No doubt there are truly diabolical persons in this world. At the same time that we are forced to make that admission we are also forced to admit that none of us can see into anothers heart and thereby know with certainty that they are; not even their actions are proof positive! That being the case, a true worshipper of the God of the Bible should carefully avoid the usual human tendency of assigning motives (improper judging) which, all to often, is closely followed by thinking, then loudly declaring and finally acting upon: The only good Indian is a dead Indian. Especially we should avoid that usual human tendency after we consider Gods clearly demonstrated willingness to use the most unlikely of persons, from a human standpoint, Saul of Tarsus.
You may remember that even though Saul had close relatives that had for a time been members of a new religion, Saul chose to become a persecutor, no, even more than that, he chose to become an accomplice to the brutal murder of and also to become directly involved in abducting, wrongfully imprisoning and even torturing members of his relatives new religion, viz. the religion later known as Christian. No doubt if Saul from Tarsus were around today he would be referred to as a religious extremist and terrorist.
Now if you will, please carefully consider for a moment this possible scenario: Had the inclination been there, it would have been quite possible for those early Christians to have come to know that Saul, still breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest (2) and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, in order that he might bring bound to Jerusalem any whom he found who belonged to The Way [as it was then called], both men and women (Acts 9:1-2), and knowing that Saul was going to be on that road to Damascus they could have arranged for an ambush. Today, given that set of facts and those circumstances, that is exactly what one would expect to happen and what most Christians would enthusiastically advocate, well perhaps not an ambush but at least a Predator UAV drone equipped with a Hellfire missile or a couple of well aimed 500 lb. bombs. Is that also what you would advise?
But is that how the God of love and free will or choice and his son, Jesus, handled the matter? No, not at all! If those early followers of Jesus, later called Christians, had thought and acted like the vast majority of professed Christians think and act nowadays we would be missing a great deal of the Bible for Saul from Tarsus later became Paul, the apostle who wrote several books of the Bible. Even though Sauls actions seemed to be diabolical there must have been something in Sauls heart, not shown by his actions and thus unrecognized by his human victims, that caused Jesus to make himself visible to Paul as he set Paul straight. Unfortunately, even though recorded in the Bible for more than 2000 years now, the lessons taught in that situation are lost on the majority of people, of all religions, who seem bound and determined to go on repeating the mistakes of Adam, Eve and Cain while, no doubt, operating under the same influence. Please read and compare Genesis 3:1-4:16, Luke 4:6, John 8:42-47, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Timothy 2:14, 1 John 3:11-12 and Revelation 12:9 as the following comments are based the words and lessons found therein.
If you have read and compared the above-cited verses you should be able to answer: What had Cain done that warranted a warning from God? Can you tell me? Let me give you some help.
The Bible does not provide in-depth details but it does tell us just enough to make it plain that Cain was not doing right. We know that because Genesis 4:7, NIVR, says: Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must suppress it. Cain had fallen into false worship by doing what was pleasing to himself rather than doing what was pleasing to God. Read it again and you will see that the problem involved what Cain did in his worship.
We do know God made Cain understand that what he was doing was wrong and that what Abel was doing was right. And we know of Cains reaction to that message from God, he got very mad and upset about it. Now one would think that after it had been made clear to him that he was displeasing God that Cain would have responded in a positive way and would have made a change for the better, but not so.
In-depth details of Cains thinking are not provided but we do have a record of Gods continued efforts to reach out to and to help Cain preserved for our benefit. As we consider what God said to Cain as he tried to warn him we come to the realization that instead of contemplating how to do the right and good thing and how to obey and conform to what would please God and warrant His favor, even His praise, Cain has become even more rebellious and increasingly angry and upset with Abel who was guilty of nothing more than faithfully doing what he was supposed to do. Cain chooses to follow in his parents footsteps by thinking he can ignore God instructions and commands and can do as he pleases and still have Gods favor.
It seems to have been the action of making the offering that brought the issue to a head or at least the occasion of the offering was the opportunity seized upon by God to reveal his acceptance of the one and disapproval of the other. Again there are just enough details provided for us to understand the definite and identifiable attitude, actions and worship of Cain that result in Gods displeasure. One thing is certain Cains choice to ignore Gods repeated efforts to help at the very least reveal a bad heart. So from the very beginning we find clearly distinguishable patterns of thinking followed by actions which differentiate worshippers who are pleasing to God from those who are not. That brings up these questions: Are their any issues and standards we can use today as legitimate indicators, as identifying marks, of whether a home church group or a Mega-church or a denomination whether small or large is pleasing to God and not just pleasing to its members? Is there acceptable and unacceptable worship, especially as it applies to groups and organizations, that is as clearly identifiable today as it was between Cain and Abel? Is it also the case that most worshippers in our day are choosing to ignore Gods continued help and warnings regarding their unacceptable worship, faulty thinking and bad actions? For example, what difference is there is between what Cain did and the Hellfire missiles and 500 lb bombs mentioned above? What do you say?
