If you (Cain) do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, the Sinful One is crouching at the portal and desires to have you: you must master him (Gen4:7 from Masoretic text)
I made the point at the start of the previous chapter that the Bible does not set out God’s plans for His whole creation but concerns His redemptive strategy for humanity and the key players within that plan: Himself, His Son and Spirit, Israel and the Church. Believe it or not the devil has a role too or else he would have been destroyed or shut away long since, for God is sovereign. Satan has no autonomous right to continue existing, let alone exercise any authority in the world, and yet He does so at God’s behest. It has been made clear to me why that is the case and it is explained in more detail in the final chapter. We can learn very little about either the angelic or satanic realm from Scripture; indeed, even God’s plans for men and women outside Israel and the Church have been obscured, hence (I believe) such a disclosure at this time. In terms of the realm of evil and the numerous legends pertaining to it, this brief chapter will only consider those aspects which are at least alluded to in Scripture, and with a specific aim in mind: to complete the jigsaw regarding the eluded Universal Covenant of life; in this case considering those who default from it.
We reviewed the above verse from Genesis in chapter two in the context of that covenant. Because it has been eluded by the churches, so too have been its defaulters; they have been lumped together with the “unsaved”, being those outside the New and Old Testament’s Covenants of Promise. In terms of the Church and its mission that has not essentially mattered for she is to preach the Good News of Jesus as Lord and Saviour, practice justice and offer compassion to all in the world, regardless of how deserving or otherwise the recipients may be. The sun has shone on the righteous and ungodly and so has the gospel along with the blessings that have flowed and sometimes ebbed from the Church to the world. The churches have generally understood there to be one covenant for each testament period and an exclusive one at that. We have hopefully already indicated why such a concept should be repudiated, firstly by the reality of Abel and others declared righteous before the Abrahamic Covenant was established; still more so by the story of Ishmael. He had been circumcised, blessed by God and by his father Abraham, sent on his way in peace yet he was excluded from the covenant initiated through his father, for the seed of his union with Sarah were to be the children of promise, and such is the Church in the current dispensation (Gal4:28). Yet through Abraham, all nations were to be blessed, and that included the twelve that would spring from the seed of his son Ishmael, yet not necessarily through incorporation into an exclusive covenant as we have been at pains to point out. So now we need to consider how the other eluded grouping (defaulters from the Universal Covenant) may be identified, not necessarily by us, for Christians are not to attempt to make any such distinctions in their witnessing or charity, but by God, their Judge and ultimate Avenger. Along with the powerful spirit that becomes their adoptive master these defaulters from the Universal Covenant play a mysterious role in God’s strategic plan to raise up the children of Adam, ultimately to divinity.
Whilst we are to make no distinctions, the fault-line between those outside the Church who have been “planted by God” and those who are satanic (ek tou diabolou) is more pronounced than that between those of God’s seed who are being saved through the gospel and those who are not currently “in Christ”. This is clearly reflected in their behaviour when one knows what to look for, and to a still greater degree in their future destiny, as far ahead as Scripture permits us to discern it. As with other aspects of natural law, these mysteries concerning the broader scheme of things have lain almost imperceptibly beneath the pages of Scripture, yet references are made there to this grouping, but as already indicated they have been understood by most to be referring to non-Christians:
This is what distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil; whoever does not live uprightly and does not love his brother is not from God… Do not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother (1Jn3:10,12 New Jerusalem Bible)
Let us love one another since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever fails to love does not know God because God is love (1Jn4:7,8 New Jerusalem Bible)
Those who can “love” but do not possess “agape”
It is necessary in this context to distinguish between agape and other forms of love, for those of the devil’s party can exhibit the one but not the other. Those devoid of agape may love in a romantic way and to form friendships but it will always revolve around themselves. They may show fondness towards an individual, but it will always be on the basis that if that person were removed from their life, their happiness would be diminished. That is an entirely valid emotion that a saint would share, but it isn’t agape. For agape is ek tou theou (1Jn4:7) so a child of the devil will not possess it. Augustine was entirely logical in his insistence that only a Christian can truly exercise compassion or genuinely care for another human being; if there were only two categories and every non-Christian were a child of the devil as he believed, such would be the case; but it is neither the observable reality, nor is it scriptural. Most Old Testament Gentiles and present day non-Christians are assuredly not satanic or evil (ek tou ponerou) but they do inhabit the sphere of darkness still controlled by that prince and are yet to be delivered from it (Col1:13 cf. Greek). Most evidently possess agape which pertains to compassion and empathy; an internal urge to show kindness to a fellow human being which extends to any living creature in need, regardless of whether there is any benefit to the benefactor. Its impetus arises from the motions of the spirit (inner man); the response is the essence of being human and the justifying marker for the Covenant of life. Agape is the love of God (in the sense of a genitive of origin), imparted to the human spirit, being a key part of His blueprint for humanity. It operates through natural precepts - the workings of the conscience that Satan’s assignees no longer reference or indeed retain (1Tim4:2).
