Apostasy in the Angelic Realm, No. 3 - Jude 6

JD07-01

We have learned that Satan had some of his demons infiltrate the human race in the days of Noah preceding the years before the flood. Through marriage between angels and human women, there was produced a hybrid race, the purpose of which was to destroy all pure humanity on this earth. Satan's reasoning was very simple. He knew from Genesis 3:15 that Jesus Christ was going to come as Savior of the world, but he had to come as pure humanity in order to be the intermediary between God and man. Satan decided that if he could create a condition where there were no human beings--no true humans--left on the earth, it would be impossible, of course, for Christ to come into the race through the virgin birth and be born a man--a human being--in the full sense of the word.

So this infiltration of the race began, and it was fantastically successful. The point of all this was that Satan would then never have to face the judgment which God has declared upon him in Hebrews 1:13. That judgment is project footstool where he is going to be neutralized during the millennium, and then judged at the end, and cast into the lake of fire. This is a horrible prospect for Satan and his demonic hosts, and they are doing everything in their power to delay that day, and if possible, to stave it off completely. Up to the point of the cross, they were hopeful that they could do something so that it would not be possible for God to bring a Savior, and it would not be possible for God to judge them and cast them into the lake of fire. At the point of the cross, the victory was won, and that hope was smashed. So all that Satan can hope for today is to delay that moment.

God frustrated Satan's clever plan of infiltrating the human race by sending the worldwide flood. The flood destroyed all the hybrid super race, for the offspring of these marriages were super creatures--men of great stature and men of great super strength. We have this era reflected in Greek and Roman mythology which often has the stories of gods and human women cohabiting and producing offspring that are supermen. The angels who were involved in this infiltration, of course, did not die in the flood, for they cannot be put to death. However, they were imprisoned, we have learned, in a compartment of Hades called Tartarus. 2 Peter 2:4 told us about that. The English translation has the word "hell," but that's the wrong word. It is the word "Tartarus" in the Greek. These are now in pits of total darkness until the day of Satan's judgment after the millennium. No angel today enters into marriage relationships, so it is not possible for the same thing to happen again. Matthew 22:30 tells us that.

1 Peter 3:18-20

This warfare now constantly surges around you and me. These are the creatures with whom you and I actually do our combat as believers. We do not do combat with other people--with flesh and blood. Whenever we come up against people in our warfare, it is simply people who are controlled and directed by demonic forces. So it is important to realize and remember that you are at the center of this warfare.

So we read in 1 Peter 3:18: "For Christ also has once suffered for sin." The word "Christ" is just part of the name, as you know, of the Savior. His full name is the Lord Jesus Christ. This name describes his unique person. "Lord" is a Greek word which means "deity" because he is God. Jesus is his human name. In the Hebrew, it's the equivalent of Joshua which means "Savior." His human name, Jesus, reflects the fact that he is true humanity. "Christ" is His messianic name meaning the one appointed or the one commissioned by God. The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "Messiah" is this term "Christ." The act of anointing was pouring on a person and thus indicated that he was set aside to a special mission. So for this reason, Christ is called the anointed One. He is the unique God man of the universe, and He has fulfilled the divine commission which was given to Him by his anointing, which was to go to the cross.

The fact that in the Scriptures here, God the Holy Spirit simply uses the word "Christ" in this verse stresses the fact of His appointment relative to the cross. As the appointed Messiah or as the appointed Savior is the point that is stressed here. This commission is viewed as part of God's plan relative to the angelic warfare which this context is going to refer to.

So, "Christ has once suffered." He has suffered once. The word here is not suffer. This is the Greek word "apothnesko." "Apothnesko" means "to die," not "to suffer." "Apo" is a preposition that speaks about the ultimate source. Here it is the ultimate source of the being of the God man--from His soul and spirit. "Thnesko" means "to die." In 1 Timothy 5:6, we have this word used, and we have it used in terms of spiritual death. 1 Timothy 5:6: "But she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." The word "dead" there is the word "thnesko" which means spiritual death there while physically alive. So the combination here "apothnesko" means spiritual death from the ultimate source of its being is the idea that it emphasizes here the concept of the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

When it says, "He also has once died for sin," the stress is on His spiritual death. The aorist tense in the Greek indicates a point of time in the past, so the aorist tense here indicates that He died at a specific point spiritually. As you remember, that was for the three hours that he hung on the cross from noon until 3:00 in the afternoon when he was crying out, "'My God, My God (addressing first the Father and then the Holy Spirit),' saying, 'Why have You forsaken me?'" In that three-hour period, he died spiritually, and that's what this verse is referring to. Christ, the one who was appointed to go to the cross, was forsaken by God the Holy Spirit--at the point of time when he hung on that cross alone facing the sins of the world.

