|
I like the angels/demon interp because it cleans up those other obscure an troublesome verses:
Jude 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly
Peter even uses the word Tarturus borrowing from the Titans story.
Further this interp gives a reason why God destroyed every living thing. The earth had become inhabited with creatures that were part angel and man, the angel part making them unredeemable.
There is no where enough info to be dogmatic about my view. It was the view of some of the early church fathers so I wouldn't call it absurd. It's definitely weird to the modern ear.
This is certainly not a primary doctrine of our faith and I would strongly caution anyone from researching very deeply into it. There are too many intersections with the occult and magick and things unhealthy to our sanctification. The scripture is vague on the the topic, lets be satisfied that the answer is not meant to be found because it's not really important to redemptive history.
|