Archive | October 2012

Who are the SONS OF GOD and the NEPHILIM?

The sons of God – Bene Elohim = angels

The term “the sons of God” is a translation from the Hebrew Bene Elohim – Sons of Elohim. This term can be found 4 times in the Bible and it’s always referred to ANGELS and never about man. This is enough to end all arguments that “the Sons of God” might mean anything else. Two other valid arguments for the angel translation might be 1) also other old religious books support this alternative, and 2) the old church fathers the first 300 years AD also supported it.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when THE SONS OF GOD came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

Job 2:1 Again there was a day when THE SONS OF GOD came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

Job 38:⁴Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.—⁷When the morning stars sang together, and all THE SONS OF GOD shouted for joy?

Gen 6:¹And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, ²That THE SONS OF GOD saw the daughters of MEN that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ³And the LORD 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. ⁴There 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 BARE CHILDREN TO THEM, THE SAME BECAME MIGHTY MEN which were of old, men of renown. ⁵And 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.

Why are we to understand the term “Bene Elohim” as angels in 3 verses but not in the 4th verse? It also makes sense to refer to created beings (that could only include angels and Adam) as “sons of God”. So we know based on scripture that the SONS OF GOD came in unto the DAUGHTERS OF MEN and the daughters of men bore children to the sons of God. There is no mention of daughters of God or sons of men, so it’s clear that the males in the passage were of angelic origin and the female were of human origin. We can also understand from scripture that this union produced GIANTS! Human beings don’t produce giants so how do we account for these giants unless we accept what is written in Genesis 6? Moreover, the giants seem to be a major reason for the need of a global flood. In mentioning them, we are also told that “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”. Imagine that! Every thought was evil! Something extraordinary must have happened in order to reach this state of mind among all the people, and we have the answer right before our eyes in Gen. 6. Fallen angels came down to earth and caused these events to unfold.

The events recorded in Genesis 6 were understood by the ancient rabbinical sources, as well as the Septuagint, as referring to fallen angels procreating weird hybrid offspring with human women – known as the nephilim. The same goes for the early church fathers. These bizarre events are also mentioned in legends of ancient cultures, like the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hindus, the South Sea Islanders, the American Indians, as well as in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The book of Enoch which is referred to in the Bible (and the book of Jubilees, the book of Jasher, and other lost books) also describes the mix of angels and human beings, and even though this book is not canonized, it takes more faith to believe that the events in this book are NOT true – for no other reason than to save a certain doctrine.

Problems with the Sethite View

There is a claim that the passage in Genesis 6 refers to a failure to keep the faithful lines of Seth separated from the line of Cain. If the text was intended to contrast the sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain, why doesn’t it say so? It would have been very easy to describe the union as “the sons of Cain and the daughters of Seth“, but it says “sons of GOD” and “daughters of MEN” for a reason and we can understand the text exactly as it says. Why the resulting offspring (between ordinary human beings) is called the “Nephilim” is left without an explanation. Were not both Cain’s and Seth’s descendants of the same couple (Adam and Eve) and made up by the same type of genes? There is absolutely no reason for trying to keep the lines of Seth and Cain separate (actually the opposite since this would narrow down the gene pool), and there is no evidence for that all the descendants of Seth had a tendency to be godly, or that all the descendants of Cain had a tendency to be ungodly. Also, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were FAIR and they chose wives among them. Were all female descendants of Seth unattractive?

One objection to the idea of angels and human beings intermarrying each other, is due to Jesus words “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30). But Jesus is talking about after the resurrection, and he doesn’t mention what angels might do on earth. We already know that angels on earth can go for walks, eat, rest and talk, among other things. Abraham had a visit from angels in Genesis 17:1-20 and Genesis 18:1-16, and they behaved very much like human beings. It’s hard to imagine how angels appear in heaven but we know that the angelic encounters people have had on earth have always been in relation to male angels (or at least they appeared as such), so earthly angels can transform into what looks like human beings in male form. The men (old and young) in Sodom didn’t have a problem to identify the angels visiting Lot as being of the male gender. As I said earlier, we know that angels on earth can eat, and this might suggest that they might have saliva and all the inner organs necessary for digesting food. Why then wouldn’t they also be able to reproduce? Does it specifically say they can’t?

Mixing seeds?

