The Original Sin
There were many trees in the garden of Eden, including the tree of Life and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Fall was not caused by eating natural fruit, which was permitted, and nothing is recorded in Genesis 3 about eating an apple, we read only about partaking of fruit of the tree of Knowledge. Therefore, it is important for us to know who and what the tree of Knowledge was.
In Genesis 3:7 we read, "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves skirts." Something terrible had happened. Satan's promise was half fulfilled but not quite as expected; they had developed a self consciousness of their nakedness and of the guilt of their genitalia, which hitherto had been public but which they now considered private and sought to hide from each another, and from the Lord. You will notice, they did not blindfold their eyes or cover their mouth, but veiled their guilty reproductive organs that instead of bringing life, had introduced death into the world. Guilt-conscious, their intimate relationship with God is replaced by distrustful, selfish, servile fear, as the first common act of sin passes over to a second, and they seek to hide themselves and their sin amongst the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3 portrays the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Every man and woman understands temptation of the senses, so Eve's admission, "the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" should be understood by every adult person. When a girl or a boy is entrapped and beguiled, we know it was not an ice-cream or apple they ate.
The apostle Paul certainly knew what happened in the garden of Eden. Otherwise he could not have admonished the Corinthian church, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (II Corinthians 11:3). In view of the Fall, the apostle writes further, "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression" (I Timothy 2:14).
Directly after it happened, the Lord God told Eve, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. . ." (Genesis 3:16). This statement tells us what really happened. It was not meals she was to eat in pain as one might suppose had the transgression been epicurean; and neither Adam nor yet any woman has conceived by eating fruit. God knew what took place, and where punishment should be pronounced. Therefore as a memorial of the original sin, and under normal circumstances, women give birth in pain. They don't suffer toothache at mealtimes. Proverbs 30:18-20, "Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her orifice, and says, I have done no wickedness."
Birth-pains remind women of the original sin, " for the woman being deceived was in the transgression," and lost her co-equality with man (Genesis 3:16; I Timothy 2:8-15). Under the Old Covenant, circumcision in the male organ of generation recognised that because of the Fall corruption is inherently transmitted by our sexual conception (Psalm 51:5), and symbolised an Israelite man's severance from nature's defilement to a state of consecrated fellowship with God. Hereby an unmarried Israelite woman came under the Covenant by the token of her father, and a married woman came under the token of her husband (I Corinthians 11:3-16; Ephesians 5:20-23). So "God's holy One, whose flesh should not see corruption" was "born of a virgin" (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 7:14). When God made a Covenant with Abraham and his natural seed He required circumcision, "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: every male child among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:10-14). Every soul who refused circumcision was "cut off" from His people because he did not have the token of the Covenant.
In Jeremiah 9:24-25 we read, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, the days are coming when I will punish all these circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and the Semitic Arabs who dwell in the desert and cut the edge of their beard: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." Three classes are distinguished here, the Covenant people, their Serpent seed half brothers, their Semitic Ammonite, Moabite and Arabian cousins, and Gentile Egyptians. All of these nations were uncircumcised in spite of a circumcision in the flesh, (which from Israel's standpoint was an unjustifiable imitation of the sacred sign of the Covenant), while the whole house of Israel, including Judah, is uncircumcised in heart and ears and essentially no different from the heathen nations without the token. From this it is evident that the only means of escape from the threatened punishment is a living and truly productive knowledge of the Lord (Jeremiah 9:22-23).
In Genesis 17:12-13 and Exodus 12:43-49 we learn that every Israelite and every Gentile of Adam's race must have the token of circumcision in the flesh before he can partake of the Passover, which the Serpent's seed are forbidden to eat. However John Hyrcanus compelled them to "circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, (25) and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, 9:1).
