The Reality of Hell

I began this book many months ago, hoping to have it completed by now, but I have just gotten either lazy or side tracked preparing two other manuscripts for publication.  Probably both.  Perhaps it is best that I have not finished as yet, for I can now express to a greater degree than before my key reason for writing this book.  It has become more focused in my mind.

Today is August 24, 2010.  Although I did not hear about this event until just yesterday (either the news has not covered it adequately or I have just not heard it when it was reported or seen it on the web), it occurred some 18 or 19 days ago.  I am referring to the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped a half mile underground in an area of approximately 500 square feet. 

As of this writing, they have all survived and are seemingly in sufficient enough spirits that they can sing their national anthem.  Compassionate people around the world rejoiced with Chile and the families involved when a camera was lowered through an air vent into the room and faces were seen, some even smiling.

To the rest of the world, or at least to me, it is hard to envision the unfathomable horror of the situation of those 33 men.  They are stranded underground, in a small area estimated to be about 500 square feet, which is much too small for all of them to have any space to themselves.  They have inadequate food, water, air and ventilation and must endure temperature of approximately 90 degrees.  They have absolutely no way to escape.  They are surrounded by immeasurable weight of rock in all directions.  Very little or no light.  It is a suffocating, terrifying, helpless and perhaps hopeless, mind numbing experience.  Death, it would seem, is to be preferred over their current circumstances.  (On February 13, 2011, 60 Minutes reported that they all indeed deliberated on mass suicide and cannibalism).  And what they do not know as of this writing is that they may be imprisoned there for up to another four months before a rescue shaft can be drilled in order to haul them out, one at a time, upwards through a two foot diameter for a half a mile that may take up to three hours per person.

I pause to ask a question to all readers.  Would any of you want to experience that?  Would any of you choose to experience that dreadful, horrifying, frightening beyond all comprehension ordeal?  Would any of you choose to be literally buried alive for up to five months?  Even for a month?  A week?  A day?  An hour?  I didn’t think so.  Nor would I.  No one who I know would willing put themselves in the position of undergoing such agonizing, excruciating horror.

Yet, I dare say that some of you who are reading these words right now are placing yourself in a far worse position than the one being experienced by those 33 miners.  What can be worse than being buried alive under millions of tons of rocks a half a mile down into the earth, struggling to breathe properly and to remain calm when the reality of your situation cries out in utter, uncontrollable panic that desires freedom from what could be your coffin?

Is there something far worse than this dark, crowded, hot, smelly, claustrophobic environment that is attempting to drain the very life from them?  The answer is yes.  It is the eternal punishment of those who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That place is called hell and it is pictured by this situation in Chile.  Those buried miners are on vacation compared to those who have already entered the fires of hell and those who will one day be there.  Because we do not hear screaming voices from hell or see the actual torment of hell, and because it is hidden from our view, because it is in the realm of what lies beyond this life, of death, people tend to cast aside any thoughts of hell.  So many people, in fact, most of the world’s population, dismiss it as either a myth or something that is not nearly as bad as what those “religious fanatics” make it out to be.  Many people I have personally spoken with think it is a joke or a place of laughing and playing cards and drinking beer around the fire.  If you are one of those, do you think those miners are laughing and joking about their situation?  Neither are those in hell.  And neither will those who think it is a joke or a myth now.  If we could but lift the veil that conceals that awful place from our view for only five minutes and see the agonies of those in hell, then we would never forget the sight. Our flesh would tremble, our hair would stand on end, and our souls would be paralyzed with horror. Your eternal destiny is the most serious consideration you can occupy your mind with.  It is real.  Man has no say in whether or not hell is real, but man can choose not to go there.

Because of the reality of our future judgment, of the “balancing of our books”, of an accounting of our life on earth, it is incumbent upon every person to consider the gravity of the stewardship of life.  It is not to be taken lightly or ignored or rejected as false.  It may be that those miners thought that being trapped only happens to others, not them.  But it happened to them without warning.  They were not prepared for the collapse within their work space. 

One day a frightening reality will instantaneously set in upon those who scorn the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ.  All who reject, refuse, scorn, neglect, or otherwise ignore the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary for their sins will face the eternal wrath of God.  Rightfully so.  They may think it cannot happen to them because they have chosen to consciously ignore it, to pretend it does not exist.  But when that reality occurs - not if it does, but when it does - their fate will be sealed.  There will be no escape from their prison.  It will be like the situation of the miners in many respects, but it will also be unlike the miners’ entrapment because there will be no contact with the “upper world.”  There will be no contact with others within the dark, confining, bottomless pit, the lake that burns with fire.  There will be total isolation forever, from all other beings, but most importantly, separation from God.  They will experience intense emotional suffering, far worse than that of the miners.  Their minds will be filled with unimaginable horror and agony, far worse than anyone can imagine.  They will be screaming for deliverance, for release from the eternal chains that bind them.  They will endure unbearable, tortuous pain from the fire and from their own memory of their sin and their rejection of truth.  They will know and be constantly aware that they are there because of their refusal to bow the knee to Jesus and to confess Him as Lord, even when they knew the truth of who Jesus is and His reason for living among us.  They will be reminded throughout eternity that they are there because they chose to live life their own way rather than by the decrees of God’s Holy Word, because they chose temporary pleasure over eternal joy.  They will agonize eternally with the knowledge that they are there because their sensual, hedonistic, materialistic, self-pleasing and self-promoting idols were more important to them than was the God of creation and the God of salvation.  They deliberately chose to be lord of their own lives rather than to submit to the Lordship of Jesus.  This knowledge will only serve to increasingly terrify them and torment them through the eons of an everlasting hell.  Their suffering never lets up; it only gets more intense.  Forever.

The miners may be rescued, and as of this writing, it is my prayer that they will be.  May God be merciful to them and to their families.  But, no amount of prayer will release one soul from hell once they have entered it.  

