What is the purpose of the rapture - the catching away of the Church.

 A while back, I was asked several widespread questions. I separated the person's writing into assertions and questions, and this is my response.

You asked, “... does anyone else see some resemblance in the description of the rapture and the events at the crucifixion?”

While this first response may not sound so astute, I think it needs to be said,

At the catching away of the church, the “rapture,” the redeemed go up.

The rapture has a limited purpose in that Jesus, at this point, is simply coming, in the clouds, to collect those who are His. The other aspect of the “rapture” is the rescue of the living believers from any further harm. This comment feeds into the disputations against a pre-wrath rapture. 

You need to get something very clear if you are going to push your broken understanding of an “escape” from wrath, as believers in the African nations have been having their heads cut off for attending church. Those people might be firm in the idea that we must endure deadly tribulations. The problem is that when you use these dear people to bolster your arguments, you are setting aside the understanding that there will always be injustices carried out by the hands of other humans. 

The “great tribulation”, which many believe we are discussing, is an aspect of God's wrath.

If you struggle with the belief that we, as the church, are meant to endure God's wrath, consider these scriptures.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 BSB

Wrath, in Greek, is the word orgē. It means anger exhibited in punishment.

Several internet teachers I listen to will say something along these lines. Since Jesus is the Bridegroom coming back for His bride, that is us, the Church, then why would He abuse His bride before the most anticipated time, their wedding night? There is no logical answer to a question like this, and passages such as 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 tell us that it will not happen in an abusive manner.

One "brother in Christ" angrily told me that God will not pour His wrath upon the earth. If so, what do you do with passages like this?

Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.

Exodus 23:7 BSB

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
Nahum 1:3 BSB

Since the subject of the crucifixion was introduced, let's address an aspect of the work that Jesus performed on His journey from the cross to the throne.

Sin, originating in the garden, demanded a price be paid, and it was the death of God. Satan thought he had God in a checkmate, to use a chess term. You see, God set up this earth based on moral laws, His own, and by giving Adam dominion, God placed the man, as a representative of HIs throne, in control of the earth. So, in deceiving the humans, he deceived God, and God would have to pay with His life. If you are puzzled by this, I suggest you watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis again. That was not going to happen, so Jesus voluntarily set aside His position and authority to become a man (In the movie, Jesus is represented as a lion), and He would pay the price. This man, Jesus, was the seed of a woman, a descendant of Eve, and Satan thought that the killing of Jesus would put him solidly in control of all creation.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
Genesis 3:15 MKJV

There are variations in the translations of Genesis 3:15. For example, enmity, an old English word that can also mean hostility, antagonism, ill will, and hatred. Interestingly, the Hebrew word êybâh was only used four times in the Torah, and two of those times, it was translated as hatred. So hatred works just as well.

Many of these passages speak of God being slow to anger; however, this does not imply that the inhabitants of the earth and those who reject His love will not experience His wrath.

God, in speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah, demonstrates His wrath but without first showing mercy toward Lot and his two daughters.

“Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD inflicts on it. They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his intense anger.’
Deuteronomy 29:22-23 NLT

Follow the narrative found in Deuteronomy 9, and you will find that God, in His anger, killed over 3000.

“Remember and never forget how angry you made the LORD your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him. Even at Mount Sinai, you made the LORD so angry he was ready to destroy you.
Deuteronomy 9:7-8 NLT

Let's say you still don't see why God would pour out His wrath upon people; then pay attention to the words of 2 Kings 22:13.

“Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the LORD’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.”
2 Kings 22:13 NLT

If you are asking what we did to deserve God's wrath, Daniel has the answer.

But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9:5-6 NLT

Do you think God's heart has changed since He spoke these words?

“Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day.
Ezekiel 2:3 NLT

Even in the New Testament, we can see God's wrath coming and to whom.

But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”
Romans 10:21 NLT

In speaking with Daniel, God referred to what is to come as the time of wrath.

Then he said, “I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath. What you have seen pertains to the very end of time.

Daniel 8:19 NLT

So, the time of wrath is coming.

For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the LORD of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.” 

Isaiah 13:13 NLT

 This period in which God pours out His wrath has several names,

The time of wrath.

The time of the end.

The appointed time.

The end of time.

The time when the mystery of God is finished.

Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The hour of His judgment.

The day of the Lord's wrath.

A day of trouble and distress.