Retaining God’s image: retaining the seed
John also tells us that:
Whoever is born of God does not (habitually practice) sin for his seed remains in him; and he cannot (habitually practice) sin because he has been born of God (1Jn3:9 from Greek)
Note his seed has remained; it is not referring to something that is either accredited or infused through spiritual regeneration but to that which has been present there since birth:
“That the working of the Father and the Son operates both in saints and sinners is manifest from this, that all who are rational beings are partakers of the Word, i.e. of reason, and by this means bear certain seeds implanted within them of wisdom and justice, which is Christ” [Origen]1
This third century theologian believed that St Paul was confirming as much in the passage where he writes “Say not in in thine heart, who shall ascend into Heaven (to bring Christ down from above) or who shall ascend into the deep (to bring Christ up from the dead). But what sayeth Scripture? The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart” (Rom10:6-8), by which, Origen believed, “he means that Christ is in the heart of all in respect of his being the Word or reason.”2 Referring back to John’s verse, the apostle well knew that even the children of God commit sin but he is saying is that those in whom God’s seed remains do not consistently practice it. That is because they are restrained by God’s implanted law in their heart (cf. Rom2:15) which is evident from the subsequent verse. Those who are of God maintain sound reason and exercise restraint; they do not consistently practice unrighteousness; the children of the devil do (it is or rather has become all they know), and they also fail to love (1Jn3:10). When one who is of God sins grievously, he hurts others but also grieves himself. Unless he is a masochist he will not consistently practice such wickedness, or if he does he will be thoroughly miserable. When a child of the devil causes hurt by his actions or his deception, he is simply being himself and feels quite content or even exhilarated; he will gleefully boast of his exploits in the courtroom when hopefully he is apprehended. This positive delight in evil practice is what motivates serial killers to offend repeatedly; it is within the nature of godlessness. Frequent reference is made in the Bible’s Wisdom literature to those who effectively go in the way of Cain by “leaving the paths of uprightness to walk in the way of darkness (Prov2:13 Masoretic Text) as opposed to those who continue to “walk in the way of good men and who keep the paths of the righteous” (v20); for according to Solomon (or whoever) the day shall come when “the upright shall dwell on the Earth and those who are perfected will have pre-eminence in it whereas the wicked shall be cut off from the Earth and the treacherous ones rooted out of it” (vv21,22). Of course, if all had been born in a state of depravity none would be in a position to “leave the paths of righteousness” for they could never have been on them in the first place. The reason they leave is because they no longer are in any way directed by the precepts God provides to those who are made in His own image. In a sense these people cease to be fully human for a reflection of God’s image is what defines the human being from other creatures. Those who are heading for perdition are not those who have failed to apprehend the grace and healing of Christ as it is offered through the gospel, for contrary to the teaching of Arminius and the wishful thinking of many modern-day Christians, man has no innate ability to respond to the grace of Christ (Jn6:44; Rom8:29,30). The “damned” are rather those who irrevocably reject the Word’s interior witness, in other words not those who have failed to come but those who have departed. Unlike agnostics and those of other faiths rejecting the gospel, they are without excuse for all have such an enlightening deposit in their nature, at least to start with, so those who turn their back on it, evidenced by the misery, despair and often destruction such people cause to their fellows, will be afflicted with appropriately severe punishment after their death. This will be seen to be right and just to those who do possess sound reason, as it was to most of the earliest Fathers who commented on the matter3.
