This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There, you'll find resources like full message series, the CWS app, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Genesis chapter 6. Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 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. 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.
There were giants 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 men of renown. 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. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth. He was grieved in his heart. And 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.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Many, many years ago, Martin Luther made a startling announcement. He said, I am much afraid that our own universities may prove to be the very gates that lead to hell. When I was a brand new Christian and I went to a local college in California, I couldn't have been more than two months old as a believer. I didn't know much. I was about to be challenged on my first day of school. I had a science teacher who asked if anybody in his class believed in God and believed in creation. Well, I raised my hand.
I raised it up pretty high. I was naive. I didn't know he had an agenda. This was all new to me. I thought higher education was fair. I didn't know it would be slanted and skewed. But I was about to get schooled in more ways than one.
Well, when I raised my hand and maybe there was a couple of other students that kind of did this, you know, it's like I'll move it up to like the shoulder clavicle and no more. And then went on to berate the idea of special creation, creationism, and went on to tout what I could only describe as a form of uniformitarianism, that history has continued uninterrupted, the steady chain of events, long evolution over a long period of time, steady as she goes. Well, it's pretty obvious that the Bible would disagree with that stance. The apostle Peter would be one of them. Peter was not a uniformitarianism believer. He was a catastrophist.
He believed that there were great catastrophes that interrupted the history of mankind upon the earth. And he writes about it in, and I'll read it to you or you can turn to it in 2 Peter 3. And you might as well put a marker in 2 Peter because we're going to refer to it twice tonight.
This is the first time. Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 3, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
That in a nutshell in a first century phraseology is uniformitarianism. For this they willingly forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. There have been two massive cataclysmic events in our past. One is the creation of the heavens and the earth that was performed by God in six literal 24-hour days. It was created fully mature, but the second event was the great flood, great cataclysmic event. The first, creation, took six days.
The flood lasted 371 days approximately. Creation gave us the first earth. The flood gave us what we would call the second earth, the earth we now see, live in and enjoy. Now the flood, and I believe it's a universal flood, not a local flood, there are certain things that are phenomena in our natural world that I believe can only be explained by a flood. For instance, the existence of great inland seas that are in different continents of the world.
China has them, India has them. We in America have them, our great basin. The shoreline is apparent, it can be seen. It was at one time a vast saltwater inland sea that got there somehow. It has since receded. There's hardly anything left of what was there originally.
You could probably give it the name Lake Bonneville because all that's left is a little body of water known as the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats, but at one time the great basin was covered in water. Difficult to explain that without a flood. The fossil record is difficult to explain without the universal flood.
Massive forests have been compressed by the pounding of the pressure of water. That's pretty easily seen because there are water-laid layers of sediment forming coal, and coal is found all over the earth in every continent, even near the North Pole and the South Pole. And atop those layers and in between those layers are fossils, interesting fossils, sea life fossils. So in Michigan they have fossilized whales. In Ohio they've discovered fossilized sharks. In Wyoming they've discovered fossilized fish at over 7,000 feet above sea level. Fish 7,000 feet above sea level.
Well, how did they get there? There's a great sediment layer out in Nebraska, Agate Springs, Nebraska that houses over 9,000 animal remains, bones, that have been pushed there by some enormous pressure, the pressure of water mixed with dirt that have pushed these things into the sediment. Then you have the strata layer, but in the fossil record you have certain fossils that are out of order even that transect the strata. So you can find tree trunks or mammal fossils embedded vertically through supposedly long-developing strata, they say over millions of years.
They have difficulty explaining the presence of those fossils that transect that. Now in the history of mankind, in over 270 nations or tribes, you have flood stories. It's not just a biblical story. You have that record in virtually every part of the world, from South America, Brazil, Bolivia, different tribes, different Indians, the Hottentots, those in Africa, the Aborigines in Australia, all the way back to the Gilgamesh epic or the Babylonian flood epic, which is probably the most famous and the closest to the biblical narrative. But there are 270 plus records of a worldwide flood that have existed through time.
