“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.” (Genesis 6:4)
An indisputable truth that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time is the misinterpretation of God’s Holy Scripture. This horrid reality is quickly exposed when one observes the chaos of confusion created by the millions of different belief systems contrary to one another, all claiming to have been born from Jehovah God’s Holy Writ. This religious hysteria has regrettably been the agent that Satan has expertly employed ever since Eden. However, it is wise and just to clarify that this confusion has its source not in the difficulty of God’s inspired word, but results when “untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2nd Peter 3:16b, emphasis added). Lamentably, the toxicity of these “untaught and unstable” men has provided society with the excuse it sought after as shelter to try and hide from the responsibility of godliness. Yet, once more Scripture dissipates this false notion as the Holy Spirit expounds, “What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged’” (Romans 3:3-4, emphasis added). In other words, the inspired apostle declares that man’s misinterpretation of the Bible is his own demise for again “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (1st Corinthians 14:32-33, emphasis added). Remember that in this pericope, the apostle Paul was striving to return order to the worship of the Corinthians reminding them that “all things be done for edification” (1st Corinthians 14:26b, emphasis added). Thus, for a person to be adequately edified, he must approach God’s word with a godly zeal and an inquisitive mind, prepared to listen to what the Almighty is instructing His creation. Man must not be intimidated to search the Scriptures, being infected by the virus of complacency for another man’s interpretation, but instead be like those who “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, emphasis added). Hence, in order for a person to correctly understand Scripture, one must remember that all of Scripture is immaculately connected and that “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35b, emphasis added). When man attempts to “break” God’s word, false and illogical conclusions will be reached. Case in point: Genesis 6:4 (quoted above). This portion of God’s Holy Word has, sadly, been contaminated by the unhinged imagination of certain men. In our day, there is a group of people who fancy themselves to be pious who have grossly misdirected the precious value of this passage’s true meaning. They have wrongfully declared that in this passage God reveals how literal giants came into existence. The lunacy of their erred philosophy anchors on their belief that those ebbed by Holy Writ as “the sons of God” is referring to the angels from heaven. In accordance to their man-made doctrine, angels descended from the heavenly realms and took human women (“the daughters of men”) as their mates and gave birth to the race of giants. If this sounds familiar to you, perhaps it is because this imaginative piece of fiction rose from Greek mythology; another man-made doctrine. The ancient Greek myths referred to these men who were half-man and half-god as demigods. However, this undoubtedly is NOT what Scripture is teaching in this passage. Once more, “Scripture cannot be broken” and allowing this false conclusion to stand as true, is attempting to do precisely that. Therefore, to fully comprehend the meaning of this passage, one must refer to the whole counsel of God. The Sadducees were a group of religious leaders who existed during the Master’s tenure on earth who denied the validity of the resurrection, angels, and spirits (Acts 23:8). Therefore, they elected to tempt the Savior by presenting a case of a woman who was widowed seven times by seven husbands who were brothers, and asked “in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her” (Matthew 22:23-28). To this ludicrous query the Lord responded, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:29-30, emphasis added). The Lord Himself proves that this notion that angels descended to earth and procreated with human women is impossible and a result of “not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Because the word of God is seamless, without contradiction, the explanation is given by Holy Writ itself. First, one must read the immediate context to understand the text. Prior to our selected passage, the inspired amanuensis establishes that “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, ‘For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.’ And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25-26). Observe how Peter (in the remote context) refers to those who call upon the name of the Lord: “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of stay here in fear” (1st Peter 1:13-17, emphasis added). John, too, declares “in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother” (1st John 3:10, emphasis added). It is clear from Scripture that the “sons of God” referred to in the passage is speaking to the descendants of Seth who had embraced Jehovah God as their God. Hence, the term “giants” must be in reference to men whose deeds made them standout from among the rest. Holy Writ does say in that same pericope that these giants “were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4b, emphasis added). It is valuable to understand, however, that not all of those mighty deeds were pious, especially since Scripture is preluding the Great Flood. Behold, the worth of rightly dividing the word of truth!