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The Way of Cain
(A Study from the Book of Jude)
Jude 11
Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run
greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in
the rebellion of Korah.
The purpose of this paper is to explain and clarify the first
part of Jude verse 11 and answer the following two questions:
I. What is "the way of Cain"?
II. Who are "they who have gone in the way of Cain" in our
past and present times within Christianity?
PART I.
What is "the way of Cain"?
Genesis 4: 1-7
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,
and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord."
2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel
was a keeper of the sheep, But Cain was a tiller of the
ground.
3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought
an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their
fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering.
5 but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was
very angry and his countenance fell.
6 So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has
your countenance fallen?
7 "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not
do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you,
but you should rule over it."
FACT: ABEL'S OFFERING TO GOD WAS A SACRAFICE OF THE FIRSTBORN OF HIS SHEEP! Question: Where did Abel learn to offer animals as a sacrafice to the Lord God? Answer: From his father, ADAM! Question: Where did Adam learn to offer animals as a sacrafice to the Lord God? Answer: From the LORD GOD! PART 1A. Let's look at the lesson Adam learned before Cain & Abel were born: Adam and Eve sinned and they tried to cover their sin with LEAVES. Genesis 3: 6-7 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened , and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Leaves were/are not sufficient to cover their sin. Next, we see the FIRST blood sacrafice with ADAM's sin. Genesis 3: 21 21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Note #1: LIFE is in the BLOOD..SIN causes DEATH; therefore... there must be a BLOOD COVERING to pay for the consequences of sin...if we want to LIVE. Genesis 9: 3-4 3 "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Romans 6: 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Adam was taught to sacrafice animals by the LORD God the Creator, in the Garden of Eden AFTER Adam sinned. From that point,animal sacrafice was practiced by Adam and passed on to his children. Animal sacrafice is a practice that PRECEEDS Moses and the Levites. We see animal sacrafices originating with Adam, to Abel, to Noah (Genesis 8:20), to Melchizedek (Shem), and to Abraham(Genesis 22:13)! Abraham was sacraficing animals long before his grandson Jacob (Israel) and Abraham's 12 great-grandchildren (later to be the 12 tribes of Israel). Abraham learned about animal blood sacrafices from Melchizedek "the priest of God Most High" (Genesis 14:18),who's old Pre-flood name was SHEM. Shem (Melchizedek) learned this from his father Noah, and then we discover that the practice of animal blood sacrafices originate with Adam in the Garden of Eden! Note #2A: The LORD GOD made tunics of skin for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and thus made the FIRST ANIMAL BLOOD SACRAFICE. The LORD GOD is the same LORD GOD as OUR LORD JESUS the CHRIST who came to us in a tent of flesh 2,000 some years ago. JESUS CHRIST IS the same LORD GOD who talked to Adam and clothed Adam and Eve with tunics of skin from the first blood sacrafice in the Garden of Eden. JESUS (YESHUA) made the first blood sacrafice in the Garden of Eden and WAS THE LAST BLOOD SACRAFICE! Our LORD GOD, who lived in a tent of flesh 2,000 years ago, had the name of JESUS which is the Greek translation for the HEBREW word YESHUA. Yeshua in Hebrew means: YAHWEH IS SALVATION. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HIS FATHER ARE ONE!!! WE WILL WRITE ABOUT THIS TOPIC LATER, BUT TO QUICKLY SUMMARIZE THIS MOST HOLY TOPIC, LET US QUOTE PAUL WHO WROTE A WONDERFUL STATEMENT ABOUT THIS: Colossians 1: 13-19 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. NOTE #2B: So, OUR LORD GOD who performed the FIRST animal blood sacrafice in the Garden of Eden is the same LORD GOD who came to us in a tent of flesh 2,000 years ago and was called YESHUA (Jesus) and OUR LORD GOD (JESUS) ALSO performed the LAST BLOOD SACRAFICE by dying on the cross! This was the only WORTHY AND ACCEPTABLE BLOOD sacrafice for us because of MANKINDS PERPETUAL SIN. Through HIS ULTIMATE SACRAFICE, MANKIND HAS AN ULTIMATE SOLUTION TO SIN THROUGH THE BLOOD SACRAFICE OF THE LORD GOD HIMSELF (JESUS) AND WE CAN ATTAIN ETERNAL LIFE SO LONG AS WE "BELIEVETH" IN HIM! THE IMPORTANT SUBJECT TO REFLECT ON IS: THE LORD GOD (JESUS) PERFORMED THE FIRST AND LAST BLOOD SACRAFICE!!! Revelation 