A Parallel to Consider

A Parallel to Consider

Am I the only one who sees the parallel between what the political and media establishment (really one and the same) is doing to Donald Trump and what the Jewish establishment – the Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees – did to Jesus?  The hatred that the political establishment vomits upon Trump is identical to the animosity that the Jewish establishment spewed upon Jesus, and it is done for the same reasons.

Now, before I go any further, let it be understood that I am not even coming close to implying that Donald Trump is to be compared to Jesus in his character, life-style, comportment, or any in any other way.  Donald Trump is a sinful human being like the rest of us are.  He is no worse or better than any of us, just sinful in different ways than we are.  Jesus was the perfect Son of God, the God Man, God in the flesh, and as such was incapable of sin in any way.  So, the hatred that was directed toward Him was sin in the greatest degree.  Hatred against Donald Trump is still sin, however not nearly to the extent that hatred against Jesus is.

The Jewish establishment was the political establishment of their day.  They were the rulers.  They dictated what the Jews could or could not do.  They hated Jesus because He was not one of them.  He did not teach what they taught.  He did not see people the way they did – as vile sinners who did not keep the law (the way they interpreted it); these sinners needed to be condemned, not saved.  Jesus saw them as sinners in need of forgiveness and redemption.  However, the law did not apply to them.  They were exempt from the law they demanded others keep.  So they thought and practices because they were the elite. 

He was an outsider.  He did not play by their rules.  Why, He even had the nerve to heal people on the Sabbath Day after they told Him not to.  He did things His way, the true way, God’s way; He did not live according to their phony, self-seeking, self-promoting, arrogant life style.  He criticized them for seeking to gain more wealth and power to themselves by stealing from widows.  They were only concerned with their power structure and maintaining it for themselves.  They would not admit any others into their exclusive club. 

The common people loved Him.  He met them right where they were.  He explained the way of God in language that they could understand and relate to, not like the Pharisees.  The establishment began almost immediately to seek to destroy Him.  If He continued drawing people to Himself, why they would lose influence and power over them.  They just could not allow that.  Their prestigious positions and life-styles depended upon His total destruction, or at least the collapse of His impact in the lives of those who were being deceived by Him.

They would not give up their pursuit of His demise.  They needed Him to disappear so they could continue in the administration of their power without interruption.  They had no clue as to what was going to happen.  The object of their hatred would indeed die, but would only remain dead for three days.  His resurrection would set in motion a government that would have no end.  Their power, city, temple and way of life would perish in a few short years when Titus swept through Jerusalem and completely destroyed them and their city.  What they desired for Jesus came back on their own heads as they cried out to Pilate “His blood be upon us.”

Can you see how the political establishment consisting of Democrats, Republicans, and the media, today parallels this in regard to Donald Trump?  He is an outsider who does not play by the rules they have established.  He tells it like it is, not as how the establishment has defined it.  The establishment specifies life and politics as they want it to be and they vilify anyone with the audacity and temerity to deviate from their definition.  They are a closed club that only allows those who are like themselves to enter. 

But he is appealing to the common folk and the establishment just cannot understand why.  As Hillary recently said, “Why am I not 50 points ahead?”  Could it be that people are just sick and tired of the same old crap that the establishment endorses?  The same old lies?  The same old cronyism?   The same old “do as we say, not as we do”?  The same old “we deserve a better health care system and retirement system than you peons”?  The same old “let’s enrich ourselves and let them get by as best as they can”?  The same of way of doing things that never changes or improves?  The same old way of giving away money and status to those who have no interest in supporting America?  The same old “we can commit adultery and fornicate to our hearts content – even if it is in the Oval Office, and that is OK because we are in power.  (This is exactly what the Pharisees did).  But if he even suggests such thoughts in a private conversation many years ago, we need to condemn him without mercy.”

I am afraid that many people don’t care.  They are either blind to what is happening or they are selling their souls for a mess of pottage.  I am not criticizing the concept of government, for it is ordained and established by God.  But we need a righteous government, not a greedy power structure that only seeks its own progression at the expense of those it is designed to serve.  It is time for the political establishment to crumble. 

I realize that some people will not agree with what I am about to say, but it is my understanding of the book of Revelation.  After 50+ years of study I have come to the following conclusion.  All governments that seduce people into worshiping them, that persecute those who do not buy into their system, that increase their own power at the expense of others, that will not tolerate any form of criticism or discontent is a manifestation of the beast of Revelation 13.  There have been many appearances of this beast throughout human history, and there are many today, and our own is one of them.  Our government is not Godly; it is corrupt because its leaders are corrupt.  Donald Trump cannot change most of it, but he can make some improvements.  Only when Jesus returns will wickedness in all of its forms be destroyed forever.

The Pharisees were blind to who Jesus was and what the ultimate outcome of their hatred would be.  Donald Trump is not Jesus, but there are many in the establishment who would not mind seeing him crucified, if not literally, then politically.  They, however, do not have the ultimate say in these matters.  God is still on the throne of the universe and will have His way regardless of what the power elite want. 

There is much more that could be written here, but this is enough to hopefully get you thinking of the absolutely disgraceful way those who “dare to be different” are treated.

Transgender Heroes?

There has been much made recently of what is called “transgender” individuals.  (I put that word in quotes because no one is actually changing their gender – that is impossible to do).  These are people who for one reason or another (nothing that I can figure out) believe, however mistakenly, that they were born the wrong gender.  God made a mistake with them.  (Not that they believe in God.  If they did believe in God they would not be engaged in such absurd behavior).  They believe that they should have been born the opposite gender than what they were.  They have always known that inside of themselves they were not who they appeared to be on the outside.  To correct this discrepancy, they undergo medical procedures to become outwardly what they believe they are inwardly.  These individuals have been hailed as heroes by the media, by Hollywood, and by other non-thinking entities.  One was even named “woman of the year.” 

