Hi I have always believed that all angels are of the male gender and there are no female angles is this correct I would really like to hear from someone who can help me out
Permalink Reply by Carla on September 21, 2009 at 8:24am
Hi Scribe,
I found your response interesting as I have never heard this view before. I have looked into this a 'tiny bit' and discovered this answer which makes sense to me. Anyhow, I thought i would share it here for others that they may also have another perspective.
Question: "Are there such things as aliens or UFOs?"
Answer: First, let's define “aliens” as “beings capable of making moral choices, having intellect, emotion, and a will.” Next, a few scientific facts:
1. Men have sent spacecraft to nearly every planet in our solar system. After observing these planets, we have ruled out all but Mars and possibly a moon of Jupiter as being able to support life.
2. In 1976, the U.S.A. sent two landers to Mars. Each had instruments that could dig into the Martian sand and analyze it for any sign of life. They found absolutely nothing. In contrast, if you analyzed soil from the most barren desert on earth or the most frozen dirt in Antarctica, you would find it teeming with micro-organisms. In 1997, the U.S.A. sent Pathfinder to the surface of Mars. This rover took more samples and conducted many more experiments. It also found absolutely no sign of life. Since that time, several more missions to Mars have been launched. The results have always been the same.
3. Astronomers are constantly finding new planets in distant solar systems. Some propose that the existence of so many planets proves that there must be life somewhere else in the universe. The fact is that none of these has ever been proved to be anything close to a life-supporting planet. The tremendous distance between Earth and these planets makes it impossible to make any judgments regarding their ability to sustain life. Knowing that Earth alone supports life in our solar system, evolutionists want very badly to find another planet in another solar system to support the notion that life must have evolved. There are many other planets out there, but we certainly do not know enough about them to verify that they could support life.
So, what does the Bible say? The earth and mankind are unique in God's creation. Genesis 1 teaches that God created the earth before He even created the sun, the moon, or the stars. Acts 17:24, 26 states that “the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands…he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
Originally, mankind was without sin, and everything in the world was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). When the first man sinned (Genesis 3), the result was problems of all sorts, including sickness and death. Even though animals have no personal sin before God (they are not moral beings), they still suffer and die (Romans 8:19-22). Jesus Christ died to remove the punishment that we deserve for our sin. When He returns, He will undo the curse that has existed since Adam (Revelation 21–22). Note that Romans 8:19-22 states that all of creation eagerly waits for this time. It is important to also note that Christ came to die for mankind and that He died only once (Hebrews 7:27; 9:26-28; 10:10).
If all of creation now suffers under the curse, any life apart from the earth would also suffer. If, for the sake of argument, moral beings do exist on other planets, then they also suffer; and if not now, then someday they will surely suffer when everything passes away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10). If they had never sinned, then God would be unjust in punishing them. But if they had sinned, and Christ could die only once (which He did on earth), then they are left in their sin, which would also be contrary to the character of God (2 Peter 3:9). This leaves us with an unsolvable paradox—unless, of course, there are no moral beings outside of the earth.
What about non-moral and non-sentient life forms on other planets? Could algae or even dogs and cats be present on an unknown planet? Presumably so, and it would not do any real harm to any biblical text. But it would certainly prove problematic when trying answer questions like “Since all of creation suffers, what purpose would God have in creating non-moral and non-sentient creatures to suffer on distant planets?”
In conclusion, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. In fact, the Bible gives us several key reasons why there cannot be. Yes, there are many strange and unexplainable things that take place. There is no reason, though, to attribute these phenomena to aliens or UFOs. If there is a discernable cause to these supposed events, it is likely to be spiritual, and more specifically, demonic, in origin.
Recommended Resource: Bible Answers for Almost all Your Questions by Elmer Towns.
Carla, you may be absolutely right. And my hypothesis may be 100 percent flawed.
However, I don't see 2 Peter 3:10 as necessarily relating to the entire universe. The concept of a "new heavens and a new earth" could simply refer to a cleansing of this earth. One theological position holds just that: the new earth is this earth after being cleansed and recreated.
I won't be dogmatic about it - because it opens up many questions that we simply cannot answer. But, so do the other 3 possible positions. I don't like to get too far into speculation about these things; but it is fascinating that there are cultures on every continent that believed in visitors from above. And not just "secret visitors in the night" but actually alien people who came here and openly used humans as slaves.
That fact, in combination with Genesis 6, gives me pause. It makes me wonder deeply. My training as an investigator tells me that when you have multiple simultaneous witnesses in similar agreement, you have a case emerging from different vantage points.