Now I wanted to read this to you. 88% of those flood narratives, 88% of those flood stories say that there was a favored family that was spared. 70% say that survival was by means of a boat. 95% say the sole cause of this great catastrophe was a flood. 66% of these flood narratives say that it was because of man's wickedness. 77% declare that animals were also saved.
57% say the survivors ended up on a mountain. Many of them use the form of Noah's name, like the Hawaiian legend about Nu'u, instead of Noah, that's the pronunciation. Many of these flood narratives speak of birds being sent out. Many of them speak about a rainbow. And many of them say that eight people were saved.
So you get the point. Embedded in the history and the psyche of mankind, this was such an impressive event that the story was told and retold from its source, and we're about to read the source or we've read part of it, and then it was garbled as it went out and it was retold and things were added to it or subtracted from it. But you have pretty clear evidence of a worldwide flood, in the written record of nations, as well as in the natural phenomena that is on the earth. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, understanding Genesis is critical to understanding the rest of Scripture. And in his book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, Skip Heitzig helps you discover the meaning and message of this foundational book. Embark on an epic journey to where it all began, so you can understand the amazing story of God's love and our redemption in Christ. You Can Understand the Book of Genesis is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Now, back in Genesis chapter 6, I read several verses, but we're going to go back over a few of them.
And I want you to keep something in mind. I want you just as we go through this to tuck a New Testament verse, one you'll remember Jesus said it in Matthew 24. He said, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man.
And we're going to see no less than five worldwide conditions that existed at the time of Noah that I think fit in the modern era in which we live or will. First of all, an increase in population verse 1. It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them.
So that's number one. There was a huge population increase on the land. That's significant because Noah stood alone against everybody else who wasn't following God. Noah walked with God. He found grace we read in God's sight. Second, there was sexual depravity and an increase of it.
Verse 2, The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. Now that doesn't refer to the lifespan of an individual being 120 years because it didn't pan out that way immediately after the flood. It took a while after that canopy was broken up to reduce the lifespan. This is simply a statement that mankind has 120 years before the judgment of the flood comes upon planet earth.
That's the warning. 120 years of grace. And then God said, I'm going to judge the earth. And there were giants on the earth in those days. The Hebrew word Nephilim.
Some of you have heard that term Nephilim. It means literally fallen ones. And also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and bore children to them, those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. There are three views as to what this means.
It's a difficult text to unravel. In fact, whenever I have done question and answer programs on the radio, no matter where it's been, this is one of the questions that will inevitably come up. Who were the sons of God? Who were the daughters of men? There's three views.
You can take your pick. Number one, that these were fallen angelic beings that cohabitated or copulated with human women and produced this freakish race of Nephilim giants. View number two, it was the godly line of Seth marrying the ungodly line of Cain, sons of God and daughters of men.
Sethites and Canaanites, not Canaanites, Canaanites. View number three, that these were rulers, despotic rulers, who married women and basically were enlarging their harem. Those are the three views that are postulated. All three of them have merit.
Before you discount any of them, at least give them a hearing and then make your decision. Now what's interesting about the first view that they were fallen angels is that seems to have been the view of some of the ancient writers, even biblical writers perhaps. It would seem that Peter in 2 Peter 2 and Jude in that little book of Jude in the New Testament, 2 Peter 6 and 7, alludes to the judgment of the flood as something that least in part was because something that happened when angels sinned.
I just want you to look. So we've already looked at 2 Peter. Let's turn back there. 2 Peter, this time chapter 2. Just two verses. Verse 4 and 5, 2 Peter 2. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
Let's stop there. You have a new living translation. And you were with me when I read Genesis 6. It read very differently.
