If you would stand with me for the reading of the word this morning. Our scripture verses today are going to be from Genesis 5, 1 through chapter 6, 4, and they read as follows. This is the book of the generations of Adam and the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image and named him Seth. In the days of Adam, after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he became father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Adam lived were 930 years and he died. And Seth lived 105 years and became the father of Enosh. And Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. And Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Kinnan. And then Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kinnan and became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. And Kinnan lived 70 years and became the father of Mehalelot, Then Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahelelot, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. And Mahelelot lived 65 years and became the father of Jared. Then Mahelelot lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared and became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Mahelelot were 895 years, and he died. And Jared lived 160 years and became the father of Enoch. Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. And Enoch lived 65 years, and he became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he'd become father of Methuselah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And then Methuselah lived 187 years and became the father of Lamech. Then Lamech and then Methuselah lived 782 years after he became the father of Lamech, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died. And Lamech lived 800, or excuse me, 182 years and became the father of a son. And now he called his name Noah, saying, this one will give us rest from our work, from the pain of our hands arising from the ground. which Yahweh has cursed. Now Lamech lived 595 years after he became the father of Noah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died. And Noah was 500 years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Jephthah. Now it happened when the men began to multiply in the face of the land, and the daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good in appearance, and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then Yahweh said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he indeed is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. You may be seated. This week's message is titled Biologically Engineered Evil. Last week, we ended on the line of Seth, about the descendants of Seth, and that is the then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh. They are completely different from the Cainites, the ungodly. They are the godly. None of their accomplishments are mentioned. Only the name of Yahweh is of importance. And this is a contrast with the Cainites. who were really the sons of men, glorifying in their human accomplishments. Instead, the line of Seth glorified Yahweh. And so the whole of chapter four is the growing war, the seed of Satan versus the seed of the woman, the descendants of a murderer and witness versus the descendants of righteousness, the descendants of light versus the descendants of darkness. And all of those descendants tie back to a single incident in history. bringing the right sacrifice or worship, the right way to the right source. And when you fail, your descendants are cursed from generation to generation. There is only one way to avoid that, that is bring the right sacrifice, the right way to the right source and calling upon his good name, Yahweh, my Lord, my King, my God. And secondly, before we begin, we're going to see some very familiar names being used in Chapter 5 that were used in Chapter 4. But these are totally different people. So don't get mixed up in that. All the people in Chapter 5 are totally different people. And the reason this is, is just as today, we use same names from family lineages. And so you'll have grandsons and great-grandsons named after aunts and uncles and great-aunts and uncles. And this is the same type of thing. So even though we have the same names being used, we're talking about two different groups of people. Now understand as we go through chapter five, the whole point of chapter five, the entirety of chapter five is a timeline to the flood. That's the whole point of it. That's the whole thing. And that was the point that Jude was making in his letter when he wrote, but Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesies about these men saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones, Jude 114. In other words, what he's saying is there's no gaps in these genealogies. We are told when people are born and we people die and such genealogies enable us to add up the years through scripture back to Adam. And so in our modern timeline, we generally use the birth of Christ as our date. But prior to Christ being born, the genealogies were how you kept track. And again, there was no way anyone after this could try and fit in millions of years into the Bible, that's why it's here. And so we have Seth that lived for 105 years, fathered Enosh, then he lived another 807 years, and notice other sons and daughters. There's a main one that's named, but other sons and daughters are there in each one of these, and thus the days of Seth were 912, and he died. Then