Not being content to simply live their lives quietly, they have chosen instead to attempt to force their perversity upon others in the most obnoxious of ways.  They proudly parade their despicable lifestyle demanding approval and acceptance by all and vociferously condemning as bigots those who have the spiritual fortitude to call it what it is – sin.  Rebellion against God.  Telling God that He doesn’t know what He is doing.  Telling Him that they know what is best.  Believing that they have the “right” to do as they please and not even God has the authority to prevent them from doing so. 

Anyone who says anything to the contrary can expect a barrage of hatred and name calling spewed against them.  “How dare they have the audacity to even think that what someone else chooses to do with their own body should be criticized or questioned?”   If anyone, especially a Christian, speaks out against this he or she is then condemned by open-minded people as being hateful and a bigot.  These people are so open-minded that truth cannot find a resting place with them but instead rushes straight through their heads because there is nothing there to stop it. 

But is “bigot” properly used in this context?  Let’s allow Merriam-Webster to offer us a definition of the word: “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices especially one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or religious group) with hatred and intolerance” 

Mutilating one’s body in order to appear to be someone of the opposite sex has nothing to do with national origin, skin color or religious belief.  Well, in the abstract, it may very loosely fit in the religious definition because the person who so chooses to do so to their body is a member of the “I’m my own god” religion.  What is being criticized is an action that has been taken, not an inherent attribute or condition of the person.

To applaud this activity and promote it as normal is political correctness at its worst.  Liberal politicians, in order to gain support by any deviant group of people, will attempt to legitimize even the most absurd activity as worthy of acceptance.  Election and reelection is their god.  After all, their political career is of prime importance to them – even more important than their immortal souls.  They willing trade one for the other. 

But it is not just politicians who espouse this nonsense, but everyone who thinks they are smarter than anyone else – especially those who disagree with them.  This includes practically every political and religious liberal.  Both believe that they have all the answers that are necessary in any given situation.  Anyone who disagrees with them based on Biblical principles is guilty of the worst offense possible – trying to force God on them because their belief system is rooted in the premise that man is supreme and cannot be forced to acknowledge a Being who is superior to themselves who rules even over their affairs.  They will not allow anyone to say or do anything that jeopardizes his freedom to do whatever he desires to do as long it does not hurt others.  They are convinced that belief in God hurts people because believing just might prevent someone from engaging in certain activities and it just might make them feel guilty.  And we just cannot have guilt or conviction that actions are wrong.

Political correctness, at its basic level states that no one has the right to criticize what another does, that anyone can make decisions that they deem to be best for themselves – as long as they vote for me.  There are no absolute ethics that apply to everyone.  What is good for you is not necessarily good for me.  Like in the days of the Biblical Judges, everyone can do what is right in their own eyes.  No one has the right to offend anyone else by disagreeing with their actions or words.  Unless, of course, it is a Christian who is speaking out; then he or she is fair game for hateful attacks, even violence against his or her person.  But to use Biblical principles to demonstrate the error of one’s ways and choices is attacked by these open-minded individuals as a hate crime.  But it is not the Christian who is guilty of hate; it is those who hatefully criticize the Christian – which is true bigotry according to Webster's definition.

So, in the world’s view, I am guilty of mean-spirited, hateful, bigoted rhetoric because I am simply stating truth as contained in the Word of the Almighty God. Regardless of who may reject this truth, there remain absolutes in this world that are still governed by God.  No one has the right or ability to change what God has established even if they think they do.  In the fundamental sense of the word, there is no such thing as a “transgendered” person.  What a person is born as is what they will remain regardless of how they modify their bodies or convince their minds that they are different.  Chromosomes cannot be altered to make a male into a female or a female into a male.  What you are born with is what you are.  Your delusional mind may tell you that you  are not what your body is, but you cannot change the x chromosome into a y chromosome or vice versa.  

You can mutilate your body and thereby deceive yourself into thinking that you are now what you choose to be, but you are still what God has made you.  If you were born a male, you will always remain a male; born a female, you remain a female.  You have deceived yourself right into eternal damnation because you have taken pleasure in sin and have not humbled yourself under the laws of God.  Your pride and arrogance have exalted yourself to self-imagined godhood – the condemnation of the devil.

Of particular concern at this time is their forceful demand that the public recognize and accept them on their terms.  The smaller the group, the more right they think they have not to be offended.  Of course the offense comes when anyone does not bow to their demands and has the audacity to reject it as immoral.  The infinitesimally small minority is trying to force the much greater majority to write special laws just for them.  Men who want to be viewed as women are insisting they be allowed to use women’s bathrooms in a public locale.  And vice versa.  Somehow, this has become the most important issue in their lives – where they choose to relieve themselves.  The majority no longer has rights.  Minorities rule.  This is absurd.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, money issues are taking precedent over righteousness.  Several corporations have withdrawn their decision to locate their businesses there because of the state law that rightfully refuses to allow men to use women’s bathrooms.  Some rock musicians have cancelled their appearances for the same reason, calling the law unfair to this group.  “It’s just so unfair and discouraging to them not to be able to use the bathroom of their choice.”  Some states have issued mandates to state employees against travel to North Carolina.  All because a small group of men can’t use women’s bathrooms?  Are they serious?  How is it possibly discriminatory to prevent men – even if they believe they are women – from using bathrooms that women and girls are using?  Target stores have caved in to the pressure to allow anyone to use a bathroom that they self-identified with.  What if someone self-identifies as a dog.  Will they be allowed to pee in the aisle?  This entire politically correct debacle is obscene and disgusting and will end with God's judgment poured out upon America unless there is national repentance.

The majority of Americans are being discriminated against by having this issue forced on them.  Now Charlotte is trying to change this state law because they are losing money.  Money is the predominant issue for them.  They are willing to bow to pressure to conform to the wishes of so few rather than stand for what is right and Godly.  

I know that my choice of words may offend some, but I really don’t care.  I am highly offended by this utter nonsense.  God is highly offended by it.  The truth of the matter is that I am offended by this “transgender” nonsense because it is an offense to God.  What offends God offends me.  The entire world system is an offense to God because it totally disregards Him and His order for man.  

