The "First" And "Second" Heavens

Biblegems # 286

Question: Are there a “First” and “Second” heavens? If so, what are they?

Gen. 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Hebrew word “heavens” (Heb. shamayim) is a plural noun. The Bible pictures “the heavens” as one complex reality comprised of three components: the sky (Gen. 1:6-8) and space (Gen. 1:14-17) in the visible creation, and the environment God created for the angels (Matt. 18:20; 24:26) and for His “throne” in the spiritual realm (Gen. 28:17).

Is. 66:1   This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?  

The Scripture calls this “heavens” beyond sky and space as the “highest” form of heaven:

Ps. 148:4 Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

The first heaven is the visible sky of earth’s atmosphere, even though the Bible does not specifically use the term.

         Gen. 1:6-8   And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

The second heaven, space, is an extension of the first heaven. God began with the “vault” of earth’s sky (v. 6), including a vast envelope of water, and stretched it to the outer limits of the universe on the fourth day of creation.

         Gen. 1:14-18   And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.  

When Jesus as ascended “into heaven” from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1: 11), His followers witnessed the first part of that journey as Jesus “passed through” the first and second heavens:

         Hebrews 4:14  “Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us cling to the faith we confess…” (translation mine).

God’s incredible creation is full of mystery, especially when it comes to the interweaving of the spiritual and physical heavens. The “third heaven” is “above” the physical heavens (Ps. 148:4), not in a geographical sense of location, but “above” even as the name of Jesus is “above” every other name (Phil. 2:9), so that God is present everywhere.

         Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

The Book Of Enoch

Biblegems #268

Question: What do we know about the book of Enoch that was quoted by Jude?

Jude 14-15  Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Enoch was Cain’s first son, and also the name of the world’s first city, which Cain named after his son (Gen. 4:17). The prophecy of Enoch mentioned in Jude is found in First Enoch (the first book in a collection of five known today as Ethiopic Enoch).  While the writing of the existing manuscripts dates back to the 3^rd century to 1^st century B.C., the original content is presumed to extend all the way back to Enoch himself.

The Book of Enoch was widely read in Jewish and Christian circles in New Testament times, and portions of all but Book Two have been found among the other ancient Dead Sea scrolls in the Qumran caves. First Enoch, or “The Book Of The Watchers,” quoted by Jude builds on the account in Genesis 6:1-4 of the “sons of God” uniting with the “daughters of men,” resulting in the offspring of giants. The “sons of God” are identified in Enoch as a band of angels (called “Watchers”) who are captured by angels sent from God and imprisoned until the Final Judgment. Jude’s quote from First Enoch (see above) refers to the Day of the Lord and the outpouring of His wrath upon rebellious mankind prior to that Final Judgment Day.

While the Book of Enoch is not inspired Scripture, God in His sovereign wisdom did inspire Jude to quote from it. God used a book that was popular among Christians in the first century, including the apostles, to convey certain truths about the End Times. That does not validate everything written in the Book of Enoch. On the other hand, the New Testament does refer to a specific group of angels who:

Jude 6  …did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day…

And of—

         1Pet. 3:19b-20a  …imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

And…

         2Pet. 2:4   For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell (Lit., “Tartarus,” which means “pits”) and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

This descriptive language borrowed directly from First Enoch compares Enoch with the crucified and risen Christ. Enoch had been sent to the rebellious, imprisoned angels to pronounce God’s judgment. When they asked Enoch to beg God’s mercy on their behalf, God responded with the same declaration of judgment. In 1 Peter 3:19, Jesus, crucified but made alive by the Spirit, “preached” (Lit., “made a proclamation”) to these imprisoned spirits: He is the true Enoch (by comparison) who walks with God, and has overcome sin, death and all the demonic powers of evil. In the words of the apostle Paul:

         Phil. 2:10   …that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

Identifying “the Spirits in Prison”

Biblegems #267

Question: Who are the “spirits in prison” mentioned in 1 Peter 3:18-19, and what was “preached” to them?

Here is the passage in both the KJV and the NIV (2011), with the most pertinent section underlined:

         1Pet. 3:18-19   For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison (KJV).      

1Pet. 3:18-19 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits (NIV).

