“And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”
And the angels
Jude now turns to the second illustration of apostasy–the fall of evil angels from their primary realm during Noah’s generation.
who did not keep their proper domain,
In Genesis 6, “sons of God” (used only of angels) saw the “daughters of men” and lusted after and sinned with them. This is the reason God destroyed the world by flood. Only Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he maintained a separation between humans and angels. “Sons of God” (angels) were present at the laying of the foundation of the earth:
To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:6-7
God created man “a little lower than angels.” That is, man does not have the capacities of angels. When God gave birth to Jesus as a man, He created Him with capacities lesser than angels. Jesus proved that the angels did not need to fall because, with lesser capacity, He did not fall in His humanity.
These angels had the right to live in a particular domain given by God. They left this domain in heaven by leaving their original structure and entered into sexual sin with human women on earth.
The word “keep” means guard. Angels did not guard the category of being an angel. God does not allow for the co-mingling of angels and humans. Infiltration sexually into the realm of homosapiens breaks a structure of creation. Homosexuality is another breaking of structural creation. Sexual relations between men and animals (bestiality) is yet another example. God keeps an obvious distinction between the categories of creation. It would be a grand mess if categories of creation began to co-mingle.
There are three categories of creation when it comes to beings: (1) angels, (2) human beings, and (3) animals. A half-human and half-animal is not a good thing! The word “domain” means in order of importance, honor, position. The angels did not keep their exalted position in God’s presence. They abandoned their high place and defiled themselves with women. This is a form of sexual perversion. Perversion produced the Genesis flood.
but left their own abode,
The character of angelic sin was of the same ilk as that of the inhabitants of the cities of verse seven. The sin in both cases is fornication. This fornication was going after “strange flesh.” The word “left” carries the ideas of desert, forsake. For earthly women, they forsook their domain of the living. It was a mutiny against God’s order. They were unhappy with God’s plan and order.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting… Ro 1:28
The word “abode” conveys the idea of habitation. This is the place where angels lived before Genesis 6.
He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness
The parallel passage in 2 Peter 2:4 shows the result of co-mingling categories:
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… 2 Pe 2:4
The word “under” means under the authority of darkness. God placed these angels in a place of no light. He shut off their capacity to know and come to the truth.
…raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Ju 13
for the judgment of the great day
The word “for” means purpose. It is God’s purpose to judge false teaching.
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn… Is 61:2
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Joel 2:31
And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mt 25:30
One day Christians will judge angels. We will assist the Savior at the Great White Throne Judgment. Our case will not come up at that judgment because it was settled out of court (Jesus took my hell that I might have His heaven). After the Millennium is over, God will cast the devil and his angels into the lake of fire and brimstone (Re 20:10-12).
PRINCIPLE:
There is nothing that God hates more than perversion.
APPLICATION:
Perversion is of such monumental scope that it demands God’s judgment. It makes no difference whether it occurs in the field of art, literature, morals, education, or government. God hates the policy of calling black white. All forms of relativism wash out God’s categories.
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You have stated that angels are called the “sons of God” and that they cohabitated with the daughters of men. Do you believe that the giants of Genesis 6: 4 were the products of this Cross-Kind union?
If the fallen angels could cohabit with the daughters of men, then Lucifer could most definitely have cohabitated with Eve.
And what do you mean by “a half-human and half-animal is not a good thing!”?
Thank you for the opportunity to make a comment. It may be that the angels cohabited with mankind; this seems to be the ancient belief concerning this subject. I do believe that I have evidence that “the sons of God” of Genesis 6:1-2 does not refer to the angels. There is a connection between the angels and the use in Genesis 6 of the phrase “the sons of God.” The angels were called the sons of God because each of them was created directly by God. The the sons of God in Genesis 6 were called this for the same reason. God created Adam and Eve directly through special creation so that their descendants as a race were called the sons of God. From Genesis 2 onward, the Hebrew term for earth takes on a narrower meaning; it means the land upon which the descendants of Adam lived. The section of Genesis, chapter 5 through Genesis 6:8 relates how each generation of the descendants of Adam and Eve increased in number; each patriarch (and therefore each family) bore children. Then, after about a thousand years, the men (literally in Hebrew “the man”) began to multiply upon the land. This led to intermarriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men. But, which group was first living on the land that the descendants of Adam and Eve inhabited? It was “the sons of God.” Therefore, “the sons of God” cannot be angels. “The sons of God” must be the descendants of Adam and Eve. “The daughters of men” must be the descendants of the race that God created as recorded in Genesis 1.
