The Earth is Filled with Corruption and Violence

I am passionate about defending the goodness of God. Yes, I know that God’s judgments are true and righteous; that he owes us no explanation for doing what he does. However, there is a logical reason and explanation why God has done what he is done and will do in the future. The Scripture is clear in explaining the level of evil that was on the earth before the flood. Genesis 6:11-13 tells us,

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Even before I was a believer, I knew that God destroyed the earth because it was filled with violence and, it was; but the    earth was also corrupted. The word corrupt here is the Hebrew word šāḥaṯ:  meaning “To spoil, to ruin, to destroy, to pervert.^[1] The fallen angels corrupted the world and everything in it. They changed things to be something that the world was not. The fallen angels genetically alter humans, and they became Nephilim; giant monsters whose every intention of their thoughts was evil continuously. There was no hope of redemption for them. Every single human at the time, according to Genesis 6:12, was corrupt or altered.

The earth was also filled with violence. The word violence is the Hebrew word ḥāmās: meaning “Cruelty, damage, and injustice.”^[2] Notice that it says that the earth was filled with violence “…because of them.” Because of whom? The fallen Angels.

To fully understand the degree of such violence and corruption taking place on the earth we need to study the most ancient book of all, the Book of Enoch. Before you question the validity of this book lets establish a few things. Enoch is mentioned very briefly, but very sensationally in Genesis 5:18-24,

Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹ Then Jared lived eight hundred years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. ²⁰ So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.

²¹ Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.²² Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. ²³ So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. ²⁴ Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (NASB 1995)

Enoch was a man who walked with God and did not see death; that is pretty impressive to me. Enoch is also quoted by Jude, half-brother of Jesus, the whole book of Jude is dealing with the fallen angels. In Jude 1:3-4 the Bible tells us,

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.⁴ For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Noticed that Jude is speaking of these Nephilim here; he stated, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand…” This whole chapter is about the fallen angels and the Nephilim. Jude felt the need to address this as he continues in Jude 1:5-17

⁵ Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. ⁹ But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. ¹² These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”¹⁶ These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. (NASB 1995)

In verse 14 Jude is quoting Chapter 1:9 of the Book of the Watchers following Dr. Jay Winter, The Complete Book of Enoch. 

To be continued…

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^[1] Warren Baker and Eugene E. Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 1124.

^[2] Warren Baker and Eugene E. Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 351.