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Webers_Home

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Hello; and welcome to a collection of odds and ends from the Bible that come in
handy now and then for just about everybody that's just starting out.

The Difference Between The Old Testament And The New

This major division in the Bible is primarily editorial; viz: it's man-made instead of
God-made; but the division is pretty harmless and actually quite useful.

In a nutshell:

1• The simplest difference is chronological, i.e. the Old Testament focuses upon the
Jews' religious history prior to Christ's birth, while the New focuses upon the world's
introduction to Christianity in connection with Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

2• "Old Testament" refers to the covenant that Yhvh's people agreed upon with God
as per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

3• "New Testament" refers to the covenant that Yhvh's people will eventually agree
upon with God as per Jeremiah 31:31-34.

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Sword

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The old is Christ conceled
The new is Christ revealed. Andso much more than what you said here.
 
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Helen

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To me...it is the history, and the future of a Love story....the Groom wooing His Bride.
(I even believe that our initial salvation is when our inner ear is opened, and we finally hear His voice calling us..His potential Bride...and we are drawn by The Father ..and from there on..He reveals His Son, as the Son too..is the revelation of The Father to us! )
As David said so well :- Ps 42 "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." /
A Love Story. ✟
 

Sword

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I get David panting after God. But we dont pant in the same way after God. David is panting after a God who does not dwell in him or with him.
Today God is with us and dwelling in us. So to pant after God is to say, Hes not with me. God says to us. I will never leave you or forsake you. So that is permanant. God can live anywhere He chooses. He chosse to swell in us :) Now thats a love story
 

Webers_Home

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The Everlasting Gospel

This particular gospel is a bounce from the first chapter of Genesis.

Rev 14:6-7 . . And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the
everlasting gospel to preach to the people who dwell on the earth-- to every
nation, tribe, language, and people.

. . . Fear God! he shouted. Give glory to Him! For the time has come when
He will sit as judge. Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all the springs of water!

It's easy to mistake the everlasting gospel for the gospel of Christ but
neither Christ's name nor his crucifixion and resurrection are anywhere in
the angel's message.

The everlasting gospel is very elementary. Pretty much all it says is:

1• There is a supreme being.

2• He deserves respect.

3• There's a frightful reckoning looming on the horizon, and

4• The cosmos-- all of its forms of life, matter, and energy --is the product
of intelligent design.

/
 

Helen

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I get David panting after God. But we don't pant in the same way after God. David is panting after a God who does not dwell in him or with him.
Today God is with us and dwelling in us. So to pant after God is to say, He's not with me. God says to us. I will never leave you or forsake you. So that is permanant. God can live anywhere He chooses. He choose to swell in us :) Now thats a love story

Well I am fifty fifty on that :)
We see and probably live our faith differently.

Yes indeed, God indwells us by His Spirit. ..and here comes the 'BUT '..
I still very much "run after God", I am a God-chaser. I love dwelling in His Presence.
Yes, God is with us, God is within us..but He also, still comes "upon" us.
My heart still longs for more and more of Him and His 'felt' presence. . He is my Home , my House, I still go "in and out" of dwelling continually in His presence ..I am yet carnal..the old man is not dead- enough ...yet.
In this , we seem to be somewhat different in the way we walk along this Pathway toward Home.




 

Stranger

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I get David panting after God. But we dont pant in the same way after God. David is panting after a God who does not dwell in him or with him.
Today God is with us and dwelling in us. So to pant after God is to say, Hes not with me. God says to us. I will never leave you or forsake you. So that is permanant. God can live anywhere He chooses. He chosse to swell in us :) Now thats a love story

No, you don't get David. You're too busy being 'great after God'. You're too busy casting out demons and healing people as you walk down the street...watching those limbs grow back out. Sure. You don't get David at all.

David was a sinner and knew it. And God knew it. But David was a man after God's own heart. And that is God speaking...not David. You're so called relationship with God is nothing but verbosity. A facade. Every king after David was judged by Davids reign. As being good like David or being evil unlike David.

And you have the gall to see yourself as greater than David. What a joke.

Stranger
 

pia

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Well I am fifty fifty on that :)
We see and probably live our faith differently.

Yes indeed, God indwells us by His Spirit. ..and here comes the 'BUT '..
I still very much "run after God", I am a God-chaser. I love dwelling in His Presence.
Yes, God is with us, God is within us..but He also, still comes "upon" us.
My heart still longs for more and more of Him and His 'felt' presence. . He is my Home , my House, I still go "in and out" of dwelling continually in His presence ..I am yet carnal..the old man is not dead- enough ...yet.
In this , we seem to be somewhat different in the way we walk along this Pathway toward Home.




