Disagreements

seed:

Sons of God and daughters of men

We should always agree, am I right? As Christians, we should have absolutely no disagreements whatsoever, correct? I mean, the word of God is right there for us in black and white, so how could we disagree on anything?

Yeah, if you hadn’t guessed, I was being facetious.

Of course, we disagree. It may not be the nature of God, but it is definitely the nature of man. Sources say there are anywhere from 33,000 to 41,000 different sects (denominations) within Christianity today. Wow! and ridiculous. So, yeah, we disagree sometimes and then get a few more people to follow us.

Recently I was in a Bible study where there was a small disagreement. The format we follow allows participants to bring questions on Bible topics, at which time we all study and then discuss the results of our research. For this particular study, we chose to look into Genesis 6:1-6 at the behest of one of the members and differing opinions were generated.

The text of Genesis 6:1-6 (from the King James) says:

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 an 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 bare 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. ⁶ And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Where did those giants come from? And who were these “sons of God”?

Well, the giant question was deemed immaterial so we moved on to the “sons of God” discussion.

Apparently, there has always been a great deal of controversy regarding this particular section of scripture and it comes down to two basic interpretations:

1. The ‘sons of God’ were members of the line of Seth (as discussed in Genesis chapter 5) and the daughters of men were members of the line of Cain (discussed in Genesis chapter 4). It seems that the context of the three chapters lends itself to this belief. BTW, this seems logical to me, so I discussed based on this view.
2. The ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels who mated with daughters of men whom they found attractive (or fair). This belief is somewhat backed up by scriptures in Jude and other places.

But, the reason for this post is not to take issue with one side of the discussion or the other, it is to relate how the discussion progressed.

We talked about the two views, discussed them in a very mannerly fashion and concluded that there may be some mysteries in the Bible we may not unravel until we get to heaven (at which point we may have the knowledge, but likely won’t care one way or the other). We all departed the study friends and agreed to meet again in two weeks to discuss other topics.

I was happy to be a part of this type of discussion. I think we all acted as Christians should act. Not just Christians, people in general. Unfortunately, as can be seen from the multitude of denominations presently available, this doesn’t always happen.

I don’t want to get all Rodney Kingish and say “Can’t we all just get along”, but recent actions on the part of some people in our country make me want to sometimes.

Civil discussion is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. Not that it happens all the time, but that it usually does. For some reason, that seems not to be the case anymore.

Hopefully, we Christians can be a light (as Jesus told us to be in the Sermon on the Mount) that the rest of the country can see. Hopefully, we can demonstrate the restraint and good will that seems so lacking in our culture at present.