Ryan Gustason’s Blog

The existence of the Apostolic Oneness Pentecostal belief system typically centers around one central verse: Acts 2:38, of which they interpret the entire Word of God through this one verse. This style of biblical interpretation causes great error, of which is clearly evident in their theology.
As time allows over the next few weeks I am going to deal with each “Oneness Pentecostal Misunderstanding” at a time and try and better clarify the true meaning of the verse and verses they have through the years distorted and abused for personal gain…

This is a mischaracterization of the Oneness Pentecostal doctrine.  We, as bible believing Christians, do not interpret the scriptures through Acts 2:38.

The assessment of the Oneness Pentecostal is that the Apostle Peter’s wording in Acts 2:38 is that “JESUS” is the one name subscribed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Apostolic believe that that Jesus spoke a cryptic mysterious riddle and the apostles understood the cryptic message of Jesus, that they where not to invoke the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Ghost at baptism as Jesus said, but instead – this was a coded message to use the actual name “Jesus”!

Okay one issue at a time

A nice strawman.  Apostolic Oneness Pentecostal Christians, hereafter refered to as Oneness Pentecostals for the sake of brevity, do not believe Jesus spoke in a cryptic mysterious riddle.  We believe that the one name as denoted in the Greek use of onoma by Jesus himself refers to his name.  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not proper names, but rather titles denoting the role or relationship God has with man.  God is the Father of creation, God became flesh in the incarnation to redeem mankind from their sinful nature, and God sent His Spirit for regeneration and comfort.

1) Did Jesus ever speak in this code prior to this?

Matthew 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

We can see that Jesus uses freely “my name” in the above texts to indicate that we are to use His actual name - so why now at such a crucial point of salvation does Jesus “mix it up” a bit? Why not be forthwith with it? Why all the code?

Well, this bit of scripture quoting is really not relevent to the discussion, at best it supports the Oneness Pentecostal doctrine that God manifested Himself in flesh as the Son, i.e. Jesus.  At worst it undermines all of Christianity by implying that there are multiple gods to appease by splitting the name of God into Father, Son, and Holy Ghost… making these into “personas” that interact with each other as three seperate beings.  This undermines the basic tenent of Judaism as well as Christianity which was so aptly spoken by God in Deuteronomy 6:4… “Hear O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord”

2) Is the name of the Father, JESUS?

Here is the crux of the matter – What we really have to determine is this one issue. Is the name of “Jesus” the name of the Father? It is critical because this is where the doctrine stands or falls. Jesus Name people/Oneness Pentecostals state JESUS is the one name of GOD revealed to humanity by which to call – Hence the name of the Father is JESUS, and the Holy Spirit is JESUS, and of course Jesus is JESUS.

The problematic scene we have – is biblically we do not see such a reality, the bible never tells us the name of Jesus is the one name of God

This causes us a problem with the Oneness interpretation of Acts 2:38.

There is no scriptural text to validate that the one name of JESUS is the one name ascribed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In fact scripture contains distinctions such as those noted in the greetings to the Romans See Romans 1:1-7

(Rom 1:7) To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again in 2 John 3 (2 John 1:3) Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Such greetings and statements are VERY problematic for the oneness adherents; in fact in most cases such a greeting would not be welcome among oneness ranks, for its supposed Trinitarian implication.

Typically most of the text that is used to support this view are interpretational errors such as…

(John 5:43) I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible states…
John 5:43 - I am come in my Father’s name,…. Power and authority; by his consent, with his will, and according to a covenant with him: Christ came not of himself, of his own accord, by a separate power and will of his own, but was called, and sent, and came by mutual agree meat; and brought his credentials with him, doing the works and miracles which his Father gave him to finish:

Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible states…
I am come in my Father’s name - With all his influence and authority. Among the rabbins, it was essential to a teacher’s credit that he should be able to support his doctrine by the authority of some eminent persons who had gone before. Hence the form, Coming in the name of another.

Again, a mischaracterization of the Oneness Pentecostal doctrine.  We do not dispute the dual nature of Christ.  Jesus was both fully God as well as fully man at the same time.  To state the Jesus was only God and not a man would be in error scripturally (called by some the “divine flesh” doctrine), and to state that Jesus was only a man would cause rise for error in truth as well.  Jesus is not a demi-god type of a being as espoused by Arius.  The truth is that Jesus was both fully God and fully man.

