Chapter 6

Human Life Outside Paradise Until the Deluge

1. What feature about the “seed” of his purpose did God make known, this raising what question?

IN THE process of time man’s heavenly Benefactor made known a feature of his “eternal purpose” that strikes a sympathetic chord in our hearts. It was that the purposed “seed” of his heavenly “woman” would have a temporary existence on earth among mankind. This immediately raises the question in our minds, since the “seed” would be born into our human race, then through which line of descent from Adam and Eve would the “seed” come?

2. To what mainly did God limit the contents of the Bible, and why do we need to study the Bible?

² The history of the human line of descent of the “seed” is the important thing for us to know. The history of peoples and nations that have nothing to do with the life course of this “seed” is not indispensably important or valuable. That is why Jehovah God limited the contents of the Holy Bible mainly to telling us about the working out of the line of descent of this “seed.” By our getting a knowledge of this Bible history we will be able to identify who this Serpent-bruising “seed” is, and we will not leave ourselves open to being deceived and misled by a pretender, a false seed. Deception could lead to eternal destruction for us. The Great Deceiver, who put lying deceit across in the garden of Eden and who is at enmity with the true “seed,” is still at his old tricks. He would like to deceive all of us away from the “seed” of God’s “eternal purpose.” So we need to study the Bible.

3. Who was Adam’s firstborn son, and so what question is raised about Adam’s son Seth?

³ In the Hebrew Bible, the two books of Chronicles are listed last, and not the prophetic book of Malachi. Now, if we turn to the first book of Chronicles we notice that it opens up with a line of ten generations after Adam, as follows: “Adam, [1] Seth, [2] Enosh,  [3] Kenan, [4] Mahalalel, [5] Jared, [6] Enoch, [7] Methuselah, [8] Lamech, [9] Noah, [10] Shem, Ham and Japheth.” (1 Chronicles 1:1-4) Seth was not the firstborn son of Adam outside the Paradise of Pleasure. Cain was, and Abel was the next-named son of Adam and Eve. (Genesis 4:1-5) Why, then, was Seth made the one to be listed in the line of descent down to Noah?

4. What shows that God did not plan that Seth should be the first one listed in the line of descent from Adam?

⁴ Did Jehovah God plan it that way? No, for that would mean that God planned that Cain should murder his younger brother Abel and thus disqualify himself from being the one through whom mankind today could trace its descent. Neither did God plan that, by foul murder, Abel should be cut off prematurely before having the needed offspring and that thus Seth should be substituted for him. (Genesis 4:25) That God did not plan the murdering of Abel in order to make room for Seth is evident from the warning that God gave to Cain that he might not fall victim to gross sin because of resenting it that his offering to God had been rejected but his brother Abel’s sacrifice had been accepted.—Genesis 4:6, 7.

5, 6. Seth’s being born in Adam’s likeness and image meant what for him, and how does naming his son Enosh show realization of this fact?

⁵ No, Jehovah God did not plan it that way, but it took a long time before there was born a son of Adam through whom the line of descent would run down clear to the birth of the promised “seed,” the Messiah, in the flesh. This lateness of beginning the favored line of descent from Adam is shown in Genesis 5:3, where we read: “And Adam lived on for a hundred and thirty years. Then he became father to a son in his likeness, in his image, and called his name Seth.” Being in Adam’s likeness and image, or, being of Adam’s kind, Seth was imperfect, having inherited sin and hence being under condemnation of death. The realization of this fact appears to be borne out in the name that Seth gave to his son, concerning whom we read: “And to Seth also there was born a son and he proceeded to call his name Enosh.” (Genesis 4:26) The name has the sense of “sickly, morbid, incurable.”

⁶ In harmony with this the Hebrew word e·noshʹ, when not used as a proper name, is translated as “mortal  man.” For instance, when the sorely afflicted Job says: “What is mortal man [Hebrew: e·noshʹ] that you should rear him, and that you should set your heart upon him?”—See Job 7:17; 15:14; also, Psalm 8:4; 55:13; 144:3; Isaiah 8:1.

7-9. (a) What religious practice was started in the days of Enosh? (b) What indicates whether this practice was beneficial for man or not?