It is also active which means that it was His deliberate choice--His volition to do this. It is indicative which means that it was a reality. His decision to die on the cross was one that He reached on His own. This decision was made in eternity past in His deity, in the decrees of God. But His humanity also decided to go to the cross for you and me. He made this decision first at His water baptism. Through this ritual, He identified Himself with the Father's plan which was to go to the cross as our substitute for sin. He also made this decision in the garden of Gethsemane when he addressed the Father and said, "Not my human will, but Your will be done." So the physical death that Christ experienced on the cross resulted from this spiritual death which was experienced by the perfect God man. His resurrection then was proof of the propitiation of God--that God was satisfied with what He had done.

So we read: "Christ has once died spiritually, and the resultant physical death, the just for the unjust." We should look at this word "once." This word in the Greek is "hapax" which means "once and for all." It is not to be repeated. Christ died once for all. So if you go through a ritual that claims to sacrifice Jesus Christ again and again, the Word of God puts you under condemnation. He died, and there's no necessity to repeat it (Romans 6:10). The thing that he died for, we are told, is for sins. This word "for" in the Greek is "peri." The word "peri" means substitution. It means on account of. He died on account of our sins.

The Old Sin Nature

There is something you should know about this nature. It has an area of weakness, and it has an area of strength. Out of the area of weakness, our old sin nature produces all of the sins that you ever commit. Out of the areas of our strength, you produce all of the human good; all of the bleeding hearts of our society; all of the concepts of the social gospel; and, all that is entailed in our political misconceptions relative to the values and the projection of human good that religious people hold in great esteem and value highly. However, there is something that God says concerning the old sin nature, and that is that He rejects it. He rejects everything that comes out of it. At the cross, He took your sins and He poured them on Jesus Christ and they would be judged. That took care of them. Your human good He rejected at the cross, for grace will have nothing but what God provides.

However, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, your human blood is going to be dealt with, and it is going to be canceled out. If you are an unbeliever, you will stand at the Great White Throne, and you will crank out all your human good as the records are open where God has all your good listed--all of your works are in that book. This includes all of your good works--not your evil works. Christ covered your evil works and removed those. However, all of your good works are going to be there; they're going to be laid out; and, you're going to be found to be short of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So your human good will produce nothing for you.

There is a tendency in each of our old sin natures. Some of you are ascetic. Some of you are lascivious. Each of us, in our old sin nature, puts on a good front if we're kind of ascetic, or we put on an evil front if we tend to be lascivious. Whatever comes from the old sin nature that you're trusting on is a doomed hope. So, "Christ has once for all died for sins," and all that the old sin nature connotes, "the just for the unjust." or the righteous for the unrighteous. Jesus Christ, the perfect righteous One took our place who are the perfect unrighteous ones. Suppose I were to ask you, "How good does a person have to be to go to heaven?" What would you say? How good does a person have to be to go to heaven? The answer is that he has to be as good as Jesus Christ. That's exactly what he made us by making us the recipients of His righteousness.

Righteousness

Here's another word we want to look it. The word "for" here is a little different word than we've had before. This one is "huper." This is another preposition in the Greek that strongly emphasizes the idea of substitution. The idea here is "in behalf of." The just was substituted in behalf of us. It was for our benefit, and to clarify the fact that Christ actually took our place. He was judged on behalf of every member of the human race. Now you and I don't receive what we deserve.

The purpose of all this, he says, was "that He might bring us to God." The word here again tells us something about how He's going to do that because it's the word "prosago." "Prosago" has this little preposition "pros" which means face-to-face. "Pros" connotes a face-to-face confrontation. What we are told here is that Jesus Christ died so that you could be brought face-to-face into the very presence of God. It stresses the reality of propitiation. God's justice and God's righteousness have been satisfied. God holds nothing against you.

