Who are the "Sons of God" in Genesis Chapter 6? (Part 6) - Steve Schmutzer -
Part 6: The Fallen Angels Agenda Against Jesus Christ
Two groups attended the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the first dimension were the physical cast: the Roman soldiers who had crucified Jesus and were gambling for His clothes (John 19:23-24); the women and the lone disciple, John (John 19:25-27); the chief priests, scribes, and elders (Matt.27:41); and a multitude of gawkers and mockers from around the region (Matt. 27:39-40).
We take this mixed crowd of mourners and malefactors for granted because we've heard this story before. But it's the other group in the second dimension - the unseen one - that we don't think much about, and chances are they vastly outnumbered the ones who stood on the ground around the cross.
It's reasonable to assume that Jesus perceived this second group and their reactions. There were legions of righteous angels who were ready to instantaneously intervene on this horrific scene if they were summoned (Matt. 26:53-54). There were also the fallen angels who were roaring and frothing in delight at the suffering of Jesus Christ.
Whoa! Wait. What?
We know righteous angels were constantly at Jesus' disposal (Matt. 26:53-54; Luke 4:9-11, 22:43), but isn't it stretching things a bit to imagine the fallen angels were gloating over this scene? After all, this is the fulcrum moment of mankind's salvation and we shouldn't taint this glorious occasion. Isn't it being overly-dramatic to think the fallen angels were high-fiving themselves at Christ's pending death?
I don't think so. Work with me here.
The Old Testament has many prophetic references to Jesus' crucifixion and every one of those details were fulfilled exactly as their writers spelled them out. For example, Jesus was betrayed by a close friend he'd shared bread with (Psalms 41:9); He was handed over for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:11-13); He was spat upon, beaten, and he had the hairs of His beard pulled out (Isaiah 50:6); He was silent in front of His unjust accusers (Isaiah 53:7); His hands and feet were pierced (Psalms 22:16); His garments were divided (Psalms 22:17); and, none of His bones were broken (Psalms 34:20). Furthermore, He was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12); He was buried in a rich man's tomb (Isaiah 53:9); and, He died for our sins (Isaiah 53:4-6).
Before He died, Jesus even quoted David from Psalms 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" As John 19:36 says, "These things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." The cruel crucifixion was an event that fulfilled many specific Old Testament predictions about the circumstances concerning Jesus' death.
This occasion also exposed the fallen angel's agenda against Jesus Christ. In Psalms 22:12-13, right in the thick of other precise prophecies concerning the crucifixion, David writes, "Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul...." Insofar as events about the cross were concerned, David was describing a roiling and rabid crowd from another dimension. It was a scary scene.
The Psalms makes a definitive point here. I'm wagering Jesus was able to see this terrifying vision while He hung on the cross. Being both God and man, He could see into two worlds at the same time. He was able to see a raging horde of fallen angelic forces which were gathered around him as He was "....poured out like water" (Psalms 22:14).
As Jesus was suffering for the sins of the world, this unseen audience was celebrating His pending death. They were "strong bulls" with roaring and gaping jaws, and they were from "Bashan."
What's the big deal with these fallen angels being from Bashan?
Where was King Og from - that Nephilim giant that the Israelites conquered on their way to The Promised Land (Deut. 3:11)? He was from Bashan. What region was specifically associated with the Rephaim, the descendants of the Nephilim going all the way back into antiquity? It was Bashan (Joshua 12:4-5). Where was Jesus when he mentioned the "gates of hell" to Peter (Matt. 16:13-18)? He was in Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon - again, in Bashan!
It's no fluke that Bashan means "the place of the Serpent." When Jesus told Peter "....on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it," Jesus was probably standing near the entrance to a deep cave that remains there to this day. Here, the temple of Pan, a hybrid half-man and half-goat heathen god, was erected. Here, Baal was also worshipped. It was a headquarters of evil and it had been that for a long time.
When Jesus talked about being "fishers of men" (Matt. 4:18-19), He was walking beside the Sea of Galilee. When He talked about a "kernel of wheat that falls into the ground and dies," (John 12:24), the inspiration of lush fields surrounded Him. And when Jesus talked about a conflict with the "gates of hell," He was standing at the place where fallen angelic forces had begun a war against Him centuries before.
According to the apocryphal book of Enoch which is quoted by Jude (Jude 1:6) and referenced by Peter (2 Peter 2:4), Mount Hermon in Bashan is where the fallen angels first descended to earth before they forcibly "married" human women and produced the hybrid Nephilim giants (Genesis 6:1-4). Interestingly, Mount Hermon is in the Golan Heights, and this area remains one of the most problematic pieces of real estate in the world today.
Mount Hermon's name is derived from the Hebrew word "herem," which means "a thing devoted to God for destruction." It's likely where the fallen angels started their campaign to destroy the human genome, and "herem" recalls God's genocidal commands to Moses, Saul, and Joshua. There's probably more than coincidence at play here.
In the foreshadowing of the crucifixion in Psalms 22:12-13, the Bible peels back another layer in the ongoing enmity between the "zera" of the serpent and the "zera" of the woman that was prophesied clear back in Genesis 3:15. God had also predicted Satan would "bruise the heel" of the Messiah, and that happened at the crucifixion.
The cross wasn't the end of Jesus Christ, but the strong bulls of Bashan roared with open jaws as Jesus was dying on it. They miscalculated the circumstances, and they were flush with hatred for the Messiah. They were elated at their perceived victory.