A day of destruction and desolation.

A time of distress.

What is the purpose?

Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the LORD'S wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Zephaniah 1:14-18 NASB

"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 7:11-12 NASB

Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you—on the peoples that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people, Israel; they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness.
Jeremiah 10:25 NLT

As we have seen, this theme runs throughout the Torah.
That means that the Pharisees and scribes knew all too well that God's wrath was coming and why.

When John, the baptizer, said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" They knew precisely what he was talking about.

So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 3:7 NASB

Paul, in writing to:

The church in Rome.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:18-20 NASB

To the church Colossae

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
Colossians 3:5-6 BSB

To the church in Thessalonica

For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 BSB

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 BSB

By the time we reach chapter four of Revelation, we are already caught up with Christ and with the Father.

The final church of the seven is Philadelphia. It was to them that Jesus said,

'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

Revelation 3:10 NASB

Revelation 4:1 opens with this.

After these things I looked, and behold, a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard was as if a trumpet were speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these things."
Revelation 4:1 AFV

What things is He talking about?

The end of the church age and our being gathered to the Father in Heaven.

In Revelation 6, Jesus began opening the seals of the first scroll, which is why we see those on earth crying for the rocks to fall upon them.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the powerful men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Revelation 6:15-16 AFV

If we can find Jesus seated upon His throne, how did he get here? 

This question is answered when you study what happened from the cross to the throne, and we will do that in the next post.

Does anything exist outside of God's will?

 Pastor John MacArthur once stated, "God wills evil to exist."

I can assure you that he thought long and hard about this answer before giving it to his audience.

So the first question you must ask is, does anything exist outside God's will? 

The answer is no. That answer makes this idea of evil seem odd and uncomfortable. The discomfort we feel in accepting a response like this likely comes because we don't understand God's will and the underlying selfishness we hide. After all, we frequently are only willing to have His will align with our understanding and goals, and that doesn't happen.

Evil, by definition, is, in this case, adjectives like profoundly immoral and wicked. Hence, it has the following synonyms: "wicked, bad, wrong, morally wrong, wrongful, immoral, sinful, ungodly, unholy, foul, vile, base, ignoble, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, degenerate, villainous, nefarious, sinister, vicious, malicious, malevolent, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, dark, black-hearted."

Sadly, these grievous words could have been used to describe any of us at some point.

Evidently, evil existed before the beginning of time, lurking in the dark. But, in the case of Adam and Eve, it was just waiting to be picked and eaten. 

Our introduction to God/Jesus through John's gospel tells us in the third verse of that book that, 

"All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." 
(John 1:3 NASB.) 

If all things came into being through Him, then evil was also part of that plan, but why? 

An aspect of the answer is seen almost immediately as God describes the warfare between the woman's seed and Satan's seed. 

"And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." 
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

So, before God decided that humanity would be "created" and Lucifer rebelled, God had a plan (an aspect of His will) to rid His world of Satan and the evil associated with his rebellion. Genesis 3:15 explicitly tells us that He/God would cause hostility between Satan and the woman. Most would perceive hostility to be evil.

Let's assume that evil/sin was introduced into the earth through Satan.

 In that case, evil must exist until he and it – the corruption built into us, are entirely removed from existence

(If you are following the logic, then you may have gasped as you realized that means that somehow this body must die. Since we have no clear definition of what transpires at the Bema - a time of rewards associated with the catching away of the church, it may be that the body dies, purging us permanently from the corruption of sin.)

The only other place we see this happening is after the end of the millennial reign and after the great white throne. Until that happens, God has to be willing to tolerate evil and, therefore, wills evil to exist in this world.

Don't think for a moment that evil has mastery over God or runs rampant in the hearts of all humanity, having its way; it will not, and that is why we were given the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus said,

“But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.”
(1 John 2:27 GNB)

Well, surprise! When you accepted Jesus Christ into your life, you received the Holy Spirit. 

I am making this next comment about me because I can't speak for you.