It is possible that those other non-biblical accounts are Satanic deception. I fully agree with you that this is one possible item for consideration - there is much Satanic deception in the modern world, so I have to admit that there was equally as much possibility of it in the ancient world, if not greater.
If that is true, then what is to say that Satanic deception of the same kind won't happen again in the future? What says that there won't be a future Satanic ploy to convince humans that fallen angels are alien visitors, or that demon possessed men are gods from the sky? There are ample prophetic references that indicate that may be what will happen.
Anything we read and anything we watch requires discernment, at any rate. And no matter what happens in the future, I'm trusting in CHRIST ALONE. I am in 100% agreement with you that the REAL GOD does not dwell in temples made with human hands - the entire universe is too small to hold him.
Permalink Reply by Sam on February 11, 2010 at 4:20pm
Hi Lindsey,
I'm a little late arriving to this discussion, but I would like to add a point or two.
Regarding angels, as has been pointed out earlier, they are genderless in the sense of not having a sex..ie genitals. They are neither male nor female in that sense. The Bible has very little on the whole to say about Angels. Apparently they were created individually, and there are at least hundreds of millions of them. Consider Daniel chapter 7, the language in verse 10, myriad of myriads, literally means 10,000 times Tens of Thousands.
They are incredibly powerful. In one night a single angel slew 185,000 Assyrians. In one night a single angel slew the first born of every living thing in Egypt, for two examples
They are creatures of free will, meaning they can choose, like us, to be good or evil. Some of them, apparently, chose evil. Satan the Devil being the foremost.
Concerning the identity of the Sons of God at Genesis 6, it helps to point out that the preceding two chapters cover roughly 1,500 years of human history, from the birth of Adam's first son to the birth of Noah. Seth had been having children for a long time, and by Noah's day had been dead for about 600 years.
We can't be dogmatic about who the Sons of God were, but I will take the counterpoint and state that these 'sons of the true God' were in fact fallen angels.
As has already been stated, some have asserted that these were the sons of Seth. That since Noah is the offspring of Seth, Seth's line was preserved through the flood, but Cain's, and the other sons of Adam, were not. Thus, the marrying being spoken of in vs2 would be intermarriage between Seth's line and the others.
The problem is there is no corroborating Scriptural evidence to support this, or that the intermarriage between these lines gave birth to the mighty ones spoken of in vs4. There is nothing in the Scriptures to show that God made a distinction between the family lines at this point in history.
On the other hand, there is an explanation that finds corroborating evidence in the Scriptures. The expression “sons of the true God” next occurs at Job 1:6, and here the reference is obviously to spirit sons of God assembled in God’s presence, among whom Satan, who had been “roving about in the earth,” also appeared. (Job 1:7; 2:1,2.) Again at Job 38:4-7 “the sons of God” who ‘shouted in applause’ when God ‘laid the cornerstone’ of the earth clearly were angelic sons and not humans descended from Adam (as yet not even created). So, too, at Psalm 89:6 “the sons of God” are definitely heavenly creatures, not humans.
Supporting this are the apostle Peter’s references to “the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days” (1Pe 3:19,20), and to “the angels that sinned,” mentioned in connection with the “ancient world” of Noah’s time (2Pe 2:4,5), as well as Jude’s statement concerning “the angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place.” (Jude 6) If it is denied that “the sons of the true God” of Genesis 6:2-4 were spirit creatures, then these statements by the Christian writers become enigmatic, with nothing to explain the manner in which this angelic disobedience took place, or its actual relation to Noah’s time
Angels definitely did form human bodies on occasion, even eating and drinking with men. (Ge 18:1-22; 19:1-3) Jesus’ statement concerning resurrected men and women not marrying or being given in marriage but being like the “angels in heaven” shows that marriages between such heavenly creatures do not exist, no male and female distinction being indicated among them. (Mt 22:30) But this does not say that such angelic creatures could not form human bodies and enter marriage relations with human women. It should be noted that Jude’s reference to angels as not keeping their original position and to them as forsaking their “proper dwelling place” (certainly here referring to an abandoning of the spirit realm) is immediately followed by the statement: “So too Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example.” (Jude 6,7) Thus, the combined weight of the Scriptural evidence points to angelic deviation, the performance of acts contrary to their spirit nature, occurring in the days of Noah. There seems to be no valid reason, then, for doubting that the ‘sons of God’ of Genesis 6:2-4 were angelic sons.