you have Enosh lived 90 years, fathered, 815 years after he fathered Kenan, that all the days were 905 years. And again, we have other sons and daughters. Then we go to Kenan, 70 years. You go to his son, 840 years after, 910 years total. Then Methillel, you have 65 years, fathered Jared. Then you have 830 years after that. Then you go to Jared, 162 years, and he fathers Enoch. And again, this is a different Enoch than from chapter four. Excuse me. And all the days of Jared were 962 years. That's all of verses 6 through 20. Now, reading all these, it's kind of hard to follow the timeline. But if you actually write them out in a timeline, you get two significant dates. First is the date of the flood, which is 1,656 years after creation. So you have creation on day one, and 1,656 years later, you have the flood. But the second, these dates, along with the rest of the Old Testament, give us the date of creation from Christ, or Christ from creation, which is roughly 4,004 years. And then the dating system essentially changes to now Christ is the most significant date And so Christ's date then becomes before Christ or after his death. But that's why this chapter is here. It is to solidify that you have a young earth, that it is 4,000 years from the time of Christ, and also give you the date of the flood. Now, one of the most interesting and often overlooked features of this chapter is how it begins. And chapter five begins with, this is the book of the generations of Adam. And that word book means written record. So more than likely, Adam actually recorded history in written form, and that history would have been handed down like a diary, eventually going all the way to Noah and eventually to Moses. But remember, God's record in the Bible makes it clear that man could use language and speak, and more importantly, understand right from the beginning. So there are those that will use the excuse that Adam would have known how to write. You know, it's kind of this, again, we're trying to make him where he evolved from some type of ape creature. And so now you have Adam that's created, who's essentially stupid. That's not who Adam was at all. Remember, he is highly intelligent. And never forget that Adam is extremely different than all of us. As a passage states, for Adam, he made him in the likeness of God. Only Adam was created directly by God. And remember, not only created directly by God, but created fully mature, made in God's image, and ready to communicate immediately. He is not like a child. All others that would be followed, born as a child, born as sinners, all have sinned as Romans 3.23 says this, but because of Adam, but that's not how Adam was born. And so all of us have to be born Without the ability of language, we have the ability for it, but we have to learn it as we go. But Adam and Eve didn't have to do that. They were made directly as mature human beings. So to consider them unintelligent is extremely foolish. Now, those like myself have been taught their whole lives that God dictated all of this to Moses, and then he recorded it. That is possible. But the point I'm trying to make is the fact that it isn't impossible that the patriarchs from the beginning recorded the things respectfully at each generation. And this is because Genesis is an incredibly unique book. You can actually take Genesis and divide it into sections very easily, and it's based on those generations. These divisions are more likely to represent either oral tradition or written text passed down through the patriarchs and their descendants, which then Moses used to put Genesis into its final form under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, because verse five starts with this is the book of the generations of Adam. That phrase, the generations is the Hebrew word, Toledot, which means which actually appears 11 times in Genesis and helps tie the whole book together as a single history. It's a more like a chapter. And so more than likely, Moses was working with all 11 Toledots because each one has to do with a particular section. The first one is actually in Genesis 1, 1 through 2. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heaven. And so the history of the universe and all life, including the creation of Adam and Eve, would have had to have been relayed by God himself and more than likely to Adam. Now, I'm not going to read you each section to go through all, but understand each section that there is. They all have that phrase. These are the generations of blank. And more than likely, the verses that are before it or preceded it was recorded by the individual named after the phrase. So Genesis 2-4 through 5-1, recorded by Adam. Genesis 5-1 through 6-9, recorded by Noah. Genesis 6-9 through 10-1, recorded by Shem, Ham, and Jephthah. Genesis 10.2 through 11.10, recorded by Shem. Genesis 11.10 through 11.27, recorded by Terah. 11.27 by 25.12, recorded by Abraham. 25.12 by 25.19, recorded by Ishmael. 