The verse above does not explain why my own life was so bland and powerless until I was about 23 years old. I wanted to add that the changes that happened in me were NOT directly related to some teaching about the Holy Spirit. I had been invited to a men's retreat where a young man named Jerry Savelle was going to be speaking. At this point in his life, Jerry was running around with Kenneth Copeland as they taught on faith, another theme that was not spoken of in church with such emphasis. Well, God got my attention, and I came away from the retreat with a burning desire for the Word of God. Reading the Bible as though I had never read it before, along with the teaching of an enthusiastic local Bible teacher, I began to experience some powerful changes as I began to trust God and apply faith to everyday life. It saddens me to tell you that my first marriage turned into a nightmare, and I, once again, turned my back on God. Fortunately, He never turned His back on me, and I was aware of that. This dark period lasted about ten years. 

Yes, I am aware that I received Christ when I was very young; however, I cannot remember ANYONE telling me that I received the Holy Spirit and the empowerment He brings until I met Brother Jerry. In a sense, I lived in fear of a God I understood to be angry and for whom I could never work hard enough to please. And all this was under the guise of religion. 

Scripturally, we see evil taking a tremendous advantage over followers of Christ in the last few days. Fortunately, all this evil and the damage caused comes out in the wash at Jesus' return for His church, at the beginning of the millennial reign, and again at the great white throne. 

No matter what things look like, justice will win out.

Since God clearly seems to have known of evil, did He introduce evil into the mindset of His creation when He created 'âdâm/humankind? 

[Strong's concordance in defining the word 'âdâm, indicates a human being (an individual or the species humankind.] 

The answer is NO, for humanity (two reproductive people) were created in the image of God, a perfect being, and one that cannot be tested with evil or lies. 

"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
(Genesis 1:27 NASB) 

His will included the actions of Adam and Eve in the garden. Even though their actions caused all of us grief, the end scenario is one where God's own Son (Jesus) removed the judgment and penalty for sin and made the way (acceptance of the one Jesus, who paid it all) for all to spend eternity with the Father in Heaven (this all happened on the cross.)

The idea that something untidy or painful is typically selfish and evil is fraudulent; because the Father's will is often untidy and occasionally painful, but it is still His will. 

Jesus' death on the cross was both untidy and painful, and yet it was the will of the Father because it showed His love toward us. Since God gave us the freedom to choose something other than His love, it is still His will; therefore, we should be able to understand that God wills evil to exist for the moment, but that door will soon close, and the age of grace will be over.

Oh, His love will never end nor go away, and therefore, you will continue to see people coming to Jesus, knowing full well that it will cost them their lives here on earth. Such a small price to pay for a life with the Father.

Genesis Chapter Six, The Nephilim.

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Genesis Chapter Six

The Nephilim

When you make the decision to look intently at Genesis chapter six, you begin to see

• a strange people,

• odd terminology,

• and an angry God.

The definitions and reasons behind those oddities do not jump out so readily, and so it takes dedication and a heart that chooses to understand to grasp what I am going to tell you.

The objective in talking about the Nephilim is not to make some new doctrine out of the unusual things buried within the Word but to open your eyes to the God that lives outside the time and space dimensions we do. Perhaps another way of putting this is to say that God does not live inside our religious box. 

Here is where we will begin this dive into the Nephilim.

“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, whomsoever they chose.”
(Genesis 6:1-2 JPS)

Where did those “the sons of God” come from?

An assumption would be Cain's and Shem's descendants. But you have a problem because you cannot answer where Cain or Shem's wife came from. To assume that these two stood around waiting for mom and dad to crank out some sisters is laughable. Assumptions are rarely productive or educational.

I cannot define who the sons of God were without understanding that this book we are looking at is a Jewish book, and the majority is written in Hebrew. But, of course, we also need to grasp the writer's mentality; that tends to mean paying attention to the context. And I can use some logic to help comprehend this. Since we only know of two people, at this point, Adam and Eve, and God made them in his image.

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 NASB)

Sometime later, He makes the woman.

"The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man." 
(Genesis 2:20-22 NASB)

Operating on the premise that there are only two people on the earth, there could only be a handful of possibilities for ancestral sons on the planet. But, for argument's sake, there are supposedly only two people on earth when sin infiltrates humanity. 

• Descendants of Adam and Eve.

  Keep in mind that from the garden forward, all their descendants carry a damaged chromosome that promotes an inclination to sin. In a way, humanity was already damaged by Adam's treasonous act, making any further demonic efforts pointless; and yet the onslaught from Satan's cohorts continues proactively. What gives this more credence lies in Genesis 3:15.