He doesn't go away from us when we turn to the flesh, we merely turn our backs to Him, but as I was told :" If they would but say My Name, there we would be face to face again." and also:" Remember, I am always here whether you can see me or not." and when He said ' or not ' He disappeared from my sight, but I still heard Him, from the same position in the room. He showed me with His body and face ( facing me the whole time while His body moved ) that we sometimes turn a little away from Him, sometimes a lot and sometimes we turn the whole way around facing away from Him. He didn't swing His body back the front for that one lol, He turned back to face me, body and face, and then He used His hands to show a rotating motion. He truly does NEVER leave us nor forsake us. I often don't manage to immerse myself in His presence,( which seems to please the enemy who then tries and sometimes succeeds at making me feel guilty and unworthy ), but I also know that I am the one somehow preventing it, the fault can never lie with Him, and as I already said, and you know also, He truly never leaves us nor forsakes us. He is with us always, even till the end of the world. Hallelujah, praise His glorious Name and Person. He is perfect, we are not ( yet )......Pia
 

Webers_Home

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Light

Gen 1:3 . . God said: Let there be light: and there was light.

The creation of light was an intricate process. First God had to create
particulate matter, and along with those particles their specific properties,
including mass. Then He had to invent the laws of nature to govern how
matter behaves in combination with and/or in the presence of, other kinds of
matter in order to generate electromagnetic radiation.

Light's properties are a bit curious. It exists as waves in a variety of lengths
and frequencies, and also as theoretical particles called photons. And though
light has no mass; it's influenced by gravity. Light is also quite invisible. For
example: you can see the Sun when you look at it, and you can see the
Moon when sunlight reflects from its surface. But none of the Sun's light is
visible in the void between them and that's because light isn't matter; it's
energy.

The same laws that make it possible for matter to generate electromagnetic
radiation also make other conditions possible too; e.g. fire, wind, water, ice,
soil, rain, life, centrifugal force, thermodynamics, fusion, dark energy,
gravity, atoms, organic molecules, magnetism, color, radiation, refraction,
reflection, high energy X-rays and gamma rays, temperature, pressure,
force, inertia, sound, friction, and electricity; et al. So the creation of light
was a pretty big deal; yet Genesis scarcely gives its origin passing mention.

Gen 1:1-2 . .The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the
surface of the deep

That statement reveals the planet's condition prior to the creation of light;
and no mystery there because sans the natural laws that make light
possible, the earth's particulate matter would never have coalesced into
something coherent.

2Cor 4:6 verifies that light wasn't introduced into the cosmos from outside in
order to dispel the darkness and brighten things up a bit; but rather, it
radiated out of the cosmos from inside— from itself —indicating that the
cosmos was created to be self-illuminating by means of the various
interactions of the matter that God made for it; including, but not limited to,
the Higgs Boson.

You know it's curious to me that most people have no trouble readily
conceding that everything else in the first chapter of Genesis is natural, e.g.
the cosmos, the earth, water, sky, dry land, the Sun, the Moon, the stars,
aqua life, winged life, terra life, flora life, and human life.

But when it comes to light they choke; finding it impossible within
themselves to believe that Genesis just might be consistent in its description
of the creative process. I mean, if all those other things are natural, why
wouldn't light be natural too? In point of fact, without natural light, planet
Earth would become a cold dead world right quick.

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Webers_Home

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The Length Of A Creation Day

Gen 1:5b . . And there was evening and there was morning, a first Day.

According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all land animals on the
sixth day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other day did God
create land animals but the sixth.

Hard-core Bible thumpers insist the days of creation were 24-hour calendar
days in length; but scientific dating methods have easily proven that
dinosaurs preceded human life by several million years. So then, in my
estimation, the days of creation should be taken to represent epochs of
indeterminable length rather than 24-hour calendar days.

That's not an unreasonable estimation; for example:

"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." (Gen 2:4)

The Hebrew word for "day" in that verse is yowm (yome) which is the very
same word for each of the six days of God's creation labors. Since yowm in
Gen 2:4 refers to a period of time obviously much longer than a 24-hour
calendar day; it justifies suggesting that each of the six days of creation
were longer than 24 hours apiece too. In other words: yowm is ambiguous
and not all that easy to interpret sometimes.

