The origin of Satan is explored, identifying him as a created, exalted cherub who fell due to pride, desiring to be like God. This fall is linked to passages in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, suggesting his rebellion occurred after creation but before humanity's fall. The sermon distinguishes between holy angels and fallen angels, with the latter divided into free-roaming demons and imprisoned angels reserved for judgment, as described in 2 Peter 2 and Jude. A significant portion discusses the interpretation of Genesis 6, arguing for the view that fallen angels ('sons of God') intermarried with human women, introducing a corrupting influence that threatened God's redemptive plan and necessitated the flood.
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On Sunday, I mentioned the Bible Study Magazine that the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry publishes, Israel My Glory. And you'll find on the book table in the foyer some free copies of the most recent issue of that magazine. They're there for your taking. And if you're not already acquainted with the magazine, that'll give you a good idea of what it is like. But I'd remind you again that for those who are not always subscribing to the magazine, the mission does offer a free six-month trial subscription. And to take advantage of that offer, there are sign-up sheets there on the table as well. And we would ask it, please, to print very clearly your name and your mailing address and then leave the sign-up sheets there so that other folks can sign up as well.
And Lord willing, about two or three months from now, you'll begin to receive that through the mail. And then, again, to briefly describe a few of the items available for purchase there on the book table or in the bookstore, a commentary on the Old Testament prophetic book of Daniel. that we've entitled the Most High God. There's excellent background material available on the Book of Daniel today that sheds light on passage after passage throughout that significant prophetic book. And so we've provided that historical background, fully footnoted, so you can see from where it was derived. And then, of course, we use it to interpret the book. And then a book entitled What on Earth is God Doing? This traces the conflict of the ages between the kingdom of God and kingdom of Satan throughout time to see why things have happened, the way they have in the past, why the world is where it is today, where things are going in the future, and just shows as well how the whole Bible fits together as a unit and what God's plan and purpose is for our present Earth's history.
And then a booklet that we've not had here before because it only came out last year two millennia of church history. As you know, a little over a year ago, there was a lot of hype in our nation around the world about supposedly a new millennium beginning. And in light of that, the mission asked if I would prepare almost in a chart form originally, just an overview, survey of the history of organized Christendom from the day of Pentecost when the church began right up to the present day. And we did that, and that appeared in our December-January issue a year ago. as kind of a fold-out form, but they received so many requests for this that they decided then to put it in a booklet form with all the beautiful artwork that our artists put in together with it, portraying some of the major events of church history.
This would give you a good idea of how Roman Catholicism developed, got started, how Eastern Orthodoxy, such as the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox churches began. and also how some of the major Protestant denominations or groups began and traces it right up to the present day of some of the significant things that have transpired throughout the history of organized Christendom here in the world. We want to begin this evening by looking at some biblical passages that shed light on the origin of Satan, the origin of Satan. And I would point out to you that most Bible scholars who believe that the Bible is the inspired authoritative word of God believe that there are two Old Testament passages that give us descriptions of Satan at least in his original state and then how he began to change and fall away from God one of those passages is in Isaiah chapter fourteen verses twelve to fourteen And we're going to come to that one a little bit later on, but just a reference for now, Isaiah fourteen verses twelve to fourteen.
And the other one is in Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight, beginning with verse eleven. And I invite you to turn with me, please, to that Ezekiel passage. Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight. And we shall begin with verse eleven. Now, one of the interpretive problems with both the Isaiah fourteen, Ezekiel twenty-eight passages are these. When these two chapters begin, it's obvious that they are describing powerful human Gentile rulers, one describing the king of Babylon, another one describing the king of the ancient Phoenician city-state of Tyre. But then as you go further, they use language that could not be true of a married human being.
And as the Ezekiel twenty-eight passage particularly makes that very clear, And so the thinking is, it seems rather obvious, that after the human rulers are being described through time, introduced are powerful angelic beings who greatly influenced these Gentile human rulers back in ancient history. Those of you who are with us this morning, we noted that toward the end of Ephesians chapter six and verse twelve, that the Apostle Paul used a particular term of world ruler of darkness for some of the powerful evil angels that are under Satan's dominion.
