"I'LL DO IT MY WAY"!!!

Followers of various types of Paganism  today are always saying that it is the oldest religion. They date Christianity by Christ's time and in their ignorance, do not realize that Christ was the Lamb of God 'slain from the foundation of the world'.  Paganism is indeed old, but the True Worship came first! Paganism is nothing less than rebellion against the Law of God!

In the first chapters of Genesis we read the sad story of how our first parents, through disobedience, brought sin,  suffering and death into this planet. At this point, had not God intervened by putting into action the Great Plan of Salvation, there would have been no hope at all for mankind.

Adam and Eve had to leave their garden home, no longer could they have access to the Tree of Life, the earth was cursed because of their sin. God had given them all that was good for them to have and enjoy, But they took that which God had told them not to take. Now the 'Knowledge of good & EVIL' they had insisted on having would be always with them. They gained nothing worth having. They had flunked the simple test of loyalty and sold out to the enemy.  It was a dark day indeed!

But the Loving Creator did not abandon them to hopelessness, as soon as there was sin, there was a Savior. The very One who had created them and lovingly breathed the 'Breath of Life' into them, making them living souls, pledged to pay the price so that all who would repent, turn from rebellion, and accept the power to live in obedience to God, made available through the Promised Redeemer, would be able to have eternal life. 

This is the Promise that was given them: Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity between thee (Satan disguised as the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

The 'Seed of the Woman' was the Redeemer that would come to earth at the appointed time to challenge Satan's ruler-ship of this earth and pay the price to redeem man. If God had not stepped in to bring opposition against Satan into the earth, man would have remained a willing  but hopeless slave of the great rebel until he perished.

Now the True Religion was established. God instituted that a Lamb was to be offered as a symbol, pointing to the Promised Redeemer that would one day pay with His own blood the debt of man's sin. Other offerings could be made as well, but God would not accept them unless a sin offering was offered. Only through the Blood of the Lamb could forgiveness be obtained and through faith in the Redeemer, power to live an obedient life would be given man. 

Adam was faithful to obey the Lord and worship God as had been taught him, by offering the blood of the lamb to show his faith in the coming Redeemer. When the first baby boy arrived on the scene, it is possible that Eve may have thought this was the promised Savior, anyway she named him Cain, and said 'I have gotten a man from God'. The second son, she named Abel, which means something like 'useless'. Other children were born to them of course, but the Bible only mentions three by name.

Anyway, as the boys grew up they were carefully taught by Adam to obey the requirements of God and to worship Him in the way He had directed them. They were taught to place their hope for eternal life only on the merits of the coming Redeemer represented by the blood of the offered lambs. God's required worship was simple, yet full of deep meaning.  Faithfully they also observed the Memorial of Creation, the 7th day Sabbath.

I don't know if Cain, being the first born, was a bit spoilt as he grew up but we do know that he and Abel had very different characters. Cain was rebellious and wanted his own way. He thought he was quite good enough and did not need a savior or forgiveness of sin. His heart was full of resentment against God for having sent his parents from the Garden of Eden and the curse on the earth. 

Abel was humble and devoted to God, he trusted in the merits of the promised savior and was grateful for the mercy of God in making a way of salvation for man. He learned well the lessons taught him by his father, Adam.

When these boys grew to young manhood, it was time for them to begin to offer their own sacrifices in worship and when this time came, Abel humbly obeyed God and brought a firstborn lamb which he offered in faith on his altar. God accepted his offering, because it was according to the instructions given to man. He sent fire down and consumed the offered lamb.

Cain decided he did not see why he ought to offer any blood offering. He did not feel an need of repentance for sin, he was good enough and he would bring the fruit of the ground and offer that. After all, he was a gardener, why should he have to bring a lamb? So he brought fruit and placed it on his altar and felt that was good enough for God. 

But God did not send any fire down and Cain was wroth. At this point God even sent an angel to talk with Cain and said to him, "Why are you angry? If you do what is right, you will be accepted. but if you don't do right, sin lieth at your door."  But even after being thus faithfully instructed, Cain did not repent. Instead of being sorry for his unbelief, he still complains that God was unfair.

Now it would have been very simple for Cain to simply have gone and brought a lamb to offer as God had said, and God would have accepted it and everything would be fine. BUT pride caused Cain to stay in rebellion and he refused to obey. Instead he became jealous of Abel and began to hate him.