Another useful hint as to the length of the days of creation is located in the
sixth chapter of Genesis where Noah is instructed to coat the interior and
exterior of his ark with a substance the Bible calls "pitch". The Hebrew word
is kopher (ko'-fer) which indicates a material called bitumen: a naturally
occurring kind of asphalt formed from the remains of ancient, microscopic
algae (diatoms) and other once-living things. In order for bitumen to be
available in Noah's day, the organisms from whence it was formed had to
have existed on the earth several thousands of years before him.

The discovery of fossilized sea lilies near the summit of Mt Everest proves
that the Himalayan land mass has not always been mountainous; but at one
time was the floor of an ancient sea bed. This is confirmed by the "yellow
band" below Everest's summit consisting of limestone: a type of rock made
from calcite sediments containing the skeletal remains of countless trillions
of organisms who lived, not on dry land, but in an ocean. The tectonic forces
that pushed the Himalayans up from below sea level to their current height
work very slowly and require untold eons to accomplish their task.

So then, why can't Bible thumpers accept a six-epoch explanation? Because
they're hung up on the expression "evening and morning"

The interesting thing is: there were no physical evenings and mornings till
the fourth day when the Sun was created and brought on line. So I suggest
that the expression "evening and morning" is simply a convenient way to
indicate the simultaneous wrap of one epoch and the beginning of another.

Anyway; this "day" thing has been a chronic problem for just about
everybody who takes Genesis seriously. It's typically assumed that the days
of creation consisted of twenty-four hours apiece; so we end up stumped
when trying to figure out how to cope with the estimated 4.5 billion-year age
of the earth, and factor in the various eras, e.g. Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic,
Cenozoic, Cretaceous, etc, plus the ice ages and the mass extinction events.

It just never seems to occur to us that it might be okay in some cases to go
ahead and think outside the box. When we do that-- when we allow
ourselves to think outside the box --that's when we begin to really
appreciate the contributions science has made towards providing modern
men a window into the Earth's amazing past.

Galileo believed that science and religion are allies rather than enemies--
two different languages telling the same story. In other words: science and
religion compliment each other-- science answers questions that religion
doesn't answer, and religion answers questions that science cannot answer;
viz: science and religion are not enemies; no, to the contrary, science and
religion assist each other in their respective quests to get to the bottom of
some of the cosmos' greatest mysteries.

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Webers_Home

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To Infinity And Beyond

Gen 1:14-18 . . God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to
distinguish Day from Night; they shall serve as signs for the set times-- the
days and the years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky
to shine upon the earth.

. . . And it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to
dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars.
And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to
dominate the day and the night, and to distinguish light from darkness.

At that point in biblical history, "stars" no doubt indicated all objects in the
heavens that blazed with light seeing as how it would be a very long time
before humanity began categorizing some of the stars as planets.

I think it's important to emphasize that in the beginning God "set" the stars
in the sky just as he set the Sun and the Moon in the sky, i.e. celestial
objects didn't arrange themselves all by themselves sans any intelligent
supervision whatsoever; no, they were placed; and not only were they set in
place, but also set in motion-- nothing in the entire cosmos is standing still,
though many things appear to be.

According to Gen 1:15, stars illuminated the Earth on the day that God
made them.

Well; the only stars whose shine is of any practical use as illumination on the
Earth are those of the Milky Way; which is estimated 100,000 to 180,000
light years in diameter. Of course light from stars nearest our location in the
galaxy would begin dousing the earth with illumination long before those at
the far side.

For example, light from Alpha Centauri takes only about 4½ years to reach
Earth while light from Alpha Orionis (a.k.a. Betelgeuse) takes about 640.
There are quite a few stars whose illumination reaches Earth in less than 50
years. But whether 4½ years, 50 years, 640 years, or 180,000 years; the
time involved is insignificant if we but allow the days of creation to be
epochs of indeterminate length rather than 24-hour events.

/
 
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Webers_Home

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Day And Night

Gen 1:4b-5a . . God separated the light from the darkness. God called the
light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

Day and Night simply label two distinct, and opposite, conditions-- the
absence of light, and/or the absence of darkness. Defining those conditions
may seem like a superfluous detail, but when analyzing the chronology of
Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, it's essential to keep days and nights
separate. When people attempt to define "day" as a twenty-four hour
amalgam of light and darkness, they invariably come up with some rather
convoluted interpretations of Matt 12:40.

