John Lawrence: Demonology Part 5 of 5

Part 5
(b) The fact of what Christ stated concerning angels in the New Testament
Those who hold that angels are spirit beings that do not have bodies and could not take wives of the daughters of men refer to what Christ said as proof of the impossibility of angels propagating using Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35-36. We consequently need to examine just what our Lord did say very carefully because much of the interpretation
hinges on these statements made by Christ.
When we consider the context of Matt. 22:23-33, Christ is saying to the
Sadducees that "Your question is out of order". The Law of Leviticus is made for earthly matters, and perpetuation of the human race and keeping of the land in the original family. This is an important dispensational truth. The question is out of order because in the resurrection there is no propagation at all: "just like the angels in heaven". The fixed law of the earth is for each to begat after their kind. However, animals do not begat angels. We do not know just what angels could begat if they did begat. We do know, nevertheless, that angels are seen as men, sometimes no different from those of the human race. It is certainly not impossible that wicked fallen angels could leave their proper realm and invade the human sphere in order to work such abominable confusion among humanity that the promise of Genesis 3:15 could never be fulfilled.
Christ said that the angels of God in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage. The reason: angels are immortal and each is the direct creation of God. They do not propagate their company by having baby angels. There is no possibility of a marriage relationship among the angels in heaven for there are no female angels, and there is absolutely no need for such with the Creator there.
So very significant is the phrase "in heaven" that A. W. Pink makes the following pointed comment:
"Against the view that the sons of God refer to fallen angels Matt. 22:30 is often cited. But when the contents of this verse are closely studied it will be found there is, really, nothing in it which conflicts with what we have said above. Had our Lord said, "in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God" and stopped there, the objection would have real force. But the Lord did not stop there. He added a qualifying clause about the angels: He said as the angels of God in heaven. The last two words make all the difference. The angels in heaven neither marry nor are they given in marriage. But the angels referred to in Genesis 6 as the 'sons of God' were no longer in heaven; as Jude 6 expressly informs us 'they left their own principality’. They fell from their celestial position and came down to earth, entering into unlawful alliance with the daughters of men. This, we are assured, is the reason why Christ modified and qualified His assertion in Matt. 22:30. The angels of God in heaven do not marry, but those who left their own habitation did". Gleanings in Genesis, p 94-95.
Christ's statement about angels, rather than showing they cannot marry, enforces the position that some of them actually did "marry" (they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose) and are confined in Tartarus now for this wicked, wicked act. Such sin was immediately judged.
(4) The Nature of Satan and his activity favors this view
His principle scheme: Deception
His program requires evil spirits
Both the work and program of Satan throughout history favor the
position that the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 were fallen angels
who cohabited with women. When God gave the promise in Genesis 3:15 concerning the coming of the seed of the woman, Satan inspired Cain to kill his brother. Then he worked to corrupt the entire world of humanity so that there was a race of "monstrosities" and an impure race, trying to make it impossible for God to fulfill His word in the garden (cf. Gen. 3:15). If Satan could do this, he would have averted his eventual doom there prophesied. How nearly he succeeded is evident from the fact, that with the exception of one family, "all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:12). Failing at this, Satan set out immediately after the flood with the Tammuz story (Ezek. 8:14): a counterfeit worship of one who was dead and resurrected and the
fulfillment of the promised seed.
This idolatrous worship filled the whole earth. It was out of this that God called Abraham and promised that the Coming One was to be a descendant of his (Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:18). Satan's attacks were now concentrated on this one and his family. He failed to have the son of promise after the time of Life for both him and his wife Sarah. Nevertheless, God was faithful. This same barrenness was experienced by Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 25:21), when God heard and intervened. Jacob experienced great difficulty with his brother Esau. Later, when his
whole family was in Canaan a great famine took place, which, except for God's working, would have annihilated them by starvation. Nevertheless, they disobeyed by leaving the land of promise. Being preserved in Egypt where they grow to a great nation, again Satan sought to destroy the promised seed by moving Pharaoh to seek to destroy all of the male children (Ex. 1:15,16). Having failed by outward pressures to extinguish them, Satan tried the method of joining them. The children
of Israel having left Egypt experience the leavening influence of the mixed multitude and their continual murmuring which nearly caused their entire destruction. When God narrowed the line to Judah, he became the object of Satan's attack. When it was narrowed to the family of David, the Satanic attack upon David became tremendous through Absalom and others as the result of David’s sin. In the line of David the lineage was often narrowed to one descendant to the throne because of Satan’s attacks.