My purpose is not to be obnoxious or to intentionally cause emotional distress to anyone, but to state the issue as clearly as I can.  The problem in this world is that very few people speak truth if there is any possibility that someone would feel offended by that particular truth.  “Ooh ooh!  We don’t want them to get hurt feelings.  What will they think of us?  They might get mad at us.” 

Psalm 12 is a relevant today as it was when David penned it. 

1 Help, Lord, for no faithful one remains; the loyal have disappeared from the human race.
2 They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and deceptive hearts.  3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks boastfully.  4 They say, “Through our tongues we have power; our lips are our own—who can be our master?  5 “Because of the oppression of the afflicted and the groaning of the poor, I will now rise up,” says the Lord. “I will put the one who longs for it in a safe place.” 6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times.  7 You, Lord, will guard us; You will protect us from this generation forever.  8 The wicked wander everywhere, and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.

Christians have allowed the world to force its way upon us without standing up for what is right.  We are so unlike the apostles who told the Sanhedrin “we ought to obey God rather than man.”  Because we have obeyed man rather than God, God is the offended Party.  That is far more serious than people being offended.  Man’s spirit needs to be offended and convicted by the Holy Spirit if he is ever to realize his lost condition and his need for God.

But God will rise up against the worthless nonsense that the world craves and exalts.  They think they are unassailable and are protected by sheer numbers, but God is the majority.  He will prevail.  You may or may not agree with what I say, but I have as much right to speak what I believe as others have the right to speak what they believe.  It is not spoken hatefully, just clearly and unambiguously.  I want to be faithful to the Word of God.

Just so there is no misunderstanding my point of view: giving perverted people special rights that offend the majority is not right.  It is wrong by any decent standard.  I do not for one minute believe that they should be persecuted or mistreated, but they do not deserve special consideration under any circumstance.  God will take care of any punishment if there is any to be administered.  But they do need to live by the same rules and laws as the rest of us do, but do so quietly.  They do not deserve to have the right to do whatever they want to do just because it makes them feel that they are being true to their inward selves.  If they choose to mutilate and mangle their bodies, so be it, but do not try to jam it down anyone else’s throat.  We do not have to accept it as normal or as their constitutional right (the constitution does not address the issue of man correcting God’s perceived mistakes).  It is not a right in God’s view no matter what courts may rule or celebrities deem to be heroic.  It is a choice one makes that is against God’s laws that no one is obligated to recognize as proper.

Haiti Mission Trip February 2015

Mission Trip February 2015

Christian Mission to Restore Haiti was once again blessed by the Lord as we ministered to our friends in Haiti.  On this trip we had two first time missionaries go with us – my wife, Rosemary, and Craig Brown of Naples.  They both were instrumental in the work the Lord accomplished there.  Also going, along with Pastor Andre and me, was Melissa Shatney of Kennebunk, Maine.  She left several feet of snow and subzero weather to somehow endure the 80+ degree heat of Haiti.  But, she was a tough soldier and held up nicely.  This was her fourth trip with us.

We left Miami at 10 AM and arrived in Cap-Haitien at 12 noon on Thursday, February 19.  For the first time we flew on American Airlines which began flights there two months ago.  Upon arrival, we prepared for our first medical clinic in Cap-Haitien which we held on Friday.  We planned for a 9 AM start, but people began arriving at 7:30, so we started early.  We had three doctors led by Manol and Billy – brothers who operate an orphanage in Port Au Prince, but who travel to North Haiti extensively.  Also there were three nurses and two interpreters.  There were more than 90 who attended the clinic and received help. 

$500 purchased these medications in Cap-Haitien

Melissa, a massage therapist, is seen giving a massage.   (She has also massaged the most famous resident of Kennebunk – President Bush 41)

Unfortunately, because of all day rain, many who would have come did not.  The Cap-Haitien church has moved from its old location to this new one.  Instead of being in the downtown part of the city where it was located for years, it is now off of a dirt road that gradually climbs a mountain.  Then another road with a 45 degree incline for about 200 feet must be taken.  That road is rocky and covered with small stones and has several pot holes.  It is also slippery when wet.  It really is not a road because no vehicle except a motorcycle can access it.  It is a walking path.  Walking it was a treacherous adventure.  Then the path to the church runs off of that path.  But, it is the only church in the area and the residents are very happy that it is there.  They are supporting it with their attendance.  The church as grown in the few months it has been there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=694uxcMibpI&feature=youtu.be

The church also is the meeting place for North Haiti Bible Institute that I started four years ago.  We met on Saturday.  I taught briefly about the urgency and benefit of study.  We will be graduating our first class July 2016.  I was pleased when one of the students told me that he has learned more in our institute than he did in the seminary that he attended.  When we graduate that class, we will begin a new class.  We have had many requests from pastors to enroll.  These current students all indicated that they want to continue with more and harder classes which I will happy to supply.  We want to see every one of the students become preachers of the Gospel and begin new churches or serve in their current ones as staff pastors. 

My students with their professor, Pastor Nemour (front row far right)

Following the institute, we all boarded our bus and travelled to a local beach for a baptism.  Pastor Alexis of Cap-Haitien baptized five new converts in the surf.  Because he has not baptized many in the past, he did not go our far enough and baptized most of them in less than a foot of water.  The final one to be baptized had to be lowered three times before he finally pushed down on his face to get him under.  Everyone had a laugh at that. 

http://youtu.be/dd_T0sMnqi4

 

On Sunday morning we boarded our bus and headed upon into the mountains to Bas Limbe for a church service at 10:30.  Sunday School was still in session when we got there.  All the classes meet in the main sanctuary so it is loud. All the teachers were talking at the same time and the classes were responding. 

http://youtu.be/hgruMswIoU0

As usual, there were several special music selections.  It is customary in Haitian churches for singing to be a major part of the service.  Since they had been holding revival services for the week, I preached on revival, what it is and is not and concluded with the results of revival.