(Note 25: "This account of the Idumeans admitting circumcision, and the entire Jewish law, from this time, or from the days of Hyrcanus, is confirmed by their entire history afterward (Antiquities XIV, 8:1; XV, 7:9; Wars of the Jews, II, 3:1; IV, 4:5). This, in the opinion of Josephus, made them proselytes of justice, or entire Jews, as here and elsewhere (Antiquities, XIV, 8:1). However, Antigonus, the enemy of Herod, though Herod were derived from such a proselyte of justice for several generations, will allow him to be no more than a half Jew (XV, 15:2). But still, take out of Dean Prideaux, at the year 129, the words of Ammouius, a grammarian, which fully confirm this account of the Idumeans in Josephus: "The Jews," says he, are such by nature, and from the beginning, whilst the Idumeans were not Jews from the beginning, but Phoenicians and Syrians; but being afterward subdued by the Jews, and compelled to be circumcised, and to unite into one nation, and be subject to the same laws, they were called Jews." Dio also says, as the Dean there quotes him, from Book XXXVI, p. 37, "That country is called Judea, and the people Jews; and this name is given also to as many others as embrace their religion, though of other nations." But then upon what foundation so good a governor as Hyrcanus took upon him to compel those Idumeans either to become Jews, or to leave the country, deserves great consideration. I suppose it was because they had long ago been driven out of the land of Edom, and had seized on and possessed the tribe of Simeon, and all the southern parts of the tribe of Judah, which was the peculiar inheritance of the worshippers of the true God without idolatry, as the reader may learn from Reland, Palestine, Part I, p. 154, 305; and from Prideaux, at the years 140 and 165).
Before one is fit to celebrate our "Passover," which is to partake the Lord's Supper and footwashing under the New Covenant, he or she must be circumcised—not in the flesh—but in heart and ears, and our Token, unlike that of the Israelite, must be on display for it is the Life of Christ generated by the Spirit of Christ within the individual believer. Whereas the Israelite woman was "saved" under the Token of her father or her husband, "the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the Token of his Christian wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified under the Token of her Christian husband" (I Corinthians, 7:11-19).
There is no shame in displaying our Token, and our Token is not the Token unless it is on public display. Now the soul that refuses the Message of God's Prophet in this day is "cut off" and "shall be destroyed from among the people" (Malachi 4:6; Acts 3:23; Revelation 22:17-19). This is so because since the Seven Seals are revealed, Christ is no longer a Mediator for ignorance, and without this Message he is "uncircumcised in heart and ears" and cannot have the Token, which is the new birth by the Fullness of the Word, aside from which he cannot be restored to fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Word (Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:21-23; I Corinthians 13:10; John 17:20-26).
The Lord God pronounced judgment on the serpent for his wickedness and said, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and eat dust all the days of your life" (Genesis 3:14). Up to that time, the serpent walked upright, else the statement "upon your belly you shall go" would make no sense (Ezekiel 28:13-14).
Most important is the following verse, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." According to the testimony of the Lord God, there would be two different seeds. He spoke of the seed of the serpent, and also of its archenemy, both seeds would come through the woman. In Scripture, seed speaks of offspring, and there were in Eve's womb two different seeds as there are two different seeds in the church.
Satan cannot beget nor can he create. He is a sexless, fallen spirit-being. Therefore he had to make use of the beast which was closest to man and could even speak. Only after the curse, did the serpent lose its upright human form and become a reptile.
Genesis three records the conversation between the serpent and Eve. It began with the well-known question, "Yea, has God said?" The devil always uses the same approach: planting doubts about God's Word. Thus he misconstrued It, and entangled Eve. "You shall not surely die. . . Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Uplifted at the prospect of teaching her husband the secret knowledge of sex — how they might fulfill God's Command to "multiply and fill the earth," Eve fell for Satan's lie. What benefit was this knowledge of good and evil that separated them from God's Presence? Since that time the eyes of each one of us have been opened to know good and evil whereby we are accountable to God (Romans 5:12-14).
The human attributes are found in the genes which actually lie in the chromosomes inherited through begetting in the sex act. In this way, Satan was able to inject his nature vicariously through the serpent into the human race in Cain and his lineage. Eve's transgression caused Adam to forfeit our dominion over earth to death. As we are conceived according to Satan's worldly wisdom, we are born with a nature of this world, which is the nature of the god of this evil age. Therefore the Redeemer had to come into human flesh "That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14-15). Conquering Satan and death, and rising the third day, Jesus announced victoriously, "I have the keys of death and hell" (Revelation 1:18).
God's commandment was, "Be fruitful, and multiply" (Genesis 1:28), so He instituted marriage and joined the first pair together. The tragedy lies in the breaking of this first marriage, when Eve listened to one she knew to be inspired by Satan, and in correcting him made God's prohibition even stronger by adding, "neither shall you touch the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," which is Satan. Hereby she usurped authority over her husband, who was the spoken Word of God. Every species was to bring forth after his own kind, but in Eve's womb was a creature, cross-bred from Satan through the serpent, and not in the original creation. Whatever does not derive from His thoughts can never submit to the Word of God, which is His thoughts expressed. Eve then gave herself to Adam.