Also it is important to observe in Genesis 6:3-4, that the Author of Genesis emphasizes in the Hebrew language that even after theses marriages resulted in offspring, these offspring, not the giants, were the men of renown. Since these offspring are contrasted with the giants, the giants were not the results of the marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Maybe these giants were the result of angels cohabiting with men, but they were not “the sons of God.” You may find my article on this subject at my blog: http://garytmayer.blogspot.com/2010/06/exactly-who-are-sons-of-god-genesis-6.html
Let´s first consider how the Bible uses the expression “son of God.” Job 1:6, 7 shows clearly that the “sons of God” are angels or spirit creatures. Also Job 34:4-7 showa that the “sons of God” who “shouted in applause” were no other than his angels. Again at Psalm 39:6 it is obvious that the sons of God there refer to spirit creatures.
Remember that, when Jesus was on earth, the intervention of spirit creatures always affected the minds of humans, making them do things they wouldn´t normally do. (Mat. 4:23, 24; Luke 8:32; Mark 5:3-10; Mat 15:22)
By the same token, it is very reasonable to think that those same angels came to earth and distorted human affairs not just by having sex relations with women but also by increasing violence with their presence and also with their hybrid offspring, the Nephilim. (Gen 6:1-4)
This is supported by references from the apostle Peter about the “spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient” (1 Peter 3:19, 20)At 2 Peter 2:4, 5 we learn that “God did not hold back from punishing the ANGELS THAT SINNED.” At Jude verse 6 we learn that “THE ANGELS THAT DIDN’T KEEP THEIR ORIGINAL POSITION BUT FORSOOK THEIR OWN PROPER DWELLING PLACE HE HAS RESERVED WITH ETERNAL BONDS FOR THE JUDGEMENT OF THE GREAT DAY.”
IF THOSE STATEMENTS DID NOT HAVE CONNECTION WITH WHAT HAPPENED IN NOAH´S DAY, WE WOULD BE TOTALLY LEFT IN THE DARK ABOUT WHAT WAS THAT “DISOBEDIENCE FROM THE ANGELS.”
CERTAINLY, THE ANGELS DISOBEYED GOD BY LEAVING THEIR HEAVENLY POSITIONS, MATERIALIZING HUMAN BODIES, AND HAVING SEX RELATIONS WITH THE “DAUGHTERS OF MEN.”
lIKE PEOPLE FROM SODOMAH AND GOMORRAH THEY WENT AFTER “HUMAN FLESH” FOR UNNATURAL USE. (JUDE 6, 7)
I see both sides of this argument and I lean a little more to the side of Gary’s comments, however I have two questions for each side.
If fallen angels did have relationships with women then why could that not happen today, after all Lucifer is not working alone.
If the Son’s of God refer to Godly men and Daughters of men refer to ungodly women then what did the angels do that God put them in prison. If he did put those in prison then is Lucifer on his own or does he have company. If he does have company then how come all the fallen were not locked up.
I read an article that says that during the flood of Noah, the humans died in the flood, but the nephilims left their human bodies and turned into spirits; and they became the demons in our world. I am still trying to research the validity of this statement. Any comments on that.
Elizabeth, minus the idea that the nephilim leaving their bodies and turning into spirits, I believe this passage and 2nd Peter best explains the Genesis passage. They were demons to begin with but attempted to have sex with the daughters of men.
Thank you for reminding of the fact that they were demons from the start.
Are Angels created with sex organs? Did God intent them to multiply like animals or human beings????
Varghese, no, angels are sexless. That is the argument throughout Scripture. The issue is that they “did not keep their proper domaine” by leaving their category of an angel.
As spirit beings, angels have no sex organs. So what did they do to have sex with the women on earth?
Evidently, they materialized a human body. You could roughly imagine an invisible spirit creature “clothing itself” with flesh.
They had the power to do that, then. But after that disobedience, God punished them, evidently taking from them the power to rematerialize human bodies.
What happened to their hybrid offspring, the Nephilim? Since they were not spirit beings like their fathers, they died with the rest of mankind in the Flood.
Some people use Jude 6 as a basis for saying that the devil is not active in the world [because he is still in "everlasting chains] and that the real cause of evil is nothing more than the wicked heart of man.
The same verse is also used to support the assertion that the devil was not present in the Garden of Eden and also that the war in heaven of Revelation 12 does not take place in the future.