The Bas Limbe church was the first church Pastor Andre started 25 years ago.  It is going strong and has developed several leaders.  Pastor Jocelyn is doing a fine job there.  For years it has needed much work done to it.  Thankfully we were able to raise enough money within the past year to totally renovate it. 

We returned to Cap-Haitien in time for the evening service in which I preached.  Once again, everyone who wanted to sing a song had their opportunity to sing.  In every service there is a special song of worship that lasts for ten minutes or more.  Here is a partial video of the song that evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shExLVt3Mqc&feature=youtu.be

 The service lasted four hours, but no one seemed to mind.  Walking down from the church was an ordeal, but no one fell. 

On Monday we travelled to Dubre for another medical clinic.  As we were getting close we came upon this.

There was no way we could get through that.  If we had tried, we would have sunk, so we had to back away until we could negotiate a 5 or 6 point turn and then backtrack for several miles and take another route.  We finally got there and people were waiting patiently for us.  As the bus pulled up to the church, many more people showed up.

Dubre is a very poor village with many health issues.  A couple of years ago we drilled a well there that the village uses for drinking, cooking and washing.  We also built a medical clinic, but lack of financial support has forced us to close it for regular use. 

I’m not sure as to the total number of people who attended, but we were able to help many. 

 While the clinic was being held, Rosemary worked with many ladies on embroidery and crochet projects.  We brought several pounds of sewing material that was donated by East Naples Baptist Church.  The ladies were excited and blessed by receiving those supplies.

While the clinic was ongoing, Melissa began to take photos of the children and gathering information for our upcoming sponsor a child program.  The children in Dubre are extremely poor and needy and most of them are malnourished and sickly.  Our goal is to begin with 200 children and increase from there.  We really need sponsors to take this seriously.  There have been many children over the past few years die in Dubre.  In the meantime, Craig was playing games with other children.  They loved him and he them.  He had them running around and laughing playing tag and chase the chicken and try to catch it.  Poor chicken.  Animal lovers – don’t worry.  It wasn’t hurt.

A few months ago Pastor Lucien’s house collapsed during heavy rains.  He was able to rebuild this house.  When it rains, the mud between the slats melts and he has to replace it. 

 

His oldest daughter lives on his land and she was able to have this house built.

No one in this village has a house that solidly built.  They are all in danger of collapse in any strong wind or hard rain.  Yet they keep on going, accepting the way life is there.  They hold church services several times a week for several hours at a time.  We in America get antsy if the service goes over an hour because we are distracted by so many insignificant things.  In Dubre all they have is God, so they devote many hours at a time to Him.  Who is better off?

There is a need for reading glasses in all the villages, so I bought 100 pairs and took them with me.  Here are a few pictures of them being distributed.

 

 

 

 

We returned to Pastor Andre’s house in Cap-Haitien late in the afternoon.  We stayed there for the entire visit as we always do.  In case you don’t know about Haiti, there is very little electricity in the cities.  It is on for a few hours each day until the power company decides to shut it off.  In the villages, there is none.  A few houses in the city have a 300 gallon water tank on the roof that gravity feeds to the shower.  Houses in the city are concrete block construction with flat roofs so they can hold the weight.  Only cold water.  Most people have to take sponge baths only.  How does the water get to the tank you ask?  Pastor Andre drilled a well in his house several years ago and when the electric is on, the water is pumped up to the tank.  He, of course, shares the water with his entire neighborhood.

We stopped at a convenience store that caters to tourists to buy bottled water and a few groceries.  I have been there several times.  There is a man with a crutch who begs outside the store.  Dragging one foot, he hobbles up to anyone he thinks will give him money and sticks out his hand.  I have given him money in the past.  This time Rosemary gave him a little money and a young boy tried to take it from him.  Immediately the crutch was dropped and he chased after the running boy.  A few minutes later Melissa reached out of the bus to give a boy some money and the old man immediately dropped his crutch again and tried to wrestle the money from him.  He had me fooled in the past but never again.  He has a pretty good gig going there.  See the blans and get them to pity him and give him money.  

On Tuesday our bus had a tire problem that had to be fixed, so Rosemary and I stayed home for some rest while Melissa, Pastor Andre and Craig took a tap-tap to a rehab clinic in Cap-Haitien to see about getting a boy from Dubre into it for physical therapy.  He is teenager now, but when we first met him, he was young.  He is confined to a wheel chair because one of his feet is twisted 180 degrees.  For $67 we can get him and his mother into the facility for a month - with meals included.  Needless to say, it will be done.  He will be admitted on Friday, March 6.  He is only one of many children who we need to sponsor.  The bus was finally fixed, so Melissa, Craig and her interpreter went back to Dubre to finish getting information on the children for the new support a child program. 

It seems that every last night of our mission trips something happens.  This time our bus driver got into a fight with another driver.  The other bus was parked wrong and our driver, Navior, asked him to move so he could get by, but he refused and got belligerent. Navior tried to get by and he hit the other bus and broke off a mirror.  The other driver jumped in the bus and beat Navior, injuring his shoulder.  I gave him $60 to buy a new mirror for the other bus which appeased the other driver. 

As always, we sensed that God is at work in Haiti.  The progress is slow; it will take a few generations to bring the country to where we would like to see it.  We are training the next generation of leaders and trust that God will encourage and enable them to do what needs to be done.

As we leave America to go to Haiti, there is no other place on earth that I would rather be.  When it is time to leave, there is no other place I would rather leave.  God’s timing is perfect in both cases.  Until it is time to go again in July, “Orevwah.”

P.S.  If you believe that God would have you take a mission trip with us, please contact me at pj2@comcast.net and tell me your desires.  Any contributions can be made on our web site www.cmrh1.org

 

 

 

 

 

Demons or Men?

