(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
The World Tomorrow
Angels - part 3
by Herbert W Armstrong
(PLAY FROM START)
Well greetings friends. This is Herbert W Armstrong with the Good News of the World Tomorrow.
Now we brought up the question in the preceding program on the daily series; did angels marry human women back before the Flood? A lot of people read in the Bible back here in Genesis the sixth chapter, that;
"...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 unto them wives of all whom they chose." (Genesis 6:1-2)
Now they see a little later, that there were giants in the earth in those days. And the assumption is that so many people believe, and a good many seem to teach, that these were angels, these sons of God. And they married the women, and the result were children that became giants. Let’s read on;
"And the [Eternal] said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 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 unto them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:3-4)
Now were those 'men of renown,' those 'giants,' were they the offspring of a mating between angels and human women? Let’s settle that question now, because we had come to the place here in the book of Hebrews, telling where Christ is now, what Jesus Christ has been doing for 1900 years. And so we stopped to see what about angels? Are there any angels? Is it just a sort of a superstition, or a sort of a fable, and like a lot of mythology or something of the sort?
No scientist knows anything about an angel. You never saw an angel, I’m quite sure, and yet you do read that there are angels in the Bible. The Bible speaks of them right along. So what about angels? Most of you never heard anything explained about angels. You’ve never read very much about it. I’m sure you never read a book about angels. And yet you find the Bible speaks about angels all the way through.
And so in looking into the matter of angels; who they are, what they are, where they came from, how they got here if they are. And what is their purpose? And what do they do? What are they like? And what are they made of? And all these things, these questions that might come to your mind about angels, all of which we’re going to answer now in this series.
(Tune in everyday this same time, except on some of the stations the program is not on, on Saturday night. And in some cases it’s a different time on Sunday, but the announcer will always give you the time.)
What does 'Sons of God' Mean? (Play from 03:25)
So in going through this matter of angels, we’d come to this matter here about the sons of God, in the sixth chapter of Genesis. Because a lot of people seem to believe that that is referring to angels. Now the Bible employs this phrase, 'sons of God,' in several ways, because it says that;
"...when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, [and so on] ...the sons of God saw the daughters of men..." (Genesis 6:1-2)
And a lot of people think those sons of God are angels. Well let’s see? First, if a human being has received, and is led by, the Spirit of God, as you read in Romans 8:14, then he is now a begotten son of God. You find that in I John 3:1. He’s already considered as a son of God. Now many verses in the New Testament explain, that the natural human being is not a begotten son of God, until the time when he is completely repented, until he has been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, and by the blood of Christ, by the death of Christ. - but remember that He is a living Christ, because He was resurrected from the dead - and until they have received the Holy Spirit of God.
Now as a matter of fact, my friends, there are seven passages in the New Testament where unregenerate men, men that are naturally born - they may be very important men in this world, they may be very fine men, as men go - unless they have the Spirit of God, they are none of His. You read that in Romans the eighth chapter and the ninth verse. Unless you have received, and are led by the Holy Spirit of God, and very few have, you are none of His. You are not a Christian.
I don’t care how many churches you belong to. I don’t care how frequently you attend, how active you are in church work. That actually has nothing to do with it. It’s a matter of whether you have really been conquered by God, to obey Him. And have come to Him in living, full faith in Jesus Christ, as personal Savior. And whether you have, thereby, have received the Holy Spirit of God. Otherwise you are not a son of God in this sense. And there are, as I say, seven passages even beside that, in the New Testament that says that all others are, believe it or not now, the sons of the devil, not the sons of God.
On the other hand, all human beings are reckoned as the sons of God, in the sense that they are creations of God, in the same way that angels are. But until you receive the divine nature, which is the very Life of God imparted into you, as you read in second Peter the first chapter and the fourth verse, where it says that you receive the very nature of God. You see, you’re born with human nature, but you can receive the very nature of God, and until then you are not a begotten son of God. And in the literal sense, you’re not a son of God at all, only as a creation. Only in the sense that any animal might be called the offspring or son of God, or angels, or anything else, anything that God created.
Secondly, now figuratively speaking, natural human beings are called sons of God in the sense they are a creation of God. You’ll find that in Malachi 2:10. And also in Luke 3:38, where it’s giving the genealogy of Jesus Christ. It carries the genealogy on back to Adam, who it says, was the son of God. Now Adam was a son of God only in that God created him, but not in any other way. And we’re all naturally born the sons of Adam. However when you are begotten of God through Jesus Christ by conversion, then you become, spiritually speaking, a son of Abraham, as well as a son of God, one of the children of Abraham. And there are a number of New Testament passages that make that plain.