And we referred to Daniel ten where there was an evil angelic being called the Prince of Persia and another one called the Prince of Greece. referring to evil angelic beings that apparently Satan assigned to the ancient Gentile kingdoms of Persia and then Greece to influence the policies and decisions of the human rulers of those great Gentile powerful kingdoms. And that appears to be what we have here as well in both Isaiah fourteen, Ezekiel twenty eight, not only a reference to powerful Gentile rulers, but also angelic beings who influence the thinking, the plans, the policies, the decisions of some of these very powerful rulers of Babylon and Tyre.
Ezekiel, let's begin with verse eleven. Ezekiel wrote, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre. and say unto him, thus says the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Now no human king of Tyre was ever in Eden. Eden was long gone before Tyre even came into existence. So this cannot be referring to one of the ancient human rulers of that Phoenician city state of Tyre.
Thou hast been in Eden, the Garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Notice that. This creature was created directly by God. That would not have been true of a human ruler attire. The only two human beings that were created directly by God were Adam and Eve. But all other human beings had been procreated through reproduction of human parents. So again, this was talking about a being that was created by God.
Verse fourteen, Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. This being is a cherub of the highest rank of angels. Thou art the anointed chair that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou hast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. The apostle John in Revelation chapter four, where he has a vision of heaven, sees God's throne, but he sees a pavement going out from the front of God's throne, and he sees fire in that pavement. Apparently the Shekinah glory of God. which normally appeared in the form of fire.
And that appears to be what's being described here, that this anointed cherub not only covered the unique presence of God and God's throne there in heaven originally, but he was even able to walk up and down in the midst of the pavement stones that had fire in them, the shakani glory of God. Verse fifteen, thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee. That could never be said. of a human ruler of Tyre. No human ruler of Tyre or any other Gentile kingdom was ever perfect in all of his ways. But this being was created by God as a perfect being, and he was that way, but not forever.
He was perfect in all of his ways till iniquity was found in thee, which says that somewhere along the line, this being sinned against God. Verse sixteen, By the multitude of thy merchandise they filled the midst of thee with violence. Thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. From all we can discern, what's being described here is a great exalted angelic being.
We know this morning from all we can discern the cherubim are the highest rank of angels, the ones most closely associated with the unique presence of God there in heaven. This one, the way he is described, appears to have been the highest of the highest. He had the privilege of covering the unique presence of God in heaven. He was the sum of beauty and perfection, so exalted and so high that through time he was consumed by pride. Notice again, verse seventeen.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. He was so high, so exalted, such a magnificent creature of God, that this being became consumed with tremendous pride." Interestingly, there's a New Testament passage. that bears on this as well. Look, if you would please, at First Timothy chapter three and verse six. First Timothy chapter three and verse six. When the Apostle Paul says that you're not to take a newborn in the faith and immediately put that newborn believer into a high position of leadership.
And Paul says, why? He says, not a novice. The word novice means newly planted. In other words, one that's newly planted in the faith, the new Christian. Not a novice lest being lifted up with pride, he'd fall into the condemnation of the devil. That's Paul's way of saying the devil's original problem was pride. He was lifted up with pride because he was so great and so exalted. Interestingly, the root word that's translated pride, the root of that word means smoke. You see, strange, what would be the relationship between smoke and pride? Well, what happens if you get smoke in your eyes or before your face?
You can't see correctly. You become blinded to reality. And the idea is that's what pride does to a person. It blinds a person to reality where they think they are greater than they actually are. or that they can do something that they're not capable of doing. And Paul is indicating that was the problem with the devil. Apparently that was the original sin. There in God's heaven, by this great exalted cherub, this anointed cherub that covered the unique presence of God, lifted up with pride, thinking that he was so great. And when you go to Isaiah fourteen, verses twelve through fourteen, in pride, This is what he said.
I will make myself like the Most High. He deceived himself into thinking, blind himself with pride to the extent that he believed that he could actually make himself just like God. He saw that God was the ultimate sovereign ruler of the universe. He thought he could become that ultimate sovereign ruler of the universe. And again, he saw that God had a kingdom over which he ruled as a sovereign king. He was determined that he would have a kingdom over which he could rule as the sovereign king. He saw that God had both angels and humans as subjects in his kingdom. He determined he too had to have both angels and humans as subjects in his kingdom as well.