⁷ The lifetime of Adam’s grandson Enosh was marked by something notable, to which Genesis 4:26 calls our attention, saying with reference to the birth of Enosh to Seth: “At that time a start was made of calling on the name of Jehovah.” Enosh was born when Seth was one hundred and five years old, which would mean two hundred and thirty-five years after Adam’s creation. (Genesis 5:6, 7) By then the human population of the earth had increased by the marriage of Adam’s many sons and daughters among themselves and by the marriages of their offspring. Was this starting to ‘call on the name of Jehovah’ among this growing population something favorable to humankind and honoring to God? Was it what modern-day evangelists would likely call a “religious revival”? The ancient Greek Septuagint Version, made by Jews of Alexandria, Egypt, translates this Hebrew passage: “And Seth had a son, and he called his name Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God.”—Genesis 4:26, LXX, edition of S. Bagster and Sons Limited.

⁸ The Jerusalem Bible translation expresses a similar thought, saying: “This man was the first to invoke the name of Yahweh.” But such a translation leaves out of consideration the acceptable worship that the faithful Abel rendered to Jehovah before he was murdered by jealous Cain. As for The New English Bible, it reads: “At that time men began to invoke the LORD by name.” (Also, The New American Bible) However, the ancient Palestinian Targum takes an unfavorable view of the matter. The famous Rashi (Rabbi Shelomoh Yitschaki, of 1040-1105 C.E.) renders Genesis 4:26: “Then was the profane called by the Name of the Lord.” That is to say, men and inanimate objects had attributed to them the qualities of Jehovah and were called accordingly. This would mean that idolatry in the name of Jehovah began then.

⁹ That the calling on the name of Jehovah was not  in a Godward sense is indicated in the fact that it was not until three hundred and eighty-seven years after the birth of Enosh that a man was born who received the recognition of God. This was Enoch.

WALKING WITH GOD OUTSIDE PARADISE

10. Its being said that Enoch walked with the true God reflected how on his longer-living father Jared?

¹⁰ Concerning this great-great-grandson of Enosh, who was born in 3404 B.C.E. (or 622 A.M.), it is written: “And Enoch lived on for sixty-five years. Then he became father to Methuselah. And after his fathering Methuselah Enoch went on walking with the true God three hundred years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch amounted to three hundred and sixty-five years.” (Genesis 5:21-23) This was a comparatively short life for Enoch, whose father Jared lived for nine hundred and sixty-two years and whose son Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years to become the oldest man on record. And yet Enoch was “walking with the true God.” This was not said of his father Jared, who lived on eight hundred years after the birth of Enoch. (Genesis 5:18, 19) Evidently, then, Jared’s faith did not compare with Enoch’s faith in God and he did not walk according to God’s will or announced purpose.

11. What prophecy did Enoch give, and on what condition of the people must this have reflected?

¹¹ It is reliably reported that Enoch was a prophet of the True God. In a letter written in the first century C.E., it is written: “Yes, the seventh one in line from Adam, Enoch, prophesied also regarding them, when he said: ‘Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way, and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.’” (Jude 14, 15) This prophecy no doubt reflects on the religious condition that existed back there in Enoch’s day. Otherwise, what would be the basis for the giving of such an inspired prophecy that warned of Jehovah’s coming judgment against all the ungodly that was as sure as if it had already occurred? Because Enoch was not one of the ungodly of his day, God could use him as a speaker of prophecy. Although living outside the  cherub-guarded Paradise that still existed in Enoch’s day, he “went on walking with the true God.”

12, 13. According to Jewish thought, and that of Christendom, where was Enoch taken?

¹² Why is it, then, that Enoch lived such a comparatively short life for those times? Genesis 5:24 informs us: “And Enoch kept walking with the true God. Then he was no more, for God took him.”