Now next point I want you to notice; in the book of Job, God calls the angels, 'sons of God,' Job 38:7 {1} where he says that; "...the [angels] shouted for joy?" (Job 38:7) when God had created the earth, at the time of the finishing of the creation of the earth. Now that was long before there were any human beings.
Angels are of a Lower Order (Play from 08:30)
Now, although angels are called 'sons of God', because they’re the creations of God, they can never become the begotten sons of God like human beings can. And literally, then, they are not sons of God at all.
For instance if you turn over to Hebrews the first chapter and, now let me see, right along in here beginning with the fifth verse. It had been speaking about Christ, who is the Son of God. Who was not only a begotten Son of God in the literal human flesh, because He was born of the virgin Mary and had no human father. But He also is a Son of God by a resurrection from the dead, as you read in Romans the first chapter, about the fifth verse, I believe it is, right around the fourth, fifth, sixth, I think it’s the fifth. {2}
"For unto which of the angels said he at any time [now this is verse five in the first chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews the first chapter and verse five, for unto which of the angels said He at any time], Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" (Hebrews 1:5)
No, God never said that to any angel. Angels then are not begotten sons of God. They’re only sons of God in the sense that God created them, that’s all.
"...And [then] again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? [that’s quoted, of course, back from another passage where God was speaking of Christ] And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world [which is Christ], he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." (Hebrews 1:5-6)
Angels are of a lower order. Now Christ was made a little lower than the angels as a human being. But He had always been much higher than angels, and He is now, as the resurrected Christ in His glorified condition.
Now verse seven; "And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits..." (Hebrews 1:7)
You see, 'He maketh,' therefore, He created His angels. What are they created out of? Spirit. What are they? They’re spirits. Nowhere in the Bible can you find any passage saying that man is a spirit. The Bible does not say any place that men are spirits, but angels are spirits. God did not make men spirits. God made men mortal, God made men of the dust of the ground. Men are of the earth, earthy;
"...we have borne the image of the earthy..." (I Corinthians 15:49)
That’s all so far. But through Christ we can, and shall, bear the image of the heavenly, as you read in I Corinthians 15, about the, oh along in the forty two, forty-fifth, forty-sixth, seventh verses along in there. {3}
"But unto the Son [meaning Christ] he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." (Hebrews 1:8)
And He is worthy of the worship of the angels. So you see that in the sense of being a begotten son, or a born son, born of Him directly, by a begettal and by reproduction, angels are not sons of God. They’re only a separate species altogether, and a different type of family, a different type of creature. Creations of God, but a son of God is one that is born from God by reproduction, where God is reproducing Himself.
The Purpose of Man (Play from 12:00)
Man was put here for a great purpose. God is reproducing Himself, and God has given man a mind like God’s, only that man’s mind is very limited by comparison. And man’s mind is a material mind, and God’s is spiritual, and all-encompassing. God’s mind is perfect, man’s mind is so imperfect. But we are told to become perfect. And we could become perfect, if we would yield and surrender to God. If we would realize that the all-encompassing mind is that of God. That we need the help of God, and that we can receive so much from God. Even the very mind of God can come into us, through the Holy Spirit of God, because you read in the writings of the apostle Paul in the New Testament;
"Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus:" (Philippians 2:5)
And; "...Christ in [us is] the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1:27)
And the apostle Paul himself said; "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live...I live by the faith of the Son of God..." (Galatians 2:20)
Not my faith in the Son of God, but the very faith OF the Son of God, which was placed in him by a divine miracle. And that is the way you and I should live. That’s the only way you can ever come to a full and abundant life. That’s the only way you can ever come to a well-rounded mind. A complete and a perfected mind, that comes into a great deal of knowledge that is absolutely inaccessible to what we suppose are the greatest minds on earth today. The minds of our great scientists that reject God, and the idea of God, and will not let the additional mental powers come into their minds, that God has made accessible and possible.
But it can come, my friends, only by complete surrender to God Almighty, as the Supreme Ruler, and the Authority of God. Because mankind has cut himself off from God. All have rebelled against the laws that God set in motion. And that rebellion, that disobedience to God is sin, and all have sinned. And that sin cuts you off from God.
Now a real father-son relationship, in the sense that one is born from and out of the other, does not exist between God and angels. My friends, that relation does not exist between an unconverted man and God. There are seven passages in the New Testament, in your Bible, that shows that an unconverted man is not a son of God. And I mean, now, in the begotten and the born sense.
