November 29, 2008, 9:25 am by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 4:13 – 26

In Genesis 4:13 Cain recognizes that his punishment seems too great.  His biggest worry is that someone will kill him.  How is that possible only Adam, Eve, and Cain exist!  Not even one woman has been born.  Yet Cain knows that other people might kill him.  YHWH, to insure Cain lives with this punishment, places a mark on Cain.  This mark is to cause vengeance on anyone who kills Cain. 

Here is a side note, Cain leaves Eden for Nod.  Again, here we are with a meaning of a location that YHWH has not preserved.  He seems to do this a lot, yet we are supposed to believe that he has kept the literal interpretation of the Word.  If he can’t keep the physical meaning of locations on this globe, how can we be sure that he has kept the intangible translation of the Word?

Continuing, Cain gets a wife.  We don’t know where she comes from, but we have to agree that she is his sister.  So as a result, YHWH has no problem with incest.  And just imagine what our gene pool would look like with only Adam and Eve’s genes to create 6.5 billion people.  No wonder we are such a messed up society.

Cain has a son and begins to build a city.  To make thing easier for Cain he names both the city and the son the same name.  Real creative isn’t it?  But then we do the same thing (how many cities have a Market St?).    Again we get an interesting side note.  The offspring of Seth (coming up later), are also named similarly to Cain’s offspring.  Now how is this possible, Cain has been banished from the presence of YHWH (and presumably the presence of Adam), but to the 7^th generation both lineages use the same name.  With the lifespan of these men (we’ll get to that soon), the odds of using the same name in the same order is staggeringly small. 

Cain’s descendent Lamech decides to speed things up, he gets 2 wives.  Here we have a side note that says how evil this is:

4:19 married two women. Polygamy entered history. Haughty Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, perhaps sought to attain the benefits of God’s primeval blessing (see 1:28 and note) by his own device—multiplying his wives. Monogamy, however, was the original divine intention (see 2:23–24).

Wait later in this book it’s not only ok but YHWH demands polygamy!  I wish these people (christians) and their god would be consistent!  I know, I know you will claim that they are, but you can’t prove that using the Word!

Well Lamech makes a boost that if Cain was revenged 7 times over, his own revenge would be 77 times greater.  And that’s all there is to that.  He does not provide a method for this revenge.  I mean the man is dead (or gravely wounded), what type of revenge can he have?

A quick switch back 6 generations and we read about the birth of Seth.  Here again Eve praises YHWH for a son, remember she did not do this for the birth of Cain.  So Seth grows up, and marries one of his un-named sisters (presumably he does not marry one of Cain’s un-named daughters).  He also has a son and he names him Enosh.  At this point in time: 

^{Ge 4:26} Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.

We see in the last verse men start to do something that Adam, Cain, and Abel were doing from the start.  Since these are the only men on the planet how can they begin to do something that they have already been doing?  Is this another place where YHWH has not been able to keep the literal translation of the Word?

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November 29, 2008, 12:03 am by dc-agape.

Freewill is a question that has plagued the christian religion since the 1^st century.  By the 16^th century, Calvinism was taking hold in Europe.  Martin Luther was not even dead when the first major split in Protestant Christianity occurred.  The question is why does this even schism exist?  Two stories from the New Testament might shine some light on this question.

The first one is simpler than the second and I will start with this.  The conversion of Lydia in Acts chapter 16 is appropriate to the topic of freewill. 

Acts 16:14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God.  The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

This verse is appropriate because of that last sentence.  Lydia’s heart was opened by YHWH.  She had no choice in the matter, she had no freewill.  Yes, someone could claim that YHWH only opened Lydia’s heart, but Lydia did the rest.  But this misses the point.  If Lydia’s heart was not opened by YHWH then Lydia would not have been saved!  Lydia did not have freewill.

The second story is about Judas is much difficult to see that he did not have freewill.  Let me start with this verse:

^{John 6:37} All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  ^6:38 for I have come down from heaven no to do my will but to do the will of hum who sent me.  ^6:39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

These verses make it very clear that Judas was either given to Jesus by YHWH or he was not.  He, just like Lydia, did not have a choice.  This of course leads to another dilemma.  Did Jesus have 12 disciples or did he not?  Jesus repeats this twice concept twice.  These verses can be applied to all humanity, not just the disciples in the 1^st century. 

But another problem arises.  The story of Jesus’ betrayal leads to another situation of freewill.  We know that Jesus knew about his betrayal, see Mathew 26:20, before he could have been told.  We also know how he knows this…Mark 14:21.  Odd that we do not know the exact verse that Jesus is referencing, but that is for another post.  One of his “12” had to betray Jesus; otherwise the crucifixion would not have been carried out.  This leads to the question: did any of the disciples have freewill?

Let me bring one more to finish this topic.  Jesus knows that Peter will deny him three times.

Luke 22:34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

If Jesus knows that this will occur, then Peter also has no choice.  I will finish this post with this:  three people in the New Testament did not have freewill.  One is a simple believer, Lydia, one is the betrayer, Judas, and one is the cornerstone of the church, Peter.  If these three did not have freewill, can any of us have freewill?  In the first and second posts I used specific people; I will finish this topic with a third post about what the Word says about freewill.

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