  "And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NLT)

  Well, this demonic onslaught could certainly be perceived as hostility or warfare. And though I will not pursue it here, the fact that it speaks of offspring from Satan should alarm you. Her offspring speaks to the birth of Jesus, but keep in mind that Jesus was the product of God being carried by this young virgin Mary. There was no human procreation involved, making Jesus sinless from birth and, therefore, the only one who could pay the price of our redemption.

  However, because God spoke a prophetic word that indicated that an offspring from Eve would strike Satan's heel, Satan had every reason to disrupt that plan. So no, an attempt to pollute and stop the human lineage through demonic intervention simply because they were descendants of Adam and Eve falls short.

• Both Cain and Seth found a woman to "marry." 

  Where did these women come from?

  I happen to think that it is a logical question that deserves an answer.

  I can logically assume that children were produced prior to eating from the tree of knowledge in the garden, as it is not practical to think that their bodies suddenly matured and they discovered sex after sinning.

  Since we have little that defines Adam and Eve prior to sin, one might say that the children were Godlike (Consider that Adam was made in the image of God, and Eve is a clone of Adam.) This seems logical as Adam had dominion over the earth, and we rarely stop to think what that means.

  And we have NO idea how long those two walked this earth prior to Adam's treason. Then the potential number of children, who only know how to act based on what they saw and heard from Adam and Eve, could have been uncountable. (If you pay attention when you read about the creation of Adam and Eve, you will never see God giving any instructions to Eve or the sons, and yet we make the assumption that they are supposed to know the rules. Since we do see God giving those instructions to Adam, then the only logical recourse is to assume that it was Adam's responsibility to pass the restrictions about the tree of knowledge along to Eve. This understanding is the basis of Satan's argument, “did God really say that?” Because the pretense is that Adam played her, lied to her, and that would make God a liar as well.

What happened as sin suddenly traveled through the earth like a shock wave?

Scripture tells us that the sons of god looked on the daughters of men.

They would suddenly have looked upon the women differently, as sin was now affecting them to the point that they saw women as something to lust upon. (This train of thought is conjecture as there is little to back such statements.)

The Young's Literal Translation tells us that the sons of god saw "the daughters of men that they are fair, and they take to themselves women of all whom they have chosen."

The phrase "the sons of god" is the usage of two Hebrew words, ben 'ĕlôhı̂ym. Elohim means rulers, judges, divine ones, and angels, while ben means sons.

Now, why would I use the terminology supposedly in relation to people on earth? 

Because it seems intuitive for the man, Adam, to mate with the woman, and, whether you intended to make a baby or not, babies happen; and our "two" humans are not even in the garden as yet, at least that is the way we get this narrative depicted to us. 

Stepping away from babies for a moment, you need to realize that God placed Adam in the garden and pointed out that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the middle of the garden.

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:7-9 KJV)

Sometime later.

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17 NASB)

Is that clear enough?

When you eat from that tree, you will die.

Ah, but how many ways are there to die?

Physically, spiritually, and perhaps the hardest to understand, complete separation from God. Unfortunately, to many, this separation means nothing until it is experienced.

Another reason for using the term supposedly is because God has to say to Eve, now your pain will be increased in childbirth.

The Complete Jewish Bible puts it this way.

To the woman, he said, "I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16 CJB)

That is a bizarre disclosure unless she has already been producing children with minimal discomfort, and you have NOTHING that restricts Adam and Eve's time or actions together to the garden environment.

The third argument in support of Adam producing offspring outside the garden is the fact that Cain, the first of two children since the fall of humanity, says, people will kill me. Quite an odd statement when we prefer to believe that there are only three people on earth, and we see nothing to explain how or why Cain would have this concept.

Cain, understandably, leaves the family unit and goes to the land of Nod.

"Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from Your face, I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him seven-fold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." (Genesis 4:11-16 NASB)

I looked at the word land to see if I could find some clue as to where Cain went, but no, it just means the vastness of the land. Nod, on the other hand, gives us a clue that I did not expect. In Hebrew, it means vagrancy, or, as the Brown-Driver-Briggs definition puts it, wandering.

The very next verse says,

"And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch." (Genesis 4:17 JPS)

And we are left to assume that in this land of Nod that Cain immediately found himself a woman and started a family. So think about this, Cain finds his woman in the land of wandering also. What a treasure she must have been.

For life to go on and people to expand their families is not unusual; however, we have no well-defined evidence to tell us what life was like before sin entered the human stream, but when Adam saw Eve, he said, "At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh." (CJB).

