Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1076 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
When Angels Do Time – Wisdom Wednesday
Wisdom – the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.
Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase wisdom and create a living legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1076 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Creating a Biblical worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events.
To establish a Biblical worldview, you must also have a proper understanding of God’s word. Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors. In order to help us all have a better understanding of some of the more obscure passages in God’s Word, we are investing Wisdom Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. He has compiled these essays into a book titled I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible.
We are often taught or think that the demonic beings in the New Testament are fallen angels that have sinned with Satan, but what does the Bible say? In today’s essay, we will explore passages that cover…
When Angels Do Time
Most Bible study resources describe fallen angels as demons who joined Lucifer in his rebellion against God. But what if I told you that the only place in the New Testament that describes angels sinning, does not call them demons, has no connection to Lucifer, and has the angels in jail? Welcome to the world of 2 Peter and Jude.
2 Peter 2:4 – “For God did not spare even the angels, who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment.
Jude 6 – “And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.”
Second Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 are nearly identical in their description of angels doing time, but there are differences that help us figure out “what in the spiritual world is going on.”
Jude 6 defines what 2 Peter 2:4 means by the angelic sin. These sinning angels “left the place where they belonged.” Second Peter doesn’t say they were in cahoots with Satan, or that they did anything in Eden. It tells us they left their designated realm of existence and did something in another realm. But what did they do?
Both 2 Peter and Jude compare the sin of these angels with the Sodom and Gomorrah incident, where the sin involved sexual immorality (2 Pet 2:7: Jude 7). Second Peter also connects it to the time of Noah. There is only one sin involving a group of angelic beings in the entire Bible, and it coincides with Noah and is sexual in nature. That incident is Genesis 6:1-4, “Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.’ In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.”
Two features in these passages in 2 Peter and Jude point to Genesis 6:1-4. First, “sons of God” is a specific phrase used elsewhere in the Old Testament of angelic beings (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job [38:17]; Psalms 89:6; Deuteronomy 32:8) Second, both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 explicitly tell us that what happens to these angels, “God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.”
While it is true that Genesis 6:1-4 never tells us what happened to the sons of God who sinned, Jewish writings from between the Testaments do. All Jewish writings that comment on Genesis 6:1-4 agree that it was angelic beings who sinned and who were bound and thrown into the Netherworld (e.g., 1 Enoch [18:14]-19:3).
Most English translations of these ancient documents say the angels were thrown into “hell” —the most frequent translation of the Greek word “Hades.” However, 2 Peter has the angels chained in “Tartarus” (Tâprapoç). This is the name of the prison of the divine giants in the classical Greek story, Hesiod’s Theogony. Jewish writers also used this word for the dark, gloomy Netherworld.
While these passages are certainly strange, they telegraph that angelology and demonology are more complex than we might think. They are also the key to understanding Genesis 6:1-4, which is tied to the New Testament doctrine of baptisms
That will conclude our essay for this week. Next Wisdom Wednesday we will continue in the New Testament as we look at Dr. Heiser’s next essay titled “Tough Love.” I believe you will find this another interesting topic to consider as we build our Biblical worldview.
Tomorrow we will continue with our 3-minute humor nugget that will provide you with a bit of cheer and help you to lighten up and live a rich and satisfying life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
If you would like to listen to any of our past 1075 treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.
Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
I am Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Everyday! See you tomorrow!