This post is part of a series of posts summarising chapters of the Jehovah Witnesses' booklet, "What does the Bible really Teach?", and seeking to evaluate those chapters against Scripture somewhat briefly. Those posts were introduced at the Introduction, and a contents page will be added to that entry once this run of posts has finished.
Chapter 10: Spirit creatures – how they affect us
Get to know God, you’ll want to get to know his spirit-family. There are hundreds of millions of angels, and they are powerful and have feelings. They were created before the world was.
Angelic support and protection: Angels have taken a great interest in the human race; the faithful ones are sad when we turn from God; they rejoice when a sinner repents. Angels helped Lot and Daniel, and strengthened Jesus at his temptation and in the garden. We don’t see them today, but they still camp around those who fear God; this is a comfort because of the existence of dangerous spirit creature who would harm us.
Spirit creatures who are our enemies: Satan turned from God (see chapter 3). In the time of Noah, other angels rebelled, taking human flesh (Genesis 6:2). God destroyed them in the flood, forcing them to abandon their bodies, but they still serve Satan as demons.
How demons mislead: Through spiritism (direct contact with them), through divination (trying to find out the future through various means) and through mediums (encouraging people to inquire of the dead). As well as misleading people, they frighten them.
How to resist wicked spirits: Get rid of everything to do with spiritism, as the Ephesian Christians burned their scrolls. Take up the shield of faith, which means strengthening our faith by studying the Bible. Pray for protection. We need not fear them, because they will flee from us if resisted.
Evaluation
It is quite correct to say that there are large numbers of angels, and also demons who are bad angels. It is also correct to say that we cannot (usually) see them today. Their origin is not explained in Scripture. The reference in Genesis 6:2 is better understood as the “sons of God” (Seth’s line of descendants) intermarrying with the “sons of men” (Cain’s descendants), rather than remaining pure in their devotion to God. However, that demons exist is clear throughout Old and New Testaments.
All 3 negative practices mentioned (spiritism, divination and the use of mediums) are strongly prohibited in Scripture; they should indeed be avoided. However, the material in Ephesians 6 on the armour of God needs to be read in the light of chapters 1 and 2, where we are raised with Christ (2:6), which is far above every spiritual power (1:21). This means that the spiritual powers cannot harm us; Ephesians is a letter designed to reassure Christians who grew up on the very “spiritual” milieu of Ephesus. What they can do is disrupt our living, so that we fail to live in the light of our new life in Christ. The spiritual powers can stop Ephesians 1-3 leading to Ephesians 4-6. This is why we need the armour of God.
Study of the Scriptures and prayer are necessary to resist the influence of evil, but we need to beware that we don’t define the sphere on evil’s influence so as to major on things like spiritism. The everyday matters of relationships are where we need to be equally vigilant, if not more so.
Comments
Genesis 6:2
Interesting comment on the "sons of God" and "daughters of man" bit. Does this mean that you would say that the word "Nephilim" is a collective noun for the offspring caused by Seth and Cain's descendants inter-marrying?
Nephilim
Hi Phil - welcome to the blog!
The answer is - probably, yes.
The traditional view on the Nephilim is that they were the descendants of the union between "sons of God" and "daughters of men" referred to later in Genesis 6:4. The text doesn't actually say that they were the descendants, but it is a view that makes sense. The only other mention of Nephilim in the Bible is in Numbers 13:33. The giants in the land of Canaan that terrorised the soon-to-invade Israelites were descended from these Nephilim.
If that is the case, we can consider the two most frequently held views on "sons of God" and "daughters of men". Most modern commentators take the view that the sons of God were angels appearing in human form. The Watchtower takes that view as well, but adds the additional detail that the angels concerned were fallen, were trying to mislead the human race, and that the flood was God forcing the angels to abandon the bodies they had assumed and return to a spirit-state so that they do less damage. Those additional details are pure speculation.
However, if we take the view that the sons of God were angelic beings, the Nephilim then become hybrid beings - half angel, half human. That starts to create problems when you consider that they were still around in Numbers 13. This is quite a while later. We've moved from what is often termed "pre-history" or "primeval history" that is found in Genesis 1-11 to the history of the people of Israel. That doesn't mean that Genesis 1-11 is any less historical. It just means that we are past the age of events that set the course for the whole human race - global flood, people living for 800+ years, the arrival of linguistic variation, and so on. Once you get to Genesis 12, the human race has settled down. If we still have these hybrid beings in place by Numbers 13, that would suggest they could still exist today. That has all kinds of implications for the uniqueness of the human race as image-bearing, physical creatures. There is also the problem that Jesus said the angels don't marry and are not given in marriage.
Instead, take the view that I hold, that the sons of God are Seth's descendants, and the daughters of men are Cain's. I may be wrong to hold this view. I am in a minority amongst modern commentators. However, it is my view that it fits the flow of Genesis much better.
1. Genesis is concerned with the development of two lines of "seed" or offspring. Cain's descendancy is charted in chapter 4, Seth's in chapter 5. The reason for this interest is the promise that the woman's seed will crush the serpent's seed. The marks of the serpent seem to live on in Cain's line, and the offer of hope has just been introduced in Seth's with the arrival of Noah, the one who might bring rest (Genesis 5:29).
2. Genesis is concerned with human sin, and with God holding us responsible for that. To introduce the idea that angels did something unacceptable in Genesis 6:4, having spoken of the depths of depravity of the human race in 6:2-3 and 6:5-7 would make 6:4 stand alone as saying something unrelated and totally different. If 6:4 is about the depravity of the human race, it fits much better.
3. The biggest objection raised to this view is that Genesis 6:1 speaks of men spreading and having daughters, and therefore 6:4 naturally refers to the same daughters of men. The burden of proof is on those who would argue that the daughters of men in 6:4 has a narrowed reference to the descendants of Cain only. However we could reply that Genesis 6:1 is a new beginning, as the genealogy of chapter 5 breaks off. "Daughters of men" refers to the same group through 6:1-4, but this is consistently Cain's line.
That makes the Nephilim the offspring of the intermingled lines. This has two effects on the plot of Genesis.
1. It warns us that the rest (Noah) that we hope for at the end of chapter 5 may not come. The line of Seth is not wholeheartedly devoted to God. There is sin even in the godly line, and rest does not come too easily. Put on guard, we read the flood narrative with some trepidation, and this is born out when we get to the end of chapter 9.
2. The very group that caused Israel so much heartache during the conquest of Canaan were the result of her ancestor's failure (in the line of Seth) to remain pure. Israel's downfall in the desert, and living in the land, would in part be intermarriage. This has a long pedigree, going right back this far.
At the end of the day, though, we have to say that we can't be sure who the Nephilim were and why they are in Genesis. Nothing we might say would seriously change the course of the message of the book of Genesis.
Nephilim and the flood
Just a thought, but wouldn't the Nephilim be wiped out by the flood, regardless of whether they were angel-human hybrids or just a collective noun for offspring of Cain and Seth's descendants? So either way we have problems with it's use in Numbers.
That said, I suppose if it were to be referring to those of the "chosen" line who had become impure through marriage/breeding or actions (after all, Noah and his offspring were considered good by God, hence being saved) then it explains the recurrence of the term. However, that still wouldn't explain why the term appears to disappear after that.
Add it to the list of things to ask God when we see Him face to face I guess!
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