And in Isaiah fourteen, he's boasting that he's going to go up and throw God off of his throne, in essence, and replace God with himself as the sovereign Lord of the universe. So that what these passages are saying is this, that originally Satan was created by God as now interestingly our English translation back in Isaiah fourteen says of Lucifer Lucifer is simply taking the word in the Latin Vulgate when when Jerome one of the early church fathers translated the whole Bible of the Latin language He translated the Hebrew name for this exalted angel with the Latin name that had the same meaning, Lucifer.
The Hebrew text says, Halel. We translated it in English, we spelled it H-E-L-E-L, Halel, in which God said that, how art thou exalted, O Halel. And both that word and the Latin word Lucifer means light bearer or day star, describing how magnificent appearance glory with brilliant light that this creature of God had as created by God with magnificent beauty, day star or light there. And He was the anointed cherub of God. He was full of wisdom. He was perfect in beauty. He was apparently the highest, the wisest, the most beautiful of all of God's creatures.
And His original work was that of covering, in other words, hovering over God's throne, the special dwelling place of God there in heaven. But the time came when he was consumed with pride because of how great, how magnificent, how exalted he was. And so in pride, he thought that he could challenge the supremacy of God. He became envious of God in God's position as the sovereign Lord of the universe and believed that he could at least make himself equal with God, if not higher than God. And so he fell away from God through sin. Pride was the cause of his fall, and he became an evil angel.
Now the question is, when did this happen? With this exalted being. Well, look, if you would please, at the last verse of Genesis chapter one. We were looking on Sunday evening at some statements in Genesis one. about the six days of creation. And Liberty Wood, verse thirty-one of Genesis one. And God saw how much that he had made. Everything that he had made. And this was God's adoration. Behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
In other words, by the end of the days of creation, God said, examined everything that he had made by creation. And God's evaluation was, everything was very good. In other words, no part of God's creation had turned against him yet. The implication is, therefore, that this exalted angel did not rebel against God with pride until sometime after God completed his six days of creating the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. So that his sin must have been after what we have described here at the end of chapter one.
But by the time you come to chapter three, he's an evil being. Because he takes upon himself the form of a serpent and enters into man's perfect environment upon planet earth. to try to persuade man or God's human creatures to join him in his revolt against God and thereby become subjects of his satanic kingdom. So we're forced to conclude that this rebellion, this pride, this original sin of this exalted angelic being took place sometime between the end of creation, end of Genesis one and the fall of man, sometime in between there. between the end of creation and the fall of man in Genesis chapter three.
Now, having said that, the next thing we want to see is the fall of other angels, the fall of other angels. When you look at everything that the scriptures tell us about angels, it becomes obvious that now there are two major classifications or categories of angels. The first major category of classification, it could be called the holy angels. these are angels who never rebelled against God that when Satan approached them they made the choice to remain faithful and loyal to God and thereby were confirmed or locked into their state of holiness from that time on but the second classification or category of angels could be called fallen or evil angels fallen or evil angels these are angels that originally were created holy by God like the other angels but sometime after their creation, joined Satan in his rebellion against God and fell away from God.
Now, the questions often ask, how many of them fell away from God? The Bible doesn't give us an exact figure. However, there may be a hint in Revelation chapter twelve, verse four, in Revelation twelve, John sees a great red dragon as a sign. And in verses nine and ten, he clearly identifies that great red dragon as the devil or Satan. But he sees this great red dragon pulling behind him one third of the stars of heaven. We saw on Sunday evening in Job thirty eight, verses six and seven, God referred to angels as stars. And in light of that, many students of the Word of God believe that the one-third of the stars of heaven that John sees Satan pulling behind him out of heaven may very well be referring to one-third of all the angels that God created who made a decision to follow Satan in his rebellion against God and thereby fell away from God following Satan's lead.
