Problem

Angels or Sethites?

Genesis 6:2 - That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Are the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 angels, or the godly descendants of the line of Seth? When I discussed this with my pastor one time, he said that "fallen" angels are never called sons of God.


Solution

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The "sons of God" show up before Genesis 1:2 in Job 38:4-7, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? ... When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Psalm 82 states, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." (vv. 6-7).

Children of the most High equates to the phrase sons of God. Satan informed Eve, "ye shall be as gods," so evidently Adam and Eve were aware of these "gods".

A distinction has to be made with the "devil" who is an unclean spirit comprised of many unclean spirits ("devils" - see Luke 8:30). The devil's physical body is that of an anointed cherub (Ezekiel 28:14), and not one of these "sons of God" creatures, although he apparently has the power to disguise himself, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." 2 Cor. 11:14.

So he's not an "angel" but just has the ability to look like one.

It's somewhat confusing because the population of other-worldly hosts aren't described in great detail, so we have to pay attention and read between the lines in the Bible to get the sense of what is going on. Given that the other-worldly creatures are described in the prophet's visions as resembling eagles, lions, calves, storks, frogs, locusts, horses, etc, we might infer that our world was made as a reflection of heavenly things, and as innumerable as earthly animals and plants are, so are the heavenly.
a great many of whom are evidently controlled by the devil's spirit.

So anyhow, the term "angel" seems to refer to the supernatural men who show up, and yet Jesus applied it to babies, " in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 18:10.

And in the old testament Jesus Christ is appearing as the angel of the Lord and receiving worship due God. So the word "angel" really seems to have the meaning of "an appearance" of any type of spiritual entity in a more generic sense rather than referring to any particular class of spiritual creatures.

Since the sons of God in Genesis obviously mated with human women, they must exist as physical beings with some DNA genes sort of similar to mankind.

Their hybrid offspring was killed in the flood, but, as Genesis 7:22 says, "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." Therefore any of the "sons of God" who were able to breath underwater or who hid under the ground, would have survived the flood. In Genesis 6:4 it says, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that" so we know that these "gods," or sons of God, did it again after the flood.

It's all rather strange, isn't it? But that's what the Book says.

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