Adam knew Eve was no more a virgin, and although she should have been burnt as says the law (which is forever written in heaven), he was not deceived, but he loved her and quickly took her to himself. Eve was dying, having crossed the Word from eternity into time but as a son of God Adam knew he could no more be lost than God can be lost. He also knew that Eve was part of him and if he joined her in death, God must somehow redeem him, so in dying he would 'save' Eve. A perfect type of Christ.
Thus, the Fall took place: Eve gave herself to the serpent, then had her first relation with Adam. From both unions, which happened in quick succession, children were born: Cain and Abel.
In this day, 'twins' are born of different fathers. The best-known cases happened in Sweden and France. In Stockholm, when Mrs. Bjoerlen gave birth on the same day to a black, and to a blond, blue-eyed baby, her husband refused to take financial responsibility for the child which clearly was not his. In the trial Mrs. Bjoerlen admitted to having a black lover. On the same day she had known both men. In France, a Mrs. Duval also gave birth to a white and a black child, and 26 year old Marseilles prostitute, Yvette Landru, gave birth to one white, one Negro, and one Chinese. Medical records are replete with cases of superfetation in humans, where a woman with multiple ovum is fertilized by sperm of separate insemination. The offspring are not truly twins but half-brothers or half-sisters. True twins result from simultaneous fertilization of one ovum by two sperm.
Whoever reads Genesis 3:15 carefully, will see the Lord God had spoken of the two seeds, or offspring right after the Fall. So from the very beginning, there were these two lineages: the ungodly line of Cain and the godly line found in Seth.
Not once is Cain mentioned in the genealogies of Adam in the Old or the New Testament. Not one time is Adam called the father of Cain. This is why Adam pronounced his wife "the mother of all living": never is it suggested that he is the father of all living (Genesis 3:20). Had Cain been the first-born son of Adam, he would have had the nature of Adam who was the son of God, and a special place in God's record.
As Eve bore her firstborn, she exclaimed, "I have gotten a man from the Lord" (Genesis 4:1). This must be understood correctly. Eve was NOT declaring Adam was the father of Cain: under Satan's delusion she actually thought Cain was Christ, "the beginning of the creation of God." No other act with Adam is recorded between the births of Cain and Abel. We are simply told, ". . . And she again bore his brother, Abel. And Adam knew his wife again; and she bore a son, and called his name Seth . . ." (Genesis 4:25). Since THREE sons were born from TWO acts by Adam, you know POSITIVELY that ONE of those three was NOT the son of Adam.
The apostle John also knew what happened in the garden of Eden. He wrote, ". . . not as Cain, who was of that wicked one" (I John 3:12). In this statement Adam could never have been meant. Adam was not the evil one, neither the wicked one, whose son Cain was, according to the written Word of God. The same apostle wrote of the believers, ". . . because you have overcome the wicked one" (I John 2:13, 14). Again Satan is meant in this place as in many other places in the Scripture with this description. In Revelation 20:2, he is called "the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan." In the Gospels Jesus calls the opponent of God "the wicked one." God is altogether good; Satan is just the opposite. In the Lord's prayer we petition, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13). We now know "the evil one" is the vicarious father of Cain and origin of all ungodly things.
Cain, the first killer and murderer, was full of envy and jealousy; and Satan was a murderer from the beginning — not in heaven, but on earth (John 8:44). Now it behooves us to consider what prompted such envy and jealousy as would cause Cain to murder Abel. It arose from their worship of God. Cain was rejected with his revelation, because he was carnal. Perhaps he thought it was an apple that caused the Fall, and knowing God requires life for life, picked the choicest of his crop, knowing the 'life' would go out of it. But by revelation from God the Bible says Abel knew animal had caused the Fall, and so animal life must be offered.
When the elder saw his 'works' rejected and Abel's sacrifice for which he had not labored, accepted of God, it seemed so unreasonable. And when God told him he would be accepted if by faith he offered the same sacrifice as His vindicated prophet, he felt humiliated. Concealing his pride, Cain asked Abel to expound the faith. Abel was reluctant to explain, fearing for his life, but when Cain prevailed he expounded the 'original sin.' Cain recognized he was not Adam's son, that he had never possessed the birthright, and was nowhere in the genealogy of God, but that if he destroyed Abel, he reasoned there was the possibility of fabricating primogeniture.
Hence, when God exposed Cain's evil and he saw there was no way he could claim Adam's birthright, which is ultimately the restoration to eternal Life in a restored world, he exclaimed, ". . . from Your face I shall be hid; and I will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that finds me shall slay me" (because intermarriage with his line always procreates the unredeemable serpent seed and further pollutes the human race). So to prevent man from taking vengeance on Cain and his kindred, God placed a mark upon him. That mark is worldly wisdom: reasoning against the faith. According to anthropologists and Brother Branham, the serpent seed were responsible for all inventions and the discovery of all technological principles.