Gen 1:14 . . God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to
distinguish Day from Night

On the first day; God defined Day as a condition of light; and defined Night
as a condition of darkness. Here, it's further defined that Day, as pertains to
life on Earth, is when the sun is up; and Night is when the sun is down.

These definitions occur so early in the Bible that they easily escape the
memories of Bible students as they slip into the reflexive habit of always
thinking of Days as 24-hour events. That's okay for civil calendars but can
lead to gross misunderstandings when interpreting biblical schedules,
predictions, and/or chronologies.

Gen 1:15-18a . . God made the two great lights, the greater light to
dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars.
And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to
dominate the day and the night, and to distinguish light from darkness.

That passage not only defines "day" as when the sun is up, and "night" as
when the sun is down; but it further defines night as when the stars are out;
and yet people still don't think God means it.

Christ defined Day and Night as they were practiced in his day.

John 11:9 . . Jesus answered: are there not twelve hours in the day? A
man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light.

"this world's light" is the sun; which Christ defined as "by day". So if Christ's
"day" was defined as when the sun was up; then Christ's "night" had to be
defined as when the sun was down.

So then, when Christ predicted his death to last for three days and three
nights, he obviously meant the hours of daytime and nighttime as they were
understood when he was here rather than some other era otherwise the people
in his own time wouldn't have known when to expect his crucified body to come
back to life.


NOTE: Daytimes divided into twelve divisions were regulated by what's
known as temporal hours; which vary in length in accordance with the time
of year. There are times of the year at Jerusalem's latitude when daytime
consists of less than 12 normal hours of sunlight, and sometimes more; but
when Christ was here; the official number of daytime hours was always 12
regardless.

I don't know exactly why the Jews of that era divided their daytimes into
twelve divisions regardless of the seasons, but I suspect it was just a
convenient way to operate the government and conduct civil affairs;
including the Temple's activities (e.g. the daily morning and evening
sacrifices)

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Webers_Home

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The Image And Likeness Of God

Gen 1:26a . . And God said: Let us make Man in our image, after our
likeness.

Because of the terms "image and likeness" there are some who believe that
man's creator is a human being; or at least resembles one. But according to
Christ, creation's God is non physical.

"God is spirit" (John 4:24)

Spirit isn't solid. (Luke 24:36-39)

Moses warned Yhvh's people to avoid making any kind of mannequin,
figurine, totem pole, or statue representing God since no one has any true
concept of what creation's God actually looks like in person. (Ex 4:10-19)

There exists absolutely nothing in nature physically resembling its creator;
except maybe the air in front of your face-- neither Man, nor beast, nor
plant, nor bird, nor bug, nor reptile nor anything out in the void (Rom 1:21
23). Concepts that portray creation's God as a human being are purely
fantasy. (Rom 1:25)

Gen 1:26b . . let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,
over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground.

Humanity's right to dominate the earth is where we find its image and
likeness of God. In other words: Man's image and likeness of God is all about
sovereignty, power, control, and authority. (cf. Gen 44:18)

The word for "rule" is from radah (raw-daw') and means: to tread down, i.e.
subjugate; specifically: to crumble off.

I saw a pretty interesting bumper sticker some time ago that went like this:

We are not above the Earth;
We are of the Earth.

Well . . I respect the Native American cultural feelings behind that
statement; and must admit that I agree with it whole-heartedly. But
creation's creator decreed that though Man is of the earth; he is very
definitely above it too, and has the God-given right to subjugate every living
thing on the planet including its forests, its grasses, its rivers, its seas, its
soil, its rocks, its air, its minerals, its mountains, its valleys, and even its
tectonic plates and the earth's very atmosphere itself. And that's not the end
of it. According to Heb 2:8, humanity is on track to take control of even
more.

/
 
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Webers_Home

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Big Daddy

The Phylogenetic Tree Of Life is an interesting scientific diagram that traces
all forms of life back to a singular genetic heritage regardless of species. In
other words; if you started with a raccoon, and followed it's branch down the
tree far enough, you'd eventually intersect with another branch that you
could then trace to mushrooms. The tree is sort of the equivalent of a Big
Bang of living things.

The branch on that tree that interests me the most is the one that traces
human life. According to the diagram; any two people you might select— no
matter what their age, race, or gender —if traced back far enough, can
eventually be linked to a common ancestor; which of course is no surprise to
Bible students.

