1. The Story-Line of Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect: Lesson 1: Beginnings in Sons of God
The story-line of apocalyptic rhetorolect seeks to answer the question: “How was evil able to invade the fabric of God’s good world with such force and power that God could decide to destroy everything he created, except some righteous people?” Sexual activity by divine beings becomes one resource for answering this question.
Click for the next slide and a Hebrew Bible resource for Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect.

2. A Hebrew Bible Resource for Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
The Hebrew Bible has a strange story about sons of God, who are divine beings in heaven, violating boundaries between heaven and earth because they develop sexual desire for beautiful daughters of men on earth and bear children with them. This story becomes a resource for both Jewish and Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect.
Click for this Hebrew Bible resource for apocalyptic rhetorolect.

3. Sons of God Violate their Divine Status through Sexual Activity with Daughters of Men on Earth
Genesis 6:1 It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
6:2 that God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
6:3 Adonai said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years.”
Click for the continuation of this Hebrew Bible resource for apocalyptic rhetorolect.

4. The Sons of God Gave Birth to Children with the Daughters of Men
Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
6:5 Adonai saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Read Genesis 6)
Click for Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect that uses this Hebrew Bible story as a resource.

5. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect Says the Sons of God will be in Chains until Judgement Day
2 Peter 2:4 For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus (hell) and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. (Read 2 Peter 2)
Jude 1:6 Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Read Jude)
Click to read about Enoch.

6. Another Hebrew Bible Resource for Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
The Hebrew Bible says Enoch, Noah’s great grandfather, was in heaven before the sins of the sons of God and the flood. Therefore, Enoch saw everything from heaven and can tell people what happened and what God told him to do as a result of these events.
Click for this Hebrew Bible resource in Genesis 5:21, 24-25,

7. The Hebrew Bible Resource about Enoch
Genesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah….
5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
5:25 Methuselah lived one hundred eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech.
5:28 Lamech …became the father of a son, 5:29 and he named him Noah, saying, “This same will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Adonai has cursed.” (Read Genesis 5)
Click to read Jewish apocalyptic literature that develops stories about Enoch in heaven.

8. Jewish Apocalyptic Enoch Literature
1 Enoch 14:24 And Adonai called me with his own mouth and said to me, “Come near to me, Enoch, and to my holy word…
15:1 … scribe of righteousness … 15:2 tell the Watchers of heaven … 15:3 ‘For what reason have you abandoned the high, holy, and eternal heaven; and slept with women and defiled yourselves with the daughters of the people, taking wives, acting like the children of the earth, and begetting giant sons?
Click to read 1 Enoch 14:24-16:1 cont.

9. Jewish Apocalyptic Enoch Literature
15:4 Surely you used to be holy, spiritual, the living ones, possessing eternal life; but now you have defiled yourselves with omen, and with the blood of the flesh begotten children; you have lusted with the blood of the people, like them producing blood and flesh which die and perish…’
15:8 But now the giants who are born from the union of the spirits and flesh shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, because their dwelling shall be upon the earth and inside the earth.
Click to read 1 Enoch 14:24-16:1 cont.

10. Jewish Apocalyptic Enoch Literature
15:9 Evil spirits have come out of their bodies… They will become evil upon the earth and shall be called evil spirits.
15:10 The dwelling of the spiritual beings of heaven is heaven; but the dwelling of the spirits of the earth, which are born upon the earth, is in the earth.
Click to read 1 Enoch 14:24-16:1 cont.

11. Jewish Apocalyptic Enoch Literature
15:11 The spirits of the giants oppress each other; they will corrupt, fall, be excited, and fall upon the earth, and cause sorrow. They eat no food, nor become thirsty, nor find obstacles.
15:12 And these spirits shall rise up against the children of the people and against the women, because they have proceeded forth from them.
Click to read 1 Enoch 14:24-16:1 cont.

12. Jewish Apocalyptic Enoch Literature
16:1 … they will corrupt until the day of the great conclusion, until the great age is consummated, until everything is concluded upon the Watchers and the wicked ones.”
1 Enoch 1:9 Behold, God comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him.
Click to read Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect that uses Jewish Enoch literature as a resource.

13. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
Jude 1:12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
1:13 wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
Click for continuation of this Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect.

14. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
Jude 1:14 About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones
1:15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Read Jude)
Click to read about Noah and the flood.

15. Another Hebrew Bible Resource for Apocalyptic Rhetorolect
The Hebrew Bible says God sent a flood to destroy all corrupt flesh on earth, after the sons of God had created beings that lusted after flesh and corrupted all humans on the earth.
Click for this Hebrew Bible resource in Genesis 6:11-7:23.

16. Since All Flesh had been Corrupted, God Destroyed Everything on Earth except Noah’s Family
Genesis 6:11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
6:12 And God saw that the earth, and saw that it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth.
6:13 God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth .
6:14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
Click to continue this Hebrew Bible resource.

17. God Destroyed All Corrupted Flesh on Earth except Noah’s Family
Genesis 7:19 The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
7:20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
7:21 All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
Click for Genesis 7:19-23 cont.

18. God Destroyed All Corrupted Flesh on Earth except Noah’s Family
7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.
7:23 Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. (Read Genesis 6)
Click for the Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect that uses this as a resource.

19. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect Compares the Time of Noah with God’s Destruction when the Son of Man Comes
Luke 17:24 for as the lightning, when it flashes out of the one part under the sky, shines to the other part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day….
17:26 As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
17:27 They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Read Luke 17 / Matthew 24:38-39)
Click to read more Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect that uses the Noah story as a resource.

20. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect Uses the Noah Story to Emphasize that God Rescues the Godly but Punishes the Unrighteous
2 Peter 2:5 and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
2:9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;
2:10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries (Read 2 Peter 2)
Click for God’s promise not to destroy the earth again.

21. God Promised not to Destroy the Earth again after Noah Offered Burnt Offerings (Genesis 8:20-21)
Genesis 8:20 Noah built an altar to Adonai, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
8:21 Adonai smelled the pleasant aroma. Adonai said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done. (Read Genesis 8)
Click for another version of God’s promise not to destroy the earth again.

22. God Restates the Promise not to Destroy the Earth again (Genesis 9:11, 13)
Genesis 9:11 I will establish my covenant with you: all flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood, neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
9:13 I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. (Read Genesis 9)
Click for Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect that changes this promise to “fire next time.”

23. Christian Apocalyptic Rhetorolect Changes God’s Promise to Fire Next Time
2 Peter 3:5 For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
3:6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
3:7 But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (Read 2 Peter 3)
Click for a summary.

24. Good Work!
In this First Lesson, you have learned that sexual activity of the sons of God in Genesis 6 is used as a resource in apocalyptic rhetorolect for identifying the source of evil spirits and demons in humans and throughout the created order.
Enoch, Noah’s grandfather, saw from heaven the sexual perversion of the sons of God (angels) and the flood that followed, so Enoch literature gives extensive apocalyptic interpretation of the events.
Christian apocalyptic rhetorolect changes God’s promise in the Hebrew Bible not to destroy all flesh again by a flood, to next time it will be by fire.
Every good wish as you go on to Lesson 2, where you learn how God continued to bring destruction onto the earth after the flood.