One of the obscure verses in the Bible that is not often referenced when speaking of the “Last Days” and the return of Jesus, is in Matthew Chapter 24:
Matthew 24:38-39 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The days of Noah were marked by such an increase in sin across the earth, that the Lord felt it necessary to destroy all mankind and start afresh with Noah and his family. If we go back to the Book of Genesis we get a hint as to what was occurring during those “days of Noah”.
Genesis 6:1-7 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Notice that there were two primary problems that existed that caused the Lord to destroy the earth:
- The intermingling of the “Sons of God with the daughters of earth.”
- That “Every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually”
There has been much controversy over who the “Sons of God” are but let me say here that it is very clear in the original Hebrew language that “Sons of God”, the B’nai Elohim, are clearly not human sons, but are the by product of a direct creation of God Himself.Only angles are called B’nai Elohim in the Old Testament, never a human being. There are only two Books in the Old Testament that reference the name “Sons of God”, Genesis chapter 6, and Job chapters 1 and 38. In both cases the Hebrew language for “Sons of God” is B’nai Elohim. If we look at Job chapter 38 we get a clearer picture of who the Old Testament “Sons of God” are:
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Here the Lord describes those that were present at the creation of the Universe and witnessed the coming forth of everything from nothing. The “Sons of God”, the angels witnessed this incredible event. The angels were in existence before the Heavens and the earth were created, they were called “Sons of God” because they were directly created by God Himself. In this respect Adam also was a direct creation of God as he was not the product of human reproduction, but directly created fully formed by God.
These are the only examples of someone who can rightly be called “A Son of God” in the Old Testament. In order to be a “Son of God in the Old Testament, a being must be directly created by God. When we arrive at the New Testament, those that are called “Sons of God are also given this designation because they are a direct creation of God being “Born Again” spiritually. Only those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and have become “A New Creation”, (2 Corinthians 5:17) are designated “Sons of God”.
Clearly, those referenced in Genesis 6 are not the product of a normal human reproductive process as the result of this union are seen by verse 4 of Genesis 6
Genesis 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
These Giants that are seen in the Old Testament, were incredibly large men who towered over the normal human population. Some of the notable Giants of the Old Testament who are in this category of the byproduct of the union of man and angels are:
- Goliath, 9 ft 9 in
- Og, at 13 ft 6 in
It was this intermingling of the DNA of angels with the DNA of men that created this superhuman race of human beings. This added to the fact that every thought and intention of man during this time was towards sin, these are what caused the Lord to destroy the earth and all that was upon it. If you study the Old Testament you will discover that from the moment that man was created upon the earth, satan has apposed him and has been seeking his destruction.
The very first prophecy in the Bible in Genesis 6:15 speaks of the fact that there will be a “Seed of a woman” who will destroy the works of the devil. Since women do not posses the seed, but rather the man, it is clear that the Lord was making reference to the woman who would birth the one who would put an end to the devil. Someone born of a virgin, without seed from man. She would have to have seed already within her, coming from the Holy Spirit and not any man. This was necessary in order to give birth to a Savior who is Himself without the original sin of Adam. The Old Testament is clear that only a male sacrifice that is without defect can be offered for sin. Therefore only a Savior free from Adams sin would be qualified to be the Messiah. When Jesus came, the testimony of those who knew Him the best was that He had never sinned. Jesus Himself asked the Pharisees “Which of you convicts me of sin?”
From the birth of Adams first son we can see that satan was seeking to corrupt or destroy man’s genetic makeup so as to prevent the coming of this savior born from a descendant of Adam. The intermarrying of angels with human women was just one of these attempts at corrupting the gene pool and preventing a qualified savior to be born. Other attempts were during the reign of Hitler, as millions of Jews were exterminated. Herod who dispatched soldiers to Bethlehem and killed every male child under two years of age.
The second reason that the Lord gave in Genesis chapter six for the destruction of all living things was that “every thought and intent of man was towards sin continually”. The pinnacle of evil on the earth during the day of Noah was so great that man was completely corrupted and beyond the threshold of evil that God could allow. The Lord said that “His spirit would not always strive with man”. There is a point that the Lord declares that “this is enough” and He brings judgment and destruction upon man. Peter made reference to this fact when he said that those who mock the return of Jesus to the earth for the purpose of bringing judgement and to destroy the earth forget that the Lord has done this at least twice before.
2 Peter 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?walking according to their own lusts, 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Verse 5 refers to the fact that at the creation of Genesis chapter 1, that the earth was apparently already in the condition of being covered with water from a flood that occurred due to judgement by God for something that happened before the creation of man. When Genesis 1:2 says that the earth “Was without form and void”, the correct word here in Hebrew should be “Became” without form and was void”. Something happened to cause the earth to be without form and void before the six days of recreation that are described in Genesis chapter one.
Many have speculated that it was the fall of Lucifer that caused this first judgment on the earth before man was created and the earth was brought out of this deep freeze that it had been placed in by the Lord due to sin. The six creative days described in Genesis are actually restorative days where the earth is seen as bringing forth life from what was formenly there. The Hebrew word used in describing the events of the six days indicated that the earth was being restored, not created for the first time. The actual creation of the heavens and the earth described in verse one of Genesis could have happened billions of millions of years previous to verse 2. Sin and death came to man from Adam, but sin and death were already present in the universe long before man was ever created as evidence by the fall of Lucifer.
The earth may have been in this suspended state of judgment that Peter speaks of for billions of years before it was brought out of that judgement and recreated into it’s present form. Peter then speaks of a second flood that happened during the days of Noah. Mathematicians have calculated that that from the creation of Adam to the flood, knowing that man was living for over 900 years of age, that there could have been more than six billion human beings on the earth at the time the flood happened.
Jesus said that in the Last Days, we would know of the eminent return of our Lord when those days began to parallel the days of Noah. Today as in no other time in all of human history other than at the flood of Noah, man has corrupted himself to the point were it is very easy to see that we are living amongst a generation of human beings just as evil as those at the flood of Noah.
This then is one of the clearest signs to us that the Rapture could occur at any moment, and the Time of Great Tribulation in which two thirds of the population of the earth will die, is only a short time ahead. Jesus said:
Luke 21:28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
