In this message we come to the third fall of man, which is recorded in chapter six of Genesis. If we study Genesis carefully, we shall realize that the intention of the Holy Spirit is to show man's continuous degradation. Man fell step after step and level after level. The record in Genesis reveals that there were at least four steps to man's fall. We may call these steps the four falls of man. In each fall man descended a step lower than the previous fall, falling lower and lower until he reached a point from which he could not fall any further. The third fall was not man's lowest fall; it was a further step of man's decline. As we shall see, after the third fall, there was a fourth. Man has fallen to a greater degree than we can imagine.
Firstly, again we need to consider the cause of man's third fall. We can find a reason or cause for every fall. The cause of the third fall of man was not simple. Even in the first fall the cause was not simple, because that fall was not only brought about by man, but by a source other than man—the serpent, that is, the Devil, Satan, the enemy of God. We have seen that the enemy of God, who had entered into fallen man, became a subjective cause of the second fall. So, in every fall there was a cause other than man himself. Each fall, of course, was the fall of man, but the cause in each case was not merely man himself, but also the enemy of God. In the first fall, the enemy of God was outside of man. In the second fall, this enemy was inside of man. Now, in the case of the third fall, the enemy took another step, causing man to fall even further. We need to discover what was this other step. It is much worse than we can imagine. Although you might have studied the book of Genesis several times, you probably have never noticed the secret mystery of Satan's device. As we consider this satanic device, we need to look to the Lord for the covering of His prevailing blood, for this message touches the evil power and exposes the subtle device of God's enemy.
In the first fall, Satan seduced man to partake of something other than God. In the second fall, Satan, who was in man's nature, distracted man from God's way of salvation. In the third fall, Satan caused the evil spirits, that is, the fallen angels, to mingle with man and to join with man through illegal marriage. At the time of his fall, before the creation of this present world, Satan captured a large number of angels (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). According to Revelation 12:4, it should be that one-third of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion. This is the reason that Ephesians 6:12 speaks of the principalities and powers in the air. The Lord Jesus even told us that Satan has a kingdom (Matt. 12:26). In this universe there is an evil kingdom of the subtle enemy of God, that is, the kingdom of Satan. Satan has a kingdom, meaning that he has under his rule a good number of principalities, dominions, and powers.
According to the whole revelation of the holy Word, at the time of man's third fall, these fallen angels under Satan's control did something which polluted the human race. They caused the human race to be extraordinarily sinful and to be a mixture. No longer was the human race merely the human race; it became a race that was mixed with the fallen angels. Perhaps this word sounds very strange to you. Very few Christians know that the human race was once polluted by being mixed with fallen angels, the fallen spirits. Nevertheless, there is such a fact recorded in the Bible. At the time of the third fall of man, a number of the fallen angels in Satan's principality came down to the earth, took human bodies, and used these bodies to form illegal marriages with the daughters of men. In this way, the human race was mixed with the fallen spirits.