Genesis 6: 1-6

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.  5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

This passage has been debated among theologians and no amicable consensus has been reached.  Since Moses did not explain it by giving details or by positively identifying those who were involved in this activity, no one today can with absolute certainty declare who its participants were, nor can anyone give its definite interpretation that would satisfy everyone.  Moses merely recorded the account as fact without giving conclusive commentary.  The result of the sexual encounters between the sons of God and the daughters of man were the Nephilim.  Those are the facts that are recorded in Genesis.  No attempt at explaining those facts is made.  I believe that Moses did not give an explanation of these events because Israel, whose history he was recording, knew who the participants were and therefore needed no further explanation.  What has caused misunderstanding among Bible students today is that through the years too many Theologians have offered their opinions on these events and have muddied the waters of interpretation.  There are two major thoughts as to who the sons of God are and who the Nephilim are. 

One of them, it seems to me, can be discarded without serious consideration, although among many Godly Christians it is the proper interpretation.  It says that the sons of God are fallen angels – those of you who believe this please hear me out before you take up stones - who took human wives unto themselves and the resulting offspring were physical giants, the word “Nephilim” interpreted by the Septuagint as meaning “giants”.  To prove their point, they quote Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

Job 2: 1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.

Also, Job 38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy

Since “the sons of God” in these verses refer to angels, then, these interpreters assume that the same nomenclature in Genesis 6: 2 must also refer to angels.  I have at least two problems with that interpretation. The term "sons of God" does refer to angels in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; but these are unfallen angels faithfully serving God, not those who followed Satan in his rebellion against God.  The words, “and Satan came among them” proves that he is not counted as included in the “sons of God” in these passages.  He is separate from them, and therefore, so are demons. 

Even if fallen angels could make themselves appear in human bodies, why would they want to marry human women and settle down on earth?  Certainly their wives and neighbors would detect something different about them and this would create innumerable problems.  Do immortal spiritual beings desire and lust after mortal flesh?  I don’t think so. 

A second problem I have with this is that nowhere does the Bible even remotely indicate that angels can have sex with humans.  Yes, angels have assumed human form, but they are not human.  They are still spiritual beings with spiritual characteristics.  Do they have a fully functioning human body, i.e. reproductive abilities when they take on human form for a time?  I rather doubt it, and I believe it takes a stretch of the imagination to see that possibility.  Angels may appear as a human i.e. look like them, but they do not have the same bodily functions.

Mark 12: 25 states that in the resurrection people will be like the angels in heaven, in that there will be no marriage, nor by implication, no sex.  Angels do not have sex.

Mark 12: 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Immediately someone is shouting out, “It says angels in heaven.  In heaven they don’t have sex, but Genesis 6 is on earth, not in heaven.  The angels can have sex on earth.”

That, however, is not a valid argument since it is an argumentum ex silentio, an argument from silence.  Just because Jesus said the angels in heaven do not have sex that does not even remotely imply that the opposite is true; it gives absolutely not one shred of evidence that on earth they can and in fact have had sexual relations with human women.  In logic, an argument from silence is never taken as a valid one.  If you use arguments from silence, then you can prove whatever you want to prove.  Just say, “Since there is no evidence to disprove that what I say true, it must be true.”  That is what an argument from silence is; if there is no empirical evidence to the contrary to disprove what I am maintaining, then what I argue must be taken as valid and correct.  But, that is not true.  It is an invalid argument because it is based on assumption, namely, if ‘A’ is proven to be true and I claim that ‘B’ is true because nothing is proven contrary to what I am claiming, I am, therefore, correct in my assertion.

Of course, the focus of what Jesus was teaching when He mentioned the angels in heaven in Mark was that there is no need for marriage in heaven because those who populate heaven will never die; so in that way they are like the angels in that they have eternal life.  There will be no births in heaven because there are no deaths in heaven.  He was teaching that there is a need for marriage on earth in order to propagate life since people on earth die.  If they did not reproduce, then the human species would die out.  His primary teaching was not whether or not angels were capable of having sexual relationships, but rather that those who populate eternity have no need to reproduce since they will never die.  Since angels do not die, there is no need for them to reproduce other angels.  In fact, they are not capable of doing so.  What would be the purpose of angels having reproductive capabilities since God has already created all the angels He intends to create? 

In addition to their claim that “in heaven” excludes angels “on earth” from the Lord’s prohibition of marriage, they point to Jude 6 as further proof that angels had sexual relations on earth with human women. 

Jude 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day

Jude is comparing the false teachers of his day who had infiltrated the church, posing as teachers and ministers of the gospel - who in essence were profane perverters of the gospel - to the disobedient Israelites in the wilderness and to the angels who rebelled against God by not being satisfied with their position as holy angels, but wanted to be more than that, and to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were slain with fire from heaven because of their blatant in-your-face depraved homosexual practices.  They wanted to have sex with angels (see Genesis 19:5) – the opposite of what some claim occurred in Genesis 6 - but the men of Sodom were prevented from doing so.  This is just another indication that angels do not have sex on earth.  It is because of the juxtaposition of the angel verse to the verse about Sodom and Gomorrah that some perceive the angels to have been involved in sexual misdeeds with women.  “Since they are adjacent verses, then they must have the same sexual context.”  But the context does not demand such an interpretation.  It merely states that the false teachers will be in the same condemnation as the rebellious Israelites, the rebellious angels and the perverted inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Nothing about sexual encounters between angels and humans is even implied.

Furthermore, the emphasis in Genesis 6 is on the sin of man and not the rebellion of angels. The word "man" is used nine times in verses 1-7 and God states clearly that the judgment was coming because of what humans had done. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (verse 5).  Another problem with this interpretation is that verse 2 states that the “sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.”  This verse clearly states that the sons of God were lusting after the daughters of men. 

Do angels lust after human flesh?  Do angels think of human women as an object of desire?  Do spiritual beings wish they could be fleshly in nature so they can have sex?  They are far superior to human beings, so why would they want to do what inferior beings do?  Do you, as a human being, desire to live as an animal so you can procreate with one?  The idea is abhorrent.  It is disgusting to even imagine.  The idea that the sons of God were angels who lusted after human women just does not make sense. 