All the soft furry animals may have talked, but they were NOT human, and Eve was like him in more ways than one. So it only makes sense that after the introductions, the exploratory interactions began.

Having been raised in the church, where everything associated with the world was evil and would send you to hell, I asked the question, what makes the sexual act a sin? 

What makes it a sin is the intent and the self-serving idolatry that goes along with that intent. That intent can turn into idolatry, where you are setting up something as having more importance than God, and that is what makes it a sin. But remember, as yet, corruption was NOT integrated into the lives of Adam and Eve and, therefore, had NO impact on them. It was all good.

This is a naively simple translation of Genesis 6:2.

"the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose." Genesis 6:2 NIV

Who were the sons of God? 

Or did God actually have sons at this point?

Since I should know that we are not talking about the sons of Adam, then it has to be someone else.

The Hebrew word for sons is 'ben,' pronounced bane, and means a son (as a builder of the family name), in the broadest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc... Word Study Dictionary.

So I know that I am dealing with a figurative relationship when I read “the sons of God.”

BDB Definition: 1) son, grandson, child, member of a group, 1f) sons (as characterization, i.e., sons of injustice [for unrighteous men] or sons of God [for angels]), 1g) people (of a nation) (plural), 1h) of lifeless things, 1i) a member of a guild, order, or class.

Since I know that the relationship is figurative, then it becomes easier to understand that these are fallen angels. Young's Literal Translation also identifies them as fallen angels.

“The fallen ones were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when sons of God come in unto daughters of men, and they have borne to them—they are the heroes, who, from of old, are the men of name.” (Genesis 6:4 YLT)

Do not read this and say, look, only moments later, the verse calls them sons of God, so it is two different groups. The Holy Spirit is telling you that the fallen ones came back after the flood to try a variety of approaches by which they could pollute and nullify God's people.

Let's see if there is any corroborating evidence for some of my theories.

1. These sons of God are (any) descendants of Adam.

   The problem with that is genetics. You will get black cats if you breed two pure strains of black cats. God created Adam; therefore, the possibility of the couple's first offspring looking extraordinarily different than the originals would be insurmountable, that is, unless something extraordinary happened, and it did - they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. So any sexual activity prior to the entry of sin would have produced offspring exactly like the Godlike creations they were.

   Sin, through the eating of the forbidden fruit, corrupted the human DNA, and that caused mutations within the offspring that no one could see. While that is certainly a possibility, it is not addressing where the sons of god came into play. Not everything in scripture is black and white, but there is usually some underlying evidence to support or reject some theory.

   Why, then, would God choose to send his son Jesus as a man when there was the possibility of that form having a genetic malfunction that would make him unqualified to pay the debt necessary?

   In case you missed this in your Bible reading, God circumvented the human reproductive method and had a young virgin, Mary, carry a fertilized egg made without human intervention. That fertilized egg had NO malfunction or sin attached to it at all, as God bypassed humanity to produce that egg. Don't lose sleep over this concept; just remember that He created Eve, and all her intricate body functions from a rib. He can create a fertilized ovum.

2. These sons of God are not humans, leaving only angels.

   Your mind cannot wrap around that as yet. Hang on.

   The Hebrew gives us some leeway in looking at the word 'ben' as It carries the connotation of a figurative relationship with God. Based on this information, we still have no clear definition of who the sons of God are.

   What does it mean when it calls them the sons of God?

   The word God is one we have become familiar with as church leaders try to integrate us into the Jewish heritage. In this case, it is the word 'elohiym.

   Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions - Transliteration: 'elohiym - Definition: 1. (plural) a. rulers, judges b. divine ones c. angels d. gods.

   It is becoming more evident that the 'sons' is taking on a figurative or conditional relationship and could easily have been angels, and that is why I want you to look at Job's life for a moment. This journey into Job may seem long, but the important takeaway is that Satan is included among the “sons of God.”

   In the opening narrative about Job, we see Job's sons.

   “His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.”
   (Job 1:4 NASB)

   Now this narrative alone may mean nothing, but Job is troubled by their actions and repeatedly offers sacrifices to God, presuming that the boys have sinned and cursed God.

   “When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.”
   (Job 1:5 NASB)

   The religious, who feel they have the right to be critical of Job, will point out that "without faith, it is impossible to please God," which may have been Job's failure. Admittedly, the passage tells  that Job continually offered "sacrifices to God," which would seem to be a problem. 

