30.7.06
Adam Raised A Cain...
Life outside the Garden, to me, means our life "down here", cut off from the presence of God... for now. The curse was that humans would strive with difficulties. God never cursed the first couple with their becoming mortal. Other writings in the Old and in the New Testament read that we are mortal because of the original sin, but Genesis has nothing to claim about this idea.
I think that life outside the Garden meant that humans were cut off from the presence of God: Some sort of spiritual death. I always thought that Adam and Eve could never see God after this, but I am not so sure now. Did God come visit them? He sure spoke with Cain, their son.
God had blessed the couple, back in the Garden, and had given them the commandment to pro-create. So they did. Eve exulted after she gave birth to her first-born son: Cain. God had given her the power of pro-creation. And she had eaten of the fruit of Knowledge, so it looks like she knew what she was on Earth for. We sometimes don't.
Eve gave birth to Abel. Cain means: "to create, to beget" and Abel means: "breath". He was not going to last... Yep, the first murder was about to take place...
We are not told how old the two brothers were when they gave their offering to God. The text just says that Cain the farmer gave "a gift of his farm products"; Abel the shepherd gave "several choice lambs from the best of his flock". God accepted Abel's offering; He did not accept Cain's.
It's been told that Cain did not give the choice part. In Hebrews 11:4, we read that the faith of Abel was stronger than Cain's, so God accepted Abel's offering. Genesis gives no reason.
Something else that is not explained: Who -God? Adam and Eve?- told Abel and Cain to give offerings, and what and how to offer. This might be because this episode comes from different traditions, put together in the Book of Genesis.
The passage tells us that Cain started to hate his brother. God knew the feelings of Cain's heart and told him to beware: If Cain let sin build a nest in his thoughts, it would get stronger and stronger and will end up having power over him. "Watch out" said God. "Sin is at the door. Its intent is directed toward you, but you are to master it".
Yes, Satan is at our door, willing to get in. He wants to pervert our souls and claim them for himself. This is what this passage tells me. Genesis just reads: "sin", not "Satan". What God meant is not so clear to us, but I think this is the idea behind it.
We can overcome Satan. What we can't do, is use the excuse of Satan to explain our failings, our gross errors and our own wickedness. We are sometimes cruel, we sometimes hurt and some of us rob or kill. We cannot blame God for what happens to us. We cannot blame Satan for what we do to others. We are our own person. God gave us free agency, with the privilege and the responsibility this gift brings. We have the knowledge, we have our free-will, we have God with us. And Satan only has the power we let him have!
Genesis reads that Cain was "angry" -although the translation should have read: "distressed"- and premedited murder. He asked his brother Abel to come with him to a quiet place - the unfrequented country rendered as "the fields". There Cain attacked his brother. And he killed him.
Yes, bad things happen to good people, and God lets bad people have their way. This is nothing new, this is in the first book of the Bible! Those who claim that if there was a God nothing bad would ever happen, should crack up a Bible before babbling such non-sense! We should know that God does avenge the righteous, in his own time...
"Where's your brother?" asked God. Because the Earth had "drunk" Abel's blood, God let it curse Cain: The murderer would never harvest again. He was to become a wanderer on the Earth all his life. Cain thought the punishment to be too severe: He would get killed! God then put a mark on him: If anyone killed Cain, he would be avenged. Some in the past have said that this mark was "red hair" or a "dark skin". How vile it is to make people with a different hair or skin colour the sons of perdition through Cain! Genesis does not reveal what the mark is! Just that blood vengeance has never been tolerated and that God punishes and avenges, but his mercy really never fails!
As for the first man and his wife, we are not told about their reaction or their grief. The first person who was ever born on this planet became a murderer! I wonder if they felt some guilt about their fallen nature begetting sinful children... The Book just reads that Eve gave birth to another male, Seth, which means: "granted", since God granted "another son in place of Abel". Because despite ordeals and personal tragedies, life goes on... This is what life is all about...
