Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Satan is not only the instigator of the first murder but the author of Cain's religion.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The first Theocentric dispensation we call the dispensation of the Gentiles because the Jewish race had not yet begun.
It is broken down into three parts:
1. The Period of Positive Volition.
2. The Period of Negative Volition.
3. The Period of the Patriarchs.
The period of negative volition is the era or the dispensation of the first murder in history,
GEN 4:1-15.
1JO 3:12 And why did he murder his brother [with a sacrificial knife]? Because his deeds [his form of worshipping God] were evil [religious], but those of his brother were honorable and righteous.
Abel offered an animal sacrifice, while Cain offered only human good, his work or produce from the ground.
GEN 3:19 - man was to live by the sweat of his brow.
In the immediate era following the fall we have envy, jealousy, arrogance, and this was the motive for the first murder.
This is also the beginning in history of capital punishment.
It is not what the KJ’s translation says, EXO 20:13 “Thou shalt not kill.”
It is what the NAS says, “You shall not [ratsach] murder.”
A change in dispensation did not change the law of capital punishment.
The unlawful use of weapons, crime, violence, terrorism, rape, murder; all of these categories draw the sword illegally.
This is a perfect illustration of the fact that every dispensation has certain divine laws which apply to all of them.
Capital punishment began in Gen 9;
It continued in the Mosaic Law,
EXO 21:14; then in the hypostatic union, MAT 26:52; in ROM 13:1-8, it continues in the Church-age; in the Tribulation, terrorism is dealt with by capital punishment, and in REV 2:26-28, capital punishment will even be practiced in the Millennium.
ISA 65:20 “No longer will there be in it an infant {who lives but a few} days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Shall be {thought} accursed.”
Establishment principles remain basically the same throughout dispensations.
The difference in dispensations is God’s plan for believers, not the laws of divine establishment.
“If murder demands capital punishment then why did God allow Cain to keep on living?”
The reason why Cain was not executed was because it had not been a law up to the time of Cain.
The mark of Cain was the mark of divine protection not a mark of violence.
The mark of Cain permits Cain to remain alive so that he can have an opportunity to be saved.
God’s grace permits the unbeliever to live on the earth even in direct defiance of God.
God took punishment into His own hands and protected the human race from further violence at this time.
By administering the punishment Himself, God keeps the human race from entering into a warfare over whether the justice is correct or not.
God throws a circle of protective love about Cain and says, “Yes, he is guilty. He’s a murderer -- but he is still My property, and don’t forget it in your dealings with him.”
It is rather, a mark of grace, by which God is saying, “This man is still my property. Hands off!”
2PE 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Whatever the mark of Cain was, it is the principle that is important here, not the actual mark.
In the age of negative volition, a part of the dispensation of the Gentiles, the first murder was committed and the first murder was due to a religious dispute.
It was Cain’s works and merits against Abel’s bloody sacrifice or faith toward trusting in God for the sacrifice for his sin.
TLJC even tried to reason with unbelievers, and they still remain unbelievers.
Satan was not only the instigator of the first murder, but he was the author of Cain’s religion.