The most accurate rendition of this is “I am come in my Father’s authority, power and consent” not that the name of the Father is JESUS. You’ll find few biblical scholars who assume the text to mean anything more than the commentaries above have noted. Much like David stated

(1 Samuel 17:45) Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

Meaning the power, authority and might of GOD, David was not implying that the name of the Father was DAVID!!!But under the exegesis of apostolics – we must assume this to be the meaning since they insist the same words spoken by JESUS to mean this very thing.

Another instance is seen here in (John 10:25) Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

Oneness Pentecostals agree that in the name of means in the power or authority of Jesus.  But in order to identify yourself with the power or authority of Jesus, you must identify the one you are speaking of.  When we baptize people in Jesus’ name, we are baptizing them into the power or authority of Jesus.

The greek word for “name” according to Strongs is:

onoma
on’-om-ah
From a presumed derivative of the base of G1097 (compare G3685); a “name” (literally or figuratively), (authority, character): - called, (+ sur-) name (-d).

”Name” here could be figuratively or literally – but we see the two fold meaning
1) a “name
2) authority, character
It is scholarly assumed to mean: authority, character

Thanks for the definition.

Thirdly and one I often heard when I was a Oneness Pentecostal was the poor usage of Zechariah 14:9. Some assume the prophecy of Zechariah 14:9 to be fulfilled by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ

It reads

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Insisting this prophecy has been fulfilled and that name is Jesus, oneness adherents often site this verse to establish the validity of their doctrine…

Lets look at the verse in context…

The chapter starts with this prophetic word

(Zechariah 14:2) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

(Zechariah 14:3) Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

(Zechariah 14:4) And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown

Zec 14:4 -

… The place of His departure at His ascension shall be the place of His return: and the “manner” of His return also shall be similar (Act_1:11). He shall probably “come from the east”…

John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Zec 14:1 - Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,…. Or the day when the Lord will come, both in his spiritual and personal reign; for this is not to be understood of his first coming in the flesh…

Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible

One Lord, and his name one - There shall be in those blessed days, only one religion, and one form of religion. There shall not be gods many, and lords many. All mankind shall be of one religion, the essence of which is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength; and thy Neighbor as thyself.”

Further the context states

Zec 14:11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

Zec 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

It is quite clear that this is a Messianic prophesy.  If we are going to abolish every Messianic prophesy, then you cannot be a Christian.  And to be so presumptuous as to claim that this is not speaking of Jesus Christ is to be as one decieved.  Read your own commentary posted:  JFB:  “his” refering to the Messiah.  John Gill: “his first coming in the flesh”… of course not.  His first coming was as Jesus many, many years after this prophesy.  Adam Clarke:  One God and One Lord:  Jesus Christ

Obviously this is a futuristic event and not a current reality! Therefore their use of Zechariah 14:9 is improper.

Oneness adherents have a real problem now, since we do not have the scriptural ability to attribute the name of JESUS CHRIST to the Father! In fact thier entire theology is debunked in this one little article!

Interestingly enough the bible actually tells us that Jesus Himself we receive a new name

(Revelation 3:12) Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Oneness proponents for years have insisted that Jesus is the one name discussed in Zechariah and that Jesus spoke cryptically in Matthew 28:19 - the unfortunate reality is the rest of the bible does not support such a premise - Error results in any fringe group when a single verse becomes the cornerstone of their movement, and not the unchanging Word of God - the bible reminds us to take the WHOLE COUNSEL - not just a few pet verses

Zechariah is speaking of a prophetic event… Prophetic that is for Zechariah… history for us in today’s time.

Consider also:

Joh 1:40

One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

Joh 1:41

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

Joh 1:42

And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

Here we see Andrew declaring to his brother, Peter, that Jesus is the Messiah.  This is that same Messiah proclamed in Isaiah 9:6.

Joh 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Joh 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Joh 3:18

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Joh 3:19

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Jesus speaking of his human nature.  The eternal Father, mighty God, became flesh in the incarnation for the redemption of man from an eternal hell designed for the devil and his devils.  Notice what Jesus says:  “but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “  Those who were in the know, i.e. the Apostles, knew what it meant to believe in the name of Jesus.  This is why the Apostle Peter stood up with the other Disciples of Christ and proclamed:

Act 2:36

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Act 2:37

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Act 2:38

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Act 2:39

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Act 2:40

And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Act 2:41

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Three thousand souls were saved when they were baptized in the name of Jesus.

