As It Was In The Days Of Noah

AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH

Matthew 24:37-39 NET  For just like the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.  (38)  For in those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.  (39)  And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man.

Much commentary has been made about “just as the days of Noah were.”  Although not everyone agrees, many current commentators believe the “sons of God” referred to in Genesis 6:3 were angelic entities  Past conservative exegetes would say the sons of God were the offspring of Seth and the daughters of men (or humankind) were the female offspring of Cain.

the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.  (Genesis 6:2 NET)

Enoch

Of course, the modern view is that “sons of God” equals angelic beings referred to as Watchers in the book of Enoch, a non-canonical book.  Enoch gives much more information and detailed action structures concerning this period of time.  He lists angelic names, the number of those involved, and the cosmetics, war implements, medicines, and drugs they imparted to mankind.  However, Enoch, as a person, did not live past the flood and the survival of his writings beyond the flood are unknown.

According to Enoch, the Watchers or fallen angelic entities impregnated human women and produced offspring referred to as giants, mighty men, or Nephilim.  The impregnation method of the Watchers has two viewpoints.  The first is the usual (I hesitate to say normal) system employed by normal people or animals.  The second method would be either artificial insemination or some type of DNA transfer.  These offspring were large individuals.  It is unknown if they were large babies or became extremely large after birth.  One commentator theorized they were so initially large they had to be cut out by caesarian well before the end of nine months but survived regardless.

But the LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The LORD regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.  (Genesis 6:5-6 NET)

The scripture as stated in Genesis 6:5 lets us known that God saw the wickedness of the population but does not give much background information concerning the source of the wickedness of their evil thoughts.  The Biblical narrative does not contain any of the information supplied by Enoch, only that God was offended by the wickedness and evil thoughts of humankind.  It appears certain the wickedness of Noah’s days was much greater than the current level of appalling atrocities found today.  It is believed the level of evil will vastly increase in the coming years, particularly during the reign of the beast (or antichrist).

A few exegetes teach the approaching “days of Noah” will include the return of Watchers (fallen angels) and/or Nephilim to plague mankind.  The Nephilim are supposedly dead.  Enoch writes that they killed each other and their non-human ungodly spirits are the current evil spirits and demons.  Commentators consider they drowned in the flood.  Regardless of the nature of their death, the Nephilim are no more.  Some consider Bigfoot and Yeti to be survivors but one has never been produced.  According to the apostle Peter the Watchers (fallen angels) are now imprisoned in Tartarus until the judgment.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell (tartaroo) and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world,   (2 Peter 2:4-5 NET)

tar-tar-o'-o     From Τάρταρος Tartaros̄ (the deepest abyss of Hades)

The above verses from 2 Peter appear to be based on information contained from the book of Enoch.

The Seventy Generations

Another semi-popular prophecy of Enoch concerns the imprisonment of the Watchers and their final judgment at the end of 70 generations.

1 Enoch 10:11-15  And the Lord said unto Michael: ‘Go, bind Semyaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever. And whosoever shall be condemned and destroyed will from thenceforth be bound together with them to the end of all generations.

Although most do not consider this particular prophecy or the book of Enoch as of any value, but there are some relatively important internet writers who take this prophetic statement seriously, such as:  Thomas Horn of Raiders News Network; Bob Schlenker, of the Open Scroll Blog; and Steve Quayle; among others.

The above Enoch quote states the children of the Watchers (Nephilim) will slay each other and the angelic Watchers will be bound for 70 generations until the day of their judgment.  There is, of course, much disagreement concerning the definition of a generation or the length of a generation once the definition has been chosen.  Some say the length of a generation is one’s lifespan such as 70 years, and others claim a generation is the time period between a father and a child.  One reference, Craig Paardekooper, counted the generations between Enoch and Jesus and arrived at a total of 70 – meaning there are 70 generations between Enoch and Jesus in the book of Luke.  At His death, Jesus entered into the Abyss and judged the Watchers as shown in the following scriptures.

In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.  (1 Peter 3:19-20 NET)

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

(2 Peter 2:4 NET)

You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day.  (Jude 1:6 NET)

Jesus pronounced judgment on the Watchers and they will supposedly be punished at the time of judgment (perhaps the White Throne Judgment).  Bob Schlenker believes these Watchers will escape from the abyss through some entry system he refers to as a temporary time reset that opens a stargate instigated by the CERN supercollider. 