We see that Satan has sought continually to oppose God’s will and God’s Word. The method of angels marrying women of the human race and producing offspring half human and half angel has been just a part of Satan's total working to nullify God’s Word and to thwart his own judgment and doom.
Satan undoubtedly had something else behind this action of permitting some of his angels to cohabit with women. Satan is not omnipotent nor is he omnipresent. Moreover, when he fell, only one-third of the heavenly host fell with him according to Rev. 12:4, leaving two-thirds with God. If Satan is going to be victorious, there is the great need for additional forces to be secured on Satan’s side – particularly spiritual forces that could do spiritual battle. This was a very ingenious way of accomplishing this. The offspring of this union would be of such a nature that even upon death would be spirit beings who would continue to carry on the work and program of Satan because they were wicked themselves, and different from pure human beings. We shall be discussing why they would not be confined in Sheol below.
Wait a minute, you say. Why could not God just create more forces of His own? Isn’t He the infinite God and Creator? I suppose He could, but YOU will have to ask HIM.
(5) The Results of the Union favors this view
If pious Sethites married unbelieving women of the family of Cain, there is no reason whatsoever that their progeny should be any different from the rest of humanity. However, if angels cohabited with women, it would be expected, and rightfully so, that their offspring would be very distinct.
What does Scripture say?
Genesis 6:4, "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."
We need to carefully look at this verse:
The word translated "giants" is "Nephilim"(plural). This is a verbal adjective or noun of passive significance and comes from "Naphal," which means "to fall". Hence, "Nephilim" means "the fallen ones."
The Septuagint translators rendered the Hebrew Nephilim by ‘gigantis’, and this suggested the translation "giants". The basic idea behind this Greek word is not monstrous size, which is a secondary and developed meaning. It is "earth-born" from the Greek ‘gegenes’, and was employed by the Greeks of the mythical Titans who were partly of celestial and partly of terrestrial origin.
What then does Genesis 6:4 mean? "There were fallen ones in the earth in those days." Newall points out that "earth" is the emphatic word here in the sentence: "in the earth" where they had no business to be.
The "fallen angels" had been cast down to the sphere of the earth, but now they had entered into a sphere where they had no right to be. In the language of the NT they had "left their own (R.V. 'proper') habitation" (Jude 6).
But even after that--i.e., even after God judged the fallen angels for this extreme wickedness, yet "fallen ones" persisted on the earth through the births that were produced.
Gen. 5:3, "Adam begat a son in his own likeness."
Just so these Nephilim would have produced offspring after their own likeness. Then the name "Nephilim" would refer to the offspring even as it did to the fathers after the fathers were off the scene. This is where the Greek word "earth-born" becomes involved.
Unger believes that Nephilim all the way through Genesis is a reference to the offspring and that the expression "and also after that" refers to the sons of Anak in Num. 13:33. I do not believe this is possible.
First, God destroyed all of this wicked mixture at the flood. Secondly none of the angels who practiced this sin are free to do it again, it is very unlikely that others would do it in light of the punishment inflicted upon the angels who did. The expression used in reference to calling the sons of Anak "fallen ones" might be a derived meaning because of their strength, size, and wickedness, etc., without being a direct indication that these were in anyway related to half angel and half human birth.
Regardless of whether the references to Nephilim refer to the fallen angels or their fallen offspring, or both, the end of the verse must be a reference to the offspring of this union.
"And they bare (children) to them, the same (became) mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Two concepts are referred to here:
(1) They were very strong.
(2) They were intelligent and leaders in wickedness.
At this point we need to review the doctrine of angels. Angels have:
(1) Great strength.
Ps. 103:20, "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that
excel in strength . .
2 Pet. 2:11, "whereas angels, which are greater in
power and might. . ."
Rev. 18:21.
Matt. 28:2; Mark 16:4.
(2) Great wisdom or knowledge.