One of my sites was hacked yesterday, so I had to restore from a backup.  If you have created an account, or left a comment during the last ten days, please recreate your account. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Well, I’ve found a new site that is really pretty useful.  It is called Stumble Upon. You create a free account on their site, set your interests, and then install either a firefox or Internet Explorer toolbar for Stumble Upon.  This will give you a stumble button, thumbs up or down buttons, Send to and Chat buttons as well as favorite sites list and a friends list.

The Stumble button will take you to a random site that has content related to your interests.  You then review the content of the site and choose either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  In google or other search engines, you can enable a Stumble Upon rating to see what other people thought about the site.

All-in-all, a nice addition to your web browsing experience.

An early Christian theologian known as Origen first popularized the idea of a guardian angel and a devil assigned to every soul.

In his work ‘Origen de Principiis’ chapter 8 he states ‘All of which things were disposed, as I have said, not indiscriminately and fortuitously, but by a most appropriate and just decision of God, who arranged them according to deserts, in accordance with His own approval and judgment: so that to one angel the Church of the Ephesians was to be entrusted; to another, that of the Smyrnaeans; one angel was to be Peter’s, another Paul’s; and so on through every one of the little ones that are in the Church, for such and such angels as even daily behold the face of God must be assigned to each one of them; and there must also be some angel that encampeth round about them that fear God.’

This along with other quotes are what started the doctrine of guardian angels. For scripture, Origen sites the following references:

Mat 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Psa 34:7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

Of course, I personally don’t feel there is one guardian angel assigned to every human, but rather that God will send guardian angels when a person is in need of that kind of protection.

echad

Brown Driver Briggs Definition:
1) one (number)
1a) one (number)
1b) each, every
1c) a certain
1d) an (indefinite article)
1e) only, once, once for all
1f) one…another, the one…the other, one after another, one by one
1g) first
1h) eleven (in combination), eleventh (ordinal)

Part of Speech: adjective

God is one. The Hebrews understood this.

echad is used elsewhere in the Tanakh:

1Kings 22:8 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one (echad) man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

Joshua 12:9-24 The king of Jericho, one (echad); the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one (echad); The king of Jerusalem, one (echad); the king of Hebron, one (echad); The king of Jarmuth, one (echad); the king of Lachish, one (echad); The king of Eglon, one (echad); the king of Gezer, one (echad); The king of Debir, one (echad); the king of Geder, one (echad); The king of Hormah, one (echad); the king of Arad, one (echad); The king of Libnah, one (echad); the king of Adullam, one (echad); The king of Makkedah, one (echad); the king of Bethel, one (echad); The king of Tappuah, one (echad); the king of Hepher, one (echad); The king of Aphek, one (echad); the king of Lasharon, one (echad); The king of Madon (echad), one; the king of Hazor, one (echad); The king of Shimronmeron, one (echad); the king of Achshaph, one (echad); The king of Taanach, one (echad); the king of Megiddo, one (echad); The king of Kedesh, one (echad); the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one (echad); The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one (echad); the king of the nations of Gilgal, one (echad); The king of Tirzah, one (echad): all the kings thirty and one.

Daniel 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one (echad) of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.


Ezekiel 33:24 Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one (echad), and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

Ezekiel 48:31-34 And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one (echad) gate of Reuben, one (echad) gate of Judah, one (echad) gate of Levi. And at the east side four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; and one (echad) gate of Joseph, one (echad) gate of Benjamin, one (echad) gate of Dan. And at the south side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one (echad) gate of Simeon, one (echad) gate of Issachar, one (echad) gate of Zebulun. At the west side four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates; one (echad) gate of Gad, one (echad) gate of Asher, one (echad) gate of Naphtali.

Are we to assume that the gates were in unity? Or Michael the angel was in unity with himself? Or the kings listed? Or perhaps Abraham was not one man but a unity of man.

Although man will try to take the scripture out of context, God’s truth will always prevail. Trinitarianism is a man ordained doctrine to explain the nature of God in man’s limited thought. It was conceived by men for men.

The concept of three persons in one god is very ancient. The Hindu faith believes this concept of God. The conception most closely linked with Vedism and Brahmanism is that of the Hindu Trinity, the Trimurti. ‘The Absolute manifests himself in three persons, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer’. The syllable we write as om, but which is in reality made up of three words, ‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘m’, (which) is the symbol of this trinity.

