This is another great sermon by Dr. Michael Heiser, on the Unseen Realms. Read with enjoyment.
If you ask the average Christian, ‘Why is the world so depraved?’ They’ll say, ‘It was the Fall in Genesis 3.’ But if you asked the first century Jews the same question, you would get ‘There are three reasons. The first was the Fall, because the sin of Adam and Eve was the entrance of rebellion into God’s good Creation, which broke mankind from close fellowship with God; and death for all of us arose because of it (Romans 5:12 is a great verse on that, but first-century Jews would have to come up with a different verse). The second was the rebellion in Genesis 6:1-4 with the sons of God; and the third reason was what happened at Babel.’ Our question for study is, How did these other two sources of depravity factor in, and why did their consideration disappear in current theology?
The first source of depravity was the Fall. I agree that Adam and Eve's sin had a world-shaking effect, but I cannot comment on Dr. Heiser’s sermon portion on that. By excluding his treatment, I am definitely not saying it is a lesser cause for depravity. The reason for my exclusion is, he talks about the serpent, about the Garden of Eden, and many others, as metaphors. he's doing bit of Origen, for the astute. He’s saying that it might not have been a snake, it might not have been Eden. Those terms have mystical, broader meanings instead. My problem with this is, you’re moving away from an interpretation of Scripture as history, which I don’t want to see happen. Keep in mind, we don’t know the appearance of the serpent before it was cursed, and for all we know, or maybe Adam knew, maybe it looked like a snake and maybe he thought a snake could talk. Maybe Adam did not know language was only for humans; but, after all, elsewhere in Scripture a donkey talked (the joke was, that Balaam argued back), so anything’s possible, especially in a brand-new world as Eden was. I am certainly not suggesting Dr. Heiser is spreading lies; he is extremely knowledgeable on Scripture and he opened up a secondary way to look at verses that presented a different look to their meanings; and what he says elsewhere makes sense. My previous blog on him proves that.
So let’s move on to his second reason for the causes of depravity in the world. This too is all explained in another blog, so I will be brief here. Genesis 6:1-5, we proved, was the sexual union between fallen angels and earth women. Since all creatures produced after their own kind, that meant that humans, with particular DNA structures, were supposed to procreate only with other humans. But the fallen angels defied that. Being immortal, they had a different DNA than humans, who are mortal. So their sexual union with human women produced an aberrant offspring--giants, called Nephilim. Other Scripture supports that. This led to violence, and a gigantic corruption of genes.
Also, the ancient book of Enoch has more details about the wicked Nephilim. No, the book of Enoch is not part of God's Word, but it has great credibility. Enoch, as Genesis 5:24 proves, was perhaps the godliest man living at the time. His writing was valid, because he is quoted three times in Scripture (Jude, II Peter, and John). His writing showed that the Nephilim helped to proliferate sin in man by teaching men (1) skills and technologies for warfare—how to make swords and knives and spears; (2) about plants and herbs that have healing properties, as well as mind-altering properties--which led to people becoming psychologically addicted; (3) about astrology (not astronomy), which in effect made them turn into idolatry—worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, trying to control their future; and (4) cosmetic arts of seduction which led to sexual immorality. The results of all this "wonderful technology" they taught were broken homes, bloodshed, and worship of demons, some of that through altered consciousness. These were all horrors, all accelerating men’s skill in perverting themselves as individuals and as society. All this helped the proliferation of sin that left God frustrated enough to declare an end to mankind in Genesis 6:5.
The third major reason for man’s depravity was the tower of Babel. That is where I have more to say. Genesis 11:1-9:
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another…“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth
The purpose of the tower "with its top to the heavens" was to worship another god. Our God judges sin; they wanted a god who would let them express their ego and pride, "to make a name for ourselves." As a result, they stayed in one place, so they could build the tower, possible only with a large group. They defied God's instruction to fill the earth (God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." Genesis 1:28).