I'm going to read it to you. Now this is a modern translation put out just a few years ago. Genesis 6 and the new living translation. When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any that they wanted as their wives. Verse 4, in those days and afterward, giants lived on the earth, for when the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old. The differentiation leads us to believe that the translators of the new living translation see it as angels or fallen angels, sons of God, that is a direct creation of God intermingling with the human population. Now to complicate things even more, did you know that the writers, the translators of the Septuagint version, the Hebrew text of the Old Testament written into the Greek text about 250 B.C., that the Septuagint authors translated sons of God as angels? In their translation, 250 B.C., they acknowledged that the sons of God meant angels and here's why. Every time you read in the Old Testament that little phrase, sons of God in Hebrew, B'nai Elohim, it only refers to angelic beings and twice to fallen angelic beings in the book of Job chapters 1 and 2. Satan appears with the sons of God and they give an account to the Lord and God says, where have you been? Satan goes, going to and fro throughout the whole earth. So the translators of the Septuagint said it was angels.
Okay, you still with me? Also, there's a book that is called a pseudepigraphal book. Now a pseudepigraphal book is a book that is given a name of an author, but that author didn't write it.
So if I said, this is from the book of Sally, but Sally never wrote it, that's pseudepigrapha, it's given a false name. Well, there's a book called the book of Enoch and though it's not a biblical book, it says in those days the angels, that is the children of heaven, saw human women, lusted after them and said, let us marry wives and let us beget children and they're cuing off Genesis chapter 6. That would mean nothing to us at all except that Jude quotes from the book of Enoch. So it adds some level of credibility.
Now some people have a problem with this. How could angels appear as human beings? Now we know that they did Genesis 18 and then Genesis 19 when they go to Sodom, but people will say angels are non-corporeal beings and even if they appear as having a human form, they certainly couldn't cohabitate with the human and there are some problems with that and I can't quite unravel them. The second is that the sons of Seth and the daughters of Cain got married, sons of God. The only problem with that is in all of the usages, as I mentioned in the Old Testament, in the Bible of the term sons of God, it only refers to angels, not humans. So you have a problem with that one, a refutation for that one. The third one, that it was rulers that cohabitated with women, basically enlarging their harem, is because some of the ancient Near East evidence, manuscripts, non-biblical but other manuscripts, referred to earthly rulers, despotic rulers, by giving them the name sons of the gods.
Sons of the gods. Now I don't believe that that's the best interpretation of this text because the Bible never concedes to the secular language or seeing human beings as products of pagan gods. That's just not consistent with anything we read in the Old Testament. So you've got three views and you could explore them further.
All of them have difficulties, but what's most important is this. Whatever it was, it was sexual, it was wicked, it was against God's order and that was in part one of the reasons God judged the earth in the flood. So let's go back to Genesis 6. And notice it says in verse 3, the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, and his days shall be 120 years. Now here's what you gotta know. The Holy Spirit was active evidently from this earth, very active on the earth before the flood, wanting to bring people to righteousness and salvation.
How? Primarily through the preaching of Enoch and Noah. They're called preachers of righteousness in the Bible. Noah building a boat for a long period of years, a plank upon plank, telling of a coming flood, Enoch before him walking with God and as the New Testament said, proclaimed truth to them, preached to them.
God was very active trying to draw people to himself, but he said I won't do it forever, there comes a time when it's over. And then there were giants, Nephilim. Now the word means fallen ones, so it could refer to fallen people, all humans are fallen people, or it could refer to some special class of being.
Again, you'll have to interpret that. And also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and bore children to them, those were the mighty men, men of old, men of renown. Now what was happening back then is certainly happening right now, as it was in the days of Noah. So shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man.
Just as in the days of Noah, there was this newly found sexual freedom, there was this transgressing of the traditional family, no matter what you want to interpret that with, one of those three interpretations, that was going on. There was a chief sociologist, Harvard University, who made an interesting statement about this generation. He said this generation, this culture, is preoccupied with sex. It's now a preoccupation. It's everywhere.
It's everywhere. And it certainly has captured the hearts and minds of many. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will take you back to where it all began so you can understand all of God's Word more clearly.
Pastor Skip's book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His Word. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