The Egyptian triad of the sun god was “one god expressed in three persons”. He was known as the “noonday sun” (Ra), “the evening sun” (Tum), and “the dawning sun” (Khepera). The sun god reportedly said, “Lo! I am Khepera at dawn, Ra at high noon, and Tum at eventide”. He was one god in three distinct persons.

Quote:

During the 1st two centuries A.D. Christianity was strongly in favor of it’s Jewish roots of strict monotheism.

During the decades immediately following the death of the Apostles, gnosticism crept into the church via Simon Magus (Simon the sorcerer spoken of in the 8th chapter of Acts)and later by people such as Origen, Alexander (A Catholic Bishop), and other Greek apologists like Justin Martyr.

As far as the mis-interpretation of Genesis 1:26, this scripture has many possible explanations. Some claim it is a majestic plural such as when kings refer to themselves as ‘we’. Others claim it was God talking to the angels. I personally believe it was describing the many attributes of God. One thing we can be sure of, however is God was not referring to a third person in the trinity. context is an important part of hermeneutics. The very next verse disproves the possibility God was talking of a third ‘co-equal, co-eternal’ person in the God-head.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And finally, the New Testament confirms the Jewish belief in one God.

Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Bible Map

This is a great resource for those who are serious students of the bible. Bible Map allows a person to select a chapter of the bible and see the area being talked about in the bible on an aerial view map.

From their about us page:

BibleMap.org is developed by the duo at He Lives Ministries (HeLives.com).
The motivation for developing the site was simple, create a free Bible
atlas which harnesses Google maps. We hope this site will be a blessing
to you and possibly help make the living book of the Bible more alive
in your life. Any questions or comments may be sent to:

contact@biblemap.org

Many people have helped to make this site possible. Thank you David (BibleMapper.com) for so much GPS help. Thank you to the ESV Bible translation (ESV) team for allowing us to use your translation. Thank you Todd (BiblePlaces.com) for your excellent photos. Thank you Donna and Jackie for entering so much useful information. Thank you Joey (joeyandchristy.com) for the logo.

Genesis chapter Six verses 1-5 reads in the King James Version:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Did angelic beings called “Sons of God” come down to earth to have sex with women (Daughters of men)?  Let me try to answer this question.  First, a little fact finding.

Uses of the phrase ‘Sons of God’ in scripture.

Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Phi 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
1Jo 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Uses of the phrase ‘Daughters of men’ in scripture.

Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

The fruit of that union:

and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Mighty men-
Gibbo’r gibbo’r
ghib-bore’, ghib-bore’

Intensive from the same as H1397; powerful; by implication warrior, tyrant: - champion, chief, X excel, giant, man, mighty (man, one), strong (man), valiant man.

Renown-
Shem

pronounced: shame
A primitive word (perhaps rather from H7760 through the idea of definite and conspicuous position; compare H8064); an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality; by implication honor, authority, character: - + base, [in-] fame [-ous], name (-d), renown, report.

The offspring of the union of the Sons of God and the Daughters of men were apparently strong warriors or tyrants as well as men of renown and report.

I would say sons of God would reference the original line of Seth starting with Enos.

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. So with the starting of Enos we have men calling upon the name of the Lord, ie seeking the will of God.

Then came on down the line Enoch.

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Enoch had a special relationship with God.

Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Enoch’s great-great-grandson was Noah, a preacher of righteousness.

29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.

So with the arming of all this information, we can conclude that if we have the Spirit of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14), we will be graffed into (Rom 11:17) that same lineage that produced the heroes of the faith that we find in Hebrews chapter 11.

Also, we can deduct from further analysis of Genesis chapter 6 that if you mingle righteousness (Lineage of Seth) with unrighteousness (Lineage of Cain) you get pride and arrogance which is what I believe mighty men and men of renown mean.

If not pride and arrogance, then something equally sinful in nature, at least nothing righteous because in the next verses after Genesis 6:1-4 we have our righteous judge (the Spirit of God) proclaiming judgment and salvation through the flood.

Warning! Sidebar ahead!