25.19 through 36, chapter 36, recorded by Esau. 36 to chapter 36 9 recorded more than likely by Jacob because it is the descendants of Esau at that point Genesis 36 9 through 37 to recorded by Jacob and then the last of Genesis recorded by Joseph Now don't hear me say that Moses didn't write Genesis. I because more than likely you had a lot of historical information in each one of those told adults. And so Moses, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would have been the ones to realize the information that was necessary for scripture and be the one to record it down as what we have as Genesis. Secondly, I also want to say the evidence of Moses writing Genesis is so overwhelming. It's probably one of the most solid things that we have. And then you have the confirmation of this by Christ himself in the New Testament, which is pretty well a checkpoint on that. But the point that I'm making is that the inspiration of scripture does not require us to conclude that Genesis was written by God dictating to Moses. Dictation was a means employed very often, but generally when they were, the prophet would say, the word of the Lord came to me saying blank. And we don't see that here. And much of the Bible was actually written from eyewitness experience from the authors, as Peter described, where we did not make known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly designed, devised myths, but being eyewitnesses to his majesty, second Peter, verse 16 or 116. The other part. as a result of research by the author in Luke's case. In as much as I have undertaken to compile an account of the things that I that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and the servants of the word handed them down to us. It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in an orderly sequence. Most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty about the things that you have been taught. And so just as Christian authors today can quote truthful statements from non-Christian sources without endorsing their wrong ideas, some biblical authors could quote non-believers or non-biblical sources without introducing false statements into their divine writings. So it is perfectly reasonable to think that Moses, under divine inspiration, wrote Genesis from already pre-existing, well-preserved oral tradition or oral written documents from the patriarchs. We don't honestly know for sure, but it's highly possible. Now, I pointed this out last week, but it's still vital, and I wanna point this out as another point again. Many people skip over Genesis 5-4, and without even thinking about it. And the point that's made in that verse is that Adam and Eve had other children, other sons and daughters, other than Cain, Abel, and Seth. We don't know how many, but the point is they did. And remember, part of Genesis 5-5 reads, and he died. And remember, this is a fulfillment of what God said would happen in the day that you eat, you will surely die. As Hebrews 9-27 says, inasmuch as it was appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment. Now, one of the easily brushed over beautiful stories in Chapter 5 is the story of Enoch. That's why I slowed down as I was reading it. What a man of God he must have been. Inside of this timeline, and you have this repetitive lived a number of years, fathered blank, lived a number of years after he fathered blank, other sons and daughters died. That begins the same way throughout essentially 14 verses. And then you get to verse 21. And then verse 21 or 22, Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah. And that phrase, walked with, is talking about the manner of his life. That manner was a closeness and a love for God alone. And it was so much so that verse 24 just simply states, God took him. Took him to heaven without dying. Said, you and me, gone. Took him, okay? Now understand not only the significance of this witness, but who the witnesses would have been. Enoch's son, Methuselah, is who? Noah's grandfather, who would have been 300 years old when his own father was taken before him. Enoch's grandson, Lamech, Noah's father, would have been 13 years old when his grandfather was taken. Enoch is also one of two pre-flood patriarchs. Other than being Lamech, the father of Noah, he gave prophecies that are recorded in scripture. In Jude 1.14, I read, but Enoch and the seventh generation prophesied about the many thousands of this holy one. That was Jude 1.14. Now, we don't know where Jude obtained this prophecy because it's not recorded in scripture other than Jude. But because Jude records it, and because everything else has been correct, we have to believe it was more than likely recorded in the Torah and in Jewish tradition. And as it is scripture, God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, moved Jude to put it down again. Now, no doubt, Enoch saw the wickedness increasing on the earth, and he was warning people that one day God would come back in judgment. But even back then, before the flood, Enoch was prophesying about the second coming of Jesus before Jesus had even come the first time. which is amazing, which you really could only get that way with a close relationship with God. Now, in verse 25, we reach Methuselah, who, as we read in the next couple of verses, was the longest living person in recorded history. If you match up the ages of the patriarch, Methuselah died the same year as the flood. Now, some would mistakenly think Methuselah died in the flood. That's highly unlikely. We know that Methuselah was raised by a godly parent, Enoch, who walked with God and Methuselah's grandson, Noah, was righteous. It seems likely, therefore, that Methuselah followed the Lord. In fact, Methuselah may perhaps have helped Noah in the construction phase of the ark, but his death likely preceded the flood. Now, some scholars have even suggested that Methuselah died immediately before the flood, and