It is absolutely impossible for Cain to have come forth from Adam who was created in the image of the holy God from Whom no evil can come. Satan misused the serpent to enter into the human race in this cunning way, and throw it into destruction and death. Thus it was necessary for God to come in human flesh without human male instrumentality to redeem us back from the power of Satan. When all the redeemed receive their full inheritance, we will be placed back into our original ordained position under God to rule over all the earth.
Enoch was the seventh from Adam: Cain was not counted in the genealogy (Jude 14). Abel was killed with no offspring, therefore the record of the genealogy goes through Seth. In this respect, the Word of God is also perfect and enlightening — Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch — Cain is not Adam's seed and is not mentioned (Genesis 5:6-18; Luke 3:38).
The seed of the serpent was just as real as the seed of the woman. If the serpent did not have a seed, then Christ too was a myth. The seed of the serpent was Cain, the promised seed of the woman was Christ. Paul referred to the promised seed, ". . . and to your seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16-19). He is the seed for whom the promise was given. In the Old Testament, we read, "When You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed" (Isaiah 53:10). God's law states that every seed must reproduce after its own kind (Genesis 1:11). So we should recognize not only did the serpent seed produce a physical race of people not on the Book of Life, but it also produces spiritual death in Adam's race, causing names to be removed from the Book of Life.
God hates hybreeding — His Word is Spirit, and it is Life, but when mixed with human reasoning it is no longer His Word and becomes death (John 6:63; Revelation 22:18-19). In Luke 8:11 we read, "The seed is the Word of God." Before Eve could receive the physical seed of the serpent, she first had to receive the perverted word or suggestion of Satan into her mind — spiritual serpent seed — and reason against the clear instruction of God's seed Word.
In Matthew 13:36-43 the Lord spoke clearly about these diverse spiritual seeds, "He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one." Our lives manifest our faith or understanding. A life lived by the Word is the Word expressed — Christ in you, the hope of glory. A life lived by God's Word hybrid into creeds is reasoning against the faith; it is the mark of Cain and of the beast, and is death. Those influenced by the wicked one hardened their hearts, to which Jesus said, "You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there no truth in him." He did not dispute their claim to be Abraham's seed, nor did he concede that they were also the seed of Isaac and Jacob and therefore Israelites. As we have noted, the majority of Judeans (or Jews) in His day were Edomites. Esau, their progenitor was Abraham's seed but he married into Cain's race and marred his inheritance. Knowing this the Pharisees protested, "We were not born of fornication; we have one father, even God." Jesus said, "If you were Abraham's children you would do the works of Abraham . . . and if God were your father, you would love Me." Since they were deceived on the Word and abode not in the Truth, even those who were in Adam's line physically, were serpent seed SPIRITUALLY, and blotted from the record of life (John 8:37-47; Psalm 69:21-28; Jeremiah 9:24-25).
We must remember that God put "enmity" between the two seeds, "And I will put enmity between . . . your seed and her seed" (Genesis 3:15). With the aid of the serpent, Satan came into the human race to destroy God's order. And the enmity is still there.
Satan perverted God's holy instruction to "multiply and fill the earth," deceiving Eve and coming into human flesh and blood to produce death instead of life. "Man that's born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). God required a perfect substitute, so Jesus was born of a virgin without sex, by faith in the spoken Word Seed of God to pay sin's penalty. Hence our second birth is not by woman but by the Man Christ Jesus without sin and without sex, by the spoken seed Word of God.
After Pentecost, Satan returned to pervert the spoken Word seed of God by mixing or hybridizing it with reasoning into creeds and traditions. So long as the seven-sealed Book was closed and the mystery sealed to the time of the end, Christ was in the Office of Mediator, interceding in behalf of the ignorance of God's elect concerning the faith (Daniel 12:4,9; Revelation 10:4,7). Once the last saint predestinated to the Laodicean Church Age had been baptized into the Body, Christ answered the call of the elders, fulfilling Revelation 4, 5, and 10:1-7.
Advancing from the sacrifice altar as the bleeding bloody Lamb and taking the Book of Life, which is the title deed to all He has redeemed, He became Lion, Judge, and King of Kings. Revelation 10:1-6 signifies Christ descending to earth in WORD Form with the Book that was sealed open in His hands to reveal Himself through the ministry of the 'angel' to the Laodicean Church Age before the seventh Trumpet Angel sounds the end of the Gentile Dispensation (I Thessalonians 4:16; I Corinthians 15:52).