   “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 NASB)

A straightforward observation is that this is the same Satan Jesus saw fall to earth.

“And He said to them, I saw Satan falling like a lightning [flash] from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 AMP)

Our assumption upon reading that is that Satan was permanently ejected from heaven, yet there he is. It feels more like he lost his seat at the United Nations assembly, but not his right to attend the meetings and voice his protests. Satan was well aware that God had protected Job, but he was not aware that Job had somehow made himself vulnerable.

"Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? ...” (Job 1:10 NASB)

So no, Satan does not know everything, and we see him challenging God to test him yourself.

“All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence. (Job 1:12 NLT)

Truth is, beyond God telling Satan that he is in your hands, we don't know what happened to Job to make him vulnerable to Satan. What we do know is that God trusts the man to not submit to Satan's tests.

The following is an excerpt from the 'Through the Bible' commentary by Dr. J. Vernon McGee. 

"The term "sons of God" in the Old Testament is used elsewhere but only of angels, never of man. In the book of Job, the sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan also came with them, angels. It would appear that these are angels here in Genesis, that they actually began to intermingle and intermarry. You say but wait a minute. Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. That is true. But Jesus did not say that they were sexless; He just said there was no marriage nor given in marriage. And it is interesting that always angels are referred to in a masculine form." (emphasis mine)

I will lend my agreement to the late Dr. McGee, although he does not need it, in saying that I am unwaveringly convinced that angels were involved in the business of men.

Who were the Nephilim or giants?

I will give you two translations for comparison.

Genesis 6:4 (KJV) states that: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,"

Genesis 6:4 (NIV) The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--

And one more verse for understanding.

“In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.” (Genesis 6:4 NLT)

If the sons of God were angels, they were NOT living on the earth as the heavens are, or were their realm; but ask yourself, how does this statement apply to the fallen ones. From what we saw in Job, it is apparent that they move back and forth between heaven and earth with ease.

How odd; if we start with the pure strain called Adam, made by the hand of God, and Eve was a clone of Adam, there should have been no expectation of oddities, and yet here they are in the form of Nephilim. There are so many translations of Genesis 6:4, and many, probably because the era in which this was published was attempting to show sophistication, used words like “came” into, or took in marriage. Give me a break.

The “God's Word” translation tells us that the “sons of God slept with the daughters of other humans,” as though they were all humans. In almost every interaction with humans, these beings looked like humans, although a few had wings.

The “ISV” translation says it straightforward “those divine beings were having sexual relations with those human women.”

A common religious argument that Dr. McGee mentioned in the previous quote is that “ Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. That is true. But Jesus did not say that they were sexless; He just said there was no marriage nor given in marriage.”

Since many translators stated this interaction as "came unto," which sounds like they met at a local dance, let's tear this apart for a moment. 

"Came in unto" is the Hebrew phrase bô' el. The word bô' carries meanings to enter, fall, or light upon (which quickly moves this thought into the category of spoils of warfare.) The Word Study Dictionary states that "It is used with the preposition el meaning to have intercourse," and that is precisely what we see in (Genesis 6:4). In Genesis16:2, these are the words that Sarai spoke to Abram when she told him to go have sex with Hagar. 

We cannot deny that there were giants because we have some bones, pictorial evidence, and historical records of these giants. Young David, before he assumed his kingship, slew Goliath - the giant, and mythology tries to explain the existence of such people. 

How else would normal humans have described such persons? 

Perhaps mythology was closer than we choose to believe.

H5303 n^ephı̂yl. Transliteration Nephilim. It is from H5307 nâphal. It is possible that the differences were pre-flood and post-flood.

Interesting that the Strong's concordance indicates that they were bullies or tyrants.

The Word Study Dictionary tells us that Nephilim is a masculine noun and is only used in the plural sense to mean giants. That means that there were many of them. Having cohabited with women, the Nephilim - the mighty men or warriors of great fame, were the offspring.

The 'WSD' also indicates that H5307 is the Hebrew word napal: A verb meaning to fall, to lie, to prostrate oneself, to be overthrown.