I think this is very interesting and more likely true. We can't be certain to that, but an interesting fact is that God instructed Noah and his family to board the ark seven days in advance before the ring. Now, we know there are several reasons for this. Obviously, one reason is to complete the final phase of loading the animals, so you're not rushing that, Genesis 2 through 9. And the second was the final test of faith for Noah's family, knowing that you're going to board this thing, lock yourselves in, and you've got to wait seven days. But keep in mind, it was common that there was a mourning period of seven days. Genesis, Deuteronomy, and 2 Samuel all record these different mourning times. In light of this, others have suggested that these seven days were more likely a mourning period for Methuselah before the rain came. And so with the passing of Methuselah and the recent passing of Lamech, we pause to realize that there weren't that many righteous people left on earth. After all, only eight are gonna be saved on the ark. So judgment's coming. but the Lord also prepared a means of salvation." Now note, Lamech made a prophecy concerning Noah right at the end. Verse 29, now he called his name Noah, saying, Now we really can't be sure what this means. There are Jewish traditions that Noah invented all sorts of farming equipment to help people in tilling the land. Others say it's prophecy that Noah would do something to help overcome the evil of the world, specifically in building the ark for salvation. It certainly seems, though, that Lamech knew that God was going to use his son Noah for something super special for the Lord. And that was the point of the prophecy. And so chapter five ends by telling us, verse 32, and Noah was 500 years old. And Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Jephthah. That's how it ends. And so these four people played a very important part in history. We know as we are coming to next week, Noah was called by God to build a great ship because God was going to judge the wicked world with a total catastrophic flood. And only Noah and these three sons and then their four respective wives survived that great flood. And as I mentioned earlier, chapter five is a timeline from the birth of Seth to the birth of Noah's son. And Genesis chapter six is returning us to the narrative of the war that has been raging since the time of the garden, but before the earth is flooded. Last week we saw this battle intensify as we read about the descendants of Cain versus the descendants of Seth. And after tracing the line of Cain and their worldliness, and then the line of Seth and those that called upon the name of the Lord, Genesis 4.4. So understand in this context, Satan's descendants, those that follow the path of Cain, start to gain power in the war through most of Genesis 4. And then all of a sudden, Seth shows up and has a son, and the men start to call upon the name of Yahweh. And the light of the Lord shines in the darkness. Now, as I said, chapter 4 and chapter 6 are the narratives. They're the story. They're the fun story to read. Chapter 5 is the timeline, or think of it this way. It's like a map included in a novel. It's the map of Middle Earth included in the Lord of the Rings series. And so you're looking at the map as you're reading the narrative, understanding you're going from one side of the map to the other side of the map. Chapter 5 is letting you know that you have traveled roughly 1,000 years in the future from the time of Cain and Abel to Noah. That's what it's giving you. And as we get into our last four verses today, these verses have occurred throughout that entire thousand year period. And my best guess is based on scripture as they take place immediately preceding the last verse of chapter four, when the men began to call upon the name of Yahweh, which is verse 26. And so now as we get into chapter six, verses one through four, there are three different views held by believers. Now, of all things, these views in particular, please hear me, are definitely second-tier views, if not third-tier issues. And in the church, we should never debate keyly or ever divide over these three different interpretations. Now, obviously, like any other belief, what you believe tends to make you behave in a certain way. And since it's God's Word, it is imperative to do our best to interpret the way He intended, and therefore the true way. But when we look at these four verses, we're specifically looking at a systematic theology of three things, the sons of God, the daughters of men and the Nephilim. And how do those three pieces fit together throughout the rest of scripture? And as I said a minute ago, there's three different views held by believers. And so the first belief is what we call the Sethite view. And this view was dominant for about the time of Augustine in 400 A.D., up to about 1900 A.D. And in this belief, the line of Cain, mentioned in Genesis 4, is placed against the line of Seth, mentioned in Chapter 5. and the line of Seth was godly line from Adam to Noah, and then this line of Cain is rebellious and ungodly, which that part is most likely true. But the twist is now that when you get to chapter six, you have the men from the line of Seth, and they're godly, so they're the sons of God, and they then marry the daughters of men, meaning Cain's line, and therefore ungodly, and what is produced from those two lines is the Nephilim. And