2 Sam. 14:20, "and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth."
With these things understood about angels, it is understandable that the offspring from such a marriage would be "mighty men which were of old." Thus, the nations all speak about this in their traditions as the Greeks do of the Titans; "men of renown," men of greater than normal intelligence or knowledge. However, this strength and intelligence was not used for God; it was used for wickedness and evil. Wickedness is the third result of this union.
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5.
There is no reason why this would be the outcome if Sethites married Cainites. However, it would have been impossible for it to have been otherwise for angels to produce Nephilim who reproduced other
offspring who continually were perpetuating evil. Consequently, the results of the union indicate that the angels were involved with humanity:
(l) They are called the same as their fathers: Nephilim,
(2) They are mighty,
(3) They are renown,
(4) They are wicked and leaders in wickedness.
(6)) The fact that God has various places of confinement favor this view. We need to carefully distinguish the places of abode in the underworld because they are not synonymous terms.
Gehenna = Lake of Fire: The eternal abode of all the wicked, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matt, 5:22,29,30, 10:28, 13:9, 23:15,33.
Mark 9:43,45,47.
Luke 12:5.
James 3:6. ... What about Rev 9:14?
Tartaros, or Tartarus = Present prisonhouse (place of the dammed) for angels that sinned. 2 Pet. 2:4.
Hades or Sheol (OT) = Place of the departed spirits of man. Since the resurrection of Christ this involves only the unrighteous dead.
Abyss (Gr. abussos, appears 9 times in NT, meaning boundless or bottomless, transl. 7 times as "abyss" in my NASB)
(See Pember, pp. 75-6 for connection with the Sea),
Luke 3:31, translated "the deep."
Rev, 9:1-11 "bottomless pit" = "the pit or shaft of the abyss."
This is the release of demons who have been confined to the abyss and they are all freed in the middle of the tribulation period.
Rev. 11:7 with 17:8 = The Roman Empire.
Rev. 20:1-3, Satan kept in the Abyss during the Millennium.
Tartarus keeps angels, Hades keeps men and the abyss keeps demons, showing a distinction between each.
Christ had the power to send the legion of demons into the abyss, which Mark says was "out of the country," and there they would have been confined until the middle of the Tribulation. Luke 8:31, Mark 5:10.
Satan seems to have God’s permission in the middle of the Tribulation to release all the demons in the abyss. God allows this to show that He still is in sovereign control and that all the demons cannot change the course of events and the plan of God.
Whenever demons cry out to the Lord it was to acknowledge the fact that they knew who He was, and to ask if He had come to torment them before their time. Matt. 8:29.
Both statements would have been out of place for angels who present themselves before the throne of the Living God, being the direct creation of God, but very significant for demons who were not created by the Lord, but created by "fallen angels" through cohabiting with the daughters of humanity. This (verse) shows their great intellect and supernatural knowledge of things and even of their ultimate doom and torment.
Why would the Nephilim not go to Sheol or Hades when they died in the flood? Simply because Sheol was the place for the spirits of the human race; but with the intrusion of angels into humanity, the offspring was neither angelic nor human. They could be confined neither to Tartarus, nor to Sheol. Therefore, they were "free" to roam the earth following the flood as free spirits seeking a body to possess and control for wickedness and violence. Because of their wisdom they were able to deceive many as to their true nature. The Lord seemingly prepared a place for them, called the abyss, and while He was here on earth confined many demons to the abyss. These then will be freed in the middle of the Tribulation, and all confined along with Satan and his
angels to the abyss during the Millennium. These are all loosed again for a short season; then to be confined eternally to the Lake of Fire at the great White Throne Judgment.
The very fact that there are these separate places of confinement for angels, demons and mankind, is added confirmation that demons were the offspring of angels and members of the human race. Upon their destruction in the flood, they could not be confined either with angels, nor with mankind, but became free spirits to roam the earth.
What about Colossians 1:16?
"For by(‘en) Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by (di’) Him and for(‘eis’) Him."
According to this teaching demons were directly created by Him. Therefore, this must be a wrong interpretation of Scripture and a wrong view as to how demons originated???
