ANGELS, FALLEN

(1)

Has there been a `fall' among the angels?

(2)

If so, could these angels be called `the sons of God'?

(3)

In view of Luke 20:35,36 how can we speak of `the progeny' of the fallen angels?

(4)

Who and what are `The giants' and `The nephilim'?

(5)

What is the significance of the words `and also after that'? (Gen. 6:4).

Our first question is, `has there been a fall among the angels?' While the word `angel' is often used without

qualification, there are a number of occasions where the writer says `the holy angels', `the angels of God', `the angel

of the Lord', `His angel', etc., that at least make it possible that there are angels, that could not be thus indicated.

We read in Matthew 25:41 of a place of punishment `prepared for the Devil and his angels' and in Revelation 12:7

we read of war in heaven, Michael and his angels, fighting with the Devil and his angels, and by reason of their

defeat Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven into the earth (Rev. 12:7-13). Unless, therefore we are to believe

the monstrous doctrine that God actually created the Devil and his angels in their present state, there must have been

a `fall' among angelic beings. Further, when the Devil and his angels were expelled from heaven, it does not say in

Revelation 12 that they dispersed themselves throughout the limitless spaces of the universe, it tells us that Satan at

least `came down' to the inhabiters of the earth, `having great wrath'. It is not only a fact that angels fell, but it

seems fairly certain that fallen angels find an abode in the earth among the sons of men. The book of the Revelation

deals with the Day of the Lord and the time of the end, and like the passage in Ephesians 2:1-3, it shows that Satan,

though fallen, was not bound. With this knowledge we approach two other passages of Scripture which speak of a

fall among the angels, which, by reason of the context, compel us to fix upon Genesis 6 as the date and occasion of

their fall. The two passages are here set out side by side that they may be the better compared:

2 Peter 2:4-6

Jude 6,7

`And the angels which kept not

`For if God spared not the

their first estate, but left their

angels that sinned, but cast them

own  habitation,  He  hath

down to hell, and delivered them

reserved in everlasting chains

into chains of darkness, to be

under  darkness  unto  the

reserved unto judgment; and

judgment of the great day.

spared not the old world, but

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha,

saved Noah the eighth person, a

and the cities about them in

of

like manner, giving themselves

bringing in the flood upon the

over to fornication, and going

world  of  the  ungodly;  and

after strange flesh, are set forth

turning the cities of Sodom and

for an example, suffering the

Gomorrha into ashes condemned

vengeance of eternal fire'.

them with an overthrow, making

them an ensample unto those that

after should live ungodly'.

Let us note in some measure of detail the extraordinary features of these two passages. These angels `sinned',

they also `kept not their first estate but left their own habitation'. The reader is aware that the basic meaning of `sin'

is `to miss the mark' (Judges 20:16), and it is evident by the expansion given by Jude, that some of the angels appear

to have `kept not' and `left' the position allotted to them by God and to have transgressed bounds which He, the

Creator, had set. The word translated `to keep' in Jude 6 is tereo. It is employed by Paul when he speaks of keeping

one's virginity (1 Cor. 7:37), keeping one's self pure (1 Tim. 5:22), being preserved blameless (1 Thess. 5:23). Jude

uses the word five times, as follows, `preserved in Jesus Christ', `the angels which kept not', `He hath reserved in

everlasting chains', `to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness' and `keep yourselves in the love of God'.

The angels therefore failed to keep themselves pure, they failed to preserve their integrity, they failed to keep the

trust committed to them. Jude specifies the particular failure that was their sin, thus: `they kept not their first estate'.

Alford translates this, `those which kept not their own dignity'. Weymouth reads: `Those who did not keep the

position originally assigned to them', and Moffatt renders the passage `the angels who abandoned their own