Again, we can't be dogmatic of that one-third, but that may very well be. in light of that reference there in Revelation twelve verse four. So now there are two major groups of angels. The holy angels remain faithful and loyal to God and now fallen evil angels who followed Satan's lead to rebel against God. Now having talked about those two major classifications or categories of angels, I want to zero your attention now on just the second category, the fallen or evil angels. The Bible indicates that the fallen evil angels themselves are divided into two subdivisions. Again, talking just about the fallen or evil angels who followed Satan and are under his dominion, that the fallen angels themselves are subdivided into two subdivisions.
And let me kind of entitle and describe each of the subdivisions. One could be called the fallen free angels, the fallen free angels. Again, these are angels that originally were holy, but then followed Satan's lead to rebel against God, so they fell away from God. Satan is their leader. In Revelation twelve, verses seven through nine, we have a reference to the devil and his angels, making it very clear that Satan has a whole group of angels under his dominion. He is their leader. And they dwell with Satan in one of the heavens. Remember the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians chapter twelve said, I knew a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I'm not certain, who was caught up to the third heaven.
And later Paul calls the third heaven paradise. It indicated that this was God's special heaven where God in a unique sense dwells the third heaven. It indicated at least three heavens. And the first heaven, from a biblical perspective, is what in Ephesians two is called the air. the ether, basically the atmosphere directly above planet Earth. And our understanding is that when Satan rebelled against God and other angels rebelled against God, as we saw from Ezekiel twenty-eight, God cast Satan out of his presence, out of his heaven, to a lower region. And our understanding is that Satan and his evil angels were cast down to the first heaven.
And that's been their dwelling place ever since. Now that doesn't mean they're confined to that first heaven. They can come to the earth and do Satan's bidding, and Satan can come to the earth whenever he desires. But it says that that's where they live now. And one of the things that implies that to us is that in Ephesians chapter two and verse two, the Apostle Paul refers to the prince of the powers of the air. And he makes it very clear this prince is an evil prince and the powers of the air evil as well, because he said to the Ephesians that when you were unsaved people, you walked according to the course of the prince of the powers of the air.
The prince there is a reference to Satan. And the powers, remember this morning we saw that one of the designations for angels in the Bible is powers, principalities, powers, dominions. The powers there are the evil angels that are still free to roam around. They're not in prison somewhere. They live in the first heaven. They're under Satan's dominion. But they're still free to roam around doing Satan's work. They can come to planet Earth. These would be the angelic beings that the scriptures refer to as demons. that come to the earth and take, at least in Bible times, would take possessions of human beings for Satan purposes. So we call them fallen free angels because they're not confined, they're not imprisoned, they're free to roam around doing Satan's bidding and Satan's work.
But the second subdivision of fallen evil angels, we could call fallen imprisoned angels. Fallen imprisoned angels. These angels, again, that originally were holy, created that way by God, but then followed Satan in his rebuying against God, so they too experienced a fall away from God. But then sometime after their original rebuying against God, they committed another sin. They were so grievous in the sight of God that God took this group of fallen angels and put them in a prison place where he keeps them reserved for future judgment. This group is referred specifically in two New Testament passages.
Turn, please, if you would, to Second Peter, chapter two and verse four. Second Peter, chapter two and verse four. Peter says, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and deliver them in a change of darkness to be reserved under judgment and spared not the old world that saved Noah, the eighth person of preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Several observations here from verse four. Notice first, Peter is talking about a particular group of angels who are already imprisoned in a terrible place.
reserved there for future judgment now for some reason I've never been able to understand our English translations say that they were cast down to hell and put in chains in hell the problem with that is Peter did not use the word for hell the word for hell in the in the New Testament is Hades and Peter didn't use that word he used another word and this is the only passage in all the Bible where this word appears it's Tartarus T-A-R T-A-R-U-S, and it's a proper name for a place of judgment for these imprisoned evil angels, Tartarus. Again, it's the only place in the Bible where that name appears.
Interestingly, however, that name does appear a number of times in ancient extra-biblical literature, literature from outside the Bible, that the ancient world knew about this place called Tartarus. And the understanding of the ancient world was, it was even deeper than hell itself. It was the deepest pit of gloom that existed anywhere in the universe. Deeper, darker, and worse than hell. And a terrible, terrible place to be, Tartarus. Now, that's the proper name for this place, where this group of fallen angels are imprisoned. There is, however, a descriptive term, not a proper name, but a descriptive term for this place in the Bible, and that is the abyss, or as some say, the bottomless pit.