Gen 2:21-23 . .Yhvh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he
slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. And
the God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man,
and brought her to the man. And the man said: This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.

The Hebrew for "rib" in that passage is is tsela' (tsay-law') and Gen 2:21-23
contains the only two places in the entire Old Testament where it's
translated with an English word representing a skeletal bone. In the other
twenty-nine places, it's translated "side"

In other words: Eve wasn't constructed directly from the dust of the earth as
was Adam. She was constructed from a human tissue sample amputated
from Adam's body; ergo: Eve's flesh was derived from Adam's; consequently
any and all human life produced by Eve's flesh is traceable to Adam's flesh.

Gen 3:20 . . Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother
of all people everywhere.

Acts 17:26 . . He made from one man every variety of mankind to live on
all the face of the earth

It was apparently the creator's deliberate design that all human life be
biologically related to a sole source of human life— the one and only human
life that God created directly from the earth's dust; viz: Adam.

So then; it is not quite accurate to say that Christ didn't have a human
father because if Christ is biologically related to his mother, and if his
mother is biologically related to Eve, then Christ is biologically related to
Adam.

/
 
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Webers_Home

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Leaven

Gen 19:3 . . Lot prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread,
and they ate.

The Hebrew word for "unleavened" is matstsah (mats-tsaw') which
essentially refers to an unfermented cake or loaf; in other words: bread
made with sweet dough rather than sour dough.

In this day and age of cultured yeast it's not easy to explain what the Bible
means by leavened and unleavened. Well; the primary difference between
the two terms isn't ingredients; rather, the primary difference is age; for
example:

"Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven" (1Cor 5:8)

If there is an old leaven, then there must be a new leaven; just as there is
an old wine and a new wine.

Old leaven can refer to a batch of dough that's going bad, i.e. fermenting;
which, given time, dough will do on its own without the addition of yeast
because all flour, no matter how carefully it's milled and packaged, contains
a percentage of naturally-occurring fungi. New leaven, then, would refer to a
time in the life of the dough before the flour's naturally-occurring fungi has
time to spoil the product; for example:

Ex 12:34 . . So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with
their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.

That gives an idea of how quickly God moved the people out of Egypt after
slaying all the firstborn. They had made unfermented bread for that night's
meal in accord with the law of the Passover instituted in the 12th chapter of
Exodus.

Anyway, point being; Lot served his guests fresh bread made with fresh
dough rather than with bread made with dough that's been sitting around for
a while. Bread made with sour dough is reasonably safe to eat, we know
that, so serving his guests bread made with aged dough wouldn't have been
a health issue. I like to think that Lot served his honored guests unleavened
bread as an act of courtesy rather than necessity. Giving people your best,
rather than your less than best, shows that you think highly of them.

/
 

Webers_Home

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Why Adam Didn't Drop Dead

Gen 2:15-17 . .The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden
of Eden, to till it and tend it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying:
Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of
knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for in the day you eat of
it, you shall die.

That passage has always been an embarrassment for Bible thumpers
because Adam didn't drop dead the instant he tasted the forbidden fruit. In
point of fact, he continued to live outside the garden of Eden for another 800
years after the birth of his son Seth. (Gen 5:4)

So; is there a reasonable explanation for this apparent discrepancy?

Well; first off let me point out that in order for the threat to resonate in
Adam's thinking; it had to be related to death as Adam understood death in
his day, rather than death as the Bible thumpers understand it in their day.
In other words: Adam didn't expect to die spiritually. No, he expected to die
normally; viz: physically; like as in pass away.

How can I be so sure that God meant normal death instead of spiritual
death? Because according to Gen 3:19 that's how it worked out; and to
make sure Adam stayed normally dead, God blocked his access to the tree
of life. (Gen 3:22-24)

Anyway; the trick is: Adam wasn't told he would die the instant he tasted
the fruit. God's exact words were "in the day"

Well; according to Gen 2:4, the Hebrew word for "day" is a bit ambiguous. It
can easily indicate a period of time much, much longer than 24 hours' viz;
the "day" of Adam's death began the moment he ate the fruit.

That was a milestone in human history. Up till Adam tasted the fruit, the
only days on record were the six of creation, and the one when God ceased
creating. Adam inaugurated a new day by tasting the fruit-- the day of
death.

"Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this
way death came to all men" (Rom 5:12)

Well; like Jack Palance's character Curly in the movie City Slickers said: "The
day ain't over yet"

Ecc 7:2 . . It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house
of gaiety, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this
seriously.

