Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6:3 ?

[Lou Newton]

Paul .............
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So why are the sons of God in Genesis 6 angels? Please run that past me again?

First ;God says sons of God and daughters of men. Not sons of God and daughters of God, or sons of men and daughters of men. God never says anything without a reason. The sons of God are NOT sons of men, but only sons of God.

Second, right after God tells about these sons of God having sex with the daughters of men, He says He is going to destroy all life on the earth.

6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

Men were not forbidden to marry women, but God told them to marry and have children. There had to be a terrible sin for God to destroy life on the earth. That sin was Satan deceived many of the fallen angels, who followed him ,to have sex with women. The fallen angels were unredeemable. Man can be redeemed for hating God because he does not know God. Man can come to know God and therefore come to love God and be redeemed. The fallen angles knew God and yet hated him. Nothing can be done to save them. They hate God even though they know Him.

The whole human race was close to being made unredeemable by mixing with fallen angels. Their offspring were part fallen angel, and so unredeemable. Satan was close to having victory by ruining the whole human race. God saved the human race by destroying those who were part human and part fallen angel. He also put the fallen angles who did this into chains - Jude 1:6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Genesis 6:9 KJV - These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. - Noah's clan was the only group on the earth that had not done this and so God saved them from the flood and started the human race again with Noah.

Men have mixed with very sinful women and God did not destroy life on earth because of their sin. But when fallen angels mixed with women and their offspring was not able to be redeemed, God had to destroy them to keep them from ruining the whole human race. If every human was part fallen angel there would be no woman for Him to be born of; and for Him to become a man to shed His blood to save us.

This is the same deception Satan will use before Jesus returns. Jesus said it will be as in the days of Noah. Satan will try to make the human race trans-human by deceiving men into changing their DNA into something not totally human. I see the Covid vaccine that changes our DNA as a possible first step to this.

[Lou Newton]

Glen B Smith
To:Lou Newton

Tue, Mar 10 at 10:49 PM
If you watched the video and read the 2nd email you might wish to read this reply which is the same link provided.
This is an excellent debate between scholars that provides direction and insight for the rest of us Bible students.

Peter Gentry on the Nephilim - Dr. Michael Heiser

Peter Gentry on the Nephilim - Dr. Michael Heiser Addendum to Peter Gentry on the Nephilim, December 13, 2019 – MSH I’m tempted to just tell readers to ignore wha...

[Lou Newton]

Glen B Smith
To:Lou Newton

Tue, Mar 10 at 10:45 PM
This is a reply by Michael Heiser to Peter Gentry ( video referenced in the previous email.

Original Post:

Several people have sent me a link to a video made by Dr. Peter Gentry about the Nephilim. Many of you will know that I know (and like) Peter. He’s a serious biblical scholar and good guy all around. You should all read his work. You’d learn something for sure. I have and do.

Peter accepts the supernatural view of the sons of God but is troubled by the matter of the Nephilim (taking them as giants at face value; i.e., as quasi-divine offspring). He doesn’t like the idea that they were the giant offspring of the sons of God. In an effort to put forth this objection, he argues that Peter and Jude don’t specifically mention the Nephilim in their “angels that sinned” comments (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6). He presumes the absence of the Nephilim in Peter and Jude somehow warrants rejecting the giant offspring in Genesis 6.

I enjoy Peter, but this is an amazingly weak argument, especially coming from him. The reason is simple and straightforward: That a NT writer doesn’t give us all the details of an OT passage they cite or allude to does NOT mean that we are supposed to reject the parts in the OT passage that aren’t mentioned. In many (most?) instances where NT writers cite an OT passage they don’t do so with absolute, exhaustive precision. They cite part, or perhaps cite from memory, or a different text, or combine part of a passage with another part of a different passage, etc. Peter knows this well, as he is an expert on the use of the OT by NT writers. So it makes little sense to me why he would employ a method for Peter and Jude that would get him in serious trouble elsewhere.

As an example, take Jesus’s citation (via Luke) of Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:18-19. If you compare the two passages, one can see that Jesus / Luke omits this line from Luke 61:1:

“he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted”

Are we to conclude that we are free to disregard this part of the OT verse because the NT writer doesn’t include it? Of course not.

Another example, even more germane. Hebrews 11:17-19 reads as follows:

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ¹⁹ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

This is the NT writer’s allusive citation of Genesis 22. But (O dear!) the writer of Hebrews doesn’t include the lines about the intervention of the angel of the Lord (Gen 22:10-12). Are we to conclude that there was no “real” angel on the scene when Abraham was prepared to offer Isaac? If we use Peter Gentry’s method, it would seem so.

I could cite numerous other analogous examples of how Peter’s approach and its underlying assumption aren’t workable. I presume you all get the point.

The issue here is that Peter apparently thinks he has an argument against taking the Nephilim portion of Gen 6:4 at face value because Peter and Jude don’t include it in their description of the angels’ sin. This isn’t coherent. My response is that (a) the NT frequently doesn’t cite an OT passage with complete precision, and (b) employing this approach yields some demonstrably poor results in other places.