Interpretations of this passage have historically fallen into three general categories:

Interpretation #1       Between his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went to the realm of the dead in spiritual form and preached to Noah’s contemporaries. Some in this group believe Jesus offered salvation to the spirits of those who died in the Flood. Others in this group believe Jesus’ proclamation was to officially condemn the unbelievers of Noah’s time. A third view within this group is that Jesus preached good news to those of Noah’s day who had already been saved.

         Interpretation #2       Jesus, in His pre-existent, spiritual state, came from heaven to the sinful generation of Noah’s day and preached repentance, which they ignored.

         Interpretation #3       After His death on the cross and burial, Jesus went in the Spirit (either Holy Spirit, or in the spiritual realm) to the disobedient spirits (fallen angels) of Noah’s day, described in Genesis 6:1-4, and proclaimed his victory over sin and death.

The word “spirits” in Scripture can refer to humans, angels, God, or the demonic. Context generally determines what kind of spirit is in view. The context of 1Pet. 3:20 makes it clear that Jesus made His proclamation to spirits “who were disobedient long ago in the days of Noah….” Jude also refers to this same group of imprisoned spirits as “angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day” (Jude 6).

The New Testament, then, points to a specific group of angels who are imprisoned by God until the Day of Judgment for their disobedience in the days of Noah. These spirits are not in hell (Gk. gehenna), which is currently empty (Rev. 20:10ff.), but in a special prison called Tartarus:

         2Pet. 2:4   For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell (Gk. tartarus), putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment…

The only such distinct group described in Scripture in Noah’s day would appear to be “the sons of God who went to the daughters of humans and had children by them” (Gen. 6:4). Following His crucifixion, Jesus was made alive in the Spirit and went to these imprisoned angels, proclaiming His victory over sin, Satan and death!

Giants—Revisited, Part 1, “Are Angels Sexless?”

Biblegems #265

Last week’s post, “Giants—Myth or History,” generated some excellent questions. These questions will be addressed in this and subsequent posts.

Question: On identifying the “sons of God” (Gen. 6:1-4) as angels:

Is it not the clearer indication in Matthew 22:30 from our Lord that angels are sexless? Is there any Biblical reference to the ability of angels to have sex at all, let alone match human chromosomes? Where does it say that the sons of God were fallen angels? Where does it say that angels can impregnate?

There are three theories on the identity of the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:1-4, all of them controversial.

Theory 1: Fallen Angels

Theory 2: Godly descendants of Seth

Theory 3: Dynastic Rulers (Dynastic Rulers is the weakest, biblically.)

Identifying the “sons of God” as fallen angels has been a widely held position throughout church history.[i]

This has been challenged in recent times, based on the theory that angels are sexless, incapable of interbreeding with humans. Billy Graham popularized this theory in his book, “Angels: God’s Secret Agents.”[ii] He interprets Matthew 22:30 to mean: “The Bible teaches that angels are sexless.” Here is the passage:

         Matt. 22:30  At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

This verse actually says nothing regarding angel gender or biology. What Jesus teaches here is that there will be no marriage ceremonies among the resurrected people of God, just as there are no marriage ceremonies for angels.

To assume this means that angels and resurrected humans are sexless goes beyond the meaning of the text. The Bible teaches that God designed the male / female nature of mankind as an “image” in the created realm of God, who is Spirit (Gen. 1:27). Nowhere does Scripture suggest that humanity becomes gender-neutral in the resurrection.

Additionally, the term “sons of God” is used only of angels in the Old Testament (Job 1; Job 38:7; Ps. 29:1; Ps. 89:7). The Septuagint (Greek translation) of Genesis 6:1-4 translates “sons of God” as “angels.” In the New Testament, Jude 6-7 specifically mentions “…the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

Only Genesis 6:1-4 matches Jude’s description of angels committing immoral acts similar to that taking place in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Peter also refers to these disobedient “spirits” that God has since ”imprisoned”:

         2 Pet. 3:19-20 “…the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”

Finally, angels often change into human form in Scripture. Who is to say that genetic duplication is not involved, especially given the biblical evidence above supporting the interpretation that the “sons of God” are fallen angels?

How appropriate that Jesus “…has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him” (1Pet. 3:22).

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[i] Supported by Philo, Josephus, Justin, Ambrose, the apocryphal book of Enoch, Delitzsch, Driver, Cassuto, Henry Morris, von Rad, Speiser. See: Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament, 1978, The Zondrvan Corporation. Pg. 35

[ii] Angels: God’s Secret Agents. Billy Graham, Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York. 1975. pg 33