I think that life outside the Garden meant that humans were cut off from the presence of God: Some sort of spiritual death. I always thought that Adam and Eve could never see God after this, but I am not so sure now. Did God come visit them? He sure spoke with Cain, their son.
God had blessed the couple, back in the Garden, and had given them the commandment to pro-create. So they did. Eve exulted after she gave birth to her first-born son: Cain. God had given her the power of pro-creation. And she had eaten of the fruit of Knowledge, so it looks like she knew what she was on Earth for. We sometimes don't.
Eve gave birth to Abel. Cain means: "to create, to beget" and Abel means: "breath". He was not going to last... Yep, the first murder was about to take place...We are not told how old the two brothers were when they gave their offering to God. The text just says that Cain the farmer gave "a gift of his farm products"; Abel the shepherd gave "several choice lambs from the best of his flock". God accepted Abel's offering; He did not accept Cain's.
It's been told that Cain did not give the choice part. In Hebrews 11:4, we read that the faith of Abel was stronger than Cain's, so God accepted Abel's offering. Genesis gives no reason.
Something else that is not explained: Who -God? Adam and Eve?- told Abel and Cain to give offerings, and what and how to offer. This might be because this episode comes from different traditions, put together in the Book of Genesis.
The passage tells us that Cain started to hate his brother. God knew the feelings of Cain's heart and told him to beware: If Cain let sin build a nest in his thoughts, it would get stronger and stronger and will end up having power over him. "Watch out" said God. "Sin is at the door. Its intent is directed toward you, but you are to master it".
Yes, Satan is at our door, willing to get in. He wants to pervert our souls and claim them for himself. This is what this passage tells me. Genesis just reads: "sin", not "Satan". What God meant is not so clear to us, but I think this is the idea behind it.
We can overcome Satan. What we can't do, is use the excuse of Satan to explain our failings, our gross errors and our own wickedness. We are sometimes cruel, we sometimes hurt and some of us rob or kill. We cannot blame God for what happens to us. We cannot blame Satan for what we do to others. We are our own person. God gave us free agency, with the privilege and the responsibility this gift brings. We have the knowledge, we have our free-will, we have God with us. And Satan only has the power we let him have!
Genesis reads that Cain was "angry" -although the translation should have read: "distressed"- and premedited murder. He asked his brother Abel to come with him to a quiet place - the unfrequented country rendered as "the fields". There Cain attacked his brother. And he killed him.
Yes, bad things happen to good people, and God lets bad people have their way. This is nothing new, this is in the first book of the Bible! Those who claim that if there was a God nothing bad would ever happen, should crack up a Bible before babbling such non-sense! We should know that God does avenge the righteous, in his own time...
"Where's your brother?" asked God. Because the Earth had "drunk" Abel's blood, God let it curse Cain: The murderer would never harvest again. He was to become a wanderer on the Earth all his life. Cain thought the punishment to be too severe: He would get killed! God then put a mark on him: If anyone killed Cain, he would be avenged. Some in the past have said that this mark was "red hair" or a "dark skin". How vile it is to make people with a different hair or skin colour the sons of perdition through Cain! Genesis does not reveal what the mark is! Just that blood vengeance has never been tolerated and that God punishes and avenges, but his mercy really never fails!
As for the first man and his wife, we are not told about their reaction or their grief. The first person who was ever born on this planet became a murderer! I wonder if they felt some guilt about their fallen nature begetting sinful children... The Book just reads that Eve gave birth to another male, Seth, which means: "granted", since God granted "another son in place of Abel". Because despite ordeals and personal tragedies, life goes on... This is what life is all about...
What Is God Doing?
Liberal Jesus is a blog that I often read. Its last entry to date is beautifully thought and written. There are times when you read something regarding God and it just clicks! It's like after fumbling towards the light switch in the dark for a while, someone turns on the light for you and you thnak them with a big grin on your face. That's what I did when I read this post. Read it here or find below the condensed version I want to discuss:
I see God as watching over us from the distance. Like a parent on the other inside of the room keeps an eye on you, but who won't stop you from playing with the matches you hid, or just trip over something.