You see the Church Age saints cannot be made perfect without us. As the Holy Spirit was waved before God in the first ripe Sheaf of the Lord Jesus Christ, and accepted in that God resurrected Him for the justification of the whole harvest (Romans 4:25), that same Spirit in the Fullness of the Word is to be waved again in the end-time Bride whose acceptance will signal the resurrection of the sleeping saints and build faith for translation grace. The "church" will know nothing of this: God having called out the righteous, both wise and foolish virgin, their end will be a lake of Fire (Leviticus 23:16-21; Matthew 3:12; I Thessalonians 5:1-10; Revelation 19:20; 20:10).
Speaking through His prophets, God promised He would "RESTORE the faith once delivered to the apostolic saints" (Joel 2:25; Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:19-21). This is the ministry of the seventh Church Age Messenger, the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6, whose Message is the "shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16, which is the "midnight cry" heard and heeded by the wise and foolish virgin of Matthew 25:6 and confirmed by the heavenly Voice of Revelation 18:4. This Message is Christ the fullness of the Word "spoken by the mouth of all God's holy prophets since the world began" —"that which is perfect" or complete (Acts 3:21; I Corinthians 13:10; Revelation 10:7). It separates Christ's tiny Flock from the hordes of the great whore of Rome and her Protestant harlot daughters, bringing her into the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation (Genesis 49:10; Amos 3:3; Matthew 13:41; Ephesians 1:10; Romans 8:19; II Thessalonians 2:1).
The 'enmity' God placed between the seed of the righteous first and last Adams, and the unrighteous physical seed of Cain and the bastard-born spiritual children of the second Eve, whom Jesus calls "the mother of harlots and abominations on the earth," is extant. Christ's little Flock is marching toward heaven in the rapture, while Satan's mighty world-wide church is marching to Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-16; 17:14).
Revelation 1-3 prophesies the battle that commenced on the day of Pentecost between Christ in His people, and antichrist in his people. These trees that stood in the midst of the Garden have grown together, like Judas and Jesus, as brothers within the framework of the Christian church, so close as would almost deceive the very elect if it were possible. However this is the harvest time, each congregation is bearing the life of the seed that was planted and cannot hide its fruit. Satan's apostate big church is uniting with the apostate smaller churches in order to convert or kill Christ's little Flock. But after a brief and powerful demonstration of the Spirit — NOT a public display as it was in Pentecost — our little hunted and persecuted group will go to be with Jesus.
As Satan incarnate the beast in the garden of Eden and led the first Eve to death, when he is cast out of the heavenlies he will evict his demons and incarnate the man of sin, thereafter called the beast, who will lead his followers to perdition. Christ's purpose is to be fulfilled in His Bride. He is that Corn of Wheat that fell to the ground at Calvary in order to reproduce Himself in the many-membered spoken Word seed Bride.
When Jesus was on earth, Satan showed Him all the kingdoms and their glory in this end-time and said, "I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9). Our Redeemer knew that once He overcame, and shed His blood for the redemption of those ordained for eternal Life, the inheritance forfeited by the first Adam would be His. Already the psalmist had said, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations" (Psalm 82:8; Revelation 11:15).
Of Christ's elect or Spiritual Seed, the apostle Paul wrote, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ — if so be that we suffer with Him, we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17). This will be fulfilled sooner than most (so-called) Christians dare imagine. We are privileged to live in the time when all the mysteries contained in the Holy Scriptures have been revealed, including the original sin in the garden of Eden.
Genesis 4 is intended to be a historical message. In verse one, the connection with what precedes is very clear. The history here recorded is tied to the Paradise narrative with the conjunctive phrase, "And Adam," or "And the man" Adam is presented as being familiar to us from the preceding events, with no further introduction necessary. Also, his wife is simply presented by her name, Eve, "mother of all living," which according to Genesis 3:20, she had been given by her husband following the Fall, whence Eve bore in her womb two seeds (Genesis 3:11-17).
This history traces the enmity God has placed between these two seeds and foreshadows the Promise. The writer must first dispose of Cain and his ungodly line who have NO part in the Promise or Kingdom of God. Then he returns to Seth through whom the line of Promise is maintained. The story of Cain and Abel points out that from the very first, men have been divided into two great classes, viewed in connection with God's Promise and Presence in the world.
Whilst it is to the self-reliant and God-defying energy of the descendants of Cain that we owe much of the external civilization of the world, the descendants of Seth pass away and leave only this record: that they "walked with God".