when they translate Nephilim, Generally, what they mean is they are wicked and sinful, and so that's what has to be destroyed in the flood. Now, to be fair with the Sethite view, there is a war raging between the godly and the ungodly, but there's nothing that says that all of Seth's line was godly. Remember, as we went through the generations, the common thread in each generation is had other sons and daughters. And so it just calls into question that everybody is good. Why then aren't anybody else mentioned? The second view is what is called the kingly view or the royalty view. This view was actually developed before the Sethite view at the end of the first century, early second century among rabbis. Now in this view, the sons of God phrase is describing rulers before the flood who acted foolishly in the same ways like Solomon would later do when he rose And so their sin was they took wives from whoever they chose with the added idea the ruler would try and spread their wicked seed to as many women as humanly possible to then have wicked seed everywhere. And so the idea is through polygamy, you're bringing women into their harems and you're just spreading Essentially wicked ungodly seed now. There's honestly not much basis for this view The reason I bring it up is because it's honestly gaining ton of popularity with biblical scholars today Or I should say so-called biblical scholars The sethite view seems to be more popular among lay people and old earth people those that don't want to try and explain anything magical or angelistic Whereas the royalty view seems to be growing in popularity among biblical-type folks, mainly because it's older than the Sethite view. And it comes, it's traced back to around 90 AD. Now remember, what is 90 AD? You've got the late first century, and the temple's been destroyed in 70 AD. So this is roughly 20 years after the fact. But the scary thing is, the view doesn't come from the church at that point. It comes from the Jews in 90 A.D. And remember, what is happening with the Jews in 90 A.D.? At this point, they're kind of reinventing the Jewish faith in a sense. The temple's no longer there. You can no longer do sacrifices. The sacrificial system is gone. So how does Judaism work now that they don't have this? And so there's a ton of reinventing going on in the whole part of the Jewish faith. And at that time, you actually had a few different rabbis who promoted the royalty view and then threatened excommunication for anybody who held the even older view, which we'll get to in a minute, which was the only view held before by believing Jews before this time. Now, that third and last view, which I said, which I believe is true and is called the fallen angel view. Now, outside of Scripture, the earliest writings we have about the fallen angel view dates back to what we call the intertestamential period, meaning that 500 years roughly between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ. There are numerous upon numerous Jewish writings that confirm this view and confirm that this view was held all the way beforehand. It's just the earliest writings are during that time. And so in this view, the sons of God, the Hebrew word is Ben Elohim, and it always refers to or means angels. And so the first verses in one through four are talking about angels that fell from heaven, married women, had children with them, and those offspring are what we call the Nephilim. And so the belief is that the mixture of angelic beings with humans is what produces Nephilim. And so, biblically, other than here in Genesis 6, this lines up with the rest of Scripture. Remember that phrase, sons of God? It's used in numerous places, and they're always referring to angels. Job 1, 6, now was the day that the sons of God came to stand before Yahweh, and Satan also came among them. This was the event when the angels came before God, and Satan comes in to tempt Job. Job 2.1, again, when they come again, again was the day that the sons of God came to stand before Yahweh and Satan also came among them to stand before Yahweh. This is the second temptation. Then you go to Job 38.7, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, question mark. That's Job 38.7. This is a question from God himself to Job as a, were you there? when the morning stars and the sons of God sang together. And so he's speaking of the time before Satan had fallen and he was with the other angels, the sons of God. And so that term doesn't refer to mankind. It's referring to some sort of heavenly being in that passage. And they're paralleled in Hebrew poetry with morning stars, sons of God, and so it's angelic beings is what's being described here. But the key to the whole thing in verses one through four is verse four. And that is the word when the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were old men of renown. The Hebrew word here is a shear, and it should be translated as whenever or when this happens. The word is a conclusion. A plus B equals C. That's what the word means. So whenever the sons of God take earthly wives, what it produces is the Nephilim. And the idea is something truly awful and wicked is going on here. Understand that even though we are all in the flesh and all of us have sinned, when we procreate as humans, that in itself is not evil. In fact, the extermination of human creation in the image of God is what is evil. But the key to these verses is the fact that there