Bob Schlenker:  We've been writing for years now about a time mission, appointed for the resetting of time after it's hijacked temporarily for the purpose of releasing the antichrist anointing agency and returning agents of judgment…..When time is temporarily hijacked, one of the Enemy's agendas involves the time lock on a dimensional prison cell. A key operation is the securing of the release of those responsible for the Flood of Noah. We seem to be about half a millennium shy of their full sentence of 70 generations, so that countdown timer needs to be zeroed out for an early release. Seizing control over time will allow the Adversary to exercise a degree of control over the stargates, for a brief season. This is actually all part of the Sovereign God's plan.

Tom Horn seems to have either miscalculated the 70 generation time span or some reporter has hijacked the original Enoch quote and attributed it to him.

Tom Horn Quote:  “These prophecies of Enoch mirror those of other apocryphal works, which indicate a specific future date in which the Watchers will rise for a judgment that will be ‘for ever and ever’ (Enoch 10:12) and also when the giant offspring of the Watchers will return to wreak havoc upon earth.”   “Because according to modern research, the roughly estimated date for the biblical flood is between BC 2800 and 2900. When you consider that a prophetic generation is 70 years based on Psalm 90:10 (‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten’), Enoch’s 70 generations times 70 years equals exactly 4900 years forward from the flood, bringing us to the current hour.

The following quote from Enoch 15:11 appears to follow more precisely the Nephilim invasion envisioned by Tom Horn.  As in Biblical scripture, there appears to be quite a bit of difference in the several translation versions.  Below is two different translations of the same verse 15. 

Enoch 15:11 (Version 1) And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, [but nevertheless hunger] and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded [from them].

Enoch 15:11 (Version 2) They shall cause lamentation. No food shall they eat; and they shall be thirsty; they shall be concealed, and shall not rise up against the sons of men, and against women; for they come forth during the days of slaughter and destruction.  NOTE:  the word “not” doesn’t appear in all versions.

Locusts from the Abyss

There are at least two possible last-days Nephilim invasions presented in the book of the Revelation:  the locusts and the horsemen.  The hoard of locusts arising from the smoke of the abyss (synonymous with Hades and the bottomless pit) are considered by some to be either demons, evil spirits, or some type of demonic entity.  These Revelation entities have a close parallel to the locust swarm found in Joel 2 which do not act as normal insects similar to the afore mentioned ones described in Revelation 9.

He opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace. The sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft. Then out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. (Revelation 9:2-3 NET)

The Revelation 9 locusts have:  the shape of a horse; a golden crown-like structure on their heads; faces as of men; hair as of a woman; teeth as a lion; as a tail as of a scorpion.  Their king is the angel of the bottomless pit named Abaddon (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek).  They appear to not be normal locusts.  It has been suggested they are human created chimeras and the abyss description is symbolic.

The 200,000,000 Horsemen of the 4 Angels

Four angels are bound in the Euphrates river.  They have been prepared to kill 1/3 of the remaining population of the earth.  These four angels have an army of 200 million horsemen whose origin is unknown.  Some possible guesses by past commentators include:  a Chinese army; a Far East combination army; hippies on Harley Davidsons; mechanized tanks; and a Nephilim army from the abyss.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.  (Revelation 9:15-16 KJV)

The riders had fiery red, dark blue, and sulfurous yellow breastplates; the head of the horses looked like a lion’s head; fire, smoke, and sulfur were emitted from the mouth of the horses; the horse’s tails are like snakes.

Practical Applications

I named this section “practical applications” because there are several factors relating to the “days of Noah” that do not involve Watchers, Nephilim, or demons.

Noah preached to the surrounding population during the construction of the ark, and apparently no one paid any attention to his warnings.  Noah, his three sons, and their wives were preparing for the coming judgment.  Several aware individuals are preparing for the coming wrath of God today, but most are not.  It is highly possible that only a few readied people will escape the coming wrath of the beast (antichrist) and later, the wrath of God.

It has been commented by Dante Fortson, that the protection of the ark for the 8 individuals may be a type of rapture and he indicated a pretributional type.  However, I view it as a type of pre-wrath rapture.  The Lord saw the universal wickedness and the continual evil thoughts of everyone on the planet:  this combined with the destructive, cannibalistic nature of the Nephilim, according to the information supplied by Enoch, would make the pre-flood era one of extreme tribulation.  A pre-wrath rapture appears to more aptly correspond to the ark as a type of protection from the wrath of God designed to essentially destroy the planet.

Noah and his family were storing food and supplies.  We of today should be storing the Word of God and supplying our life with attributes of the Kingdom of God.