There is an interesting verse in Daniel which can make us ponder about the last days which will resemble the days of Noah. We already know that there are plenty of experiments made concerning mixing seeds from different animals which are not from the same species, and in Daniel we can read about mixed seeds between men and animals (?), but not through “cleaving one to another”. So maybe this is done in a lab? We can only speculate, but it’s good to be prepared.

Daniel 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves WITH THE SEED OF MEN: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

The future will resemble what happened before the flood.

Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so also it will be in the days of the Son of Man.

References about the sons of God in the New Testament

Peter’s and Jude’s comments below establish the time of the fall of these angels to the days of the Flood. What other sins could they have in mind but angels procreating with female human beings?:

2 Peter 2:4-5 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly

Jude 6,7 And the angels which KEPET NOT THEIR FIRST ESTATE, but LEFT THEIR HABITATION, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and GOING AFTER STRANGE FLESH, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

1/3 of the angels are told to have followed Satan in his rebellion against God and believed to have been cast down on earth. That probably entails several thousand angels. Some of them seem to have made the decision to marry human beings and to produce children with them. How are we to understand the statement “going after strange flesh”, if not i relation to angels going after human flesh which would be totally unnatural for them? This seems to be exactly what Jude is talking about, and which confirms what we can read in Gen. 6. Maybe mixing with human beings was thought as a way for the Satanic angels to prevent the promised seed of the Messiah. We can only speculate why some angels (some sources say about 200 who landed on the mountain of Hermon) chose to take the step to intermix with human.

Lost books

Both the book of Enoch and the book of Jasher are referred to in the Bible, and it’s more likely that the content is for the most part trustworthy than NOT trustworthy. These books describe the sons of God as angels, and so does the book of the Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Jasher 4:18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.

Enoch 10:6 Uriel is told to“heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers have disclosed and have taught their sons. And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.

3 Maccabees 2:4 You destroyed those who in the past committed injustice, among whom were even giants who trusted in their strength and boldness, who you destroyed by bringing on them a boundless flood.

How could there be giants such as Goliath after the flood?

Nephiyl; a giant, feller, cast down, be judged, fugitive, thrown down, fallen, an abortion [Strong’s]

“There were Nephilim in the earth in those days, and also after that…”

In the OT we can read about God’s instructions to wipe out all people of certain tribes in the land of Canaan. Could it be that some of Noah’s sons married women who had a gene pool problem due to the mixture of angels and men prior to the flood? We can only speculate, but at least we know that some very tall people were living on earth also after the flood.

There are many names for these giants, and it’s hard to know exactly how these tribes intermarried each other and to which extent the offspring was affected by abnormalities when it comes to height. Nephilim, Rephaim, Anakim, Emim, Zuzim, Zamzumim, Horim, Zophim, Caphtorim, Gammadim, Seirim and Shedim. It seems further like God commanded the israelites to conquer and completely wipe out these unique giant tribes, which was a command that they did not totally adhere to. Their refusal to obey had the effect that they (offspring of the giants) continued to cause much violence and murder.

When the Bible tells us that giants were on earth “also after that” in Gen. 6, I don’t believe that even more sons of God came down to earth yet again to repeat the same actions which had led to that the previous sons of God were severely punished. This would definitely cause more risks to humanity – the very same that caused the mayhem before the flood. I rather believe that one or more of the wives of Noah’s sons carried the defected genes which might produce giants, which means that only some of Noah’s sons descendants inherited these genes. It looks like it was Ham’s lineage which was affected considering the names of Ham’s sons – especially his son Canaan. We recognize the same names in those tribes that God requested Israel to completely wipe out.

Gen. 10:5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.15 And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

Gen 14:5 ⁵And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emins in Shaveh Kiriathaim

Amos 2:9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

Num. 13:³²And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Deu 2:10 The Emim lived there in days gone by, a great and plentiful people, and tall as the Anakim 11 they are reckoned to be giants (rephaim), they too, like the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.

Deu 2:20 That also is accounted a land of Rephaim: Rephaim dwelt therein aforetime; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim 21 a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead

Deu 3:11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man. (15 feet! – or 9 feet depending on if you use the standard cubit or lower forearm cubit) 4,6 meter or 2,7 meter

Deu 9:2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?

Jos 11:21 At that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anah, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua completely destroyed them with their cities. 22 There were none of the Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only some remained in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod.