is a corruption of humanity, a corruption of the seed of humans. And this is the whole point. Look at the war in progress. You begin with the fall of the garden and the pronouncement of the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent, Cain, kills the seed of the woman, Abel, in what appears to be the elimination of the Lion of the Messiah. Then Seth is born. and now you have fallen rebellious angels and their goal is to corrupt that line so that it cuts off the Messiah. So it only produces Nephilim and it produces a tainted line of men that cannot produce the Messiah as it would seem. Listen, the first four verses of chapter six, this is the corruption of the human line. is the beginning of what leads God up to destroying the whole earth and wiping this corrupted seed from the whole earth. Now, the only defense against this view comes from Matthew 22. In this passage, you have the Sadducees. They come before Jesus, and they ask that ultimately loaded question. They say, there's this woman who marries this guy, and then he dies. And so she marries his brother, and then he dies, and then She marries the next brother. She does this seven times, and seven brothers die. I think she's the problem. But the question is then popped afterwards, who's she going to marry in the afterlife? And this is a trap to Jesus. And Jesus answered them and said, You are mistaken, not only understanding the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry or are nor given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. That's Jesus's answer. So people look at this passage and they're like, oh, see, angels can't marry. That's not what it says. Jesus says the angels of God in where? Heaven. In heaven do not marry. Holy angels do not marry. That's all it says. Like Jude six, it never mentions the ones who left their proper abode, the ones who left heaven and are in rebellion. Doesn't talk about them at all. He never says what they can or can't do. He just says the ones in heaven don't do that. In fact, properly understanding Matthew 22, 29 through 30, this further points to the pure pride and corruption of the fallen angels and because their fallen nature would desire to pollute the line of the Messiah and the seed of the woman they hate so violently. Now, verse four uses this term Nephilim and understand the Hebrew definition means only one thing. That's why the other two views really struggle. It means one solid thing. Any strong Lex 10, any language you go to, it means one thing. That's giants. It's the only thing that it means after the flood. Numbers 13 actually interprets a new language that will be used for giants thereafter. Numbers 1333 says there were also saw the Nephilim, the son of the sons of Hanukkah are part of the Nephilim. and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. And so after the flood, Moses is tying these two terms together as synonyms to one another, the Nephilim and the sons of Anak. So some people try and look at Numbers 13 and will say, well, it's just the spies. They're lying about it. Actually, Moses tells us 10 verses earlier, he names them. And they had gone up to Negev and came to Hebron, where Ammiah, Shishai, and Tamal The descendants of Anak were. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zon and the Egypt. That's Numbers 13, 22. So Moses, the narrator, tells us that they're there. The spies weren't lying about giants, or what they called the sons of Anak being in the land. They were using that fact to try and scare the rest of the people not to go in. It was a means of distrust to God of his promises. And think of it this way. Doctors can give you a negative report. That doesn't mean they're lying, just means you're sick. Another term after the flood that is used is the refugium. Deuteronomy 220 through 21 reads, it is also regarded the land of the refugium for the refugium formerly lived in it. But the Amorites called them Zazuzim, a people as great and numerous as tall as the Anakim. But Yahweh destroyed them before before them. and they all disposed them and settled in their place. And so it too, Rephium, is translated directly as giants. But the Rephium is also a location, and so a people. So they are known by their location and the fact that they are giants. That's why that term's a little bit different. In scripture, there are various names for giants representing different tribes and different races of giants. There's actually five that are listed, The Rephaim, the Rephates, the Anakim, Amem, Zuzim, and Zemzuzim. Five total races of giants. Now, as I said before, the biggest objection to this view is that angels can't procreate with women. The Bible doesn't give us a biology lesson on that, but it does give us some details of how they could happen. Now, let me first say there are some people like John MacArthur who take the view that what has happened is they demon-possessed men and then did this. I don't hold to that view because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That wouldn't change the biological engineering of the possessed man. And so having a relationship then being possessed wouldn't produce that type of thing. It's nothing abnormal on that level. What's occurring here in Genesis six is something very, very unique, not necessarily unique to angels, but unique to humans. Over and over again, angels appear in a human form in scripture. just like you see in Genesis 18, where two angels came