Abyss comes from a Greek word, which means no bottom. A place that's so deep, it seems as if it has no bottom whatsoever, and that's why sometimes it's translated the bottomless pit. that would fit the description of what the ancient world understood for Tartarus. It was the deepest pit of gloom, even deeper and worse than hell itself. Turn with me, if you would please, to the Gospel of Luke, chapter eight. Luke, chapter eight, and we're going to look specifically at verse thirty-one. Luke, chapter eight. And just to get the flow, Let's begin with verse twenty-six.
And they, Jesus and his disciples, arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man which had devils, literally demons, a long time, and wore no clothes, neither abode in any house but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God, most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. For he, Jesus, had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for oftentimes it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he broke the bands, and was driven of the demon into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, say, What is thy name?
And he said, Legion, because many demons were entered into him. Now look at verse thirty-one. Demons, again, from all we can discern, are evil angels. Now these would be the evil, fallen free angels. They're not imprisoned anywhere. They've come to earth. They've taken possession of this gathering man. Notice what they said to Jesus, verse thirty-one. They besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And the word there is for the abyss. For the abyss. The ball must pit. That implies that the foreign free angels who are not imprisoned know about this place that Peter calls Tartarus.
the bottomless pit, the abyss. And apparently they are aware of the fact that some of their compatriot, fallen angels, are already imprisoned there. And that it is a horrendous place for fallen angels to go. And they are scared to death that Jesus is going to command them to go into that place. And so they beg Him, please, you know, don't cast us into the abyss, into the bottomless pit. Instead, there are pigs over here cast us into the pigs and the Lord did that and you know the pigs went wild and went into the water and drowned but that that indicates that the fallen free angels are aware of this place that Peter calls Tartarus and that they apparently aware the fact that some of their companions evil angels are already imprisoned there and the fallen free ones don't want to go there as fallen angels because of how horrendous it is for fallen angels So that this is only the temporary place of judgment for these fallen imprisoned angels.
Jesus in Matthew, verse forty-one, made it very clear that the eternal lake of fire is the final place of judgment that God has established for the devil and all of his angels. And so the implication is that by the end of world history, these angels will be removed from Tartarus and will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. under the eternal judgment of God now in light of what Peter says that this group of angels are imprisoned there because of some sin they committed obviously the question is what was the nature of their sin it can't be the original sin of angels rebellion against God because if it were that then all the fallen angels including Satan himself would be imprisoned in Tartarus so it must be some other sin that one group of fallen angels on their own committed that was even more grievous in the sight of God than the original sin of angelically done against God that would cause God to confine, imprison this particular group of angels in this horrendous place of judgment.
What was the nature of their sin? Well, thankfully, there's a second New Testament passage that refers to the same group of angels who are imprisoned. And that sheds more light on this group and what they were guilty of. And that's in the book of Jude. In the book of Jude, verses six and seven, and I'd invite you please to turn with me to that passage. Jude six and seven. Where Jude says, And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved an everlasting change 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 points out four things. This particular group of angels were guilty of. The first one, verse six, they kept not their first estate. Literally, they did not keep their own domain. These angels did not keep their own domain. The idea behind that is this, that when God created the angels, He gave them a domain just for the angels. An angelic domain. And in essence said to them, this is your domain as angels. And you're not to leave your angelic domain to try to become part of another domain that are never intended for angels.
So the implication is these angels decide to leave the angelic domain and try to become part of another domain that God never intended for angels. The second thing Jude says they did, verse six, is they left their own habitation. It could be translated, they abandoned their proper abode or they abandoned their proper dwelling place. God ordained angels to dwell in the heavenly realms. He trained the angels to dwell in the heavenly realms. That was to be their habitation, their dwelling place. Judas said this particular group of angels decided to abandon the heavenly realm, stop living there, and go live at another place, at another dwelling place, not the heavenly realm.