¹³ Likely Enoch was in some dire predicament when God took him. Was it that Enoch’s enemies threatened to kill him, and so God took him off the scene to spare him from a violent death? We do not know. The question arises, Where did God take him? Some Jewish thought is that God took him to heaven. That is even the thought in Christendom today. For instance, in a letter written to the Hebrews in the first century C.E., a comment is made upon Enoch and this is the way that the A New Translation of The Bible, by Dr. James Moffatt, of this century, renders Hebrews 11:5, as follows: “It was by faith that Enoch was taken to heaven, so that he never died (he was not overtaken by death, for God had taken him away).” The New English Bible reads here: “By faith Enoch was carried away to another life without passing through death; he was not to be found, because God had taken him. For it is the testimony of Scripture that before he was taken he had pleased God.”—See, also, The Jerusalem Bible.

14. What shows whether ‘walking with God’ entitled Enoch to be taken to heaven?

¹⁴ However, Psalm 89:48 asks the question: “What able-bodied man is there alive who will not see death? Can he provide escape for his soul from the hand of Sheol?” So, too, Enoch had received from sinner Adam the inheritance of death, and he too was obliged to die, despite his walking with the true God. It was later written of Enoch’s great-grandson that this one also “walked with the true God”; and yet this latter one did not have his life cut short. He lived longer than Adam—for nine hundred and fifty years, fifty short of a thousand years. (Genesis 6:9; 9:28, 29) Consequently, Enoch’s walking with God for less time than did his great-grandson did not entitle him to go to heaven or to another life any more than Noah’s walking with God for so long entitled him to such an experience.

15. How, then, may Enoch have been transferred so as not to see death?

 ¹⁵ The prophet Moses died at one hundred and twenty years of age and God buried him, so that no man to this day knows where Moses lies buried. (Deuteronomy 34:5-7) So God suddenly removed Enoch from the scene of his contemporaries, and where Enoch died is not known, or any grave. He did not die a violent death at the hand of his enemies. He being a prophet, it could be that while he was in a prophetic trance he had a vision of God’s new order of things in which God “will actually swallow up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:8) In that new order Enoch expected to live on a Paradise earth. While Enoch was under the power of such a vision of where mankind will be relieved of death by God’s merciful provision, God could have removed him off the scene and terminated his present life, so that Enoch was not aware of dying. In such a marvelous way it would be fulfilled what is written in Hebrews 11:5:

“By faith Enoch was transferred so as not to see death, and he was nowhere to be found because God had transferred him; for before his transference he had the witness that he had pleased God well.”—New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

THE DAYS BEFORE THE DELUGE

16. How do we figure that Adam and Methuselah knew each other?

¹⁶ Enoch’s son Methuselah was born 969 years before the global deluge, and so he died in the year of the Deluge. Although Methuselah was the eighth in the line counted from Adam, did he know Adam his first human parent? Yes. Adam was created 1,656 years before the Deluge. He lived 930 years. If we add his age to that of Methuselah, it comes to 1,899 years. By subtracting 1,656 years from that total, it results in 243 years. So the lives of Adam and Methuselah overlapped upon each other for 243 years.—Genesis 5:5, 21, 25-27.

17. What prophecy did Methuselah’s son Lamech utter at the birth of Noah, and why was this name appropriate?

¹⁷ Methuselah lived long enough to hear the warnings proclaimed about the coming global deluge, and he almost saw the completion of the preparations made for some of humankind to survive that world catastrophe. He was able to see his grandson Noah preaching righteousness and preparing the means for human survival. Of all of Methuselah’s sons, Lamech was the  one who became the father of Noah. It was at the birth of Noah that Lamech was inspired to utter a prophecy concerning him. That disclosed that God purposed to use Lamech’s son Noah. On this we read: “And Lamech lived on for a hundred and eighty-two years. Then he became father to a son. And he proceeded to call his name Noah, saying: ‘This one will bring us comfort from our work and from the pain of our hands resulting from the ground which Jehovah has cursed.’” Lamech lived on to within five years of the Deluge. (Genesis 5:27-31) The name Noah was in harmony with Lamech’s prophecy, for it means “Rest” and implies consolation from rest. God’s curse was to be lifted from the ground that He had cursed on account of Adam’s transgression.—Genesis 3:17.