My guess is that Peter is just uncomfortable with quasi-divine Nephilim, perhaps because he can’t explain that to himself or someone else. I understand completely. He’s not alone there. But it’s time we face the reality of the biblical text in this regard. We also can’t (biologically) explain the incarnation (how God became man in Jesus), or the hypostatic union (how Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the same time), or how we are filled with the Holy Spirit, or how the death of Jesus affects not only our sin, but the entire cosmos (Col 1:16-20). To be blunt, most of what the Bible affirms that is core to our faith cannot be explained in any scientific, materialist way. That doesn’t mean it isn’t intellectually coherent. These ideas are coherent, not because they conform to biology or any other science, but because they extend from theism itself (e.g., Is there a God? If so, can that God do anything? If he can, could that God create beings like himself who, like him, could assume flesh? Note that there is no scriptural statement in Scripture that forbids this ability to lesser spiritual beings). Theism is demonstrably coherent in terms of logical analysis. That’s been born out by millennia of discussion. When the supernatural invades the natural, such things need to be weighed in light of the coherence of biblical theism. We do not need to abandon what the text says.




this can be found ar

Peter Gentry on the Nephilim - Dr. Michael Heiser

Peter Gentry on the Nephilim - Dr. Michael Heiser Addendum to Peter Gentry on the Nephilim, December 13, 2019 – MSH I’m tempted to just tell readers to ignore wha...

[Lou Newton]

Glen B Smith
To:lou newton

Tue, Mar 10 at 10:19 PM
Recently, I disagreed with your identification of the sons of God in Genesis 6 as being fallen angels. My point was that angels and sons of God were different spiritual beings and angels could not marry; i.e. have sexual intercourse. Here is a Southern Seminary professor that identifies the sons of God in Genesis 6 with the fallen angels who could reproduce with the daughters of men. He makes a compelling argument why the position I represented is not correct. His understanding of the Nephilim also seems a proper interpretation.

Were the sons of God in Genesis 6 fallen angels? Who were the Nephilim?

Were the sons of God in Genesis 6 fallen angels? Who were the Nephilim? Watch more episodes of Honest Answers here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...oQvS7wtiUgvF5j...

[Lou Newton]

What was the meaning of Genesis 6:3?


Lou Newton, former Steel Mill Crane Designer and Physics Teacher

Genesis 6 NIV

Wickedness in the World

6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

NOTICE that God calls one the sons of God, but then refers to to daughters of men. Why did God not say the sons of men and daughters of men. OR the sons of God and the daughters of God. God makes this difference for a reason. Everything God does has a reason.

Who are the sons of God ?

Gen. 6:2

"that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose."

Nephilim, wickedness of man. SOG took wives of women

They were Angels

Gen. 6:4

"The Nephilim were 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."

Nephilim, wickedness of man. SOG took wives of women

They were Angels

Job 1:6

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them."

SOG could be the good angels and/or bad angels

They were Angels

Job 2:1

"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD."

SOG could be the good angels and/or bad angels

They were Angels

Job 38:7

"And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

SOG good angels

They were Angels

Matt. 5:9

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

SOG is those who a godly, trust in God

People who will become like Angels

Luke 20:36

"for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."

SOG is those who a godly, trust in God

People who will become like angels

Rom. 8:14

"For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."

SOG is those who a godly, trust in God

People who will become like angels

Rom. 8:19

"For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God."

SOG is those who a godly, trust in God

People who will become like angels

Gal. 3:26

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."

SOG is those who a godly, trust in God

People who will become like angels

So in the OT sons of God refers to angels. In the NT sons of God refers to people who are born again in the spirit and will become like angels after the resurrection.

We also have this passage in Jude:

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[ at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

So fallen angles ( who were prohibited from having sex with human women) fell to the temptation, because the daughters of men were so beautiful.

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

This union corrupted the woman that had sex with the fallen angels. The children of these unions were totally evil just as the fallen angels were. They had no good in them and were evil all of the time continuously. These offspring were very large and powerful and therefore filled with pride. They dominated the others. These offspring were nonredeemable.

God contends with men as long as there is still a chance for them to be redeemed. But the whole earth was filled with offspring that could not be redeemed except for Noah and his direct ancestors and children.

Genesis 6 KJV

“9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

Noah and his offspring were not corrupted by these fallen angels. He was still perfect in his generations, or not corrupted.

So God said He would not contend with these men any longer because if Noah died and the daughters of his sons were taken by the fallen angels there would be no humans for Christ to be born from. Humans are mortal and die anyway. These humans were walking dead. God just shortened their” life” on earth to save those who were still redeemable.

God never chooses between mercy and justice. Everything God does is both merciful and just. It was just to judge the fallen angels and those who made union with them. It was merciful to all who would descend from Noah.

If God had not destroyed the earth and all humans except for Noah, the fallen angels would have corrupted the whole human race. There would be no woman for Christ to be born from. Someone innocent of sin had to die for us to be forgiven. Someone had to pay for all sin. A sinner could not pay for his own sin let alone the sin of all men. God is Life and can not die. But only God is righteous. God had to be born of a woman to become a righteous man to die for our sin so we could be redeemed.

Colossians 1 TLB

15 Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all, and, in fact, 16 Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. 17 He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together. 18 He is the Head of the body made up of his people—that is, his Church—which he began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead, so that he is first in everything; 19 for God wanted all of himself to be in his Son.

20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. 21 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. 22 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even chide you for; 23 the only condition is that you fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you.

A Sinner saved by grace alone

His Bond Servant

Lou Newton

Answer requested by Fernando ......................