The third thing that he says that they did, and let me give you even a more little translation of verse seven. even at Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner as these, in like manner as these angels, giving themselves over to fornication. What he's saying is, these angels did something very similar to what the men of Sodom and Gomorrah did. Now, that doesn't mean that these angels became homosexuals. as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah did. But it does mean that they got involved in gross immorality, in perverted sexual relationships that God never ordained for angels, similar to the men of Sodom and Gomorrah getting involved in gross immorality, perverted sexual relationships that God never intended for men to get involved in.
The next thing, the fourth thing that he says that they did, verse seven, they went after strange flesh. The word strange here means foreign. They went after flesh that God intended to be completely foreign to angels. They left the domain that God had intended for angels. They stopped living where God intended angels to live, namely in the heavenly realms. They got involved in perverted sexual immorality relationships, and they went after strange flesh. They went after flesh that God never intended angels to go after.
Now, in light of this, what is Jude talking about here? And when did they do this? Well, to more recent discern, in Genesis chapter six, verses one through four, Moses seems to refer to the same type of thing as Jude was referring to in Jude verses six and seven. Go with me please back to Genesis chapter six verses one through four. Genesis chapter six verses one through four. Moses wrote that 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.
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his day shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they, the daughters of men, bore children to them, to the sons of God. The same, those children, became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Now, you're probably aware of the fact that over the years, very fine students of the Word of God have advocated two different interpretations. of what Moses was describing here that took place before the flood back in Noah's time.
Two major views. There have been some kind of subdivision views and everything, but two major views have been advocated by very fine Bible believing students of the Word of God over quite a few centuries. Let me name both views and describe them and then kind of evaluate. One view could be called the fallen angel human women view. the fallen angel human women view and according to this view the sons of God of Genesis six were fallen angels and the daughters of men referred to here were human women and that therefore that what Moses is describing is that before the days of the flood there were fallen angels that left the heavenly realm came down upon planet earth and somehow took upon themselves a male human bodies married human women and fathered superhuman children through those human women, children who became great men of renown in the ancient world from what Moses was saying because of their almost supernatural feats that they were able to accomplish.
So that according to this first view, you have fallen angels, the sons of God, coming upon the earth, marrying human women and fathering superhuman children through those human women. The second view could be called the Sethite line, Canite line view. The Sethite line, Canite line view. According to that view, there's no angelic activity whatsoever in Genesis six. You don't have angels involved here at all. But instead, what you have is two different human lines intermarried with each other. And as a result, some unique children are born into the world. One line, the Sethite line. And they say those are the sons of God.
The sons of God here are human men who are biological, physical descendants of Seth. Okay? The other line, the daughters of men, are the Canaanite line. So all the men in these unions, according to this view, are descendants of Seth, a godly line. And all the women, according to this view, are human women, but descendants of Cain, an ungodly line. And so according to this view, as a result of godly men marrying ungodly women, mixture of two different lines, you had some very unique children being born, almost some monstrosities being born into the world.
Now, all I can say to you is what I personally become convinced of, which of these views is the correct view, and tell you the reasons why. and some of you may disagree with this and that's fine we'll love you anyhow even though we might disagree on this I over the years I'll be honest I've gone back and forth between these views over the years but the more research I've done even into the ancient documents the more I've become convinced of the first view the fallen angel human woman view and let me give you why I have become convinced of that first of all I can't get away from the implications of Jude six and seven.
Jude six and seven. Jude seems very clearly there to be saying that there was a group of angels that left the domain of angels to become a part of another domain. They stopped living in the heavenly realm in order to live somewhere else. They got involved in perverted sexual relationships that God never intended. And in so doing, they went after flesh that God intended to be foreign or strange to angels. it seems to me Jude six and seven is indicating very clearly that this is what took place that angels came down from the heavenly realm married human women fathered superhuman children for those human women in addition notice if you will the very generic terms used here in Genesis six the daughters of men that's very generic it's not talking about one specific line doesn't save the daughters of Cain.
