Angelology
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The sons of God spoken of in Genesis chapter 6 were the descendants of
Seth |
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Concerning
the following words written in the book of Genesis: “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. 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.’ 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. These were the mighty
men who were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4 – NKJV), the Seventh-Day
Adventist Church teaches that the sons of God spoken of were the descendants
of Seth; Angel Manuel Rodríguez, director of the Biblical Research Institute
of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, says: ‘…. the best
interpretation of the phrase ‘sons of God’ is the one that finds in it a
designation of the descendants of Seth. This appears to be the one suggested
by Scripture itself.’ (http://biblicalresearch.gc.adventist.org); while the
daughters of men that were taken as wives by the sons of God were the
descendants of Cain. This view is held even by many Evangelical Churches. |
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Confutation |
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The
sons of God who married the daughters of men were angels of God. Let me
explain to you why I believe and teach that they were angels. |
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In
the book of Job it is written: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came
to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them” (Job
1:6; cf. Job 2:1 - NKJV). Who were those sons of God? Let me say first of all
who they were not. They were not the souls of the righteous who had died
under the Old Covenant, for they were in the bosom of Abraham, which was a
place of rest located under the earth, precisely it was located above Hades
which was a place of torment where the souls of the wicked went (Hades still
exists and the wicked are turned into it when they die); that’s what the
story of the rich man and Lazarus, which was told by Jesus, teaches us. They
were not human beings, for the Scripture says that Satan came also among the
sons of God to present himself before the Lord, whose throne is in heaven.
Therefore we conclude that they were angels of God, which is confirmed by the
following words God said to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations
of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its
measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what
were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7 –
NKJV). For if we examine carefully these words of God we will realize that
all the sons of God who shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the
earth were heavenly creatures and not earthly creatures, for at that time God
had not yet made man and woman, since they were made on the sixth day, after
God created the heavens and the earth. Furthermore, if we read carefully the
above mentioned words concerning the union between the sons of God and the
daughters of men we can notice that it is written: “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”,
which leads one to believe that the sons of God had not the same nature as
the daughters of men had; for if they had been normal human beings – some
God-fearing descendants of Seth, for instance – who saw that the daughters of
Cain were beautiful and took wives for themselves of all whom they chose, the
writer would not have said that “the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
that they were beautiful” nor would he have said that men began to multiply
on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them and that afterward
the sons of God saw that they were beautiful and so on. Had the sons of God
been normal human beings and not angels, what the writer said would have made
no sense. Don’t you think so? Imagine you hear me saying, ‘We sons of God,
that is, we as believers, must not marry the daughters of men, that is, the
daughters of unbelievers’’, wouldn’t you say to me, ‘Are not the daughters of
believers – that is, the daughters of the sons of God - daughters of men
too?’ Therefore the reason why in the book of Genesis they are called sons of
God is not that they were God fearing men who descended from Seth, but that
they were some creatures of God who had not the same nature as ours.
Furthermore, what biblical basis is there for saying that the sons of God
were the descendants of Seth while the daughters of men were descendants of
Cain? Why should one affirm this? Could not one affirm the opposite? |
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You
may ask me now, ‘Are there any verses in the New Testament, too, which
support your view?’ Yes, there are some verses. Here they are: “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” (2 Peter 2:4 – NKJV.
The Greek word which has been translated hell is ‘tartarus’); “And the angels
who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home –
these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgement on
the great Day. In a similar way, |