The evil of ensnarement
The Greek verb used by John for “sinning” is hamarto - literally missing the mark, for evil always pertains to what is lacking or missing. It can be translated sin or transgress or offend as it is in Acts25:8 though skandalizo is more often used to denote offending. Skandalizo, meaning to offend, ensnare or cause to stumble, is generally a stronger verb than harmato. Similarly with the noun scandalon:
Woe to the world because of offences (skandalon) for offences must come, but woe to that man by whom those offences come (Mat18:7)
This statement followed Jesus’s earlier warning concerning those who offend children, or alternatively cause them to sin. It is instructive to observe how firstly, the King James Version and then the New King James Version handle the translation:
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea (Mat18:6 King James Version)
Whereas the New King James Version takes Jesus to mean something rather different:
Whoever causes any one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it were better …etc (New King James Version)
The King James Version is envisaging child abuse whilst according to the NJKV it is the children who will be ensnared into sin. This is an example of the problems faced when translating from the Greek, where a word may have a wide semantic range or as in this case the word order is ambiguous. Neither translation is “wrong” whereas obviously Jesus (or Matthew) will have intended one rather than the other. What both interpretations agree about is that whilst sinning is bad and none can avoid it completely, encouraging others to sin is radically worse, positively wicked in fact. It is a key characteristic of the children of the devil. Their father set the trend back in the Garden of Eden. It was his act of ensnarement toward our first parents that resulted in the Fall. God’s seed is said to remain in those who are “of God” (1Jn3:9) referring to the fact that His divine image has been retained within the spirit. That image cannot so much be referring to our invisible Creator’s form as His moral nature and nobility.
God fulfils his wondrous purposes for the ultimate deification4 of frail children of dust by permitting certain souls to succumb to the control of the devil. The Cain and Abel story is again important in identifying the instrumentality of human free will within that process, in which the elder brother chose a course of evil so as to be later classified in Scripture as “ek tou ponerou”: derived from the Evil One (1Jn3:12).
The children of the devil are variously described in Scripture as:
i) Twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude12)
ii) Having names missing from the Book of Life (e.g. Rev20:15)
iii) Devoured by Satan (1Pet5:8, cf. Gen4:7)
iv) Having forfeited their soul (Mat16:26)
v) Having gone in the way of Cain (Jude11) (cf. 1Jn3:12) or departed from the path of righteousness (just considered)
vi) “Goats” – humans devoid of compassion (Mt25)
vii) Not having retained God’s seed or image (1Jn3:9)
viii) Those who destroy the Earth – the ones to be destroyed at final judgement (Rev11:18)
ix) Those who cause or encourage others to sin: the ensnarers (just considered)
x) Having had their conscience seared (i.e. withered away) (1Tim4:2)
xi) Devoid of truth (cf. Jn8:44)
xii) Belonging to Satan (Jn8:44)
xiii) Planted by Satan (Mt13:39; 15:13)
xiv) Messengers or agents (not “angels”) of Satan (Mt25:41)
xv) The desolate ones (Dan9:27)
xvi) The servants of Satan (2Cor11:15)
Cain as a type
Adam and Eve were the progenitors of fallen humanity (1Cor15:22). Their disobedience put a temporary end to the prospect of eternal life for all humanity, although the apostle Paul doesn’t place a great deal of weight on Adam’s sin (1Tim2:14). Nevertheless, he says that -
As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men (Rom5:18 New American Standard Bible)
Adam is the type and federal head of fallen humanity that lives under the reign of death. Cain who was in a literal sense the firstborn of fallen creation can be regarded as the type of individual reprobates, being those who become rejected by themselves rejecting the interior witness of Christ in their “hearts”. In his short epistle, Jude warns against false teachers who would come into the Church, whom he describes as deluded, defiled, disregarders of authority and blasphemers of the glories, both barren and uprooted so “twice dead” (v12). He adds:
Woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain (Jude v11a New King James Version)
Cain was a murderer, not a false teacher, yet he is referred to in type: the human first-plant and the first man to be cursed by God and given over to the devil who according to the Genesis account he was potentially capable of mastering (Gen4:7). Scripture affirms Cain to be wicked, satanic and the type of those devoid of moral restraint or compassionate love – psychopathic, inhumane and heartless:
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous (1Jn3:11,12 New King James Version)