Barry, there are many Scriptures that refer to the devil at work presently in the lives of believers and non-believers. Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Grant:
Thanks for the reply and I fully acknowledge that you are correct in your reply.
But it by passes the problem. Let me try this again.
Jude 6 says that the devil is in "everlasting chains", so how can he be at work in the world if this took place in the distant past and if he is still in "everlasting chains". This is a problem of when this occurred or else, he has since been released to operate under the restrictions that God has placed on him.
We know for instance that according to the book of Job he has access to the throne room of God, yet he seems to come and go as he pleases because he is said to roam the entire earth as a roaring lion. So then, we have a problem caused by Jude 6, unless the everlasting chains scenario occurs at some time yet to come.
Barry, this passage does not say that the devil is in everlasting chains but that the fallen angels of Genesis 6 are in those chains. Revelation 20 says that Satan will be bound for a 1000 years after the Tribulation.
Note my argument leading up to verse 6.
Gary,
If you read Job, it said he was the only righteous man in the land. Job 34 says the "sons of God" shouted for joy. It CLEARLY is talking about Angels, certainly not men in this case. Also, people like to say "sons of God" were sons of Seth who wed Daughters of man (Cain) that is a huge leap to say ONLY the sons of Seth (and not the daughers) went for the daughters (and not the sons) of Cain. If you look at the root of Niphilim, its really not "Giants" its "fallen one"….as in fallen angel. I know its very hard for humans to wrap their heads around this, but its true. Thats why God was so angry that the Israelites didnt wipe out certain tribes when he ordered them to, because God knew they were either "tainted", or they would come back to haunt them (as you can see now in present time) and cause great strife for Israel.
the giants were present during and after the activities of the sons of God with the daughters of men bearing children; the children were the great men; the men of reknown.
Isn’t Jude 1:6 about the pre-existence?
Richard, your question is not clear.
Jude 6 (NASB). And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He as kept in eternal bonds, under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Noet that God has chained these angle up until the judgment day. This group of angels does not include Satan and the rest of the demons because he is the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2) and is free to roam the earth with his demons, and even has access to heaven. (Job 1:6).
Satan and all of his demons sinned against God and in so doing became evil. God has allowed them from this point to tempt us and even to attack us but He has also give us as believers the power to resist him and overcome him. Satan in the form of a serpent deceived Eve in the garden of Eden and the whole human race became sinners.
Some of the fallen angels (demons) lusted after the human women ( It is not necessary to have reproductive parts in order to lust) overpowered men, married human women, and used the male bodies to have sex with these women, and in so doing altered human genetics to the point of having giants as offspring. It gets worse because these giants also cohabited with women passing on the evil seed. So it wasn’t just sin and violence that caused the flood. The whole race with the exception of Noah’s family was contaminated. If it hadn’t been for the flood, there would be no redemption, God was able to use the seed of the women to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15) only because the demonic seed was diminished drastically by the flood. According to Jude 6, God locked up these lusting spirits until their judgment.
Numerous interpretations have been suggested for these verses. Some have felt that the “sons of God” were fallen angels, though how angels could intermarry with human women has never been explained. Jesus expressly states that angels do not marry (Matt. 22:30), and there is no evidence that angels have gender. Need help.
Ken, you are right that this verse is very difficult to interpret. The reason I chose my interpretation is the parallel chapter found in 2 Peter. Begin with the following study and advance through each study on the verse: https://versebyversecommentary.com/2-peter/2-peter-24/
John Pyles, I sincerely agree with your comments. The fallen angels, Satan and it’s army, demons, are in very much in operation rather I can out it as in war against God and the redeemed people, the Church – body of Christ. II Corinthians 4:4 states very clearly that the gods of this world blinded the unbelievers to keep from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.
During deliverance ministry could see many women are possessed with evil spirits saying that she is her wife. After deliverance when we interview the woman, they used say had experience of courtship of the spirit as a normal husband and wife enjoy. They do. So perversion should have happened as mentioned in Gen.6.
I am from India, into evangelism, church planting, healing and deliverance ministry by His grace.
Joseph Mansingh
Angels are spiritual beings how can they mingled themselves with human beings its just not possible
As the word stated in jude they are still chain in darkness waiting for that day of judgement ..
Sonia, that was my question as well but by studying both Jude 6,7 and comparing those verses with 2 Peter 2:4 I came to believe that there was a co-mingling. Maybe the angels took on human form. Note this passage says that they transformed themselves and left their original nature.