The Greek word aggelos can be translated as either Messengers or Angels. As messenger in the New Testament it is usually someone who brings a message from God. There is no way of telling whether this word is to be translated as spiritual beings, or messengers, except context. Which brings us to two controversial passages where the translators have chosen angels but the context is speaking of men, and should therefor have been messengers.[2 Pet. 2:4-10; Jude 1:5-7]
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, 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 and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked 8 (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 2 Pet. 2:4-10
Many teach that these are angels that became demons and are now in the Pit of Nether Gloom. However that meaning does not fit the context.
These are messengers or rather preachers who taught others not to follow God and His Laws. They would have been Cain, and his descendants that are called the daughters of men. Lamech who boasted that he was worse than Cain and is the last we here of that line. Only Noah and his family were saved, one presumes that there was no genes from the line of Cain in them. (See Also: The Nephilim Deception)
Only Lot was saved from a city full of licentious men. Not only must they have taught this life style, but they wanted to prey on travelers just passing through.
Those who have such a lustful passion or despise authority are singled out. [2 Pet 4:10] They have given up the natural God intended love for the opposite sex, and dishonor the bodies God gave them. However they also despise authority, meaning that they want nothing to do with God’s Laws.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. Rom. 1:18-27
The rebellion against God’s Laws lead to image worship as well as worshiping the creation rather than the Creator.
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Jude 1:5-7
Here the angels should also have been translated as messengers. First we have the people who opposed God in Egypt, people not angles. Then Sodom and Gomorrah, again people not angles. So those who did not keep their own positions are those that challenged Moses, they were Jannes and Jambres, Cain, Balaam, and Korah who are mentioned.
As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith; 2 Tim. 3:8
Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. Jude 1:11
The only rebellious person not mentioned is Miriam. In Numbers 2 she speaks against Moses, but quickly repents. This is what all must do when we find that our teachers have lead us into rebellion. We must repent.
We must make sure that our teachers do not teach a counterfeit faith. Jannes and Jambres along with Cain taught an obvious rebellion to the Laws of God. However Balaam, [Num. 22-24] and Korah [Num. 16] teachings were not so obvious. In fact if you look at them from a humanistic point of view they sound very compelling.
Why must these people be blessed and why should Moses and Aaron be in charge? Quite simply because the Law says so.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15
If our spiritual leaders are teaching us not to keep the commandments, then there is a problem.