It is also interesting to note that when Cain was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, he saw kicked out eastward. He was placed in the land of Nod which being rendered literally means wandering. (Brown-Driver-Briggs)

Eastward is a type and shadow of Sin (Tabernacle door eastward). The priest would enter from the east, walk west into the Holy of Holies face back eastward where the people awaited and sprinkle the redemption blood eastward.

Sidebar finished!

To compare this with today’s doctrines of men (unrighteousness) and doctrine’s of God (righteousness) is not an unfair comparison.
Most have an argument stating that the phrase ‘Sons of God’ talks about angels in other passages of the O.T. such as in Job, but I still state the context of the scripture clues us in that it is talking of Seth’s lineage.

All that being said, It’s just an interesting piece of scripture with no salvation impact IMHO.

In regards to the Giants… There were Giants in those days, but their descendents were not men of renoun. Notice the break in thought of Moses. He is trying to place this in context in time. It says ‘and after that’. Then the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and produced men of renoun…who were evil and wicked in the site of God and He destroyed them….reminicent of the church of Laodecea Where the Hot and Cold mixed and God was so upset that he spewed them out of His mouth.

The union of the two did not produce Giants. Don’t read something into the text that is not there.

As to the giants or Nephilim in the Hebrew, Strong’s definition is as follows:
H5303
nephi’yl nephil
nef-eel’, nef-eel’
From H5307; properly, a feller, that is, a bully or tyrant: - giant.

I think this nails it. There were tyrants and bullies. Not nice people

I don’t think it was really tall people, because all were destroyed in the flood except Noah and his family… but the Nephilim pop up again after the flood.

See Num 13:33 (And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.)

Everywhere else translated as Giants used the hebrew word rapha, which closer describes big guys.

H7497
ra’pha;’ ra’pha
raw-faw’, raw-faw’
From H7495 in the sense of invigorating; a giant: - giant, Rapha, Rephaim (-s). See also H1051.

Others have used the following texts, out of context, to support the angel sex doctrine.

The parallels between 2Peter 2:1-17 and Jude 3-12 are very interesting. Both authors are using the same story to illustrate their message. One of the first sermon notes swappings! That message is: Do not follow them who would lead you into error, who do not rightly divide the Word of truth, but rather make doctrines of men in vain glory.

This is what the passages mean. I will use Jude for this explanation, although the same can be applied to Peter’s message.

v3. Don’t get led astray. Believe what was originally taught by the Apostles.

v4. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. Don’t listen to them.

v5. Sermon illustration point 1. God delivered you from Egypt. Some doubted their salvation and were destroyed. Don’t let this be you! First warning.

v6. Angels left their 1st estate. Estate is the English translation of the word arche. Arche means the beginning. The same word is used in John 1:1 En arche en ho Logos. In the beginning was the Word. The next word I will define is habitation. Some interpret this and estate to mean they left from reproducing with their own kind to have sexual relations with human females. This cannot be for two reasons. 1. arche and oike’te’rion have nothing to do with this. Oike’te’rion means a dwelling place or habitation. In other words, their home. Their home was heaven. We know that Satan rebelled and took a third of the angels with him. Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. This is also related in Isaiah 14:12,15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. This was related twice for our verification and as a witness. It is related in other parts of scripture as well. This was the second illustration to his written sermon if you will. Do good, or judgment will come like it did to your forefathers after they left Egypt, and like they did with the angels who rebelled and did not follow God’s plan. Rebellion to God’s plan was the sin committed by the way.

v7 Example #3. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? They disobeyed, did not follow after God’s will, but rather turned to their own devices. They were led astray by a false witness and a spirit of deception. Judgment came. Example #3 to illustrate their point.

v8 Do you want to be example #4 for generations that will come after you!?!?! Get with it. Do not be deceived! Don’t become example #4.

v9-10 Do not speak evil of these false teachers. Don’t use profanity or accusations. Instead, show the truth of God’s Word to them. Love them and show mercy to them. (There is a sermon in that all by itself)!

v 11 Gone the way of Cain. They have disobeyed. Gone the way of Balaam, when he was told by God what to do, he still chose to be led by sin and greed. In short he disobeyed God. Gone the way of Core (Korah) who spoke evil of the man of God and disobeyed. He too was judged and them that followed him.

v12 If you keep these false teachers in your midst, you have spots on your love. God is love, and he does not accept blemishes in His bride. If you keep pretending everything is ok and except their false testimony and teaching, it will amount to nothing in the end. They are like clouds without water. Sure it looks good, but they don’t produce anything. It is like a tree without fruit. Sure it looks good, but they don’t produce anything.

