I have to apologize because in previous teachings on "
The Pre-Flood World", I have taught the internet's paradigm that the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 were "fallen angels." I repeated this error in my ignorance.
Here is the revised section on the article as it now appears on the site:
First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone for previous teachings I've done on this subject because I used to teach the typical "Nephilim" idea, that fallen angels (i.e. devils in disguise) took wives of women, and I did so because of my previous education when I was a young Christian. That doctrine is false, and I'll demonstrate it:
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 6:1-2The "sons of God" being referred to here is the line (or genealogy) of Seth (
Luke 3:38), as opposed to the "daughters of men," which refers to the line of Cain. Just as the children of Abraham were not supposed to mix seed with the pagan nations (
Deut 7:1-3), so too were the line of Seth not supposed to mix seed with the line of Cain. The line of Seth were those who began "
to call upon the name of the Lord," (
Gen 4:26) which is a crying out to God in repentance (i.e. grief and godly sorrow of wrongdoing), whereas the line of Cain did evil in the sight of God.
(Read "
Is Repentance Part of Salvation?" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)
It should also be noted that angels will not see women as "
fair," because angels were not created to have physical attraction to women. Fair is talking about beauty, and wanting to take a wife because of beauty is a function that was created only in mankind; angels of any sort, including fallen angels (i.e. devils) were not created with that same physical function in the flesh.
Furthermore, the Bible says they "
took them wives," which means they were married. God would not have acknowledged their marriage in Scripture if they were angels because angels are not given commandment, option, nor desire to marry; that function was created specifically by God for mankind.
(Read "
Marriage: What Christians Should Know" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)
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 bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
-Genesis 6:4What many preachers are doing today looking at giants, and thinking this is referring to the children of the "sons of God," which is a phrase that can refer to both men and angels depending on the context, but in their ignorance, they choose to believe it was angels. They then connect the thought that if women had babies of angels, then the resulting childern were giants, which is nothing more than conjecture (i.e. a guess without facts and evidence to back it up).
I would also like to point out where the Scripture says "
after that," which means the Bible tells us that there were very large/tall people who lived on the earth, but then
AFTER that, the sons of God (i.e. the line of Seth) impregnated the daughters of men (i.e. the line of Cain from who they took wives), and they became mighty men, which were very strong and famous. This disconnects the two statements, but often, many preachers do not read this slowly and carefully enough to understand the difference.
Although I do not pretend to fully understand this matter (i.e. why there were giant people and what actually caused that to happen), I do believe there were giants on the earth, as the Bible says, both before and after the Flood. It is my position that these were men and women who, just like the animals and insects, grew to larger size in Pre-Flood atmospheric conditions, who would be big enough to swing around a 39-lbs axe head with ease, and some portion of this genetic capability was handed down to men after the Flood.
That is my position on the matter now, and I hope that helps everyone understand the matter more thoroughly from the Scripture.