/
 

Webers_Home

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Why Everyone Has To Die At Least Once

Prior to Moses, an official code of divine law didn't exist.

Rom 5:13-14 . . Before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is
not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned
from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin
by breaking a command, as did Adam.

The answer is: they all had to die not because of breaking an official code of
divine law; but because of Adam breaking just one rule (Gen 2:16-17). His
disobedience in the matter of the forbidden fruit effected his entire posterity:
both the good and the bad; the young and the old.

This is really difficult for some people to get their heads around.
Nevertheless, it's very important to accept it whether one understands it or
not because Paul applies this principle in his effort to explain why it is that
believers never have to worry about being condemned for their sins. (Rom
5:12-21)


NOTE: Opponents are often quick to point out that Ezek 18:20 says that
children don't share their father's guilt. But hey, which came first? Adam or
Ezekiel? So then, since Adam's incident came along many years before
Ezekiel's prophecy, then God was at liberty back then to reckon Adam's
posterity as joint principals in his act of disobedience.

Rom 5:12 . . Sin entered the world through one man, and death through
sin; and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.

"all sinned" has no reference to all's own personal sins; just Adam's, i.e. his
sin became everyone's sin, even everyone yet to be born.

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Webers_Home

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Why Cain Was Rejected

Gen 4:2b . . Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of
the soil.

Both men worked at honorable professions and their skills were essential to
the Adams' survival. Humans at this time were vegetarians so Cain farmed
and raised the family's food; while Abel kept them clothed and shod by
tending flocks for leather; and possibly fleece too.

Gen 4:3-4a . . In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to The Lord
from the fruit of the soil; and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the
firstlings of his flock.

There's no indication in this scene suggesting that the items they brought
were sacrifices for sin. The Hebrew word for "offering" is from minchah (min
khaw') and means: to apportion, i.e. bestow; a donation; euphemistically,
tribute; specifically a sacrificial offering (usually bloodless and voluntary).

Since the offerings were minchah type offerings-- which are essentially gifts
rather than atonements --it would be wrong to insist Abel slew his firstling
and/or burned it to ashes. In point of fact, holocaust offerings are indicated
by the word 'olah (o-law') instead of minchah; for example Gen 8:20 and
Gen 22:2.

Ancient rabbis understood the brothers' offerings to be a "first fruits" kind of
oblation.

T. And it was at the end of days, on the fourteenth of Nisan, that Kain
brought of the produce of the earth, the seed of cotton (or line), an oblation
of first things before the Lord; and Habel brought of the firstlings of the
flock. (Targum Jonathan)

Seeing as how Cain was a farmer, then in his case, an amount of produce
was the appropriate first fruits offering, and seeing as how Abel was an
animal husbandman, then in his case a head of livestock was the appropriate
first fruits offering.

I think it's safe to assume the brothers were no longer boys, but rather,
responsible men in this particular scene because God treated them that way.
This incident is not said to be the very first time they brought gifts to God.
The brothers (and very likely their parents too), probably had been bringing
gifts for many years; ever since they were of age. And up to this point,
apparently both men were doing everything right and God was just as much
pleased with Cain and his gifts as He was with Abel and his gifts.

But where did they get this religion of theirs? Well; wasn't Abel a prophet?

"Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the
prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the
blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar
and the sanctuary." (Luke 11:50-51a)

It's evident then that the offerings were a legitimate part of a God-given
religion rather than a pagan ritual. (cf. Heb 11:4)

Gen 4:4b-5a . .The Lord paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to Cain
and his offering He paid no heed.

The language and grammar of that verse indicate that God not only snubbed
Cain's offering; but also Cain himself; so that his offering wasn't the only
issue: Cain himself was an issue too.

Cain was of a good family. He wasn't the product of poverty or an inner city
barrio or dilapidated public housing. His mother wasn't cruel and/or
thoughtless, nor did she neglect or abandon him. He wasn't in a gang, didn't
carry a church key, a shank, an ice pick, or a gun; didn't smoke weed, drink,
snort coke, take meth, gamble or chase women.

Cain worked for a living in an honest profession. He wasn't a thief, wasn't a
predatory lender, wasn't a Wall Street barracuda, a dishonest investment
banker, or an unscrupulous social network mogul. He wasn't a cheap
politician, wasn't a terrorist, wasn't on the take, wasn't lazy, nor did he
associate with the wrong crowd. He was very religious and worshipped the
exact same God that his brother worshipped, and the rituals he practiced
were correct and timely.

