The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-2, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Before I ask my question I just want to point out two verses, the first verse is John 3:6. It says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." The other verse is Matthew 22:30, "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven." Now, my question is about Genesis 6:4-- I’m wondering, in reference to those two verses, how you would fit the demons, cohabiting with women on earth, and could not that verse also mean that the sons of God would be godly men and the daughters of men would be ungodly women?

Answer 

Well, there are several problems with that. Genesis 6 says that the sons of God cohabited with the daughters of men. Some would like to believe that the “sons of God” refers to godly men, and that the women are ungodly women. Of course, they wouldn’t be very godly men, would they, if they cohabited with ungodly women? 

Others say that the “sons of God” there refers to fallen angels, who cohabited with women. That tends to be the view that I take based upon 1 Peter and Jude, in which you have angels who left their first habitation and he identifies them with being at the time of Noah, when the flood came, which is when Genesis 6 identifies that incident. 

Now, the question he is asking is, if this is true, that these fallen angels cohabited with women, how do you explain the Scripture, “that which is born of the spirit is spirit,” that is in that angels are spirit beings; and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” flesh are human beings, and if those two are distinct how can spirit beings and fleshly beings come together. That’s basically your question. 

The only way that could be possible would be in the event that demons were able to take over some kind of human form. And I believe there is indication in Scripture that both holy angels and demons can, indeed, do that. If you remember in the Old Testament, you will remember that Jacob wrestled with an angel. You will remember that two angels came to Sodom in Genesis 19 and there the homosexual population of Sodom tried to attack those angels, which were in enough of a human form to appeal to them in a lustful way. You will also remember that it says in Hebrews 13:2 that people have entertained angels unaware. That is that they have appeared in such human form that they were not distinguishable as angels. A classic illustration would be in the 18^th chapter of Genesis where Abraham serves a meal to God and two visiting angels because they take on a form. Now, if angels can eat a meal, then angels can take on a physical form. They are spirit beings but there are times in the Old Testament, such as Jacob wrestling with an angel, when angels have taken on human form--holy angels. We can assume, also, that fallen angels can appear in a human form. There are illustrations of Satan appearing within someone, controlling someone, to what extent we don’t know. It may well have been that in that time there were human beings who were so totally possessed by demons that they, in fact, were the ones who were engaged in that. But I really don’t think that violates the idea. Spirit beings are spirit beings. Human beings are human beings. Spirit beings, by illustration, in Old and New Testament times, can take on human form. They can appear in human form and in that way be visible to men and in contact with men.

Question (continued)

So are you saying that in this situation in Genesis 6:4, that they took on a form of humans or that they possessed a human?

Answer (continued)

I don’t know. I don’t know how it happened, because there is not any information about that. I don’t think they can just go, (he snaps his fingers) like that, and take on human form as such. It’s not a magic thing. They have access to human form. I don’t know whether they took on a human form that was distinctly given only to them or whether they possessed certain people and totally dominated that form. I really don’t know the answer to that. I do know that they left their first habitation and that they became something that was not true to their nature and therein was their condemnation according to Jude.