The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-B, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 4." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
How can angels be sexless if they married with the daughters of men and produced monsters?
Answer
That is a loaded question. That is like saying, “When did you stop beating your wife?” There is no good answer to that question because there are some assumptions there that we have to back up and understand. Number one, it doesn’t say that they produced monsters. Number two, how can angels be sexless if they married—who said angels are sexless?
Now, let’s go back to Genesis 6 and look at this very knotty problem—K-N-O-T-T-Y. Genesis 6:1: “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 fair. They took them wives of all whom they chose.” Now, the “sons of God” here, I believe, are angels. I think that’s the proper interpretation. So, angels saw the daughters of men—human women—cohabitated, and they produced, verse 4, “Giants in the earth in those days.” Now—“Mighty men, men of renown,” verse 4 says.
Now, the question comes, “How could angels cohabitate with women if angels are sexless? The answer is, who said angels are sexless? That is not in scripture. It does not say in scripture anywhere that angels do not have any capability of identifying with a sex. The scripture that people have in mind is Matthew 22:30. It says in Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.” All it says there is that the angels don’t marry. It doesn’t say that they are not of any sex.
You say, “Yes, but Hebrews 1 says, “They are ministering spirits” and a spirit does not have a sexual identity because he is a spirit, not a physical being. I agree, but angels have some form. Now, we talked about this in our series. They have some kind of form. It isn’t a form like we know… I Corinthians 15:44 says, “There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.” They have some kind of a spiritual form. They take some substance, some form.
Now, notice whenever that form becomes visible to man, it is a male form. Whenever angels appear as men, whenever their form is somehow translated into a capacity for the humans to see, it is a male form. For example, Mark 16:5, after the resurrection, “Entering the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long, white garment, and they were amazed,” and we know, of course, this was an angel. When he appeared, he appeared as a male.
So, angels have some kind of a body and when that body becomes apparent to men, it is a male body. In fact, in Luke 24:4, it mentions two angels at the resurrection; both of them are categorized as men. In Matthew 28:3, the same thing again: “His countenance was like lightning.” So, somehow, some way, angels can materialize to be seen by human beings. Hebrews 12 says that some have entertained angels unaware. They looked so much like they were human that the folks entertaining them were not even aware that they were angelic. In Genesis 18 and 19, three men visited Abraham and Sarah and they were angels, and perhaps one of them even a theophany of God. Jacob wrestled with an angel. Daniel 10 records the reference to an angel there… Many times in the Bible angels are seen by men and always in a male form. They were attacked, you remember, in Sodom as being desirable males by those that were homosexuals in the community.
So, there’s no reason to think that angels would have to be incapable of cohabitating, when, in fact, it is possible for them to assume some kind of male form. Now, these demonic angels in Genesis 6 (they were fallen angels) somehow took on that human form, cohabitated with women to produce what was a demonic human half-breed, if you will, something that’s been modernized in the concept of Rosemary’s baby.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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