Not at all! Man has the power of procreation and Adam begat a son in his likeness. Christ created Adam who procreated a son, etc. Christ also created the angels and seems to have given them powers of procreation even though these powers are not used in the angelic sphere. Christ is a man in heaven, but does not use His manhood; in the same way men and women will retain their sexual distinctions in the resurrection, but will not be used in marriage (Matt.22:30). Christ did not say that man and woman would be without sexual distinction in the resurrection, but only that they did not marry.
If God created angels and created man, He created also all that might be produced by them potentially in the original person. That is, Adam contained the world in his own body. All the offspring of Adam are subject to the sovereign control and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ as Creator. The same thing would be true of the offspring of such a union of angels and mankind. They are subject to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Demons recognized this and they bowed before Him. Mark 5:6.
They recognized His person. Mark 5:7.
They realized His power to punish and command them. Mark 5:7-10.
Demons are not out of the Sovereign control of the Lord. Colossians 1:16 is given to refute the Gnostic concept of dualism which held that there were other "gods" and powers eternally existent over which the Lord had no control or authority. This is unbiblical. Col. l:l6 in no way teaches against demons coming from a mixture of angels and human beings.
(7) The Judgments Inflicted on the Wicked Favors this View
There is both the judgment upon angels that are confined to Tartarus
and there is the Judgment upon humanity that resulted in the destruction of all with the exception of one man and his family that needs to be considered in dealing with this subject.
Unger commenting on this point says:
"...the divine account in the 0.T. and the inspired comments in the NT unanimously represent the whole episode as being a unique and shocking abnormality, breaking down every God-ordained law for both the physical and the spiritual realms, and producing outrageous confusion in both; so that unmitigated incarceration in the lowest pits of Tartarus is the penalty for the angelic offenders on one hand, and a
world-engulfing deluge the punishment for human folly on the other." Ibid, p. 51. Each dispensation is always and MUST be followed by judgement.
The judgment of only certain angels and not all fallen angels and Satan cannot be accounted for in any other way. Yet, from the very fact that it is introduced in the NT, without explanation, it is necessary to have an adequate Scriptural explanation. This view that the sons of God are angels alone gives us an adequate explanation and it is completely harmonious with all Scripture on the subject.
The judgment upon mankind must also have an adequate Scriptural explanation. The fact of Sethites marrying unbelieving Cainites, while certainly no small thing in God's sight, is nevertheless not something for which God destroys all mankind in righteous wrath. A righteous judge must have a punishment equal to the crime committed. If God were going to destroy the race, the sin of Adam and Eve was far greater in wickedness with everlasting results than that of Sethites marrying Cainites. A father who over punishes his son is just as wrong as a father who never punishes his child. God is infinitely righteous and the punishment shows the gravity and depth of the sin. When we look at the judgment of the flood upon humanity, only the position of angels cohabiting with humanity and producing confusion and wickedness would
account for such action on the part of the Creator. The nature of the judgment then is added proof that the sons of God are angelic beings.
(8) The inadequacies of the opposite position favors this view
Those who have held that the sons of God are simply godly Sethites and that the daughters of men speak of Cainites and these are the ones who intermarried include many such as:
John Chrysostom (the literalist interpreter of the Eastern Church), Cyril of the allegorical Alexandrian school, Theodoret, almost all the later theologians, and in modern times Hengstenberg, Keil, Lange, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Matthew Henry, C.I. Scofield, and many others.
There are certain objections to this view which have no adequate explanation if we hold that the sons of God and daughters of men refer only to believers and unbelievers respectively.
(a) It leaves unexplained why God's people were limited to
the male sex.
(b) It leaves unexplained why the daughters of men were limited to unbelievers.
(c) If the sons of God were believers then they perished in the flood, but 2 Peter 2:5 states otherwise that the flood came upon the world of the ungodly. This is unanswerable for the sons of God is never used of men who did not have positional righteousness and eternal life.
(d) There is no hint at all in the Divine record that God had yet given any specific command forbidding His people to marry unbelievers. In view of this silence it seems exceedingly strange that this sin should have been visited with such a fearful judgment. This is not God's way of righteous judgment or sovereign planning.
Moreover, in all ages there have been many (most?) of God’s people who have failed to keep themselves separate from unbelievers and yet will not suffer for it any calamity comparable with the Deluge.
(e) It also needs to be explained why the union of believers
and unbelievers should produce a race of giants or "fallen ones" who were of great strength and men of renown.