Genesis 4 is the historical account of the sinful misapplication of God's command in the garden, to "multiply and fill the earth" which produced DEATH by Eve's reasoning with Satan through the agency of the serpent, instead of awaiting God's uncompromised Word revealed through her husband in due season.
This is the first mention of a sexual relationship between Adam and his wife. Cain had already been conceived by the serpent prior to Adam having knowledge of his wife. Eve saw in Cain the fulfillment of the natural promise of Genesis 3:15, and looked on her first child as God Himself, the 'Deliverer', Who would restore them to Eden. It is unusual for the mother to justify Cain's name by declaring "I have begotten a "MAN" with the Lord," when Cain was but a babe. To Eve, however, Cain was the 'Man child' (Revelation 12:13) Who would smite the Serpent. Eve did not claim to bear Cain by Adam but supposed he was gotten, acquired, or created with the Lord.
It is NOT said of Eve that she conceived again and bare Abel (which is the usual Scriptural way of intimating a second birth) but simply that she bore him after Cain. That a difference was from the very first put between the two, is plain from the remarkable language which she applies to the firstborn, "I have gotten a man from the Lord;" and indeed from the very names given the two brothers respectively. Cain signifies 'acquired one' -- Eve was deceived by Satan who incarnate the Serpent, she and thought Cain was the Son of God, whereas she KNEW Abel was the son of her own husband and named him accordingly.
Abel means 'a son', which well suits the first-born child of man. Hence we have the line of the serpent through Cain (falsely supposed to be the Son of God), and the line of Adam, beginning in Abel. The etymology of Cain and Abel are quite separate.
From their birth, at the same time, there was a difference put on these two sons of Eve. It was understood from Genesis 3:15, that the race was to be divided into two great sections, of which one only was to be reckoned as truly and spiritually the seed of the woman, while the other bore the character and fell under the doom, of the seed of the serpent.
Eve regarded her firstborn son as the very individual who was to be the Savior, and understood at the same time that this Savior was to be a divine person. Hence her words, "I have gotten a man" or 'the man', 'the Lord,' the very Jehovah -- Him who is God as well as man. Or, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." So Eve was STILL deceived at Cain's birth. But because "that which is flesh is flesh;" and born by sex, Cain was in need of redemption himself and could not possibly be the Redeemer (I Corinthians 15:45-49).
At all events, it is plain that in her judgment Cain was chosen rather than his comparatively lightly esteemed half-brother, whose very name in Hebrew means 'vanity,' or 'nothingness.' (Though of course, Adam and Eve did not speak Hebrew).
Like the spiritual serpent seed, (Adam's children deceived on the Word), and God's elect, these step-brothers, representatives of the two great classes into which, the family of man is divided, manifest their differences NOT in the object, NOR in the time, BUT in the spirit, of their worship. "And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof" (Genesis 4:3-4).
Like the spiritual seed of the wicked one and the Holy One, the descendants of the serpent and of Adam both worship the same God, and receive the same anointing of His power and glory (Matthew 5:45; Acts 2:17). Their seasons of worship are also the same; for the expression "in process of time," or "at the end of days," denotes a stated season (corresponding with Passover). Again their manner of service was to a large extent the same. They presented offerings to God of two kinds, corresponding remarkably to the two kinds of offerings ordained under the Levitical dispensation -- those which were properly expiatory, and those which were mainly expressive of duty, gratitude, and devotion.
"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts" "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering He had NOT respect" (Genesis 4:4-5).
Clearly, acceptance of the person MUST precede the acceptance of the service; and the acceptance of the person is by faith. Both men offered an excellent sacrifice. The sacrifice of Abel had no more efficacy in itself than the offering of Cain, to commend him to the favor of God. Abel was not accepted on account of his offering; nor was Cain rejected on account of his. But Abel had faith and a revelation of the original sin, and that he was the true seed of Adam for whom the True Seed of the woman would give His life. He was justified to God by a faith which was expressed in his sacrifice -- an eye for an eye, and a life for a life -- speaking of the coming Kinsman Redeemer.
"Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). For the life is in the blood which is the evidence the life has been sacrificed. The innocent life of the lamb typed Christ, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) Whose innocent life was given in substitution for the guilty lives of Adam and his seed.