Despite all the contemplative poetry-scripture, we read about a God who did not, or could not, prevent the first man born on this earth to murder his own brother! What let this happen?
Maybe God wants us to rule ourselves, and be as independent and autonomous as we can, so we may develop our faith, gain knowledge and wisdom, get to understand our purpose on earth and the plan of our Creator. Yes, people start wars, rob and kill. Tsunamis and earthquakes ravage the earth. This is how it goes, because of our free agency and because the earth is not perfect - anymore?
I think we can say God is responsible for all this, if we imagine him being overlooking all that from the distance, not willing to prevent anything, for it would break the rules.
On the other hand, people may have a faith so strong that they can get through it all. When Jesus gave vision to the blind and performed all his miracles, he never said: "I healed you", or "God healed you". He asked: "Have you got enough faith?" And if they did, he would perform a quick ritual and tell them it was their own faith that healed them. It was not God intervening through Jesus, it was the person's own ability to touch the divine.
Growing up in total independence and autonomy is what we're here for I believe.
"[...] It seems that the only thing to say is that God does not act. That if God is present, God simply allows the world to continue ticking away, and doesn't interfere.It is true that the Bible says that God watches over us, and I think we should put these expressions back into their context, like Liberal Jesus invites us to.
"But there's a problem with this conclusion: faith traditions all over the world contradict it. The Bible paints a picture of a God who is intimately involved with the world, and who frequently acts on it. The good guys get rescued from fiery funaces and lion's dens ... the bad guys get zapped with plagues or swallowed up by the earth.
"So how do we reconcile the Biblical narrative with our own experience? [...]
"In fact, the entire Bible was written by people, and for people, who had no recourse but to explain natural phenomena using supernatural language. Consequently, the lens that we use to read "God makes the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous" is the same lens we should use to read about God killing Aninias and Sapphira. The lens that we use to read "the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well" is the same lens we should use to read "the wind blows where it pleases".
"Does this mean that we have to dismiss all the miracle stories in the Bible as fables written for a premodern audience? Not necessarily. Premodern people would be perfectly justified in using supernatural language to describe supernatural events, and any good empiricist will admit that it's notoriously hard to prove that something never happens.
"But it does mean that we should be reluctant to accept at face value passages that attribute action to God. Although they may be theologically helpful for a premodern reader, they may be theologically destructive for a modern reader. Some of us are simply incapable of believing in a God who heals the illnesses of middle-class Americans, but fails to prevent earthquakes that slaughter thousands of Kashmiris [...]"
I see God as watching over us from the distance. Like a parent on the other inside of the room keeps an eye on you, but who won't stop you from playing with the matches you hid, or just trip over something.
Despite all the contemplative poetry-scripture, we read about a God who did not, or could not, prevent the first man born on this earth to murder his own brother! What let this happen?
Maybe God wants us to rule ourselves, and be as independent and autonomous as we can, so we may develop our faith, gain knowledge and wisdom, get to understand our purpose on earth and the plan of our Creator. Yes, people start wars, rob and kill. Tsunamis and earthquakes ravage the earth. This is how it goes, because of our free agency and because the earth is not perfect - anymore?
I think we can say God is responsible for all this, if we imagine him being overlooking all that from the distance, not willing to prevent anything, for it would break the rules.
On the other hand, people may have a faith so strong that they can get through it all. When Jesus gave vision to the blind and performed all his miracles, he never said: "I healed you", or "God healed you". He asked: "Have you got enough faith?" And if they did, he would perform a quick ritual and tell them it was their own faith that healed them. It was not God intervening through Jesus, it was the person's own ability to touch the divine.
Growing up in total independence and autonomy is what we're here for I believe.
The Comic Book
A friend sent me a link thinking I'd be interested in The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters. It's a well-done site full of information. It's incredible all that is available on the net! If you are not into comics, just take a look at their essentials page here.