The man did everything a model citizen is supposed to do; yet he, and
subsequently his gift, were soundly rejected. What?

Well; for one thing; at this point in his life, in spite of appearances; Cain was
actually impious. (1John 3:12)

In what way was he impious? Well, my first guess would be friction between
him and his brother. It is unacceptable to worship God while the
worshipper's relationship with their brother is dysfunctional.

"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your
brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar,
and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and
offer your gift." (Matt 5:23-24)

Gen 4:5b-7a . . Cain was much distressed and his face fell. And the Lord
said to Cain: Why are you distressed, and why is your face fallen? If you do
what is right, will you not be accepted?

Cain knew the drill; viz: it's conduct first and worship second. That can be
readily seen played out in the first chapter of Isaiah where Yhvh's people are
depicted practicing their God-given worship to perfection. They were
attending Temple on a timely basis, praying up a storm, offering all the
correct sacrifices and offerings, observing the Sabbath, and all the holy days
of obligation. But God soundly rejected all of that because their conduct was
unbecoming.

Bottom line is: Abel and his offering were acceptable because Abel's conduct
was acceptable; while Cain and his offering were unacceptable because
Cain's conduct was unacceptable. So then, from Cain and Abel we learn that
the key to acceptable worship is acceptable conduct. The two are joined at
the hip; so to speak. And that being the case; I'd have to say that there are
a number of Christians attending church every Sunday morning who really
ought to stay home and not come back until they clean up the things in their
lives that they know very well are rubbing God the wrong way.

1John 1:5-6 . . This then is the message which we have heard of him, and
declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do
not the truth

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Webers_Home

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Why God Didn't Execute Cain For Murder

Gen 4:12-13 . . If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to
you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth. Cain said to the Lord:
My punishment is too great to bear!

Cain's punishment was relatively lenient. In point of fact, it wasn't
punishment at all, it was discipline. It's true that Cain would struggle to
survive; but at least he was allowed to live. His kid brother was dead. How is
that fair?

Q: How did Cain get off with only a slap on the wrist? Why wasn't he
executed for murder since God himself mandates capital punishment for
murderers as per Gen 9:5-6, Ex 21:12-14, Lev 24:17, Lev 24:21, and Num
35:31-34? Does God practice a double standard?

A: Murder is intrinsically wrong, yes; and it's intrinsically a sin, yes;
however; it hasn't always been a capital sin. According to Deut 5:2-4, Rom
4:15, Rom 5:13, and Gal 3:17, law enacted ex post facto is too late; viz: law
can't be enforced until after it's enacted, not even divine law; which is
precisely why God didn't have to execute Cain for murder.

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Webers_Home

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From Whence Cain Got A Wife

Adam was created directly from the dust of the earth. Not so Eve. She was
constructed from a human tissue sample amputated from Adam's body. In
other words: Eve's flesh was biologically just as much Adam's flesh as
Adam's except for gender; viz: Eve wasn't a discrete species of human life,
rather; she was the flip side of the same coin.

After God created Adam and Eve, He wrapped the work and has been on a
creation sabbatical every since.

According to the Bible, all human life thereafter came from Eve's flesh.

Gen 3:20 . . Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the
mother of all the living.

It was apparently the creator's deliberate design that all human life descend
from a solo specimen.

Acts 17:26 . . From one man He made every nation of men, that they
should inhabit the whole earth.

The Greek word for "nation of men" is ethnos (eth'-nos) which pertains to
racial diversity.

Bottom line: The flesh of Cain's wife descended from his mother's flesh.

An even more convincing example of prehistoric incest is Noah and his three
sons and their wives. Nobody else survived the Flood; ergo: Shem's, Ham's,
and Japheth's children all married amongst themselves.

Gen 9:18-19 . . Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem
and Ham and Japheth. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these
the whole earth was populated.

Obviously the human genome was very pure back in those days. The proof
of it is pre-historic human life's amazing longevity-- Adam lived to be 930,
and Noah to 950.

Now as to the sin of incest; according to Deut 5:2-4, Rom 4:15, Rom 5:13,
and Gal 3:17; God doesn't enforce His laws ex post facto: viz: they are not
retroactive. So then, it would be a gross miscarriage of justice to prosecute
pre-historic people for incest because it wasn't prohibited in their day; and
wouldn't be until later in Moses'.

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