Cain in his jealousy and hatred contends with Abel, and reproaches him. Abel meekly points out his brother's error, and shows him that the wrong is in himself. Cain hated his brother from the moment that God manifests to him the tokens of his acceptance. His brother Abel seeks to appease his wrath by telling of the compassion of God in saving the lives of their parents, when he might have brought upon them immediate death. He tells Cain that God loved them, or he would not have given his Son, innocent and holy, to suffer the wrath which man by his disobedience deserved to suffer. 

Abel humbly pled with his brother to obey God and everything would be alright. But this only made Cain more angry. The time soon came when Cain lured his brother out somewhere away from home and in anger rose up and killed his brother. 

Why did he do it? The Bible has an interesting text about this in 1 John 3:12 "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." 

SO here we see the very beginning both of true worship, and of 'DO it My Way' false worship or Paganism. And we see also that false worshippers always resent and hate the True worshippers, even to the point of killing them if they can! 

 Now we see that God spoke to Cain again and asked him, where his brother was. Now God knew all about what had happened, but He was giving Cain a chance to repent. Yes, if Cain would have repented and obeyed God and offered the blood of a lamb to show his faith in the coming Redeemer, even Cain would have been forgiven! But he didn't, in fact he rudely answered God, "How do I know, am I my brothers keeper?" 

Cain was worthy to die on the spot for his terrible, belligerent sin, but God Said to him, "What have you done, your brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." 

Even then Cain was not sorry, except for himself, he answered, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." He deserved to die on the spot, and yet even with the mercy shown him he complained!

So Cain, having married one of his sisters, went away and became the father of bold, defiant rebels against the authority of God. They set up their own ways of worship and did as they pleased. Satan rejoiced in having control of this powerful race and led them on into deeper and deeper wickedness.

Another son of Adam, Seth remained faithful to God and obeyed Him. His descendents were called 'children of God', while Cain's descendents are referred to in the Bible as 'the children of men.' The true followers of God, obeyed His instructions and the knowledge of the true religion was passed down from one generation to another. Adam himself lived long enough to instruct many generations, there was no need at that time of a written word.

Cain's descendants developed the worship of Nature and the reproductive powers of  nature. They made idols to symbolize these powers and made offerings to them. The invented many rituals to try and control the powers of nature and sought by consuming animal flesh and blood to obtain the powers of animals. Instead of being ashamed of sin and wrong acts, they boasted of them and tried to outdo one another in murder and cruelty!

The Paganism of Cain's descendants soon filled the earth with cruelty, oppression and violence. In spite of this, many of the followers of the True religion were attracted to the music and pomp and ceremony of the Pagans. They found the voluptuous women of the race of Cain attractive and often married outside their faith. In this way the followers of the True God of heaven soon became few and heavily persecuted.

And so we see from the very dawn of time, two distinct streams coming down through history, 

1. The True Worship of the Creator God: Characterized by obedience to His Eternal Law, a pure, humble, simple life of faith, dependence on God and living by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. They speak out as did Abel to his brother, pleading for a return to God's ways, and more often than not, are treated the same way!

2. The assorted forms of Paganism: Characterized by pride, power seeking, rebellion against God's Law, numerous rituals, symbols, magic, ceremonies and celebrations. Its claims and traditions always 'sound' good, but always lead downward to oppression and cruelty.  When man lays aside the authority of God's Law, he has nowhere to go but down into darkness! But still he goes on, putting light for darkness and darkness for light, calling what is good, evil, and what is evil, good! 

God sums it up this way just before He was forced to cleanse the earth with a flood to prevent man from destroying both it and themselves. Genesis 6:5 "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 

This is always where "Do it Yourself" and "I'll do things My Way" religions always lead. Whenever and wherever men defiantly reject any allegiance to the True God of Heaven, the Creator, and either say, "There is no personal God, the powers of Nature are supreme"; or "I don't care what God says, I'll worship in my own way", there remains no protection against evil. 

People joining in these spiritualist religions may have the best of intentions, Satan is to smart to show his traps, all they see is attractive bait! In spite of all the good intentions in the world, ANY and ALL practices that go contrary to the clear, simple instruction of God's Word will lead into deeper and deeper evil until one will perform acts one never dreamed he would stoop to, and even boast of it! 

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