Cain’s parents had been banished from the Paradise garden and the source of eternal life (Gen3:24). However, they and their offspring were not entirely banished from JHWE’s benign presence (cf. Gen4:1,3,4 and especially Gen4:14,16). They will have continued to worship and bring offerings to God, or else why should Cain and Abel do so (especially Cain)? But after the elder son’s astonishing defiance in rejecting God’s personal plea to him to resist sin (or the Sinful One) crouching at the portal of his soul (Gen4:7 King James Version), after slaughtering his righteous brother a further degree of banishment from God’s presence was established in his case:
My punishment is more than I can bear; surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from your face (Gen4:13,14a New King James Version)
Cain - the first defaulter from the Universal Covenant of life
Those within the Covenant of life are those whose names remain in the Book of life having demonstrated they are “of God” (cf. Rev20:15; Mt15:13). Cain defaulted from this covenant for wilfully defying the God who had pleaded with him and failing to do what he was perfectly capable of doing: maintain his integrity and thereby not permit the Evil One to get the better of him by slaughtering his brother and showing His contempt for His Maker. Having defaulted, he becomes alienated from the rest of humanity (“whoever finds me will kill me”) and also from God altogether (“from TODAY I will be hidden from Your face”). Cain then might also be described as the type of those who become entirely alienated from God (the godless), having rejected and subsequently lost the witness of the divine will for human behaviour reflected in the conscience. Externally such will still be aware of standards of acceptable behaviour and will maintain it to a degree to be accepted in society; so even they do not usually exhibit “absolute depravity”. As for such who operate within the Church to pervert doctrine or bring about schisms, a still higher degree of subtlety and sophistication is required if an agent of Satan is to be transformed into an agent of light (cf. 2Cor11:13-14). To appear the spiritual master, apart from being erudite and voluminous he must incorporate much that is seemingly sound within the poison he is peddling if a sufficient number of the faithful are to be deceived; most likely those with itching ears who ache for an easier path than the arduous Way afforded to those who would be the true disciples of Christ (2Tim4:3). By their character and legacy may such deceitful apostles be discerned but by then it can be too late; the damage has been done and must be repaired.
Satan and his seed to be bruised
Referring back to the proto-evangelium (Gen3:15), Satan and his seed were cursed: their heads will be crushed under the feet of Christ with His Church (Rom16:20). By opting to leave the paths of uprightness (cf. 2Pet2:15) upheld by all who defer to conscience, they opt out of the benefits of the atonement which brings justification of life (Rom5:18); just as those incorporated into Christ through baptism who fall away from the faith deprive themselves of the benefits of the Christian faithful, which is justification and life of an eternal quality.
The twofold praxis of unrighteousness
For here is another mystery: God through His only begotten Son created all things including the human soul, but they were not all planted by Him (cf. Rom9:21,22 & Mt15:13). The precise arrangement has not been elucidated but who was planted by or assigned to whom will be determined by the outcome (whether they are rooted up Mt15:13), but from a human perspective it will have been a matter of free will. Similarly, “the elect” are those who from a human perspective respond to the gospel and persevere in the faith, even if from God’s perspective they are foreknown and were divinely enabled to apprehend Christ. All God’s children sin to a degree and those outside the Church do not have the means to be healed in their souls, made whole, delivered from the corrupting influence of the body or “saved” as the Bible refers to the matter. The twofold praxis of unrighteousness arises from, at the one level the activities of those who remain within the universal Covenant but of course are still inclined to sin, and at the second level to those which default that covenant and practice wickedness in accordance with the will and whims of the spirit who has mastered them and gained a hold over them. “Defaulting covenant” is also referred to in the New Testament as becoming reprobate (adokimoi – disqualified) or being removed from the book of life. No names are ever added to these books, only removed, reflecting the outworking of an inclusive covenant. The non-defaulters being enlightened by natural precepts endeavour to live upright lives for the sake of their own peace of mind and self-respect. Their acts of kindness and civility are therefore not entirely altruistic, nevertheless they are sufficient evidence of “faith”, for faith (and conscience) senses that virtue is rewarded (Heb11:6). They are accepted in the Matthew 25 (final judgement) context, since such people demonstrate the possession of compassionate love (agape) which determines whether they are “of God” and destined to play a part in His Kingdom (Mt25:34).