Jos 12:4 and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, 5 and ruled in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, even unto the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

2 Sa 21:16 And Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of Rapha the giant, the weight of his spear being threehundred bronze shekels in weight, and was girded with a new sword, even he said to strike David.—18 And it happened after this that the battle was again in Gob of the Philistines. Then Sibbechaithe Hushathite struck Saph, who was among the sons of Rapha. 19 And again the battle was in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite struck one of Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20 And again the battle was in Gath, and there was a man of stature, and the fingers of his hands were six, and the fingers of his feet six, twenty four in number. And he also had been born to Rapha 21 And he cursed Israel; and Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, struck him. 22 These four here born to Rapha the giant in Gath. And they fell by the hand of David, by the hand of his servants.

1 Sa 17:4 And a champion (iysh habaniym…man between two camps referring to half man half angel descendancy) came out from the armies of the Philistines, Goliath was his name, from Gath; his height was six cubits and a span. 5 And a bronze helmet was on his head, and he was clothed with scaled body armor; and the weight of the armor was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And a covering of bronze was on his legs, and a javelin of bronze between his shoulders. 7 And the wood of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and the blade of his spear weighed sixhundred shekels of iron. And the shield bearer went before him

1 Chron. 20:6 And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and sixon each foot and HE ALSO WAS THE SON OF A GIANT.

A similar word for “nephilim” is found in the below verse where it concerns dead philistine warriors:

Ezekiel 32:²⁷And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen (naphal) of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Elongated skulls

I’ve included some pictures of individuals with elongated heads in this article, and this too seems to be a feature for some people who lived during those days, and maybe particularly giants? Or perhaps this trait only concerned giants? On top of this, some accounts tell us that another feature might be 6 fingers and 6 toes, as well as a double row of teeth. Some people might want to explain the elongated skulls that have been found by suggesting that it’s due to head binding, but this wouldn’t explain why the skulls that have been found are also much larger. Head bindings doesn’t cause the head to grow in volume. We do know that head binding did occur within some tribes in the old age, and the question is why this was popular? Could it be that elongated heads were considered to be an admirable feature because of the famous gods, demigods and some of the early pharaohs who happened to have this particular feature? The Greek mythology, and other stories tell us about various gods who were giants and who never seem to grow old and die (eventually they did), but these individuals who were labelled gods, titans, etc were likely in reference to people who lived before the flood, or just after the flood.

nephilim 2

God is not going to present us FAULTLESS in our SINS! (Jude 1:24)

Oct2

Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy

Unfortunately this verse is sometimes understood as a promise that if we only believe in Jesus, he will present us as faultless without conditions or requirements on our part. But the verse doesn’t say we christians will be presented faultless unconditionally! Jude is writing to sanctified christians, and as such Jesus can indeed present them faultless before the Father because they ARE. They are faultless because they have repented for their sins and been cleansed in the blood of Jesus, and that means they have no more sins on their account and THAT is the reason for their righteousness and lack of faults. Of course, if they sin yet again they are no longer faultless and will NOT be presented as faultless. ONLY if they truly repent of their sins. There is NO WAY that God would present SINNERS as faultless – and “sinners” are those who sin whether they are non-believers or believers. Sins always separate us from him because God is HOLY. So God is ABLE to present us faultless – under CONDITIONS – but the question is if we are WILLING? What else does the same chapter tell us?

1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

They are preserved if they are IN JESUS CHRIST. Compare with John 15 where we are told to remain in the vine (Jesus) or else we cannot bear fruit and we will be cut off.

³Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.⁴For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here Jude is talking about something very serious. Jude was going to write about “the common salvation” but he felt the need to use his letter to exhort the saints to earnestly contend for the faith. And why this need? This is because certain men had sneaked in among them, turning the GRACE of God into “lasciviousness”. We could rephrase this as the teaching of A LICENSE TO SIN by misusing the grace of God as means to cover up sins whenever needed. There are several ways to teach a license to sin because the devil is very crafty, and he will often make use of preachers who mix truth with lies. That is why we don’t always recognize their falsehood and why we don’t realize they have sneaked in among us. Sooner or later we might start to adapt to their teachings and when we have been deceived ourselves, we are at risk to continue spreading falsehood also to others. If we deny the ability of the Holy Spirit to help us be victorious over sin, it’s like denying the power of God. The Bible warns us to not be deceived! It’s of course true that pastors/preachers are mere men who also make mistakes and need to learn, but many of them have completely closed their ears and refuse to be corrected by scripture. Here are some examples of what such dangerous men might teach us to make us comfortable in our sins:

We can never stop sinning – if we could then Jesus died for us in vain
God the Father cannot see our sins but only the blood of Jesus
We are saved by faith ALONE so avoiding sin is not necessary – just a nice goal
Jesus righteousness is imputed into us, and our sins is placed on him, so we can be righteous even if we practice unrighteousness
We always sin in thoughts, words and deeds
Once saved always saved
We are born with a sinful nature so we sin by necessity and can’t help it
To believe we MUST avoid sinning is “salvation by works” and a dangerous teaching from the pits of hell
Jesus PAID for our SINS, and said “it’s finished“, so my sins are paid for even before I commit them
We are saved by faith + nothing so if we try to add ANYTHING to this AT ALL, it’s from Satan
Suggesting that we can avoid sinning would place us on the same level as the pharisees
We are not under law but under grace, so obeying the ten commandments is not necessary any more
If we don’t pray and think about God around the clock, we sin, and that means avoiding sin is impossible
Paul said he IS (not WAS) the C H I E F of sinners and that means a person who is a murderer, adulterer and a thief, etc IS saved if he only believes in Jesus
We are not under the Old Testament any more but under the NEW Testament, and that means sins will no longer separate us from God if we are only christians
It’s prideful and arrogant to say that we don’t sin (+ it cannot be true) and instead we should be more humble and say that “we ARE poor sinners (not WERE) saved by grace”
The teaching that we don’t have to sin is the same as “sinless perfectionism” and from the devil – only Jesus was perfect
Jesus loves you exactly as you are
Anyone who claims he can avoid sinning for a longer period of time is self-righteous and causes DIVISION with his odd teaching
You are free from the law and thereby free from any punishment of breaking it
The only difference between christians and non-christians is that the former are forgiven
Sinning will only give you reduced rewards i heaven, but your soul is never at risk
No one is perfect

If a pastor in an average church would stand in his pulpit and start to preach a sermon based on the above list, listeners would soon react and sooner or later raise up their voices and protest. Preachers wouldn’t be able to “sneak in among us” if they were too OPEN about their real views about sin (and that sin doesn’t lead to death) because they would be thrown out. Preachers can only sneak in if they for the most part preach LOADS OF TRUTHS! Popular preachers who preach 90% truth and 10% falsehood can be the most dangerous ones since we are not on our guard when we hear so much truth, and it might be hard to detect the dangerous doctrines that pop up here and there. I have never heard a pastor saying “God doesn’t mind if you sin”. All pastors I’ve listened to have declared (at least openly) that God does NOT like when we sin and they preach against sin, but sometimes they do this only with one side of their mouth. With the other side of their mouth they might encourage sin by sugar coating their message, and they might do so by using one or more of the statements in the above list. If they for example teach you that you are imputed with JESUS righteousness, then the only result is that you ARE free of sin even if you DO sin. So even if the same pastor WARNS about sin, he can at the same time ENCOURAGE sin by what he says in between the lines. Be careful!

If you sit in a church and listen to a pastor who teach one or more of these false doctrines, I’m not saying that the only right way is to take your coat and run to the exit as fast as you can. If we were to leave a church as soon as a falsehood was presented, we would likely end up being home alone and never get together with an assembly of christians – leading to a lonely christian life. Jesus, Paul etc didn’t act in that way, but they went to the synagogues and spoke to people wherever they had the opportunity. Sometimes they were thrown out and sometimes they were accepted. You wouldn’t be endorsing a false teaching just for visiting a christian assembly who is gathered in a building. Just because the pastor sometimes throws in some falsehood doesn’t mean that the entire christian assembly agrees with him and is a crowd to avoid altogether. Instead of looking for the perfect church, it’s best to attend the best church available. But we must be strong in our faith and not be easily moved with every wind of doctrine that blows. I too have believed in some of those false teachings on the above list, and of course I would have preferred if someone took the time to explain my errors instead of labeling me an heretic, rebuking me and leaving me behind with my misconceptions. I have of course never held the office of a pastor (who will be judged more severely due to their responsibility) but if we love each other we help each other out instead of running away.

⁵I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.⁶And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.⁸Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Jude is speaking heavily against “once saved always saved”. The angels were once safe in their heaven but 1/3 of them fell together with Satan and lost their first estate. The men in Sodom and Gomorrha gave themselves over to fornication (clearly against God’s will) which lead to their damnation. Bad choice.