I could go on, but you get the point. These were examples of disobedience found in times past that the writers (Peter and Jude) were using to illustrate the need for turning away from disobedience and following after God. In no way do these passages of scripture show that the sons of God in Genesis 6 were angels.

Hope this helps to answer any questions you may have had about Genesis chapter 6.

The Lord multiply blessing upon blessing to you and yours in Jesus Name!

According to recent statistics from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 79% of Evangelical Christians (Oneness Pentecostals grouped in here) answered “very important” to the question:  How important is religion in your life?  30% attend church more frequently than once a week while 28% attend church services once a week.  This leaves us with a grand total, a majority, of 58% of Evangelical Christians attending services at least weekly.

78% of Evangelicals stated that they pray daily outside of church or worship services.  Of those who pray, 28% stated that they recieve answers to prayer on a weekly basis.  There is faith in America, and people pray, or at least say they pray consistently and recieve answers to those prayers over one quarter of the time.

58% stated that the bible is the Word of God and is literally true word for word wheras 29% who state they are Evangelical Christians believe the bible is the word of God but not literally true word for word.

To the following question:  [IF RESPONDENT HAS A RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, ASK:] Now, as I read a pair of statements, tell me whether the FIRST statement or the SECOND statement comes closer to your own views even if neither is exactly right. First/next: My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life, OR: many religions can lead to eternal life, the following percentages were given.

36% of Evangelical Christians said “My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life”.

80% of Jehovah’s Witnesses said “My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life”.

57% of Evangelical Christians said “Many religions can lead to eternal life”.

16% of Jehovah’s Witnesses said “Many religions can lead to eternal life”.

So, a weekly attending saint in an Evangelical denomination who prays daily and believes that the church is a very important part of their lives also believe that there are many ways to get to heaven, not just through Christ.

Source

Here is a quick tutorial to install e-Sword on Ubuntu Linux. e-Sword is one of the best bible study software out there, and the only reason I stayed with Windows as long as I did. It will be interesting to see if Rick Meyers will port it to a native linux program. I believe he is trying to make a web based version of e-Sword, so his energies may be tied up with that. Until then, follow these instructions to get e-Sword running in Ubuntu using Wine. Note: I tested this with Xubuntu 8.04 and Wine version 1.0

First, install wine using a command line interface:

1. go to: Applications>System>Add/Remove…

2. Click on System on the left hand pane. In the right hand pane, scroll down until you find Synaptic Package Manager. Check it, click apply changes. If it asks for your password, enter it and click O.K. This step will install Synaptic which will be used in a later step.

3. Once Synaptic is installed (You should see it in Applications>System) Go to: Applications>Accessories>Terminal

4. In the terminal, past in the following and press enter (This will update Synaptic’s lists for Wine which is a Windows Emulator needed for running e-Sword): sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

5. Next paste: sudo apt-get update

6. Close the terminal and go to: Applications>System>Synaptic Package Manager

7. In the search box on the top of Synaptic, type in Wine and click search. In the list that displays, scroll down until you find wine. Check it. You may get a pop up asking you to install dependencies that Wine needs. Click mark and continue to install Wine. Click Apply at the top, and when a pop up windows comes up, click Apply again. Wait for the program to install.

8. Go to www.e-sword.net and download the latest version of e-Sword.

9. When the download pop-up window comes up, choose to open (run) the program using Wine. Wait for it to download the e-Sword installer. It should automatically continue with the e-Sword installation wizard.

10. Download msls31.dll from Dlldump.com.

11. Download Riched20.dll from Dlldump.com.

12. Copy the downloaded dll’s into the e-Sword directory by doing the following steps:

a. Places>Ryan (Change Ryan with your home directory)

b. Click on the view menu and check “Show Hidden Files”

c. Double Click .wine

d. Double click Drive_C

e. Double Click Program Files

f. Double Click E-Sword

g. Copy the two downloaded dll files into this directory

13. go to: Applications>Wine>Configure Wine

14. Click on the Libraries Tab, and in the “New override for Library” drop down box, fine Riched20, click add, apply, and ok. Close out of Configure Wine.

15. go to: Applications>Other>E-Sword to run E-sword. Everything should work fine, including the Strong’s tool-tips pop-ups. Enjoy!

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