18. When, in Noah’s life, did the deluge start, and thereafter end?

¹⁸ The deluge came within the sixth hundredth year of Noah’s life and continued into his six hundred and first year of life. (Genesis 7:11; 8:13; 7:6) The world catastrophe that occurred in Noah’s day foreshadowed the larger world catastrophe that is shortly to occur within our generation, and for this reason it deserves our consideration.—Proverbs 22:3.

19. How was Noah like Enoch in his course of life?

¹⁹ For centuries Noah, born in 2970 B.C.E. (1056 A.M.), was childless: “And Noah got to be five hundred years old. After that Noah became father to Shem, Ham and Japheth.” (Genesis 5:32) What kind of record did Noah make for himself, even before becoming a father? “This is the history of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. He proved himself faultless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with the true God.” (Genesis 6:9, 10) So Noah was like Enoch.

20. Why does a question arise regarding “sons of the true God” reported on the earth in Noah’s days?

²⁰ Even though Noah was a descendant of Seth and Enoch and also “walked with the true God,” yet Noah was not called a ‘son of the true God.’ If he was not thus called, who else on earth in those days of descent from sinner Adam could be thus called? Who, then, were those who were reported as appearing on earth in the days of Noah, concerning whom we now read? “Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, then the sons of the true God  began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose. After that Jehovah said: ‘My spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.’”—Genesis 6:1-3.

21. Who were those “sons of the true God,” and what did they go to desiring?

²¹ Those “sons of the true God” must have been angels from heaven, who up till this time had been part of Jehovah’s heavenly organization of holy “sons of the true God,” Jehovah’s symbolic “woman” that was to become the mother of the promised “seed.” At the founding of the earth for human habitation, they had observed Jehovah’s creative work and had shouted in applause. (Job 38:7; Genesis 3:15) Observing marriage practiced among mankind, especially involving good-looking womenfolk, they let themselves go to desiring sex life on earth with women for themselves.

22. How did those “sons of the true God” satisfy their desire and thereby sin?

²² How could they as spirit creatures enjoy sex relations with women of flesh on earth? By materializing in fleshly bodies as desirable men and taking human wives and having sexual intercourse with them. As the Creator and heavenly Father had authorized marriage between fleshly earthly creatures of like nature and not between spirit creatures and fleshly human creatures, these “sons of the true God” did not come and materialize as men of flesh in order to serve as messengers of Jehovah God, commissioned and sent by Him. They proceeded to cause a confusion of natures—spirit and human, heavenly and earthly. (Leviticus 18:22, 23) Manifestly those “sons of the true God” were sinning.

23. With what spirit had God long acted toward sinful mankind, but what did he now declare?

²³ By now more than a thousand years had passed since Adam’s rebellion in Eden against the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God. Jehovah had acted with the spirit of patience and forbearance toward sinful mankind, for even in the days of Noah’s great-grandfather Enoch mankind in general had become notoriously “ungodly.” And now they were entering  into a new form of moral corruption and sex perversion by marriages between women and materialized angels. The time deserved to come when the patient Creator should cease to act toward self-degrading mankind with a spirit of toleration and self-restraint. Fully justified, God finally declared: “My spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.”—Genesis 6:3.

24. (a) Was God there setting man’s age limit, as in Moses’ case? (b) What then set in, and why was there a generous time allowance?

²⁴ That was not a setting of an age limit upon man as in the case of the prophet Moses, who lived to be a hundred and twenty years old. It was a divine decree that the ungodly world of mankind should have only one hundred and twenty years more to exist until the global deluge. So this divine decree was published in 1536 A.M. or 2490 B.C.E. This meant that there the “time of the end” had begun for that ungodly world of Noah’s days. The God of purpose was timing matters. Although he had not planned for such a shocking thing happening in the case of the “sons of the true God,” yet he was still in full control and could handle the contingency. He is all-wise, almighty. His allowing such an extended time period before the end of that ungodly world was very considerate. Why? Because the divine decree was issued twenty years before Noah became a father and yet it allowed for him to have three sons and for these to grow up and get married and to join their father in making due preparations for surviving the threatening deluge.—Genesis 5:32; 7:11.

THE NEPHILIM

25, 26. What were the offspring of the marriages of angels and women called, and why?