with the Lord. They talked to Abraham for a bit, enjoyed a meal, and then the Lord talks to Abraham, and those two angels go down to Sodom to get Lot out. And remember what happened when they went down. The men of the city saw them and apparently viewed them as men because they desired to molest them in that process. And of course, they were wicked people, but they thought they were men because they appeared to be men. In the same story, they're able to grab Lot by the hand and essentially drag him out of there and perform those same type of human functions. And so why would we assume that they can't do more than that? They ate with Abraham beforehand. They can touch things. They can destroy things. So we have other pictures when Gabriel appears to Daniel. It says in Daniel 9, the man Gabriel came to meet. The angels at the tomb at first Easter morning in both Mark and Luke's gospel has them as being men. Acts refers to the men standing as Christ ascends to heaven, and the point being that if you can eat, drink, and fight in human form, then the idea of them being able to procreate is not that far off. And what does track with the rest of Scripture is the fact that holy angels only do what God has commanded them to do. and the fallen do not. But when the fallen do procreate with humans, that's when you get giants. Now, as I mentioned before, you end up with different tribes and clans from there, but the Nephilim themselves are giants, and their children would be likely giants, but each time a little bit less pure in the terms of giantness, but the seed is tainted nonetheless. The interesting things of the other two views is the fact that they either have defined the Nephilim as something else entirely, or they have to say the giants were already there when this happened. What it appears to be actually occurring is that utilizing fallen angelic seed is tainting the seed of the woman. This is creating a hybrid creation that's not fully human anymore, and that you would then not be able to use as a sacrifice. and it would threaten that messianic line from the woman. It appears from verse nine, further in chapter six, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among those in his generation Noah walked with. That word blameless used in Hebrew is the same word used to describe the Passover lamb, the one that is needed to be without blemish. And so in a sense, Noah is not tainted, his line is not tainted. He doesn't have any taint in that lineage at all, whereas the other lines did. Now, the Nephilim are mortal. Their fathers may have been angelic beings, but their bodies are still mortal. But I want you to understand these giants, the Nephilim, are different than humans. In one of the battles that David had, one of David's mighty men kills an Egyptian. And he kills an Egyptian, a man of great height, five cubits tall, In the Egyptian's hand, there was like a spear, like a weaver's beam, and he went down with a staff, wrestled the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear, 1 Chronicles 11.23. That term, that man of great height, five cubits tall, roughly seven and a half feet tall, that's pretty large, but he's not called a giant. He's not called Nephilim or the sons of Anak, even at seven and a half feet. And there's a point to that. You can have humans that get tall, but giants are a different thing. That's the point that's being made in chapter six. Now, how big were they? We don't entirely know all of them. We have a few that we get a picture of how big they were. The biggest that's listed in scripture is the King Oji or King Og from Bashan listed in Deuteronomy. They put him at nine cubits, which would be around 13 to 15 feet tall. Goliath, that is the most famous from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, and his brothers would have been around the same size, places them all around nine to 10 feet tall. Now, some people hold the view that giants mentioned in ancient narratives were simply exceptionally tall men. However, the truth of this interpretation is highly suspect, considering the information that we have available today. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the maximum height recorded for a man is just under eight feet. But understand something. These individuals that become that tall don't have long life expectancies, and they do not exhibit the strength of biblical giants in any way, shape, or form. You know, the biblical giants, all their stuff is listed where they have clothing and armor that is weighing up to 110 pounds. That's not included in their weapons. Biblical giants are described as warriors who engage in battles against hundreds of men by themselves. In contrast, modern giants, what we call gigantism, have only short life expectancies and numerous upon numerous medical complications, including a larging of the heart and other organs in a highly, highly diseased type way. And their bodies and their human bones and their muscles cannot support the growth of those same bones and muscles. And so their gigantism, it not only makes them weak, in fact, it does such the destroying of the body that they would be the worst warriors on the planet. Their tallness, their size paralyzes them by that size. That's not how any of the giants are described. Therefore, there's a significant distinction between the characteristics of biblical giants and the exceptionally tall individuals that we have in our contemporary