Cain Told he had to Control His Sin;
Cain Opted to Control Others Instead
Building on our last post, Controlling Fear: Cain and Abel, we come to learn about the futility of self-control of one’s self. Today’s emphasis of self-esteem, promises self-control; or at least the option of ignoring those who challenge your own view of yourself. Maslow labeled this quality as self-actualization and claimed it to be a mark of the completely healthy psychological being freed from the constraints of society (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.). Basically the self-actuated person does not need others nor their value judgments; he, or she, meets their own needs regardless of what others think. The fruit of this has been the American phenomenon of the serial killer(s). To understand the failure of self-actualization one only needs to understand Cain’s murder of Abel (Ge 4:1-16).
When God accepted Abel’s offering while rejecting Cain’s, Cain was driven by fear of losing his prestigious position in society. He was groomed as the redeemer of his brethren from the sin of his parents {Caiyn: given of God-Reference to God’s promise for Satan’s defeat by one born of woman; man not mentioned (Ge 3:15; Lk 1:26-35)}! Cain’s fear was directly linked to his covetousness of being the hero and therefore ruler over everyone (Col 3:5). When God rejected him making Abel the successor to Adam rather than himself, Cain’s covetousness and fear fueled his anger. This three-fold axis is essential to understand why anger occurs. In the era before paganistic idolatry, we discover that idolatry was already present: Covetousness. God rejected Cain because Cain already has a god, himself as promised by Satan (Ge 3:5). God does not compete; one either belongs to God or one belongs to the tri-fold axis: Satan-World-Self {Flesh} (Mt 6:24; Jn 8:44; 15:19; Ro 8:8).
God, rich in mercy, confronted Cain warning him about his anger (Ep 2:4). God begins with a question, which Christ always did in the Gospels, to challenge Cain to recognize that the source of his anger was himself. Cain’s anger was so fierce that his countenance was totally changed; today, it would be called rage! God, Christ, told him that if he does good, if he changes his inner desire and motivation then he would be accepted. In essence, God told Cain that he would not be the savior as Eve led him to believe but he could still be accepted by God if he became like Abel exhibiting humility. God was directly challenging Cain’s worldview of himself. What is a worldview?
A worldview is an artificial construct explaining: why one exists; what is life’s meaning; what is right and wrong {values} and one’s destiny. I say artificial because God’s Bible answers all these questions in excruciating detail; it’s the purpose of the Bible (2Ti 3:16-17). All people are born in sin and thus in rebellion against God (Ps 51:5). Thus, everyone constructs an artificial view of self in life because God has been actively rejected as any and every source of truth (Ro 1:17-28). When God is rejected each person must reconstruct an explanation of these four questions without Him. The true goal of one’s worldview: Show one’s self as the hero of one’s own story. Needless to say, any answer for these questions, and the world in general, that rejects God will be incoherent and nihilistic (Ec 1:2-11). Salvation only comes when each person rejects themselves by repenting, humbling one’s self before God as a sinner in need of salvation (Ro 5:6-11; 10:9-10).
The only other option available is one must control sin which his parents failed to accomplish. Sin’s desire is to control each person maintaining rebellion against God. If Cain was going to man’s redeemer then he would have to accomplish this; however, he could not because he was already in sin since conception! Christ in the flesh set aside some aspect of His Holiness to take on the form of flesh, die in the flesh for sin and then, because of this humiliating experience, remain the intercessor for all the saved for all eternity (Ph 2:3-11; He 2:14-18). Sin deluded Cain with the seduction of being ruler over everyone which would set them free from Satan (2Th 2:3-12). Instead, this delusion insures sinners remain enslaved to sin and death. Only salvation in Christ can free one from sin and death (1Co 15:50-57).
From Cain’s perspective he would have to humble himself to God, become worthless like Abel, because sin could not be controlled. Faced with this option Cain developed a second option; exercise control over Abel, tempt him to sin, which would make him acceptable again! Except, this was an incoherent plan for he would still be rejected by God for the same reason: Sin! Abel’s humbling before God coupled with God’s acceptance of him over Cain left Cain only one other option: Murder! This is the endpoint of all anger. To remain in anger which results from fear which is born from coveting that which God has not given you yields the Second Death (He 9:27; Re 20:11-15). When Christ told the Jews that they did not understand the Ten Words, one of His examples was the prohibition on murder. Murder flows from anger and if left uncorrected, even if one does not physically kill another, one faces the Lake of Fire (Mt 5:21-26). There is an anger that does not lead to death; only the saved may experience righteous anger and that has serious limitations (Ep 4:25-27; Ja 1:19). Even God is slow to anger emphasizing it is under His control (Ps 145:8-9). And that is the major difference: The sinner has no true control over his, her, anger; self-control is a function of the Holy Spirit which the lost person lacks (Ga 5:22-24). The saved may exhibit this self-control but only because of spiritual maturation (Ro 6:16-23). Cain’s only hope was humbling himself under God and being saved; instead, he remained strong in his flesh and, being unable to control Abel, murdered him to remove that which he believed prevented him from being the leader. What was the result?
Cain, when confronted by God for Abel’s murder, left the community of believers to join the community of unbelievers. He became their king. Being marked and thus unable to work the land, Cain became the builder of cities which required the institution of government: Control over citizens: 1) To prevent them from destroying society because sin and 2) To accomplish his will which was enslaved to Satan and thus Satan’s will: To be as God (Is 14:12-17; Ez 28:14-18; Jn 8:44). For a ruler cannot be a ruler if there are no people over which to rule (Pr 14:28).
Psychology has added Self-Transcendence
In Essence, Legitimizing Slavery to Satan
Psychology is today’s scientism of self-actualization. They have added self-transcendence to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which makes a mockery of self-actualization. Essentially this communicates that self-actualization is not achievable as envisioned. It falls short of the true goal; therefore, one must become self-transcendent. This is simply repackaged Gnosticism or Luciferianism. Man’s rejection of God is legitimized by the acceptance of a higher spiritual existence which is simply slavery to Satan. The world governments are returning to Genesis but not to the Garden of Eden. They are returning to the globalization of Nimrod and his religious-political-governmental system which today is called: Socialism (Ge 10:8-10; 11:1-9). With great fanfare modern civilizations are ushering in the greatest period of self-destruction and enslavement by their own consent! Truly, these are the Latter Days (2Ti 3:1-5; He 1:1-2; 2Pe 3:3-7).