Cain, on the other hand, presented an offering of the first fruits without faith. He actually believed he was Adam's firstborn, and with no revelation of the original sin, understood no need for a substitute life to be offered. (Of course the Lamb, which represented Christ the second Adam, could NOT be applied to Cain who is NOT in Adam's race and has NO substitute). Cain therefore offered the first fruits of the harvest, a type of adoption, placement, or recognition of a son -- the baptism of the Holy Ghost or new birth -- WITHOUT a blood offering, and was REJECTED by God because he was NOT God's Son. Neither was he Adam's son.
Cain was "born in sin:" death stood between him and Jehovah. But in his offering, there was no recognition whatever of this fact. He treated Jehovah as though He were, altogether, such as himself, who could accept the sin-stained first fruit of a cursed earth without the blood atonement.
Cain saw no need for Atonement and in type, sought to be placed as a son (or born-again) without Calvary. Cain was NOT a son of God, he had NO faith (I John 3:4-10). Cain obtained witness that he was UNRIGHTEOUS but went about to establish a righteousness of his own, bringing an offering as one entitled in his own name, to present it, -- as one seeking, by means of it, to satisfy his God. His was not the guiltless simplicity and uprightness of a sinner receiving a free pardon, and in consequence, rendering a free service, forgiven much, and therefore loving much. His was the cold and calculating homage of contented self-confidence, paying, more or less conscientiously, its due to God, with heart unbroken by any true sense of sin, and spirit unsubdued by any melting sighs of the riches of redeeming love.
"Cain was begotten of that wicked one and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were EVIL, and his brother's righteous" (I John 3:12). He was not the son of Adam, who was "the son of God" (Luke 3:38).
The Bible establishes every Word in the mouth of two or three witnesses. To demonstrate further to future generations of Bible believers that there existed NO relationship between God and Cain, He gave him an opportunity of finding the acceptance Abel had found. By faith. But instead of humbling himself to penitence and faith, God's grace provoked in Cain wrath, and he frowned upon God (Genesis 4:5).
Still God pleaded with him and said, "when you fail, I have provided a sin offering." It was very near him, he did not need to work or strive for it, it was already at his disposal and subject to him; it may be appropriated and used by him and awaits his pleasure. Cain had but to go to the door of Abel's sheepfold, take and offer a lamb by faith -- and he would have been accepted by God and still had Abel's respect as his elder brother. But it must be offered by faith, but when faith was revealed, Cain knew clearly he had NO claims upon God through Christ, OR the birthright.
Now, sin is to Cain as Eve was to Adam -- flesh of his flesh, and Cain is to rule over sin as man is to rule over his wife. The natural mind is the mark of the beast, and the way of Cain (Jude 10-16). Wisdom versus faith -- creeds and trinities, etc., against the revealed Word of God. The enmity of Cain's carnal mind, his INTELLIGENCE, however, prevailed. Cain could NOT be subject to the Law of God; nor would he submit himself to the righteousness of God. He was enmity with God and enmity with the seed of Adam (Genesis 3:15; Romans 8:7; I John 3:12).
When Cain's anger could not reach the great Being of whom chiefly he complained, he vent it on his brother who was within his reach, when Abel reluctantly shared the revelation which amply revealed the original sin, showing that Cain was NOT Adam's son, NEVER had the birthright, and is NOT redeemable.
After the murder, Cain deliberately determined not to revisit the sanctuary -- "the Presence of the Lord," (for it is afterward said that upon receiving his sentence, he departed thence), confident he has settled the matter of primogeniture and inheritance by slaying Abel. In his confidence he even assumes an air of defiance, almost as if he were the wronged and injured party.
"Where is Abel thy brother"?
"I know not," is his impatient and unfeeling reply -- "Am I my brother's keeper? (My brother might have kept himself. Or his God with whom he was so great a favorite, might have kept him)."
Thus Cain exults in his success, in getting the better of the feeble and unprotected simplicity of his righteous brother, and almost upbraids the Lord with the little care that He seems to take of His Own.
But Abel's blood had a voice, for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints", and "He makes inquisition for blood" (Genesis 4:10; Psalms 116:15; 8:12). Abel is the first of that noble army of martyrs, "whose righteous blood" would come on the people that rejected the Lord's first Coming (Matthew 23:35), and the spiritual serpent seed, who have rejected Him since, and are today crucifying Him afresh unto themselves and the world (Revelation 5:9-10; 17:6; 18:24). Cain, on the other hand, is doomed to be a castaway, as are all his seed and those of Adam's race without the faith of Abel.