But he can have his sins forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. He can be reconciled to God by the death of Jesus Christ. And by the life of Jesus Christ he can be saved, and receive the Spirit of God, being reconciled to God. And then he can become a begotten child of God. And he can be born, as a born son of God, even as Jesus Christ is the born Son of God, and is VERY GOD by a resurrection from the dead.
Now the only way, my friends, that we become actual sons of God is that we are literally begotten to be born, born again, born as sons of God, the born children of God. To be born of God, my friends, you become a literal child of God, like God with His nature, His characteristics.
When you’re really born of God, you’ll be in a condition where you cannot sin, as you read over here in I John, the third chapter. I think we covered that just recently here. That’s a passage that puzzles so very many people. They just can’t understand that, I John, the third chapter, and the ninth verse, because God’s nature will be in you, God’s 'seed' it says in the King James. In other words, you’re begotten from Him. That seed there is the same word that it speaks of, of a woman conceived seed and bear a son. Actual begettal, actually being born, that’s what it’s speaking of.
Very few people understand that, because that isn’t what you were always taught, that isn’t what you’ve believed. That’s what your Bible teaches, so you’d better wake up and look into your Bible, and see what it does teach. Because a lot of us have never been taught, my friends, what the Bible says, but only partially, and a lot of things that are very contrary to it.
Now then you see angels are called sons of God as creatures, or creations of God, and so are men. But only Christ was a begotten Son of God, and the only One, that ever was, or ever will be, in the sense that He was begotten of God in human flesh. Then He was begotten again, dually and spiritually too, as well. And then He became a born Son of God by a resurrection from the dead. We can be begotten of God spiritually - not physically - but spiritually. And we can become born children of God just like Christ, and be glorified as He has been glorified. That’s something that not very many of you realize, not very many.
Now, although angels are called sons of God, because they were created by God, they can never become the begotten children of God like human beings can – never. As I just read to you in Hebrews, the first chapter, and the fifth verse; when did God ever say anything like that to an angel? Well the very question implies He never did – and He never will.
Who Were the Giants? (Play from 17:59)
Now since the Bible uses the expression, 'sons of God' in these various ways, in one sense meaning a literal, begotten child of God in where He’s reproducing Himself. And otherwise it speaks of both men and angels as sons of God, merely in the sense of having been created by Him.
Well we need to know what is it speaking of back here in the sixth chapter of Genesis. Now beside the sons of God, Moses wrote that there were giants, or ‘nephilim,’ as they are called in the Hebrew language, in the earth in those days. Now let’s turn back to it once again, the sixth chapter. And I think you’re going to get a surprise now. I hope you have a Bible handy, and you can open your Bible right now and read this with me. I want you to notice that Moses was inspired to write, that long before the Flood occurred, giants had existed in the earth. "...and also..." which in Bible language always means, 'in addition'. The Bible makes no redundant repetitions. The Bible, when it says, 'and' in a case like this, it’s speaking of something else;
"...and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men..." (Genesis 6:4)
Now I want you to notice, I want you to notice that the giants were not the progeny of those marriages. It doesn’t say so. People have assumed that. Notice it now again, the first verse;
"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 took [unto] them wives of all which they chose... [then it interjects to say that the Eternal] said, My spirit [will] not always strive with man, for that he also is [what? It doesn’t say that he also is spirit. He made His angels spirits, but it says here that, he man also is] flesh..." (Genesis 6:1-3)
Man is flesh. Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus; "That which is born of the flesh is flesh [He said you have to be born again, born of the Spirit, and He said] ...that which is born of the Spririt is spirit." (John 3:6)
When you are born of the Spirit you’ll be spirit, not flesh. But you’re still flesh. I don’t care whether you’re converted or not. I don’t mean I’m not concerned, about whether you are or not, because I am, and I hope that you are converted, or that you soon will be. But I mean it makes no difference regardless of whether you’re converted. I tell you, my friends, you are flesh. You may be flesh with the Spirit of God in you, and leading you, and you following and being led by the Spirit of God, and I hope that’s true, but you’re still flesh yourself.