⁹Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

This is actually support for that it’s not always right to use name callings and/or ad hominem attacks when speaking to people who disagree with you.

¹⁰But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.¹¹Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.¹²These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

They speak EVIL of things which apparently are not evil (like holiness?), and they corrupt themselves. (Meaning they were not corrupted to start with.) It’s always a risk to end up in error if we seek rewards and admiration from people. The people who Jude warns about are apparently sometimes in our midst when it comes to our charity work, but they are clouds without water. Their fruit WITHERED which means they had fruit to start with or else it could not wither, and they were twice dead.

¹⁴And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,¹⁵To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.¹⁶These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

It’s interesting that Enoch is confirmed as the 7th from Adam because that doesn’t give room for any more generations between Adam and Enoch. (An interesting fact which confirms that we can trust the genealogy lists in the Bible and provides support for a young earth.) The Lord comes to execute judgment on all ungodliness and that includes also christians who are engaged in sin. These sinners are explained to speak great swelling words and they flatter those individuals that could be to their benefit.

¹⁷But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;¹⁸How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.¹⁹These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.²⁰But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,²¹Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Jude hopes the saints will remember the words from the apostles about the scenario in the end of times (when there will be ungodly men walking after their ungodly lusts). Jude asks the saints to “KEEP YOURSELVES in the love of God”, for instance by not acting in the same way, and by doing so they can get eternal life.

²²And of some have compassion, making a difference:²³And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

The saints (all of us christians) are told to have compassion on some who are doubting (a missing piece of information in the KJV Bible) and we can make a difference by snatching people out of the fire even though they were heading that way!

Are some of us CHOSEN to salvation from the beginning? (2 Thess. 2:13)

Oct1

2 Thess. 2:¹³But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation THROUGH sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth

Some people get confused about this verse because if read in a vacuum, it looks like God is choosing certain individuals to believe from the foundation of the world, contrary to what the rest of the Bible says (whosoever can be saved if they choose to believe), but look what happens if we highlight another passage in the verse:

2 Thess. 2:¹³But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation THROUGH sanctification of the Spirit and BELIEF OF THE TRUTH

As you can see the CONDITIONS for being saved can be seen in the verse, and they are the same old conditions which can be seen throughout the whole Bible. We are constantly reminded of that we must REPENT from our sins so that we can be cleansed/righteous/justified/sanctified, and that we must BELIEVE in Jesus Christ. When we are led by the Holy Spirit we can get sanctification, and it’s THROUGH belief in the TRUTH that we are saved. The rest of this chapter confirms our free will.

³Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.—⁸And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Paul is writing to christians and he warns them to not be DECEIVED, which of course would be an unnecessary warning unless it could potentially happen. He is also informing them that there will be a falling away (christians leaving Christ) before the Antichrist will appear (the son of perdition). The Lord will later consume Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth and that will be at his second coming (hence the pretribulation theory could not be true since there will be christians around during the time of Antichrist).

¹⁰And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Here Paul confirms that those who perish do so BECAUSE of their unrighteousness and because they received not the love of the truth. Had they done so, this WOULD have saved them! It certainly looks like the same story as in Romans 1, where people hardened their heart to the extent that God gave them over to a reprobate mind.

¹¹And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:¹²That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Due to their own refusal to believe the truth and due to their wickedness, God will send them confusion (just like he did in Romans 1), resulting in that they believe in a lie (or rather that they will believe in this lie with even more power than before). This will eventually lead to damnation and that is their own fault because they preferred to live in unrighteousness rather than seeking the only true God who could save them.

¹³But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:¹⁴Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are saved through FAITH (belief in the truth) and we get sanctification through the Holy Spirit when we repent and walk in the light. We are called to do so by the gospel (faith comes from hearing the Word) and we obtain all the richness that can be found in our Lord Jesus Christ. When God calls us, the idea is that we accept the calling and come to him in order to get saved.

¹⁵Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Paul tells the christians to STAND FAST and to HOLD the traditions that they have been taught (something THEY must do because God certainly isn’t going to do this for them), implying that they are not predestined to do this by any means. He encourages them to walk this path, knowing there is always a possibility they won’t. Paul wouldn’t spend valuable time encouraging people and warning them about dangerous scenarios unless there was a chance they could stray away.