society. So the Nephilim are when you take the seed of the fallen angel and mix it with the seed of men through the daughters of Adam. And what is produced is giants. And the last thing I want to leave you with about them is this. There is not a single incidence nor a single individual giant is ever mentioned in a righteous aspect. All of them are always described as the worst of the worst of the worst enemies and people towards God. And not only that, always the most feared warriors of their day. They're not only the enemies of God, but those at the front line of the armies of Satan. That's where they always end up. And so verse three says, nevertheless, his day shall be 120 years. These 120 years are a countdown to the flood. In other words, mankind's violence had reached its peak and God declared 120 years before the flood would become a drop-dead date for all mortal beings. And the funny thing is, even stating this, God's actually being incredibly graceful and patient. He's allowing people another 120 years to turn from their wicked ways. But understand, God is not only removing the wickedness of just fallen men. He's also going to clear the earth of this tainted bloodline, preserving only the pure bloodline of the Messiah. Now, let me wrap this up for you and why pulling chapters four, five and the first part of six are so fundamental. And although what can seem fantastical, what can seem made up out of thin air or fictional, there's something in our DNA, something in the way that we are designed, that we are a people, especially men and boys, where we want dragons and giants to be real. Because we've got a sneaking suspicion that we were made to slay them. We kind of want to know that giants really were real and that God placed us in a world where there's good and there's evil and there's real evil power at work. And we're caught up in this incredible battle for the glory of God, our righteous king, that knights and shining armor and all this magical world actually exists. And I love what Joe Rigney said on this. It's not that we're disenchanted since the enlightenment. There's sort of a modern narrative Christians have bought into says the world in the old days used to be enchanted during the Middle Ages. They believed in both the physical and the spiritual, angel, demon, fairies, dryads, all sorts of that stuff. And then the Enlightenment came along, modernity came along, and basically disenchanted the world. And it attempted to give reason and debunk all of the spiritual stuff, including God himself. And the interesting thing is what Joe was saying, as he points to C.S. Lewis. And C.S. Lewis says that he thinks not that the world has been disenchanted, but that we've been put under a dark enchantment. He thinks modernity is not the world it used to be, but that the world is still the same, and we've been placed under a dark enchantment by a dark sorcerer, so that we don't believe that there's magic anymore. And this is the whole point of the silver chair that Lewis wrote. And he depicts Prince William under a spell for 10 years. And even after his rescue, the witch returns and she tries to put him under the sleep again. And the magic she uses makes you drowsy. And the more it gets into you, the less you notice it. And the more you're kind of coming under the spell, she starts asking you questions. And the questions are basically modern ideologies that we see all around us that basically says religion is just a fairy tale. Dragons and giants are fairy tales. And for children, you use this for children to help them cope with the hard facts of life that eventually they're going to die. That God is just a projection of human ideals and desires. And you see that you're just projecting this type of behavior. which was all the false theologies of Freud and Fubrock and all those other 19th and 20th century liberal psychological morons. And they do this as a, we were children and we needed that, but now we're adults. And this modern enchantment that C.S. Lewis presents is presented to the children and Puddleglum in the story and the prince, And they all basically start to fall asleep. And as they do, there's a relief as they go to sleep, the kind of given it feels so good. This is true. And she then repeats the modern enchantment as a catechism over and over. So they repeat the lie. And Christians can all fall prey to this. We can all start to fall asleep. That is why C.S. Lewis wrote that story. The Silver Chair is probably one of the most profound analysis I've ever read dealing with the believability of the first several chapters of Genesis leading up to this story about the offspring of fallen angels. Let me say that again. Ten pages of a children's book written in the 1940s captures the significance of the first six chapters of Genesis better than any other book. And the whole of modern science, philosophy, and psychology has attempted to thwart this for the last 6,000 years. Darwin and materialism is just dulled our senses of wonder. They're the dark enchantment. And I want Christians that are here and those that are listening to realize you can have wonder. You can have wonder, faithful, without being ridiculous. You don't have to be ridiculous to think about dragons and giants. You just have to read the book. the right book, the way it was meant to be read. And then you grab your sling and your sword and you step out to battle the hybrids created by evil and sin. Amen.