So, God said; "...My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants..." (Genesis 6:3-4)
And, of course, the Hebrew word is, 'nephilim' here, which is, well, it’s a word something like angels, seraphs, and there are seraphs. I’m going to come to that a little later, apparently of the angel kingdom, but apparently also of a different order even than angels, or ordinary angels. Now here are the nephilim;
"There were [nephilim or] giants in the earth in those days; and also after that..." (Genesis 6:4)
Now, 'and also' means, 'in addition to that'. In addition to these giants, and after that. There had been the giants for some time here, or the nephilim, in the earth. But also after that;
"...when the sons of God [and here sons of God is referring only to men, as I’m going to show you, and not to angels, at all, when the sons of God] came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became [the children that they begat, became] mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4)
But it doesn’t say they were the same ones as those giants. Now people just read carelessly over that, and assume that those mighty men were the giants. It doesn’t say so. It says, also, in addition to the giants, these children were born that became mighty men. So these are different people altogether. They are not the nephilim, not at all.
Truth or Superstition? (Play from 22:41)
Alright, now let’s proceed a little further. Perhaps this is going to surprise some of you, it’s going to shock some of you. But the remains of those giants, and those mighty men, have been found by geologists and archaeologists. They’ve been dug up out of the earth, and a lot of people don’t know it.
I’ll tell you another thing that’s been discovered, you don’t hear about it, you won’t read about it in any book of geology. They try to laugh it out of school as if it hadn’t happened. And yet, it absolutely has happened, and there is evidence of it. Up in the wastes of the frozen north in Siberia, way up in northern Siberia, they have found mastodons of the elephants type of species, or of that family, that have been quick-frozen. And they are a tropical type of animal, that can live only in the tropical climates. And tropical vegetation is found in their stomachs, which had been quick-frozen. And has been totally preserved for how many thousands of years, we don’t know, because it goes back before the time of history. And yet they’re found there and their flesh so perfectly preserved that they can be eaten as meat.
Now do you know what that means? Now there’re a lot of things like this that have been discovered that the ordinary people never hear of. Well anyway, these giants of ancient time have been discovered and their bones have been dug up. So once for all time the accusation that Bible history is untrustworthy is disproved. Well there it is again, it’s been disproved a good many times. It is religious superstition and evolutionary theory, my friends, that are the real fables.
Now of course there’s a lot of superstitious religion around in the world. You can find all kinds of religions. I’m not talking about that. Some religions are superstitious. I’m not going to name them so you can’t say I’m saying anything against you, if you have one of them. But you’d better be careful and find out, because some religion is a superstition. But God’s truth is not, and the Bible is not a superstition. And it is vindicated at every turn of the road when you get the real facts, the truly scientific facts.
Now the record in Genesis says that God, in mercy, destroyed the earth to save man from himself before the last man would have been wiped off the face of the earth. You know in prophecy it says; "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be again in our time now." (Luke 17:26 paraphrased)
Well today our leading scientists are telling us that if we don’t have world government, or some kind of intervention, and of course, they don’t believe in a supernatural intervention. But unless something like that happens, they will soon wipe humanity off the face of this earth. It will just be blasted out of existence, not a single human soul left alive. Jesus Christ said that 1900 years ago; "...except that God intervenes to shorten those days no flesh should be saved alive..." (Matthew 24:22 paraphrased)
As it was in the days of Noah, God did intervene in the days of Noah, and He saved eight souls. And there wouldn’t have even been eight saved if God hadn’t intervened, because they were taking up such violence in those days that finally man himself would have blasted the last man off the face of the earth. And so it was in mercy that God sent that Flood to wipe out the kind of men that were perpetrating that sort of thing. And saved one man and his family, a man who believed and walked with God. And obeyed God and was a preacher of righteousness which means the keeping of God’s commandments, obedience to God.
Now who were those sons of God who married and reproduced the mighty men? Well people often quote II Peter, the second chapter, and the fourth verse, and Jude 6 as proof that the pre-flood sons of God were angels. Now if you’ll notice Peter said;
"...God spared not the angels that sinned, but...delivered them [unto] chains of darkness...And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing...the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes..." (II Peter 2:4-6)
That’s II Peter 2, verses 4 and 6. Now notice, God cast down the angels, and degraded them to chains of spiritual darkness before He destroyed the antediluvian world. The punishment of the angels was not the Flood. It was prior to the Flood and a different time. The sin of the angels was not descending to the earth to marry women. They sinned by leaving the earth, which was their estate, to rival God in heaven. But they were cast back down to the earth. You read of that in Jude 6 and Isaiah 14, and so on.
But I see I’m going to have to stop right there, and I’m only halfway through with this. And I’m going to pick it up there, and there’s some very astonishing things that I will have to bring to you tomorrow. I’ll pick it up right there and carry on with this tomorrow, and then go on with the angels and what they are and their nature.