The counter-Church
The “adokimoi”, being the disqualified or reprobates are the darnel or tares in the parable to be considered shortly, and they seek to poison the minds of others and lead them astray. Unlike “lost sheep”, the “goats” are only ever restrained by external motivations to conform, succeed or be admired; and where these are no longer a concern as in the case of some notorious criminals, by nothing at all. In one sense they are free spirits, oblivious to any obligation to take heed to the law that has universally been engrained in the human heart to guide and restrain. These who go in the “way of Cain” are in effect an inverted image of that other vocational group (ekklesia or Church) called out from the world to go in the “Way of Christ”. Like Christians, the godless are also no longer their own; they are in the ownership and service of another (1Jn3:12); they too are spiritually directed and empowered through the effectual working of their lord (Eph2:2 Greek); they too are no longer one of the lost: the “sheep without a shepherd” upon whom Christ will have compassion (Mt9:36). These are no sheep at all and are not lost for they have found their herdsman or rather he has found them. He had been prowling around seeking whom he may devour (1Pet5:8); he had crouched at the portal of their souls desiring to possess them. It looked promising, and so he had been granted permission to sift them as wheat to see if there be any trace of “faith” left in them (Lk22:31,32). Some will regard such an analysis and the texts to adduce it as obscure and arcane: so be it, for it pertains to the mystery of evil; by far the most intriguing aspect of divine providence required to unlock “to musterion tou theou”.
The elect: planted by God, assigned to Christ
The elect are planted by God and earmarked for Christ, as is indicated in Christ’s high-priestly prayer:
I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of this world. They were Yours – You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word (Jn17:6 New International Version)
Note how our Lord prays: “they were Yours”. Surely everything is God’s, but He means they were of God and not of Satan, like Cain who was of the wicked one (1Jn3:11). The genitive (of Satan) cannot pertain to creation or indeed procreation but to ownership, assignment and party.
The wheat and darnel: inseparable within the gospel age
The two planters of souls are figured in the parable of the wheat and darnel (Mt13:24:30), which has particular relevance to this chapter, as well as providing a broad indicator for the age to come. Whilst it is only a parable, it is helpfully explained by Jesus Himself on this occasion. It will not do to try to restrict it to the Church as Augustine and many others have attempted. Of course, it is analogous to the visible Church and the invisible wheat within her, for those in Christ who bare no fruit will be rejected (Jn15:2), but Jesus explicitly tells us it pertains to the world and everyone in it (Mt13:38). (The parable suited to the Church is Paul’s concerning the “great house” and the vessels of honour and dishonour within it (2Tim2:19-21)). In Jesus’s parable, the wheat represents all men and women who are planted by God in the sense described above. The darnel represents human seed planted by Satan (Mt15:13). Jesus characterises them as distinguishable by their own wickedness and the fact they ensnare others into sin (Mt13:41), just as darnel (tares) can damage and poison the wheat. As the darnel is gathered together and burnt, a similar fate awaits the satanic seed, but not until the end of this age. Keep in mind, we have not been pondering a theory about the meaning of a parable but outlining Jesus’s own explanation. Keeping also in mind God’s undoubted sovereignty and the fact that Christ has already triumphed over these evil powers, their continued presence must be by divine prerogative; likewise, the “planting” or assigning arrangement. Further background information to this mystery is provided by Paul, for the seed planted by Satan equates to the instruments of God’s retribution created for destruction to whom he refers (Rom9:22). In the same chapter, he mentions “instruments of His mercy” which he makes clear (v24) exclusively refer to elect Jews and Christians. It is therefore assumed by many there are two groups whereas in fact there are three. The third are the bulk of humanity who are neither destined to be co-inheritors with Christ, nor the ones “created only to be captured and destroyed” (Rom9:22; 2Pet2:12); the souls who according to Paul have been adjusted or adapted (Greek: katertismina), being foreknown and destined for satanic use to fulfil God’s wondrous purposes, such as having His own Son betrayed and executed for the salvation of mankind and the ultimate defeat of His arch-enemy. This is typified in the example Paul himself provides in Romans nine to explain the purpose of such instruments: the exaltation, hardening of heart and final humiliation of the Egyptian Pharaoh to display JHWE’s power to save and deliver His people from their oppressors (v17). Given that evil is not a substance but a deficiency it cannot