I cannot help but think about a teaching that Dr. Chuck Missler did on the Nephilim. He asked the question, who is being overthrown here? Although the attempt was made on God, it failed, and it was Satan/Lucifer and those that followed him in this mutinous attempt that got overthrown. A wise observation is to pick up on the fact that these fallen ones are still viable but will meet their fate someday soon.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Definition of H5307 shows it spelled in this manner na^phal, and conveys the idea of being cast down or they failed. You could say they are fallen.

There is no denying that angels, fallen or not, have been involved in the affairs of humanity since time began, and you see their influence throughout the scriptures. Lot had some dealings with them, as two of them eventually had to grab Lot, his wife, and his daughters and remove them from the town that was to be destroyed. Daniel had angels appear to him on multiple occasions to give and explain dreams, and Jacob wrestled with one, although we believe this to have been a Christophany, a pre-incarnate interaction with Jesus.

An alarming statement in Genesis 6:4 tells us that they (the giants) were in the earth then and after. 

After what? 

For those that get hung up on the word impossible, consider that the Nephilim were here before the flood. All humans outside Noah's extended family get destroyed, yet the giants return again. 

I don't know about you, but I have to wonder, how did the destructive nature of sin get so reinvested in the earth?

We were told that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I always assumed that Noah was a good man, like Joseph, who was engaged to Mary. We have nothing that tells us what would have made Noah a good man. I did a little investigation a few years ago and found that Adam was around 600+ years when Enoch was born. Who better train a curious young man when he comes to ask what it was like walking in the garden with God. Methuselah's name, which many say, means "when he dies, it will come," may well have had an influence from Adam and Enoch, and we do see Methuselah dying before the flood. Otherwise, I suspect he, too, would have been on that boat.

The Hebrew word for grace is chên and means that Noah found favor and kindness from the Lord. If you take this narrative back to the garden, you will discover Abel offering a proper sacrifice of a lamb, while Cain did not. I challenge you to find the time when God gave those instructions to Abel; you won't find them. And neither will you find God giving Eve the warning to NOT eat from the tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden, as that was entirely Adam's job, as he had been given dominion over the planet. This dominion included his lovely "wife" and, after the fall, his offspring – Cain and Abel. 

Did you catch what I did there?

I put their names in birth order. This is significant because, whether Adam told them individually or in a group session, he told them both, and he was the representative of God here on earth. So I can prove that with this statement from God. 

If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it."
(Genesis 4:7 GNB)

[The translations of this verse are split down the middle. The NASB, which I prefer, says, “If you do well.” Killing your brother should be considered, by most, to be the polar opposite of doing well.]

You can't punish your child for something that you have NOT explained to them unless you are just a tyrant. So we have evidence that God had explained the rules to Cain as well as Abel, but He did it through Adam.

Among these men on earth, one man stood out. The question is, why?

Noah -  and why he stands out, requires more than a casual look. 

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah”. (Genesis 6:8 MKJV)

Jehovah y^ehôvâh - (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah,

“... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9 KJV)

Just is the same word translated as righteous. It is tsaddı̂yq.

The word perfect is the Hebrew word tâmı̂ym. Some of its meanings include: complete, whole, entire, sound, and unimpaired.

The word for perfect in relationship to Noah's generations implies purity within his generational lineage. That would mean that there has never been a time, since Adam, without the destructive interaction of fallen angels.  

What, then, would they have been impaired by, and doesn't that mean that the entirety of the world had been damaged? 

Just a couple of names stand out as I think about the genealogy of Adam; Enoch and Methuselah.

“And Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him.”
(Genesis 5:24 MKJV)

But if you recall, the sons of god were only going after the daughters of men. In so doing, they were attempting to corrupt the human genome through the creation of giants, titans, and monsters.

“the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were good. And they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose.” (Genesis 6:2 MKJV)

Took is the Hebrew word lâqach means to take, seize, and carry away. This was not civilized nor romantic but a forceful act on the part of these fallen angels.

Now, why would that be important? 

Because God had a plan to recover his creation, humanity, and it involved bringing a son into the world, which had to be done through a pure line from Adam. Recall how I talked about a pure strain that would have been initiated with Adam and Eve. Satan picked up on this idea and gave orders to impact and pervert the lineage of humanity in an effort to thwart God's plan of redemption. It almost worked, and that is why we have this cautionary message about Noah being perfect or pure.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." 
Matthew 24:37 (NIV)

There is already an onslaught of demonic influence greater than anything Noah might have witnessed, and much of it will be hidden under the guise of alien invasions.