Sons of God, we notice that Job, the book of Job used that term to refer to angels, sons of God, implying what is the source of angels? They were created by God. In that sense, since God is their source through creation, they are sons of God. And Moses used that same term here, sons of God. But that generic terminology, daughters of men, seems to me that if what Moses was talking about here is one specific human line of women as opposed to another human line of women Moses would not have used that very general generic term daughters of men would have been more specific than that third Jewish tradition going way back even centuries before the Lord Jesus and from the ancient times in Old Testament history right up through the time of Christ and right up to modern day times historically it was the overwhelming understanding of the Jews that Genesis six is talking about evil angels who married human women and fathered supernatural children to those human women let me give you some examples the book of Enoch the book of Enoch was written as far as scholars can tell somewhere between one
to two hundred years before Christ was born into the world very highly esteemed and respected by the ancient Jews they they did not claim divine inspiration for it was not divinely inspired but they did regard it very highly and interestingly English translations of the book of Enoch are available today you can buy them in some of these major bookstores and I I have read major parts of the book of Enoch and over and over and over again that ancient Jewish book claims that in Genesis six the sons of God are evil angels who came to earth married human women in general and fathered superhuman children through that. What's fascinating about that is we read what Jude said about this group of angels who are already imprisoned in verses six and seven.
When Jude comes to verse fourteen, he quotes verbatim from the book of Enoch, which says that Jude was thinking of the book of Enoch and studying it and reading it around the time that he wrote his book, talking about what angels did and therefore are imprisoned in this horrible prison place. There's another ancient book of the Jews, back again around one or two hundred years, written before the Lord Jesus was born, called the Book of Jubilees. It claims that the sons of God of Genesis six were fallen angels who married human women. Josephus, very famous Jewish historian, when Jesus was living here on planet Earth, in his writings claims that this was always the understanding of the Jews in the ancient world.
And interestingly, your early church fathers, not just Jewish tradition but here's another line of evidence for the for the first view almost to a man your early church fathers for the first several centuries of the church existence by church fathers I mean key leaders of the of the organized church consistently taught that Genesis six is talking about evil angels who came to earth married human women and fathered superhuman children through them then such as Justin Martyr Ireneus, Irenaeus was taught by Polycarp. Polycarp was taught by the Apostle John. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, all very prominent church leaders during the first three or four centuries of the church consistently said, Genesis six, fallen angels marrying human women, fathering superhuman children.
A fifth line of evidence, fifth line of evidence is the origin of the other view. The origin of the set-by Canaanite line view, it says only human activity, no angelic activity. That view did not come into existence until the fourth century AD, somewhere between three and four hundred years after Jesus was here descended to heaven. And that other view, the set-by Canaanite line view, was started by some church leaders as a result of the influence of pagan Greek philosophy upon their thinking. See, pagan Greek philosophy believed and taught that anything physical is automatically evil. If it's physical, it's evil. And only that which is non-physical and spiritual is holy and good.
And to their way of thinking, angels are spirit beings and we've got to keep them spirit beings. We cannot allow angelic spirit beings to be having physical relationships with human beings. And so because of that influence of pagan Greek philosophy upon their thinking, they rejected what was the original understanding of Genesis six and developed this other view. It's purely human activity, no angelic activity there in Genesis six. And a final line of evidence is pagan mythology. Now, please, I'm not saying we get our theology from pagan mythology. We don't dare get our theology from pagan mythology. However, when ancient mythology basically comes in line with things that the Bible presents, That could be very significant.
It's very interesting that ancient Babylonian and Greek mythology taught that way back in ancient times, there were gods who came down to the heavens, took upon themselves male human form, married human women, and fathered superhuman children to those human women, men such as Achilles, Hercules, etc., of their ancient mythology. The question is, where did the ancient Babylonians and Greeks get that concept from? That there are supernatural beings that they called gods came down from the heavens to planet earth, took upon themselves, nailed human bodies and married human women and fathered superhuman children through them.
Now obviously the angel view has some problems and probably some of you are thinking that we, you taught us on Sunday that angels do not have sexuality by nature and that's right. Now we took it in passage where Jesus said that the angels in heaven do not marry. But notice that prepositional phrase in heaven. Angels in the heavenly realm do not marry. In other words, they do not marry other angels in the heavenly realm. This is talking about angels who came to the planet Earth. It's my understanding to marry human women. Where could they get these bodies from to father children? We don't know, but remember we saw Genesis eighteen, two holy angels together with the Lord Jesus were there in the appearance of males or men with literal physical feet, hands could eat literal physical food, and the Bible doesn't tell us from where they got their bodies or what they did with them, what they were done with them.