This partly explains why Jesus, though dead in body before His resurrection, was meantime "....made alive in the Spirit in which He also went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-20). These pithy verses make three points very clear about who Jesus visited:
- These were spirits that were evil and had been incarcerated.
- These were spirits that had committed a grievous sin before the Great Flood.
- These were spirits who were visited by Jesus to receive an announcement from Him.
I find the online world of self-appointed Biblical "experts" has mostly missed the plain truth of 1 Peter 3:18-20. It is plain to understand if one has already accepted the literal interpretation about the Nephilim within the greater context of God's Word. It's plain if one believes the Bible means what it says.
It is clear these imprisoned spirits in 1 Peter 3:18-20 are the fallen angels mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4 and in Jude 1:6. Therefore, these are also the same fallen angels, the same b'nai Elohim - yes, the same "sons of God" mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. It all ties together if one accepts what the Scriptures forthrightly state at each point along the greater narrative.
The proclamation Jesus made to these fallen "sons of God" who were locked and chained in the Abyss was the news that He was victorious. If they'd been hoping for some sort of lucky break "up top," Jesus told them instead that He'd won the most recent clash and they'd lost. The fallen angels who were not imprisoned would get the same message another way in three days, but Jesus gave this "chain gang" the facts face-to-face.
As it had been with prior hostilities between the two sides, Satan and his fallen angels had made a tactical error. This one though was a big one! If they had really knows what was going to happen, they would not have crucified Jesus (1 Cor. 2:8).
But they did, and they made the mistake of thinking they'd gained the final upper hand. Just as it was with the other conflicts before the cross, God dashed their perverted hopes against The Rock of eternal truth.
It's here that many Christians smile blandly and say something like, "Jesus crushed the serpent's head at the cross." Most such folk are uncomfortable with these Biblical themes in the first place, and this is their way of resolving the fuller implications of Genesis 3:15 to their own preference.
"Besides," as some of them insist, "It's all about Jesus anyway." What they're really admitting is they have ranked the Scriptures. They have little regard for any theme of the Bible beyond the salvation Jesus provided through "....the sacrifice of (His) body once for all." (Hebrews 10:10).
The problem with their position is the serpent's head is still intact. It's why Paul concluded the book of Romans by saying, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Rom. 16:20). In other words, Satan was still alive and well - "uncrushed" - after the cross!
Satan's not going to be defeated as Genesis 3:15 prophesied till a certain point, and that's a ways away. Jesus still needs to return a second time, and Satan still needs to be locked up for the 1000-year Millenial Kingdom. He's going to be released after that to deceive "....the four corners of the earth" and to wage war against Jesus Christ once more, but that'll be Satan's last campaign. He will lose and be thrown into the flames of hell (Rev. 20:7-10) - and it's not till then that he's finally and utterly "crushed."
Between the first part of Genesis and the last part of Revelation, the enmity between the physical "seed" of the woman and the physical "seed" of the serpent threads its way through the Scriptures as God divinely-intended it to do. It's a message He placed there which is consistent and significant, and it's one God wants us to respect.
It explains why Jesus said there will be a return of "....the days of Noah" in Matt. 24:37 and Luke 17:26. Jesus could have picked any point in history to liken the time before his Second Advent to, but He chose "the days of Noah" and He had specific reasons why.
I've heard many arguments that this period before the Great Flood was a time of great sin and God basically decided He'd had enough of it. As I stated earlier in this series, that's true, but "it's not true enough." There was much more going on.
In Daniel chapter 8, Gabriel is explaining Daniel's second vision to him, and he tells Daniel multiple times that it concerns the very end of time. In verse 23, Gabriel adds this will be a time when "....rebels have become completely wicked." Other translations speak of this time as one in which "....transgressors are come to the full." In other words, sin on the earth will reach maximum expression before the Lord's return.
It's like a cup of water that is so full it cannot take another drop. If it could, it wouldn't really be full. That's the picture here. The cup of man's depravities at the very end of the age will be completely full. There will be no more room to add more.
It sounds an awful lot like the conditions before the Great Flood. Genesis 6:5 says, "Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This is language of maximum expression. There was a time on earth before the Great Flood when humanity had become so completely wicked that the proverbial cup could not take another drop. Jesus said those conditions are going to return.
Those pre-Flood conditions were precipitated by the blending of fallen angelic "zera" ("seed") with the "zera" ("seed") of mankind, and Jesus implies that is going to happen again. Daniel 2:43 also says as much. It is here that Daniel is explaining Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great statue to the king, and Daniel says of the end of the age, "....they will mingle themselves with the seed of men." The text positions "they" and "men" as two different sources.
It's not hard to figure out who the "they" are here if one has already accepted the balance of the Biblical narrative at face value. It's not hard to see what's coming down the pipeline if one humbly accepts the implications of a return of the days of Noah. It's not hard to imagine Satan and his fallen angels are going to keep trying to gain the upper hand in this enmity between the "seeds" that has been manifesting since ancient times. It's not out of line to think Satan will try again and again to thwart his own defeat.
In the next installment of this series, we'll examine the ways in which "the days of Noah" might express once more. I'm inclined to think Satan will try some different tactics since his first frontal assault against Jesus Christ didn't go quite the way he'd planned.
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