If you an unbeliever right now, God holds nothing against you. Everything that He once held against you has been covered by this act of Christ on the cross, so that He is ready to bring you into heaven, face-to-face with God Himself. He's free to love you. He's free to give you His eternal life.

You and I must admit to ourselves that there are some Christians that we know who are not acceptable to other Christians. There are some Christians who may not be acceptable to you right now. However, I have to remind you that they're all acceptable to God, because Jesus Christ has "prosago'd" them in His death upon the cross. He has put them in a condition where they can come face-to-face with God. The Christian that you are not particularly fond of is going to be right there in heaven with you in the beloved, just as are you. This is the great thing that this verse is describing.

Whether a Christian is good or bad has nothing to do with his salvation. There are some Christians who are the greatest people in the world, and there are some Christians who are the biggest rats in the world. And you know both kinds. But what they are has nothing to do with their coming face-to-face with God someday. That was an act of faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Moral and good people, unfortunately, are blinded to this. The people who are very moral equate that with Christianity, and that's a grave mistake. To good people, their human good is equated with Christianity. This kind of person is usually blinded to an appreciation and a need for what Christ did on the cross for him.

So, what's he going to do? He's going to someday face God with his human good. Christ brought us to a condition of being face-to-face, to bring it to God, being put to death in the flesh. "Being put to death" is that aorist tense at the point of the cross in the past. It's passive. Christ received the death in His own being. He decided the moment that He was going to die. But the death that was inflicted upon Him was at the hands of others. But by His own decision, He came to a moment where he decided to send His soul to Hades; His human spirit to the Father in Heaven; and, His body to the grave. What He paid for was the wages of sin which was spiritual death. That's what He did for us. We needed somebody to die spiritually for us because that had to be paid, and there's no way we could do it. So He did it for us. When He did that, it resulted in His physical death.

So it says, "He died, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit." The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is what is in view here. It was by means of the instrumentality of God the Holy Spirit who raised the Son from the dead as the Father's agent--the person of Jesus Christ, whose work on the cross was to fulfil Genesis 3:15. Satan has for centuries been trying to frustrate that fulfillment. Now there came a point in history where it was done--all the things that Satan did to try to frustrate His going to the cross. He tried with the very first thing of turning Cain into a murderer to see if he could kill the line off that way. He made attacks upon individuals throughout history upon the line from Adam through Abraham through David through Mary to Christ. People were constantly under attack, even the children in Herod's day. He was trying to slaughter them. Pharaoh was doing it in his day--somehow to stop it.

Well, it was all to no avail. The day came when salvation was a reality. That's what verse 18 says. It stresses that, and it gives us a concise picture of what Christ did for us in behalf of our sins in order to lead us into verse 19. The angels in Tartarus have been sitting here in this utter blackness. You remember that that word means total darkness and lack of light. They're sitting in this place in Hades, and what do you think they're thinking about? Their minds haven't been checked. God has obviously turned off their light quality that they possessed as angels, but they're sitting there and they're thinking. For centuries, before the cross, they had been hoping that somehow their leader Satan would be able to pull something off to frustrate what God had placed as judgment upon them--the lake of fire.

Tartarus

In 1 Peter 3:19, we read, "By whom also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." "By whom" is "by means of whom." That refers to God the Holy Spirit. He was the instrument through which Jesus Christ made this trip into Tartarus. God the Holy Spirit has the key. It was done after the resurrection in the Lord's resurrection body. "Also He" refers to Jesus Christ. "By whom" is the Holy Spirit. "He" is Jesus Christ. "Went" is the word "poreuomai." "Poreuomai" means to go to a place. That's important. We're not talking about something that is a theory. This is an actual place. Notice down in verse 22, we read, "Who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God." It's the same word, "poreuomai"--gone. We know that this is speaking about a real place in heaven at the right hand of God the Father to which the Son has gone.

So, "poreuomai" is a word that means He went to an actual place. What was the place? The place was Tartarus." Aorist means in the past. He made this trip after His resurrection. It's in passive which means He is the subject who was carried there. He didn't do it Himself. God the Holy Spirit transported Him. It's a participle, and we have seen what it means when an aorist participle comes before the main verb in the Greek. The main verb here is "preached." So before He spoke to these creatures in Tartarus, He was transported there by the Holy Spirit.