²⁵ The days of the intermarriage between passionate “sons of the true God” and women were numbered. But was any offspring possible from this confusion of natures between materialized spirits and fleshly female creatures with procreative powers? Genesis 6:4 gives us the facts in answer:

“The Nephilim proved to be in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of the true God continued to have relations with the daughters of men and they bore sons  to them, they were the mighty ones who were of old, the men of fame.”

²⁶ The sons of these mixed marriages were hybrids and were called Nephilim. This name means “Fellers,” to indicate that these mighty hybrid sons violently felled others or caused weaker humans to fall. It took considerable time for these Nephilim to be conceived and born and then grow up to set out on their violent career. Being hybrids, they normally would not be able to reproduce their mixed kind.

27. What was it that God purposed to wipe off the face of the earth, and why?

²⁷ The human family was not benefited by the intermingling of disobedient materialized “sons of the true God” so intimately with humans. “Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time. And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart. So Jehovah said: ‘I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground, from man to domestic animal, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, because I do regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.” (Genesis 6:5-8) Jehovah regretted that man whom He had created had sunk so low morally and spiritually. It was regrettable to have men of such degraded personalities on the earth. These were the ones whom He purposed to wipe off the earth, but not the human race of which Noah was a righteous member.

28. Why can we today be thankful that God purposed to end that pre-Deluge state of violence on the earth?

²⁸ In glaring contrast with Noah and his family, “the earth came to be ruined in the sight of the true God and the earth became filled with violence. So God saw the earth and, look! it was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth.” (Genesis 6:11, 12) In those days before the Deluge the world of mankind had entered an age of violence. Today the world has entered an “age of violence,” as observers call it, ever since the year 1914 C.E., the year in which World War I let loose with all its violence. So we might well ask, What would the condition of the world be today if Almighty God had let that “age of violence”  before the Deluge continue on without interruption? It makes us shudder to think of the possibilities. Long before now the earth would have been a place too dangerous to live in. We can be thankful that God purposed to halt that pre-Deluge “age of violence.”

A WORLD ENDS, A RACE SURVIVES

29. Jehovah’s instructions to Noah harmonized with what purpose of God for the earth?

²⁹ Jehovah God stuck to his original purpose to have the earth fully inhabited by the descendants of the first man and woman amid Paradise conditions. Also, the line of descent that would lead up to the producing of the Messiah needed to be preserved. In keeping with this, Jehovah instructed obedient Noah to build an ark (or, a floating chest) of such capacity as to contain Noah and his family and basic specimens of the land animals and flying creatures of the heavens like the dove and the raven. No room in the ark was occupied by a steam engine or a diesel engine and fuel supplies in order to propel the ark somewhere; it just floated, with its living occupants and food supplies sufficient for a year or more.—Genesis 6:13–7:18.

30. To make possible such a planetary flood, what was the natural state at and around the earth since the second creative “day”?

³⁰ To understand the possibilities for such a planetary flood of water, we have to visualize the state of things with regard to our globe as a whole. At its surface there were landmasses, large and small, sticking up above the seas. Up above all of this there was a vault or expanse containing the atmosphere that mankind and other living creatures breathed. But out beyond this there was a deep watery canopy that surrounded the earth like a swaddling band and that the Creator had caused to be lifted up to a scientifically accurate height on the second creative “day.” There it remained in suspension like an envelope around the earthly globe, to collapse back to the earth only according to the Creator’s purpose and at His command. (Genesis 1:6-8) An inspired Bible commentator of the first century C.E. nicely described it, saying: “There were heavens from of old and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God.”—2 Peter 3:5, NW; Jerusalem Bible.

31, 32. What did Noah’s statistics show regarding the deluge?

 ³¹ The global deluge is no myth that stems from Babylonish sources. It is a historical fact that has left its effects on the earth to this day. It was dated and timed. According to Noah’s ship log or ark log, it began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the lunar year, in the six hundredth year of his life.

