Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Gen. 6:1–4 NKJV)

In a discussion of the Bible on a local talk show, the host seemed to suggest that we cannot accept everything the Bible has to say and used the above passage to give an example. He used the interpretation given by many that said that the sons of God here refer to angelic beings and that angels mated with women and created the giants that were in the earth at that time.
Let’s make a few observations:

1. In Job (1:6), the sons of God do seem to refer to angelic beings, and they are appearing before God in heaven and presenting themselves before Him. Satan was also there, and challenged God on Job. However, does every reference in the Bible, from this point forward, mean that “sons of God” must be angelic beings? No! In Galatians 3:26–27 and 4:5–6 the term is used to denote those who have become Christians and are now the children of God, and here it has definite reference to human beings, saved by God’s grace. Just because the phrase in one place means one thing, does not mean it means the same in every other place.

2. In Matthew 22:29–30 we read, “Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.” This passage suggests that angels do not enjoy the blessing of sex in the marriage relationship, which would argue against the sons of God in this passage referring to angelic beings.
In all probability, the term “sons of God” in this place refers to those descendants of Seth, while the terms “daughters of men” refers to the descendants of Cain. These married, and mighty men of renown were born.

What exactly does the “mighty men of renown” and “giants” refer to? We know that life was much different then, with men having life spans of over 500 years. After the flood, however, we read that man’s life was noticeably shortened. Without going into the reasons why this took place (conditions changed drastically on the planet after the flood), it is reasonable to conclude that man may have been bigger than now (consider that in the last generation man has grown taller).

Yes, thinking people do believe these things, and when studied just a little bit, the above explanation makes more sense and can be believed.

More next week!