Why should all be wicked? Many times in Israel's History a wicked king would have a godly son.
Why should they all be strong? No reason genetically.
Why should they all be leaders? Usually a mixture produces just the opposite.
(f) It leaves unexplained also why the sons of God did not marry just one of the daughters of men or descendants of Cain, and why it was that they took them wives of all which they chose. There was violence in the earth in those days, and the Cainites, if they had been separate from the Sethites, could easily have destroyed them with their superior numbers and strength.
(h) It leaves unexplained how the Cainites remained separate and distinct during all of this time when Adam and Eve also had other descendants (Gen. 5:4) so that the world was divided into just Cainites and Sethites.
These are unanswerable questions! It unequivocally points to the fact that the sons of God were not men of any kind, but were fallen angels who left their proper habitation to work havoc among the human race in defiance of the Creator.
Regardless of how this passage of Scripture is approached, this position stands steadfast, while the opposite view will not stand the test of scrutiny. We conclude then that the sons of God were angels.
(9) The Nature of the Man of Sin favors this view
(This consideration might best be placed under the nature of Satan.)
There is one final reason for believing that sons of God in Genesis 6 are angels. When God gave the prophecy to Satan of the Coming of the Seed of the woman that would bruise the serpent’s head, He also said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed . . ." (Gen. 3:15).
Not only is the woman to have seed which is the Lord Jesus Christ, but also the serpent is to have seed which is the Man of Sin, the Son of perdition. Just as the one is literal, so the other is literal. If literal, then the Man of Sin is evidently the actual seed of Satan or offspring of Satan here on earth.
Satan always imitates God and tries to be like Him. Just as God had His Son on this earth, so Satan will have his son on this earth. Satan's son will be bent on wickedness, but, like Satan, will be very deceptive as to his true nature and will deceive the world even as Judas deceived the disciples that he was the "son of perdition" and the one to betray Christ. The disciples never suspected Judas, so there is the danger for Israel to be deceived in the tribulation. (Matt. 24:24).
b. The Result of the union are the demons found around the earth today.
While Unger seems to favor in some ways the view that angels cohabited with women, he does not hold that the result of this union were demons.
He says; "To establish ...that demons were the result of these unholy alliances, is wholly impossible in the face of the silence of revelation. It is pure speculation to reason as does the writer of the Book of Enoch that the progeny were born wicked earth-dwelling spirits, or to imagine that the monstrous offspring became disembodied spirits (demons) when their corporeal bodies were destroyed in the flood, and instead of being consigned to Sheol as were other wicked antediluvians, as monstrosities, were left to plague subsequent generations of mankind as demons." Ibid, pp. 51-2.
What Unger seems to have completely overlooked is that the offspring were neither pure angel nor man. They were part one and part the other, They could neither be consigned to Sheol, the place for men who died nor to Tartarus, the place where the fallen angels who sinned were confined. They were, therefore, free spirits left after the flood to continue their wickedness, seeking a body to possess and control, showing that they originally possessed the same.
c. The Nature of demons.
Everything that demons are by nature fits the description of the world before the flood.
They are fiendish, Mark 9:17,18; Rev1 9.
They are called unclean, Mark 1:27; 3:11; Rev. 16:13,14.
They are leaders of faction and disorder, in the sphere of righteousness, James 3:14,15 R.V.
They are able to produce great strength, Mark 5:4.
They are termed seducing spirits, 1 Tim. 4:1.
They have great knowledge, 1 Tim. 4:1; Acts 16:16.
They incorporate sex sins with idol worship, Num. 25:1-3, 1 Cor. 10:14,19-21. This is told all through paganism, but is never dwelt on in Scripture.
They are opposed to God's work and promote Satan's work.
While demons are under the sovereign control of the Lord and they recognize Him and His authority, they, nevertheless, are allowed to remain free to extend the work of Satan at this present time. However, a place has been prepared to keep them, called the abyss, where some were confined evidently during our Lord’s ministry on earth. These will be freed during the tribulation period of Rev. 9.
The character of demons and their practice is summarized in these 7 or 8 forms: Magic
Divination
Sorcery
Witchcraft
Necromancy
Prognostication
Ventriloquism and Perhaps hypnotism
Perhaps mysticism