Now, let me just address one final thing in conjunction with this. If this angelic view is correct, What would have been the ultimate purpose for these particular group of evil angels doing this? I cannot be dogmatic on what I'm going to propose to you now, but it seems to me in light of other things in the Bible, this is at least plausible to consider. The Word of God makes it very clear that God does not provide salvation for fallen angels. Lord willing, if we have time later this week, I'm going to take it to passages that indicate that.
God does not provide salvation for fallen angels. In light of that, if somehow Satan could introduce a fallen angelic strain into the human race, eventually reproduction caused that fallen angelic strain to permeate the entire human race, that would destroy the whole redemptive program of God. and prevent the promised Redeemer from coming into the world, becoming a human being, and dying for the sins of the world. Be useless for the Redeemer to come and die for beings that are part angelic and part human, if God will not provide salvation for fallen angels.
I'm trying to think that this was one of Satan's attempts to prevent the promised Redeemer from coming into the world. In light of God's name in Genesis three, that the promised redeemer, the seat of the woman, would crush Satan. I'm prone to think this was one of Satan's techniques to so pervert the human race with a fallen angelic strain introduced into it that it would make it impossible for the redeemer to come and provide redemption for fallen mankind. Interestingly, in Genesis chapter nine, verse six, Moses says, I'm going to give you a literal translation.
Noah was perfect in his generations. Word generations means his offspring. Noah was perfect in his offspring. It's interesting that Moses says that in the context of the sons of God, married the daughters of men, and father and superhuman children through them. That may imply that by the time God announced to Noah that he was going to send a flood to planet Earth to destroy mankind, it may imply that this fallen angelic strain through intermarriage and procreation had permeated so much of the human race that maybe Noah and his offspring were the only ones left who were not so perverted.
And that God knew that if he would allow this process to go on indefinitely, through time even Noah's descendants, through intermarriage, would become perverted by this, and then the Redeemer could not come and provide redemption for fallen mankind. And in order to prevent that from happening, God sent the flood upon planet Earth and destroyed the whole perverted segment of mankind. But through the ark preserved the one man and his family who was still perfect in their offspring, through them eventually the promised redeemer can be born into the world and do the work of redemption now just turn with me as we finish here to a fascinating passage in first peter chapter three verses eighteen and nineteen first peter chapter three verses eighteen and nineteen again chapter three verses eighteen and nineteen For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh.
Notice he's saying, in other words, Christ has provided redemption for we human beings through his death. But quickened by the Spirit. Now, some translators translate that as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but that many feel it could literally be try to say quickened in his spirit that in his human spirit by which also he Jesus went and preached unto the spirits in prison it appears that Peter is saying here that Jesus once he completed the work of redemption on the cross between the time he died and the time he rose from the dead in his own human spirit went to a prison place where spirit beings are being held prisoner.
And he went there to make a proclamation to them, an announcement to them. We noted on Sunday that angels are spirit beings by nature. We saw evidence that from the Bible. Think of what God did to provide redemption for us as fallen human beings. destroyed the ancient world as it was known in Noah's day and preserved the one righteous man and his family who were still perfect in their offspring so that the Redeemer could come do the work of redemption so that you and I as fallen human beings could be saved from eternal judgment from the penalty of our sins God our Father we worship you together with your son Jesus Christ of the Holy Spirit as the sovereign omnipotent God of this universe you'll honor God and Father we thank you that you loved us so much that you sent your son into
this world to become a human being so that some thirty years later He could go to the cross as our redeemer and in our place as our substitute to pay the full price and penalty for our sins so that we through faith in Him and Him alone could be brought into a right relationship with you forever. And Father, if what we've been advocating here this evening is true, we bow before you and thank you and adore you for your willingness to destroy so much of your creation back there in the days of Noah through the flood in order to bring the Redeemer here and provide so great salvation for us who did not deserve that redemption any more than the fallen angels deserved it.
But by your grace you saw fit to provide it for us. but not for them. What debtors we are to you and to your Son, Jesus Christ. For this we thank you in His Blessed Name. Amen.