³² Then Noah logged the precipitation of water from the skies as continuing for forty days. Even the tops of the then mountains were covered with floodwaters to a depth of fifteen cubits. On the seventeenth day of the seventh lunar month the ark touched ground at the mountains of Ararat. According to the Creator’s power, new basins were formed in the outer crust of the earthly globe to drain off the floodwaters. On the first day of the first month of the new lunar year the draining process was completed. On the twenty-seventh day of the second month of the new lunar year, or one lunar year and ten days after the deluge began, God told Noah to leave the ark and let all the animal life therein also go forth.—Genesis 7:11 through 8:19.

33. What perished in the Deluge, and what survived?

³³ In this way, under divine protection, the human race from Adam survived the global deluge, but an ungodly world or a world of ungodly people came to an end. This meant also that those infamous hybrid Nephilim were destroyed, they being fleshly like all the rest of mankind. In simple, understandable language the inspired first-century Bible commentator correctly described it, saying:

“He [God] did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people; . . . by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”—2 Peter 2:5; 3:6.

34. According to Moses, what happened to living creatures on the earth and to those in the ark?

³⁴ This agrees with the statement of the prophet Moses: “Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died. Thus he wiped out every existing thing that was on the surface of the ground, from man to beast, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, and they were wiped off the earth;  and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark kept on surviving. And the waters continued overwhelming the earth a hundred and fifty days.”—Genesis 7:22-24.

35. If we do not want to be reserved for the “evil day” of God’s judgment execution, what should we now do, like Noah?

³⁵ This deluge on a global scale was indeed an “act of God.” It dramatically illustrates a point that we of today ought to take to heart. What point? “Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off.” (2 Peter 2:9) “Everything Jehovah has made for his purpose, yes, even the wicked one for the evil day.” (Proverbs 16:4) So, then, if we do not desire to be reserved for the fast-approaching “evil day,” Jehovah’s own-timed “day” for executing his righteous judgments against all unrighteous persons on earth, it behooves us to ‘walk with God,’ as Noah did, and conform to His purpose.

36. (a) At the Deluge, what happened to the Nephilim? (b) Also, what consequences did the disobedient “sons of the true God” undergo?

³⁶ At the Deluge, not just unrighteous men and Nephilim had divine judgment carried out against them, but those disobedient “sons of God” also experienced a deserved judgment against them. True, when the Deluge overwhelmed the whole earth, those “sons of the true God” left their wives and families and dematerialized and did not drown. But what about when they returned to their spirit condition, which was their own proper dwelling place? Did they then resume the former intimacy that they had had with God? Was their relationship with Him the same as before? Did they continue in his holy heavenly organization as still being “sons of the true God”? No; but in these disobedient spirit creatures we see the origin of the “demons” (aside from Satan the Devil) that the prophet Moses speaks about. (Deuteronomy 32:17; also Psalm 106:37) But the first-century Bible commentators are more specific as to how Jehovah God dealt with those disobedient spirits, saying:

“The angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6) “The spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed, in which  a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” (1 Peter 3:19, 20) “God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.”—2 Peter 2:4.

37. On their returning to the spirit realm, what did the status of the disobedient “sons of the true God” come to be?

³⁷ So the dematerializing of the disobedient “sons of the true God” and their return to the spirit realm did not transform them into holy angels once again. They found themselves on the side of Satan the Devil, the original rebel against Jehovah God. They were no longer fit for a place in Jehovah’s wifelike heavenly organization of holy, obedient “sons of the true God.” For this reason they were degraded to the status of “demons.” This low, dishonored state was appropriately spoken of as Tartarus, a name borrowed from the Greek language. The Syriac Bible version speaks of it as “the lowest places.” (See also Job 40:15; 41:23 in the Greek Septuagint Version.) Those disobedient spirits were no more favored with spiritual enlightenment such as God saw fit to bestow upon his faithful angelic sons. In this way they were plunged into dense darkness and were held there as if by “eternal bonds,” to be reserved for the “judgment of the great day.” So they can impart no real enlightenment to mankind.