And the verse continues by saying that they “took as their wives any they chose.”  The sons of God married the daughters of man.  The word “wife” implies the intent of an enduring relationship.  Would angels make a conscience decision to relinquish a spiritual manifestation in order to remain in a corporeal manifestation just so they could remain in a relationship with a human for the purpose of having sex?  It just does not begin to make sense.  Once again I refer you to Mark 12:25.  Angels do no marry.  They do not reproduce.  They are eternal in nature so there is no need for them to have offspring.  Neither are they capable of doing so.

But, someone says, this was Satan’s way of destroying the human race that God created to worship and serve Him.  How better to defeat God’s work than to mix demon blood with human blood?  (This falsely assumes that angels have blood.)  One of Satan's most successful devices is compromise. If he can delude God's people into abandoning their privileged position of separation from sin and communion with God, then he can corrupt them and lead them into sin.

What was Satan's plan for defeating God's people in Noah's day?   It was to entice the godly line of Seth ("the sons of God") to mix with the ungodly line of Cain ("the daughters of men") and thus abandon their devotion to the Lord.   This is the identical temptation that Christians face today: to be friends with the world (James 4:4), love the world (1 John 2:15-17), and conform to the world (Rom. 12:2), rather than be separated from the world (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1.

Those who teach that the sons of God were fallen angels also teach that the offspring of those relations were physical giants who viciously, violently and tyrannically ruled others.  They cared not for any person other than themselves.  They terrorized those they ruled and trampled upon the rights of all.  Since they were bigger and stronger than everyone else, half angel and half human, who could stop them?  But, is this the proper interpretation?

To give support to that position, they point to Goliath and his brothers who were physical giants and to Numbers 13: 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, (who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."

Because of the physical stature of the inhabitants of Canaan - which may have been greatly exaggerated because of their fear of confrontation with unknown forces – the spies thought of them as having descended from the Nephilim who had inhabited the ante-diluvian world.  But, there is at least one major problem with that interpretation.  If all of the Nephilim were drowned in the flood and only Noah and his family survived to begin populating the post-diluvian world, how did these Nephilim, these physical giants, get there?  Was there a second (supposed) invasion of angels having sex with human women?  Were they physical giants?  The Bible clearly states that there were physical giants that lived in Canaan – not all the inhabitants were physical giants, but the descendants of Anak were - but they were not the Nephilim that existed prior to the flood.  The ante-diluvian Nephilim were something else because they were all destroyed in the flood.  The two groups are not at all related to each other.  But these Nephilim that the Israelites saw in Canaan were similar the first group of Nephilim in that they were godless, tyrannical men who sought only their own desires and had no thought of the true God.  Genesis 6: 4 clearly states that 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

The words “and also afterward” gives meaning to who the ante-diluvian Nephilim were.  Nephilim that were similar to the Genesis Nephilim were also in Canaan and were seen by the Israelite spies.  These Nephilim were men who had rejected truth for a lie and were the mighty ones who led the Gentile nations within Canaan.

It seems to me that the more sensible and Biblical interpretation would be that the sons of God are the descendants from the godly line of Seth.  These are the people whose ancestors had “called upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4: 26).  These sons of God had been taught the ways of God, but now have rejected those ways for the ways of the world, for the ways of the ungodly line of Cain - the daughters of man.

They “saw” them, that they were “attractive” or beautiful.  They “took” whoever they wanted as wives.  They failed to remain faithful to God and to their calling as His children, as His offspring, those who had been sanctified by Him as his own, and they chose to intermingle with those who were apostates and rejecters of all that God is.  Just like Eve in the Garden of Eden, they “saw” that what they desired was “attractive” so they “took.” 

They turned their backs on God and the obedient way of life because they lusted after beautiful women.  They chose only with their eyes, emotionally, not with their minds or spirits, intellectually or spiritually.  They were living by sight, not by faith.  They only saw what was outward; they did not see what was real.  They chose outwardly fading beauty over real substance, that which is inward and lasting.  They chose women over God.  They chose to have sexual encounters with as many women as they desired over God’s holy way of life.  They chose very temporary pleasure over eternal joy.  They chose death over life.   How foolish.  How utterly insane.  The devastating results of their choices would be seen in a few years; the death of the world that they knew, just like Adam and Eve witnessed the death of their garden and of the blessed life they knew in the presence, protection, and power of God when they saw, lusted, and chose.

Seeing, lusting, choosing always brings death, no matter who, when, where, how, why or time frame.  It has not changed from the beginning of time to this day.  Men have still not learned that what God says He means and He has the right and the power to enforce what He demands.  No.  Let me change that.  Men have chosen to rebel against what God says and have thought that God will not punish them for disobedience.  If, indeed, God really cares at all what men do since He does not immediately take action against them for disobedience.

Having seen and desired the beauty of the women they saw, they “took.”  There is something that bodes sinister in this.   They “took” has an implication of force.  “They took any… they chose.”  Perhaps there was consent with the one being taken, perhaps not.  Did they take more than one?  Two?  Three?  Several?  It seems from the context that if the taker wanted what he saw, then there was no question that he would take whoever he wanted whether or not the woman – or women - wanted to go with him.  There was no limit to his taking by force.  The violence that followed in their society confirms this.  Perhaps I have misread this, but I think not.

This “seeing”, “desiring” and “taking” on the part of the sons of God was the beginning of the end for the ante-diluvian world.  This lust for godlessness was the beginning of violent, worldwide evil.  There was no more Godly influence, for all sought only selfish pleasure.  What started as what some may think of as only natural desire, a man’s desire for a beautiful woman, the tiny seed of passion, grew exponentially into continual, unending wickedness and violence.  The spark of lust ignited a world of greed, violence, evil and ungodliness. 

