it's repellent, it's abhorrent, it's mind-boggling and it's too weird and strange -- which is why some in the church have gone through some twisting of the text and "contortions" to make it say something else, other than what it does say.
And that's also why these are the angels who are held in prison permanently, never to be let out again.
Will have to check that out when I get home.
Am at the univ. and pottery . . . Thanks.
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