Cain was so apprehensive of that doom he cried, "It shall come to pass, that every one that finds me shall slay me." So God set a mark on him, (and every religionist has it), and stated "whosoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken sevenfold". But for this express prohibition, the murderer's fear would infallibly and justly, have been realized. The murderer, Lamech, in a subsequent generation, imitating Cain's example, gloried in his impunity (Genesis 5:24); and soon the earth was filled with violence. As we read and daily witness, the days of the Coming of the Son of man resemble these days immediately before the flood (Matthew 24:37). The murderer is once again exempt from the punishment of death and the earth is again filled with violence and lawless infidelity as in the age which the flood surprised. So evil will times become in Daniel's Seventieth Week, that the church will slay the scanty remnant of the woman's seed (foolish virgin), and those which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, the 144,000 elect Israelites (Revelation 12:17; 6:11; 14:12-20; 17:6; 18:24).
One cannot 'give' faith, only 'receive' It. God is the only One Who can 'give' faith. As a Christian brother and minister of God I will share but cannot 'give' my faith to another. God alone is the Giver of faith and every good gift. If we sincerely desire faith in His revealed Word above our necessary meat, we will approach the written Word with prayerful reverence, always prepared to be found wrong, knowing assuredly the whole Bible is inspired and without contradiction.
In summary we have seen Eve was beguiled by the Serpent, then introduced her husband to the mystery of procreation, and was in Genesis 3 already mother of all that is living, bearing in her womb the seed of the Serpent and the seed of Adam. What doctors call 'a case of superfetation'.
God's law of reproduction requires every seed bring forth of its 'own' kind, so there can be no change in specie. God's plan was for man and woman to reproduce life through the marriage union, but from the first conception, the fruit of sexual union has been DEATH and not life. Clearly, the Word of His commandment of Genesis 1;28 which was ordained unto life (John 6:63), was from the beginning perverted to something which was no longer His Word. It was altered as the denominations have added to and diminished His Word to write creeds, becoming anti-Word and antichrist and no longer His Word, and ordained to DEATH (Revelation 22:18-19).
A link between sin, sexual conception and death is evident from the Fall as man is "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity." "What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble," and "the wages of sin is death" (Psalms 51:5; Job 15:14; 14:1; Romans 6:23).
Without faith, or a revelation of what took place in the garden of Eden, causing the downfall and degradation of the human race, it must seem indeed strange that birth by woman, which was ordained to bring life, should bring death, whilst birth by the Man, the Word, brings Eternal Life. Clearly our natural birth is NOT by the Word and NOT fulfilling Genesis 1:28 as God intended, but is after SIN. You surely see that SIN was associated with birth from Eve's FIRST conception -- Cain -- because it resulted in DEATH, not life, bringing God's curse upon the Serpent, his seed born of woman, and upon the earth (Genesis 3:14-20; I Timothy 2:14-15; I John 3:12). The curse will remain upon the earth until it is regenerated, the serpent will be eternally on his belly, but the serpent seed is anathema and will be utterly destroyed.
If God opens our eyes of understanding we will surely see that Satan used the serpent as his agent of temptation -- before God changed his form and placed him on his belly. And it was not an apple which caused the Fall or that made the first couple, who had been naked and not ashamed, aware of sexual differences and the purpose of their reproductive organs, feel so shameful that they covered their genitals from one another and from God.
Finally, if Christ was the prophetic seed of the woman born without sex, Cain was the seed of the woman born without human male instrumentality. God put enmity between the sons of Adam and the descendants of Cain, and that enmity is STILL there.
The Cainite race is summed-up in six generations with no indication of worship of the one true God, but a devotion to earthly things apart from God, by the natural ingenuity characterized by the race. When this race intermarried with the sons of Adam, God destroyed the world by the flood. After the Flood they spread throughout the world and God told Moses when he encountered them in the Promised Land, he should annihilate them all down to the babe in arms. Their end is perdition.
By contrast, Adam's lineage is summed-up in seven generations, and in the birth of Seth's son came a revival of prayers and true worship whereby the sons of God were separated from the sons of Cain, and called themselves by His Name. Jesus Christ was born of Adam's race to be the KINSMAN Redeemer for Adam's race, whose end is glory.
This enmity also exists between the spiritual serpent seed, or church carnal, and the Seed of the second Adam, God's elect, for the son of the bondswoman always persecuted the son of the free. But the son of the bondswoman is cast into outer darkness. The Dragon (or spiritual serpent) seed manifest as Rome and her harlot daughters, will seek to destroy the True Seed of the Woman, but Christ will translate His Bride. Satan's church will persecute and martyr the remnant of Her seed and they who keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, then Christ will cast the natural and spiritual serpent seed into a Lake of Fire.