Then we are told that He preached. The word "preached" is "kerusso." "Kerusso" is a word that is familiar to those of you who are acquainted with Christian Service Brigade, from which we get the phrase "herald of Christ." So this word means a herald--someone who is acting as a proclaimer. It is someone who is making an announcement. "Herald of Christ" in Christian Service Brigade is the name of a rank that reflects somebody who's the announcer of the gospel. But this word "kerusso" does not mean to announce the gospel. There is a different Greek word which means that. It's "euaggelizo." This is the word that means to proclaim the gospel. We have this used in 1 Peter 4:6, but this is not the word which is used here in 1 Peter 3:19. Jesus Christ was transported by the Holy Spirit, and He made an announcement--not the gospel.

Sometimes you have people who oppose the view that Genesis 6 talked about angels, and that these who are in prison here are these angels of Tartarus. The reason people object to it is on the grounds that you can't give a person a second chance at salvation. You're saying that Jesus Christ gave them the gospel. No, He didn't do that. We're not saying that. The Word doesn't say that. It's a different word altogether. What we're saying is that He walked into that place, and He made a very dramatic announcement to them. He was a herald to Tartarus. What He was proclaiming to them was His victory on the cross. The book of Hebrews goes into further detail about the elements of this proclamation.

The recipients of this proclamation, we're told, was unto the spirits in person. It is important that you understand that this word "spirits" is the Greek word "pneuma." "Pneuma," here in the plural, never refers to human spirits. When the Bible uses the word "spirits" alone in the plural, it never means human spirits. So this is not referring to human beings. By the language itself, it is impossible that these spirits in prison are human beings. It cannot be because this word (spirits in the plural) is never used of human souls. In 1 Peter 3:20, for example, we read, "Who at one time were disobedient," and down at the bottom of that verse, it says, "That is, eight souls were saved by water," and this is how the Bible refers to human beings--as souls. This is a totally different word in the Greek.

Now we do have "spirits" in the plural alone, and when we do have it, it's of angels. We have this in Psalm 110:4. We have it used like this in Hebrews 1:7. In Hebrew 12:23, we read, "To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." This is usually the verse that is brought to try to disprove this. However, this verse is different. It does use the word "spirits" in the plural but it qualifies the word "spirits" with the words "just men." In this case, it does refer to human spirits. But when it stands "spirits" alone plural, it always refers to angel being--sometimes good angels and sometimes bad angels.

In Hebrews 1:14, we have it used in reference to good angels: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them to be heirs of salvation?" This is talking about the angels--the good angels or the elect angels--who are acting as our protectors. In Luke 10:20, we have the word used in terms of evil angels: "Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. The spirits are subject. These were the evil spirits which were subject here to the disciples. So we have the word "spirits" used alone of angel beings, good and bad.

When we come here to 1 Peter 3:19, and it says that Jesus Christ was transported by God the Holy Spirit, and He made a proclamation to spirits in prison, it refers to angel beings. Of course, this fits exactly with Genesis 6 and the imprisonment of the angles who participated in that event in Noah's day. It says that these creatures are in prison. What prison is it? The one we've already looked at--Tartarus. This is a special kind of angel who is no longer free to roam the universe.

2 Peter 2:4-5

Notice that 2 Peter 2:4 speaks of some group of angels. Verse 5 identifies this group as the group that existed in the days of Noah in the days of the flood. These are the angels, therefore of Genesis 6. That the only place you can follow them back. All of these illustrations that Jude gives in verses 5, 6, and 7 are Old Testament illustrations. Genesis 6 is the only place you find an illustration that fits Jude 6 concerning angels. 2 Peter 2 follows it up. Verse 4 speaks about a group of angels. Verse 5 identifies them as being in prison out of the period of the flood.

So, coming back to 1 Peter 3:19, we have in the same way the time set as to verse 19. It is talk about some kind of angelic spirits who appeared in some kind of prison. Spirits from what? Angels from what era? From what time? Verse 20 identifies it. "Who at one time were disobedient." "Who" refers to these angels, the spirits in prison who hear the announcement of Jesus Christ. This was time of the Genesis 6 infiltration. "They were disobedient" or "having been disobedient" means in the past when they crossed over to cohabit with humans. It's in the active which means they did this by their own volition. Nobody forced them to do it. "Who at one time were disobedient." When? The time is Genesis 6, and the word "once" does not belong there in the translation.

