Sons of God Are Believers, Not Fallen Angels

Many are taught that in Genesis 6 fallen angels married women and fathered a race of giants. That story is not in the text. Scripture tells us who the sons of God are: people who belong to God. And the sin of Genesis 6 is one I know very well.

Genesis 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.”

Genesis 6:2

Two groups: the sons of God, and the daughters of men. Look at what the sons of God did. They took wives. They married.

And look at how they did it. They saw, they found it good, they took. That is Eve in the garden: “the woman saw that the tree was good for food… she took of the fruit thereof” (Genesis 3:6). It is the oldest human sin, told again. The eyes see, the heart wants, the hand reaches past the line God drew. I know that hand. It is mine.

Genesis 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 bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

Genesis 6:4

People reach for angels because of the giants. But read the order. The giants were there “in those days.” The marriages came “also after that.” So the giants were not their children.

And what did the marriages produce? “Mighty men,” “men of renown.” Men. And the tallest giants Scripture measures, Goliath and Og, were about nine or ten feet. Very tall, and still human.

Matthew 22:30

“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”

Matthew 22:30

Jesus Himself settles it. Angels do not marry. The sons of God took wives. So they are not angels. And Hebrews asks: “unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son” (Hebrews 1:5)? None.

Genesis 4:26 and Ezra 9:2

“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.”

Genesis 4:26

Two chapters before Genesis 6, Scripture shows us people who called on the name of the LORD. These are the sons of God. The daughters of men are those outside. The disaster of Genesis 6 is believers marrying unbelievers, any they chose.

“For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.”

Ezra 9:2

After the exile it happened again, and Ezra calls those who did it “the holy seed.” A seed is a family line, and it can mix with other peoples by marriage. That is Genesis 6: a family that belonged to God, not a different kind of being.

John 1:12, Romans 8:14, Romans 8:19 and 1 John 3:1-2

“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.”

John 1:12

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Romans 8:14

“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.”

1 John 3:2

The New Testament says plainly who the sons of God are: those who believe, led by God’s Spirit. Calling on the name of the LORD and believing on His name are the same thing.

“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

Romans 8:19

Creation does not long for demons. It longs for the day God’s children are raised. Jesus calls them “the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36). Angels are never raised. Only people can be that.

Job 1:6, 12, Joshua 24:1, Genesis 4:16 and Revelation 22:8-9

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”

Job 1:6

Satan “came also among them.” He is not one of them. He is the intruder.

The verse does not say this happened in heaven. Joshua uses the same words for all Israel at Shechem, on earth: “they presented themselves before God” (Joshua 24:1). And Satan leaves the way Cain left: “So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD” (Job 1:12); “And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod” (Genesis 4:16). Cain went somewhere on earth.

When a heavenly messenger does speak, he refuses worship: “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets… worship God” (Revelation 22:9). There is no exalted race of heavenly sons. There are God’s servants, and the one who wanted worship for himself.

Job 38:7 and Psalm 148:2-3

“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Job 38:7

This verse is often called the proof that angels are sons of God. But in Hebrew it is not quite the phrase of Genesis 6:2. And God is asking Job where he was when the earth was made, not listing who was there.

Psalm 148 keeps them apart: “Praise ye him, all his angels” (verse 2), and then “praise him, all ye stars of light” (verse 3). So “morning stars” cannot simply be read as angels.

Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”

Jude 6

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”

2 Peter 2:4

Read them and look for “sons of God.” It is not there. No daughters of men, no marriage, no giants. And angels held in chains of darkness are not walking the earth fathering children.

What this means

Scripture explains its own words. The sons of God are people who belong to God by faith: those who called on the LORD, the holy seed, and all who receive Christ. Angels do not marry, and God never called an angel His son.

So Genesis 6 is not a tale about monsters. It is about people of God who saw, wanted and took what was not given. That is my story too. And so is the promise: “now are we the sons of God.”

Road to Eternal Life