22:13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Hebrews 9: 11-15 11 But Christ came as a High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctafies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. PART 1B. Note #3: There HAS TO be BLOOD SHED to cover SIN: Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood , and without shedding of blood, there is no remission. (Remission = forgiveness) The skin coverings made for Adam and Eve not only covered their shame and nakedness but most importantly their sin because of the animal's blood that was shed. We know that the Lord God had to sacrafice at least two animals in order to cover both Adam and Eve's sin. These animals that the LORD God had sacraficed were different from any other animal or animal species we see today. They were not born; they were created DIRECTLY FROM THE LORD GOD for this very purpose! Question: If the LORD God created male and female animals, (two of each kind), then which animal specie(s) was cut-off in order to cover Adam & Eve's sin? Note #4: THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD! The tunics of skin that clothed Adam & Eve after the first blood sacrafice also contained power! When Nimrod wears these skins, He is able to hunt effortlessly. Nimrod is called a "mighty hunter before the Lord" because of the submissive state the hunted animals became when they realized that Nimrod was wearing the coat of the skins from the FIRST blood sacrafice. These animals would have probably looked at Nimrod like a deer frozen by the headlights of an approaching car! For more on this read: Nimrod: The Mighty Hunter Note #5: Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrafice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. Question: Why was Abel's sacrafice "more excellent" than Cain's? Answer: Because it was THE RIGHT sacrafice! Abel knew that this sacrafice is what God required as it says that he offered it "BY FAITH"! Question: By Faith in what? Answer: Faith in what the Lord God had already commanded in regards to what constitutes a proper sacrafice. Abel was walking in faith to what the Lord God had already showed them and this was accepted by the Lord because Abel followed the Lord God's instructions. The Lord God could not accept Cain becasue of his disobedience. Cain knew what was "acceptable", but he decided to do things his own way. Remember the verse where the Lord God told him, "If you do well (God's way), will you not be accepted?" The Lord was trying to give Cain a second chance and bring him back to doing what was righteous and acceptable before the Lord. The reason why the Lord God (who would later live among us with the name Jesus or Yeshua which means "YAHWEH is SALVATION"),was strict about only offering BLOOD SACRAFICES, because the Lord would later sacrafice and offer HIS BLOOD for our sins...the Highest, most Powerful, and ONLY MEANS that the sins of mankind past, present and future, could be be paid for! Jesus IS the "Lamb slain for the foundation of the world" Rev 13:8 Jesus is not and could not offer a "fig leaf" or a vegetable... Jesus was nailed to a cross and His BLOOD was poured out FOR US!! JESUS WAS THE PERFECT SACRAFICIAL LAMB... THE PERFECT BLOOD SACRAFICE! JESUS, WHO IS THE LORD GOD, IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BE SAVED FROM SIN, AND SIN BRINGS UPON US REAL DEATH, DEATH THAT IS BEYOND OUR PHYSICAL BODIES "DYING"! Note #6: Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with plants... Cain tried to offer the Lord God his plants to cover his sin... Cain was trying to get away with the same wrong act as his parents tried to do!! The Lord God would not accept Adam and Eve's plants, He would not accept Cain's plants, and HE WON'T ACCEPT OUR "PLANTS"! WHY? Hebrews 9:22 ... without the sheeding of blood there is no remission (of sin). PART II. Who are "they" who "have gone in the way of Cain"? Jude verses 4, 12, & 13 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our GOd into lewdness and deny the only Lord God our Lord Jesus Christ. 12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude is referring to some of those in the Church who count themselves among the followers of Christ. They are not self- proclaimed atheists but are those who have been taught the Lord's way to salvation and forgiveness and consciously (or sub-consciously) reject it, as Cain did. These people will either: a) join a cult or some twisted denomination of Christianity b) form their own cult c) become strict fanatics or super religious "Christians". Many of these Christian "cults" think they are Christian and are doing God's work and so do those who are totally engulfed in devoting all of their time to religious "works". Jesus states that we will know who these type of people are by the "fruit" that they bear. Examples of the "fruit" that Jude is describing are as follows: Jude verses 8, 10, 16, & 18