The Nephilim who were born of these unions were the “men of renown” the “mighty men” in the earth.  There is nothing in verse 4 that indicates they were anything other than human men.  They were fully human, not an aberration of a cross species.   The Gesenius Lexicon of Hebrew renders the word “Nephilim” as meaning excellent, noble and skillful.  The lexicon insists that the word does not carry the meaning of “large in body.”  These Nephilim were giants of politics, industry, business, and social life.  They were also the warriors, the military, the enforcers; they were bullies, thugs, hoodlums, punks, gangsters, mobsters.  What they wanted, they took with impunity.  They took by might and power.  They were brutal, sadistic, fierce, and forceful in their demeanor.  No one dare oppose them on pain of death, or at minimum, a severe beating. 

Were they physical giants or not?  They may or may not have been – the context is ambiguous – other interpreters render the word Nephilim as meaning physical giants and others as “fallen ones” - but regardless, they were unstoppable in their conquering and domination of others.  They were totally without fear of other men or of God.  Their ancestors had known God and followed Him, but for the sake of temporary pleasure, they had turned their backs on Him, and now their descendants had no inkling of who He was and what He demanded of man.  They were totally on their own.  No Godly guidance.

What began as what some may view as an innocent and casual glance at a beautiful, but godless woman by one of God’s children, set in motion the rapid and irreversible decline of a Godly society into a cesspool of Satanically inspired evil, wickedness, and violence.  It is almost inconceivable to imagine a world such as what they lived in.  The thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.  No one thought of anything worthwhile.  They were totally consumed with evil. 

So it is today.  The outward covering of skin, no matter how humanly desirable is not to be desired over inward beauty.  So many people are still choosing in the same way the sons of God chose back then; and they are making the same mistakes as they did.  Now, there is, of course, nothing wrong with having a beautiful wife (just ask me) or handsome husband (just ask my wife), but outward appearances are not to have priority over Godliness.  When God’s people choose the ways of the world over God’s ways, evil and destruction is always the result.  It will never be the other way around.   The influence of godlessness crushes the life out of Godliness when it is embraced by those who deliberately decide that the world has more to offer and is less demanding and stressful than living Godly lives.  Unlike what the old TV commercial says, they would rather switch than fight.  When God’s people marry godless people, no matter how stunning their appearance, the result is usually the same.  Perhaps not 100% of the time; many people could probably give an example of the exception to this, but a high percentage of the time being unequally yoked destroys the godly influence that the Christian may have.   It is always the Godly spouse who must compromise with the ungodly one by being less and less an influence upon the other.  God’s way is always the best way.  Marry only another Christian.

And there is a very good reason for the decline of Godliness when one decides to do things his own way.  Because of the deliberate rejection of God by the sons of God, those who at one time had been taught His ways, He rejected them.  The Holy Spirit will not always strive, or plead, or contend with them to repent and do His will.  He allows mankind to reap the fruit of what they have sown.  This is the worst of all judgments.  To be allowed to live in any way one chooses to live with no regard for God or His laws.  The sons of God, with forethought and deliberate alienation from God’s commands, chose to entangle themselves with the daughters of men.  All thought and remembrance of God were lost as they progressively grew further and further from Him.  And now He allows them to go their own way with no restraint, with no sense of wrong doing, with no pang of conscience.  It is not to be desired to be allowed to live with no Godly restraint.  It means certain death.   It means God no longer cares what you do.  It means you are past feeling the influence of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4: 19).  The world that was the result of these ungodly unions was one of total chaos and unmitigated evil. 

In support of this view, I refer you to Exodus 34, where God warns Israel not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of Canaan, especially in regard to the worship of their gods and in the taking of their daughters for their sons as wives.

Exodus 34: 11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Also see Deuteronomy 7: 1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.  6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God.  The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

God clearly warns that any slackening of their resolve to honor Him completely would lead to disastrous consequences, both spiritually and socially.  If you pay attention to what the passage is saying, you cannot help but notice that it is the godless women who will lead the Godly men away from worshiping God and into idolatry.  The women would hold an inordinate control over the men.  So it was in Genesis 6. 

Ezra 9 and 10 and Nehemiah 13 spell out in clear and strong language the results of intermarrying with someone who does not hold the same spiritual values as you do.  Godless spouses always cause a spiritual downfall.  The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7: 39 instructs Christians to marry “only in the Lord.”  

Covenant making with the ungodly always leads to spiritual compromise, which leads to decreased fear of God, which leads to judgment.  When God’s people put the ungodly on spiritual par with themselves, when they take their values as their own, tragedy occurs.  It is tragic when God’s people lessen their adherence to God’s commands and interact with the ungodly as spiritual equals.

God calls this interaction “whoredom.”  God does not mince His words.  He tells it just like it is.   It is playing the whore – not a nice word at all – with those who care not for God or His ways.  It is prostituting oneself with idolatrous people.  Does anyone really want God to think of himself or herself as a “whore”?  A spiritual whore?  That is a dangerous position.  I’m sure the ancient Israelites thought the same way as is popular today, that we should not be judgmental or close-minded in regard to what some else practices or believes regardless of what God says about the situation.  Open-mindedness and tolerance may be behavior that is desirable to humans, but it is not acceptable to God.   The only question that needs to be considered is this: who do I want to please, man or God?

The most likely interpretation of Genesis 6:4 is that God saw the people of that day as "fallen ones," while men saw these people as mighty leaders.  When the descendants of Seth compromised with the descendants of Cain, they fell from God's blessing. God was grieved that they married into the godless line of Cain, choosing wives as they pleased without considering God's will (Genesis 6:2).  Did they not realize that they were jeopardizing God’s promise of a coming Redeemer?  How could God bring a Redeemer into the world through an unholy people?  They had disregarded the warning that Enoch and Noah gave about the coming judgment. Human history was now at the place where only Noah and his family—eight people—believed God and obeyed His Word. God's Spirit was striving with lost people, but they resisted the call of God; and God was grieved at what man was doing.

Whoever you believe the sons of God were, fallen angels or the descendants of Seth, there is no question that when they took the daughters of men as wives, it involved grievous sexual perversion of some kind.  It was the catalyst that precipitated the destruction of the old world, for it multiplied into absolute rejection of God.  It fulfilled James 1: 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.