The Inscrutable Questions: The Bene ha Elohim & the Nephilim: Original Messianic Prophecy, Gen 3:15; Fall of Man: Infralapsarianism
46)	Our study has answered the question of why the souls and human spirits of Old Testament saints did not go immediately from the body into the eternal state:
 (1) No believer’s soul and human spirit could reside in heaven until the sins of the world were judged in Christ.
(2) Before this judgment became an historical reality the souls and human spirits of Old Testament saints had to reside in a place outside of heaven.
(3) Their sins were placed in the PROM chip of the computer of divine decrees awaiting their judgment in time.
(4) At the cross these sins were imputed to Jesus Christ and judged.
(5)  During the Old Testament dispensations, the souls of all believers were saved but their sins could not be forgiven.
(6) Once their sins were judged on the cross then their previous faith in Messiah was applied to their sins, now judged, and their sins were then forgiven.
(7) Once forgiven, these believers qualified to go to heaven.
(8) This transfer occurred in tandem with the ascension of Jesus Christ.
(9) This tandem ascension can be developed from Acts 1:9 compared with Ephesians 4:8.
47)	Following the Lord’s resurrection, He also kept another appointment in Hades.  In resurrection body, He entered into the compartment of Tartarus in order to provide an historical update on the angelic conflict, proclaim His strategic victory on the cross, and issue a victorious proclamation to the imprisoned demons.
F.	The Bene ha Elohim & the Nephilim.
1)	In our study of the Inscrutable Question we have established the background for the appeal trial of Satan.  You are familiar with Lucifer’s rebellion against God that recruited one third of the angels to his cause.
2)	You also know about the verdict of the Supreme Court of Heaven that condemned Lucifer and his demons to eternity in the Lake of Fire.
Matthew 25:41 -	“Then He [ Jesus Christ ] will also say to those on His left [ at the judgment of the Great White Throne ], ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
3)	However, this sentence has not been executed nor will it until the end of human history.
Revelation 20:14 -	Death and Hades [ unbelievers from Torments, demons from Tartarus, and the demon army and Nephilim from the Abyss ] were thrown into the lake of fire.
4)	We may conclude from this that the human race was created for the purpose of resolving the appeal trial of Satan.  In order to provide a fair and just test to resolve the angelic conflict, God set up a volitional challenge in the Garden by means of a tree whose fruit was forbidden as nourishment for our original parents, Adam and Ishah.
Genesis 2:16 -	“From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat: for in the day you eat from it, dying [ spiritual death ] you shall surely die [ physical death ].”
5)	Deceived by the duplicity of the Lucifer, Ishah was deluded into sin and then enticed her husband to following suit.  The Fall ended the argument for the Prosecution and began the argument for the defense.
6)	Lucifer, now in control of the human race and “god of this world,” began a program designed to prevent the cross of Christ, a mission that he undertook following the divine prophecy of redemption through faith in a coming Messiah.
Genesis 3:15 -	“I will put enmity between you [ Lucifer ] and the woman [ true humanity ], and between your seed [ unregenerate mankind ] and her seed [ the Messiah in the Incarnation ]; it [ the Seed: Messiah ], shall bruise your head [ the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ at the Second Advent ], and you shall bruise His heel [ spiritual death caused by the imputation of all human sins and their subsequent judgment ].”
7)	Genesis 3 explains the angelic conflict from the standpoint of infralapsarian theology.  In the divine decree of eternity past, five pronouncements have to do with the election of those who believe in Christ.
8)	These five decrees observe the fact that man is a fallen being and incapable of resolving his lost condition through his own works.  Thus God decided to provide a solution which Jesus Christ volunteered to execute and the Holy Spirit volunteered to sustain and explain.
9)	The word “lapse” is taken from the Latin lapsus and refers to the fall of man.  Thus “lapsarian” refers to one who believes that man is a fallen being.  Although in eternity past God simultaneously degreed how He would deal with fallen mankind, we seek to identify from Scripture the logical order by which this divine process transpired in time.
10)	This logical progression is referred to as “lapsarianism” and we believe that the biblically accurate arrangement of these decrees should list election after the fall, a system is called “infralapsarianism.”
11)	The infralapsarian order of the elective decrees is:
		1.	The decree to create mankind.  Principle: There must be someone to elect.  (Genesis 1:26-27)
		2.	The decree to permit the fall.  Principle: Condemnation must precede salvation.  (Genesis 3:6 compared with Genesis 3:21; John 3:16 compared with Romans 8:1)  
		3.	The decree to provide salvation for all mankind.  Principle: The doctrine of Unlimited Atonement.  (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:5; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2)
  4.	The decree to elect those who believe in Christ and leave in just condemnation those who reject Christ as Savior.  Principle: God provides all men free will to accept or reject His grace offer of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone.  (John 3:18, 36)
 5.	The decree to apply salvation to those who believe in Christ.  Principle: Each individual must first choose God’s plan of salvation after which God decrees to elect that person to eternal life in heaven.  (Acts 16:31)
12)	Following physical death, the souls and human spirits of Adam, Ishah, Abel, Seth, et al., went to Paradise.  But for them, and any other believer in the Old Testament, to make the transfer to heaven there must be the fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15—through the “Seed of the woman” Messiah must enter the human race and serve as a substitute for the entire human race in the judgment of their sins.