The terms fallen angels and demons are often used interchangeably, but could there be a
difference between the two?
Angels were created by God
with spiritual bodies that look similar to ours, but are probably more akin to
Jesus’ resurrected body.
Way back, long before God
created mankind, there was a rebellion in heaven headed by the Archangel
Lucifer. A third of the angels chose to follow him rather than God, so God
threw the lot of them out of heaven.
Okay—so what exactly are
demons? Did God create them, too?
That brings us to the very
controversial (and just plain weird) Genesis 6 passage:
“…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).
The word daughters clearly means female children
of human parents. The daughters of men
were simply women, in other words.
The sons of God refer to an entirely different group from either the men or the daughters of men. The term sons
of God occurs elsewhere in the Bible and clearly means angels (see Job 1:6).
The term sons of God in Hebrew is B’nai Ha Elohim—Sons of Elohim, a term
consistently meaning angels
throughout the Old Testament. Ancient rabbinical texts and early New Testament
translators agreed the term refers to angels. Up until the fifth century A.D.,
there was no question that the text meant: Fallen
angels procreating with human women.
Why the controversy?
Angels + women = hybrids, a thoroughly perverted, depraved, and shameful
situation. For this reason Augustine embraced an interpretation that Genesis 6
simply meant: Believers marrying
unbelievers producing ungodly children. Short and sweet, but wrong and
misleading.
This interpretation,
though widely accepted, does nothing to explain what follows in Genesis 6:4:
“There were giants on the earth in those
days, and also
afterward, when the sons of God came into the
daughters
of men and they bore children to them.”
Believers marrying
unbelievers may produce a mixed-up kid, but certainly not a giant!
Back in Noah’s day, the
human race was corrupted by fallen angels. They co-habited with humans and
created one heck of a gene-pool problem. This was such a monumental breach of
God’s order that it provoked a divine judgment.
The entire world was
destroyed with the Flood. Everyone, every man, woman, and child on the face of
the earth was wiped out. Except Noah and his family.
Extreme? Not when you
understand the fact that only Noah and his family were still fully human. All
the others, known as the Nephilim, had tainted genes. They were corrupted, in
other words. God had no choice but to start over, using Noah and his family to
re-populate the earth.
Unfortunately, though the
Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood, their spirits remained. Mankind would now
have to contend with something new: Demonic
entities.
So, why didn't God destroy
their spirits, too, if they were such an affront? We don’t know. Maybe the
consequences of this particular sin meant having to contend with disembodied
evil spirits until the final judgment.
We do know this: The human spirit is eternal. It cannot be destroyed
and will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Those who choose to repent of
their sin and be redeemed by the death of Christ will spend eternity in heaven.
But those who choose to ignore God’s offer of salvation will spend eternity in
hell.
The Nephilim were
conceived in direct opposition to God and were neither human nor angel. They
cannot be redeemed. When a Nephilim dies, its spirit cannot enter heaven, it is
left homeless, looking for a host body, hence the Biblical references to
demonic possession (Luke 4:33, 11:19; Acts 16:16).
And yes, Satan did enter Judas in John 13:23 which proves fallen angels can possess humans (and serpents, for that matter), but they don't need to. They have spiritual bodies that can manifest as solid if they want. Demons do not.
So, are fallen angels and
demons the same? Study Genesis 6:1-4; 2 Peter 2:4; and Jude 5-11 and come to
your own conclusions.
A wise man once said:
“Our real battle is not with human cultists, false religionists, atheists,
agnostics, and pseudo-Christians, but with the demonic beings working through
them.” – Earl D. Radmacher, Th.D.
“For we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness
in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12-13)
News:
- CBN: At least 12 states at risk for flooding as relentless rains top 15 inches in South and Midwest.
- Wall Street Journal: Outgoing CIA Deputy Director says Syria is greatest threat to US national security.
- MSN: Mystery priest appears to pray over crash victim, then vanishes
While studying to reach your own conclusions I recommend getting other points of view on these Scriptures. There are a couple of good posts in the April, 2013 Hereoscope Blogspot.
ReplyDeletehttp://herescope.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html
Read the April 10 article "The Nephilim" by Anton Bosch and the April 2 article "101 Questions About the Nephilim."
Another article worth reading posted on Herescope, May 1, 2013,"Homo Nephilus."
ReplyDeletehttp://herescope.blogspot.com/2013/05/homo-nephilus_6651.html
This article hits the nail squarely on the head:
"Postmodern prophecy teachers overlook the seriousness of mankind’s sin against a holy God and place the focus upon an outside enemy: half demon, half human creatures—hell-bent on destroying the human race by corrupting our DNA."
The preceeding scripures concerning the lineage of Seth(fathful ones/sons of God) and the lineage of Cain along with the verses concerning the corruption of man in both sexual sin(adultery, fornicaion, beastiality, homosexuality and incest etc.) along with violent(murderous) behavior are keys to interpretation here. The sons of God were those who continued the practice of animal/blood sacrifice for forgiveness of sin as they recognized their sinful state and trusted in God as their deliverer. God himself killed an animal to cover Adam and Eve's shame and guilt over their sinful decision of which Abel/Seth and the other faithful ones continued the practice thereof. Cain's offering was of the ground which was cursed as part of the Adamic covenant. The lineages of the faithful and the unfaithful are put into place for the specific purpose of proper interpretaion and the fact that mankind was judged for this sinful behavior(no angels mentioned) is proof of what happened. Giants are genetic mutations coming from the impure seeds of incest being mixed with the pure seeds of those who had honored God in their marriages. The run away problem of incest was also why God reduced the life span of man to 120 years to help prevent this abomination. The very important point here and scriptural lesson is the warning to marry within the faith as the faithful ones who married for looks/lust had their children raised in the unfaithful environment/homes that their wives produced/controlled and the faithful where reduced in number from this activity down to Noah and his family.
ReplyDeleteGod did send the flood to cleanse the earth which eliminated the tainted gene pool until the incest started again in the land of Cainan(Lot included) which produced another race of giants who were to be destroyed by Joshua in order to clean up the gene pool again along with stopping the violent/murderous pagan behavior also which included the killing of children, most of whom were probably genetically deformed in some way.. Lastly, Genesis is also very clear on producing after "their kind" of which angels are not of our kind. Blaming the angels is akin to Adam blaming Eve and is symply the false doctrine of blame shifting. Angels were not involved and were not judged as it was all man's doing of which mankind(except Noah and family) was judged for. This is the principle of "you reap what you sow" which is a bedrock principle of Almighty God. Mankind was given many many years(grace) to repent of these sins and chose not to for which they were jugded for. No angels, no nonsense, just judgement upon sinful man who did not repent and turn to their creator/deliverer for forgiveness and restoration. Sound like the gospel to anyone ? I believe Jesus (The Lamb of God) preached repentance, forgiveness and restoration to the Father. He also preached total fidelity in marriage including a pure mind so as not to lead to sexual sin and the gigantic problems it can cause !!!