"When the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah." That's where these spirits came from. "In the days of Noah." Now, how long is the longsuffering of God? 120 years. During that time, Noah was preaching. During that time, the ark was being built. When the flood actually came and the water started coming down, there were only eight born again people in all the world. For all we know, they may have been the last of true humanity left upon the earth. God was going to preserve them in that ark in order to start all over again. They had come from Adam, and through them, they could go down to Christ to produce this true humanity.

Well, the longsuffering of God was for 120 years. These angels who were disobedient were given this time of God's longsuffering. The Greek word for "waited" is "apodechomi." The preposition "apo" again indicates that this is from the ultimate source of Himself. It is from God's own sovereignty. He decided that He would wait. The Spirit of God in Genesis 6 decided that he would strive with man for another 120 years.

So, what happened during that time? Well, probably when the 120-year period began, there were some people who were saved. There were probably some people, true humans, who believed the preaching of Noah, and they were born again and saved, but died before the flood. We know there was one who was born again, and that is Methuselah. He was the oldest man that ever lived, and he died the day before the flood began. When the flood actually began, there were just eight left. But that doesn't mean that there were not others who were saved as a result of Noah's preaching, but who died before the flood began in this 120-year grace period.

In any case, God waited. You will notice that there was no move made by God to bring the natural results of apostasy which is our population's decimation. God did not bring the natural results of apostasy until Noah was safe. That is a very important point. That antediluvian world was safe as long as Noah was walking outside that ark. I don't care what they did, as long as they saw Noah walking outside that ark, they were safe because God was not going to bring judgment until his man was in the protective care of that ark.

This is exactly what God does relative to a nation. How long does God tolerate a nation's apostasy? How long will He wait? Well, He will wait until He has taken care of His own. There comes a certain point where we cross the line with believers in a nation who are oriented to God's viewpoint. When that group becomes small enough, that nation is through. This is why nations rise and fall. As God puts a nation on the scene, that nation is oriented to God's point of view. As it digresses increasingly from that point of view, God phases the nation out and brings another one to replace it.

So, our nation stands today dependent upon you people who are the preserving salt. You people who are oriented to Bible doctrine are the ones that are carrying the nation, but the nation doesn't realize it. When the time comes that liberalism takes its toll, and those who know God, in the fullness of the Word of God, become such an infinitesimal minor group, then this nation will be through. Perhaps we have already reached that point.

The Ark

Then it says that, "few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." These few had two very important features about them. They were all bonafide human beings. They were not hybrids--angel and human. They were all true descendants of Adam. Therefore, they were qualified to be the line through whom the Savior would come to fulfill Genesis 3:15. Furthermore, they were born again. They all go into that ark with living human spirits.

This is another thing that is observable in the working of God. Apostasy comes when there is a certain small level of believers. Then God judges a nation; He starts a new era; and, He begins with all believers. When God judged in the flood, it had begun with all believers. When God judges at the end of the tribulation, He will take the Jews out who were unbelievers, and He will put them to death. He will take the goats of the Gentile nations who are unbelievers out in the wilderness, and He will put them to death. When the millennium begins, a new era in history will begin. This will be a cleansing of apostasy, and a new era on the historical scene will begin, and it will again begin with all believers. This is how God works. These people were saved by water. The same water that destroyed those who would not believe saved those who did believe. The world "saved" here is the Greek word "diasozo." "Diasozo" does not mean salvation in the sense of eternal life. It means salvation in terms of bringing safely through a danger. So, eight people were brought safely through this danger.

All of this is background simply to identify for us who these spirits (these angelic beings) were who are imprisoned here, and to tie it back to these other passages that tell us about this type of imprisonment of certain beings who go all the way back to Genesis 6. This is apostasy in the angelic realm. Next time, we shall look at apostasy in the realm of unbelievers as we look at two towns who were the greatest sex perverts of all history, and the apostasy that descended upon those cities and the poor believers such as Lot who were willing to make common cause with unbelievers in their apostasy.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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