38. Whose “seed” did those disobedient spirits become, and how do they operate to man’s deception and enslavement?

³⁸ Such disobedient spirits became the invisible “seed” of the Great Serpent, Satan the Devil. Their being put into Tartarean “pits of dense darkness” along with Satan the Devil was not a bruising of the serpent’s head by the promised “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.” The holy “seed” had not yet been produced, and those imprisoned wicked spirits were anxious to know who it would be in order that they might join in bruising the “heel” of that “seed.” (Genesis 3:15) For that reason those wicked spirits under Satan their chief kept close to humankind, to deceive them and turn them against the “seed” when it should arrive. They try to communicate with humans through spirit mediums, since they themselves are debarred from further materializing in the flesh. They pretend to be the “disembodied souls” of deceased humans. They obsess or beset and besiege weak-minded persons, and even take possession of yielding persons. The prophet  Moses was inspired to warn God’s people against having anything to do with these demonic enemies of God. (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) So beware of spiritism!

39. If not to demons, then to what should we turn for spiritual enlightenment?

³⁹ Since we desire to receive enlightenment on the “eternal purpose” of Jehovah God, we need to avoid those spiritistic powers of darkness that blind the majority of mankind to God’s truth. God’s written Word, the Holy Bible, is the channel of spiritual illumination for us, according to the inspired words of the psalmist, when he said to Jehovah God: “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway.”—Psalm 119:105.

40. Despite rebellion of men and angels, what is there to show for loyalty on the part of God’s heavenly organization and its cooperation?

⁴⁰ In the light of God’s Word we have looked back over the first 1,656 years of man’s existence on earth, from Adam’s creation until the deluge of Noah’s day. Despite the rebellion of both angels and men, the changeless God stuck to his first-formed purpose regarding mankind on earth. Though unstated numbers of angels yielded to selfish desire and sinned and needed to be expelled from his heavenly wifelike organization, these do not compare with those who remained faithful to Him within his holy organization, like a faithful wife to a loving husband. Millenniums afterward the prophet Daniel saw in vision a hundred million loyal angels still ministering to the Most High God, “the Ancient of Days.” (Daniel 7:9, 10) This heavenly “woman,” the prospective mother of the foretold “seed,” was set at “enmity” with the Great Serpent, Satan the Devil, and his “seed.” She was firmly determined to cooperate with Jehovah God in the pursuit of his newly announced purpose to produce the “seed” at his chosen time.

41. What point did Satan maliciously aim to prove before all creation, and did he succeed completely even before the Deluge?

⁴¹ On earth and in the Paradise of Pleasure, Adam and Eve had been made a visible part of Jehovah’s universal organization at their creation in human perfection. Under temptation they did not keep their integrity toward their Creator, their heavenly Father. Under sentence of death they were expelled from Jehovah’s universal organization and ceased to be  counted as children of His. But what of their offspring? To judge from integrity-breaking Adam and Eve, their imperfectly born, sin-inheriting offspring would be unable to maintain integrity to the Creator under temptation and pressure by the Great Serpent, Satan the Devil. Manifestly, Satan the Devil aimed to prove before all creation in heaven and earth that none of them would do so. Did he prove his point, even before the Deluge? The Bible record that expresses God’s viewpoint on the subject shows that at least three men maintained their integrity, namely, Abel, Enoch and Noah.

42, 43. (a) The cases of Abel, Enoch and Noah established what proof? (b) How was Jehovah’s foresight accurate with regard to the providing of further proof?

⁴² Those three faithful, God-fearing men upheld the universal sovereignty of Jehovah their Creator. They proved that Satan the Devil is a presumptuous liar in arguing that Almighty God cannot put a man on earth that, even in a Paradise environment, will keep integrity to Jehovah when subjected to Satan the Devil’s temptations and pressures. The cases of Abel, Enoch and Noah prove that God the Creator was justified in letting the human race, descended from the sinful Adam and Eve, continue to exist on earth. Other men, besides women, in addition to Abel, Enoch and Noah were sure to appear in the ranks of mankind as human life on earth went on outside Paradise, thus piling up more proof against the Devil’s lie and slander against God.

⁴³ Jehovah’s foresight was accurate, and his purpose was bound to succeed. His Messianic purpose that was announced in the presence of the Great Serpent in the garden of Eden added strength to God’s original purpose and made sure its fulfillment. God’s universal sovereignty over the earth, as demonstrated so mightily in the global deluge, will never cease over mankind.

[Study Questions]