To understand further why God did this dispersion, other Scripture will help. Let's look at Deuteronomy 32:1b, 4b-6, 8-9, ESV:
…hear, O earth, the words of my mouth…4…A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he;
They have dealt corruptly with Him;
they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
they are a crooked and twisted generation. 6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you…
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God 9 But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Note: In case your version translates "sons of God" with a different word in v.8, keep this in mind: the Dead Sea Scrolls proves that the correct phrase in v. 8 is “sons of God;” it even uses the word Elohim (see my last blog, "God and gods"). It’s not sons of Israel (which wasn’t even a nation yet!), nor sons of Adam, as other translations say.
We can assume that God might have thought, “This is the opposite of what I commanded. I want a human family, I want the Edenic mandate (to fill the earth) to be fulfilled. I love you, I want the best for your lives, so please obey my commands, and you’ll get your best life. And your response? ‘No, we’d like to build a tower, worship another god.’
The tower was a ziggurat, built to offer sacrifice and barter with whatever god they believed in. It was tall so they could more likely make their god hear their pleas and desires, and see them offering things to him in exchange. This was unacceptable again, since our God did not work that way. So God probably thought, ‘You refuse to be loyal to me, so you want another god; so I will give you what you really want: a 'divorce’ from my love for you (see Deuteronomy 32:5 above, "no longer His children"). I will disinherit you. I’m still going to disperse you, divide you up (Deut. 32:8), and assign one spirit to command each of your nations--namely, each of you gets one of the sons of God to worship (Deut. 32:8 above). These fallen angels, these demons who wish to be worshipped as gods, can be your new rulers. You can be under their corrupt command, since you want to worship other gods. Let’s put you under their thumb.’ This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 1:18-25, wherein God “gave (humankind) over” to their persistent rebellion. God thought, ‘Hopefully you will grow tired of this god, this demon, and his rule over you. Hopefully you will change your mind and let Me lead you; you will find that I love you. Perhaps you will turn back to Me.'
God still wanted a loyal, witness nation, a society who loves Him, to show how what His leadership could do to bless a loyal nation. He had His eyes on one man of great faith and godliness, Abram, and his wife Sarai (their grandson was Jacob, referred to in Deut.32:9 above. They became renamed Abraham and Sarah, but they couldn’t have kids, they were too old--so they were perfect to start a godly nation with. You say, how is that? Because God wanted them to see His power and love when He performs a miracle and they have a child together. Then they will teach their children of His power and love. God then hoped they would continue a loyal family descending from that. And every nation around them will hear of this power of God, too. Besides the Biblical proof I’ve bolded and alluded to in Deuteronomy, why do I think this was the order of God’s thinking? Because right after God’s language curse, the people began dispersing (as God wanted in the first place), grouping with people who spoke the same language in Genesis 11, and immediately God covenants with Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 to form and rule His nation! Here it is:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country (Note: Ur) and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
“All the families” meant God was thinking of the lineage of Abram eventually going through David, then eventually to Jesus, Christ the Redeemer, who would truly bless all the families on earth. (Galatians 3:16). God also wanted to show the world, who worshipped other gods, how His love would bless the Hebrew people. This testimony would draw more people to Him, and be blessed as well.
The chosen nation Israel was supposed to finally be Yahweh’s family, starting from the godly Abraham. They’re even called a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Since a priest is a mediator between God and men, Israel was, through its godliness and witness, supposed to be a mediator between Yahweh and all the nations. A witness of a great God, with the people having a great testimony.
The sons of God that were to rule over the other nations, of course, failed God’s command to be just, as He knew they would—they were corrupt (Psalm 82:2-7—from my previous blog). As a result, the lack of testimony meant people were blind about our real God; so now they were lost in the ugly power of sin in their lives.
There was a solution for this blindness and powerless, beautifully hinted in Psalm 82:8, where God gives hope through all our failures—through His Son, Jesus:
Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
The word for ‘arise’ is the same as the word for ‘resurrection.’ Sin’s death cannot defeat us, if we turn in faith to Jesus, who showed us that resurrection will defeat sin and have a new life in heaven when we die.
I hope you’ve appreciated these nuggets from Scripture from Dr. Heiser, as much as I have.
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