Sons of God

Now that I've finished Song of Solomon I've gone back and started "In the beginning…..".  I've always loved the history of the OT.  I have often wondered about the following verses.

Genesis 6:1-4(NKJV)

1Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 

2that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

3And 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.” 

4There 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.

I've always found that wording curious and so I decided to do a little research.  Wow did I stumble on to a lot of reading.  It appears to be a bit of a controversial subject.  Let's start with a bit from Wikipedia.  By starting there we get not only the Biblical view but some secular background as well.

The term "sons of God"

In the pantheon of 2nd millennium Ugarit the El, the father-god and head of the pantheon, and the 70 "sons of El", make up a "Divine Council" which deliberates over major decisions. In the 1st millennium the El had been demoted and each of the "sons of El" was held to have been given a "nation" as his charge: Chemosh, for example, was the god of Moab. Yahweh, not originally included in the Ugaritic pantheon, was the God of Judah and of Israel. In the Book of Genesis, Yahweh is seen as the single deity, with "sons of elohim" as his assistants.

By the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC further hypotheses were developed to explain this passage in Genesis. One hypothesis was that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.[citation needed]

In the Hebrew Bible the phrase "sons of God" occurs:

• Gen 6:2 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
• Job 1:6 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
• Job 38:7 b'ney elohiym (בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִֽים) without the definite article - sons of gods.[1]
• Psalm 29:1 b'ney elim (בְּנֵי אֵלִים ) without the definite article - sons of elim.

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_God>

History of interpretation of Genesis 6

Main article: Nephilim

[edit] Second Temple Judaism

See also: Second Temple Judaism

In 1 Enoch and Book of Jubilees the Genesis 6 text was developed into a complicated mythology of fallen angels. The 3rd century BC Book of Enoch turns the "sons of God" into fallen angels, referred to as Watchers, who came to earth and had children with human women, resulting in a race of half-angel, half-human beings known as the "Giants" (Nephilim).[citation needed] The view is found in Philo[14] and in Josephus Antiquities 1:73 (or 1:3.1).[15]

In the 1st century, CE Rabbi Shimeon ben Yochai pronounced a curse on any Jew teaching the Enochite interpretation[citation needed], and, later Trypho the Jew[16] rejected the interpretation. This was followed by Rashi and Nachmanides. Some commentators[17] on Luke 20:34-36 believe that Jesus was also familiar with the Enochic interpretation, and can be counted with Shimeon ben Yochai, since Jesus rejected that angels could marry and in the same passage equated the "sons of God" with humans.

Early Christianity

See also: Early Christianity

The pseudepigraphic Epistle of Barnabas 4:3 appears to accept the Enochic version.[18] As do Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Commodianus.[19]

Against this first Julius Africanus, then Augustine in City of God argued that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth, the pure line of Adam, and the "daughters of men" as the descendants of Cain.[20]

Some manuscripts of the Septuagint have emendations to read "sons of God" as "angels" in Genesis 6. Codex Vaticanus contains "angels" originally. In Codex Alexandrinus "sons of God" has been erased and replaced by "angels".[21] The Peshitta reads "sons of God".[22] The 5th century Christian work Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan follows this view.

Contemporary Christianity

Among the churches which teach that the "sons of God" were fallen angels today are Jehovah's Witnesses.[23] Among the churches which teach that the "sons of God" were men are the Catholic Church and many Churches of Christ.

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_God>

OK, there is the foundation.  Now as I started to look into this deeper I found what was referred to as Manifest Sons of God Doctrine and that is where the controversy comes in.  In this article http://charismaticcentral.com/forums/content/509-manifest-sons-god-controversy.html the author has a list of things that the MSOG believe.  As I read down the list I saw things that seemed reasonable, some things that I disagreed with but nothing really wild, take a look:

belief in the restoration of the Church and of five-fold ministry (apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors)

belief in authority

The authority to speak blessings... and even curses

Denial of the rapture "in the classic sense" (that one made me ROFL)

that Jesus will not come bodily, but that the "body of Christ" will rise up as the visible return of Christ.

belief that the Church must be mature before Christ's return

spiritual warfare

signs and wonders (including healings, seeing angels and demons, seeing visible glory, manifestations, prophecy, etc.)

revival

prayer and fasting

taking dominion over the power of satan and reclaiming lost territory

anti-denominationalism

unity in the church

end-time harvest of souls

turning the world right-side up (a quote from Rick Joyner, saying we will do so)

Pasted from <http://charismaticcentral.com/forums/content/509-manifest-sons-god-controversy.html>

Then I came to this:

belief that we are, in fact, little gods and/or are equal to Christ.

(quoting from LUR) The Central theme to Manifest Sons of God doctrine is the belief that sonship to God comes through higher revelation via apostles and prophets. The Christian life, has levels to go through, to reach maturity. The first level is that of servant of God, the next is that of friend of God, following this is to become a son of God and the realization of gods ourselves. much like the new age potential in man)

Pasted from <http://charismaticcentral.com/forums/content/509-manifest-sons-god-controversy.html>

Now to me that sounds foreign to what I have been taught and what I've read myself in the Bible.  It sounds more like a reincarnation type thing where you earn your way up the spiritual ladder so to speak.  Here is where discernment comes in.  Now to be fair I don't know whether the author of the article took stuff out of context or something but based on what I see here, my inner warning bell is going off.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm just getting a 30,000 foot view here and quite frankly, probably won't look much further into it unless someone were to convince me that this was a really important issue.  At this point I find this more of a curiosity than anything else, but it's still fun to learn a little about the issue.  If you find this sort of thing interesting feel free to click on some of the links and explore this further.

We gain knowledge in many ways including reading and analyzing what appears to be false doctrine.  As Aristotle said" It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it".