.
You may remember that even though Saul had close relatives that had for a time been members of a new religion, Saul chose to become a persecutor, no, even more than that, he chose to become an accomplice to the brutal murder of and also to become directly involved in abducting, wrongfully imprisoning and even torturing members of his relatives new religion, viz. the religion later known as Christian. No doubt if Saul from Tarsus were around today he would be referred to as a religious extremist and terrorist.
Now if you will, please carefully consider for a moment this possible scenario: Had the inclination been there, it would have been quite possible for those early Christians to have come to know that Saul, still breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest (2) and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, in order that he might bring bound to Jerusalem any whom he found who belonged to The Way [as it was then called], both men and women (Acts 9:1-2), and knowing that Saul was going to be on that road to Damascus they could have arranged for an ambush. Today, given that set of facts and those circumstances, that is exactly what one would expect to happen and what most Christians would enthusiastically advocate, well perhaps not an ambush but at least a Predator UAV drone equipped with a Hellfire missile or a couple of well aimed 500 lb. bombs. Is that also what you would advise?
But is that how the God of love and free will or choice and his son, Jesus, handled the matter? No, not at all! If those early followers of Jesus, later called Christians, had thought and acted like the vast majority of professed Christians think and act nowadays we would be missing a great deal of the Bible for Saul from Tarsus later became Paul, the apostle who wrote several books of the Bible. Even though Sauls actions seemed to be diabolical there must have been something in Sauls heart, not shown by his actions and thus unrecognized by his human victims, that caused Jesus to make himself visible to Paul as he set Paul straight. Unfortunately, even though recorded in the Bible for more than 2000 years now, the lessons taught in that situation are lost on the majority of people, of all religions, who seem bound and determined to go on repeating the mistakes of Adam, Eve and Cain while, no doubt, operating under the same influence. Please read and compare Genesis 3:1-4:16, Luke 4:6, John 8:42-47, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Timothy 2:14, 1 John 3:11-12 and Revelation 12:9 as the following comments are based the words and lessons found therein.
If you have read and compared the above-cited verses you should be able to answer: What had Cain done that warranted a warning from God? Can you tell me? Let me give you some help.
The Bible does not provide in-depth details but it does tell us just enough to make it plain that Cain was not doing right. We know that because Genesis 4:7, NIVR, says: Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must suppress it. Cain had fallen into false worship by doing what was pleasing to himself rather than doing what was pleasing to God. Read it again and you will see that the problem involved what Cain did in his worship.
We do know God made Cain understand that what he was doing was wrong and that what Abel was doing was right. And we know of Cains reaction to that message from God, he got very mad and upset about it. Now one would think that after it had been made clear to him that he was displeasing God that Cain would have responded in a positive way and would have made a change for the better, but not so.
In-depth details of Cains thinking are not provided but we do have a record of Gods continued efforts to reach out to and to help Cain preserved for our benefit. As we consider what God said to Cain as he tried to warn him we come to the realization that instead of contemplating how to do the right and good thing and how to obey and conform to what would please God and warrant His favor, even His praise, Cain has become even more rebellious and increasingly angry and upset with Abel who was guilty of nothing more than faithfully doing what he was supposed to do. Cain chooses to follow in his parents footsteps by thinking he can ignore God instructions and commands and can do as he pleases and still have Gods favor.
It seems to have been the action of making the offering that brought the issue to a head or at least the occasion of the offering was the opportunity seized upon by God to reveal his acceptance of the one and disapproval of the other. Again there are just enough details provided for us to understand the definite and identifiable attitude, actions and worship of Cain that result in Gods displeasure. One thing is certain Cains choice to ignore Gods repeated efforts to help at the very least reveal a bad heart. So from the very beginning we find clearly distinguishable patterns of thinking followed by actions which differentiate worshippers who are pleasing to God from those who are not. That brings up these questions: Are their any issues and standards we can use today as legitimate indicators, as identifying marks, of whether a home church group or a Mega-church or a denomination whether small or large is pleasing to God and not just pleasing to its members? Is there acceptable and unacceptable worship, especially as it applies to groups and organizations, that is as clearly identifiable today as it was between Cain and Abel? Is it also the case that most worshippers in our day are choosing to ignore Gods continued help and warnings regarding their unacceptable worship, faulty thinking and bad actions? For example, what difference is there is between what Cain did and the Hellfire missiles and 500 lb bombs mentioned above? What do you say?
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