Introduction
This is the second part of the concluding section of our study of “The way of Cain”. In it we finish by comparing the actions of Cain and his descendants along with Seth and his progeny, with the actions of members of the Early Church and down to our days.
Diotrephes and Cain: hateful men, murderers
Diotrephes not only refused to welcome John and others, but he spread “malicious gossip” about them (3John 9-10). Gossip stems from a hateful spirit, since its goal is to discredit an individual. In this case, Diotrephes was intent on discrediting John as an apostle of God. But he wasn’t “satisfied with that,” for he also refused to welcome others who associated with John. In his pursuit of “being first,” Diotrephes was willing to cut off brothers and sisters from the ecclesia — the body of Christ. By doing so, he cut them off from salvation, which condemned them to eternal death. Thus, in spite of the fact that he never actually killed anyone, Diotrephes was a murderer because he acted hatefully towards his brothers by denying them salvation.
That Cain was a murderer is obvious, but he, like Diotrephes, was also a murderer long before he actually killed his brother because of the hate he had for his brother. For John says that anyone who hates is a murderer (1John 3:15).
Fratricide is another characteristic of the false brother: In the first few centuries of Christianity, the only weapon the false brother had at his disposal was the ability to spread lies and excommunicate others from the ecclesia. Thus, men such as Diotrephes possessed the power to rob believers of their salvation. This was the power to destroy men’s souls referred to by Christ:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).
Diotrephes had this power. By excommunicating members of his ecclesia from John and others, he was severing their ties from the truth. This resulted in their loss of salvation, which was the equivalent of destroying their soul or life. At this point in Christian history, Diotrephes was able to destroy the soul, but not yet the body.
Although there was the occasional respite, the first few centuries of Christianity were overwhelmingly defined by fratricidal violence. There were several different interpretations of the Trinity and arguments about the nature of Jesus. Each interpretation had its strong adherents and clergy following one view did not even recognize as legitimate clergy who followed another interpretation. If two prelates vied for an important bishopric the losers may opt to get the prize under a different banner. The most important “heresis” was Arianism, so called from the name of its founder Arius (250-336CE). The theological difference from orthodox Christianity seems minute. Arius claimed that Jesus (the Son in the Trinity) was of similar (but not the same) substance as God (the Father) while the orthodox view is that the Son is of the same substance. The difference appears even more minute in the original Greek: οµοLουσLον (of similar substance) versus οµοουσLον (of the same substance). The situation, of destroying the soul but not the body, changed dramatically in the 3rd century. Hatred between Christian brothers thus simmered for more than two centuries, until 325 AD when Constantine sanctioned the “total destruction” of the heretics. In that moment, Christendom embraced the “way of Cain” (Jude 11), which resulted in 2,000 years of fratricidal violence.
At the council of Nicaea (325 AD), Constantine settled a dispute between two major Christian factions over the Trinitarian nature of Christ. Siding with Athanasius, he condemned Arius and his followers, along with everyone else who did not share the former’s idea of the “truth,” as heretics. For the first time, “Christians” gained the power to attack their enemies with the sword and thus acquired the ability to “destroy both soul and body”. To quote Gibbons (Decline and fall of the Roman Empire):
The grateful applause of the clergy [those aligned with Athanasius] has consecrated the memory of a prince [Constantine] who indulged their passions and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them security, wealth, honors, and revenge; and the support of the orthodox faith was considered as the most sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan (313 AD), the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion. But this inestimable privilege was soon violated; with the knowledge of truth, the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the Catholic Church were afflicted and oppressed following the ascension of Empower Constantine in 324 AD. The conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict which announced their [non-Athanasius sects] total destruction. (Gibbons 1737-1794:401)
With Constantine’s consent, the catholic bishops sought revenge — nothing less than their heretical brother’s “total destruction” would suffice.
This explains in part why Cain, the first to murder his own brother, was such a relevant case study in the New Testament. His was a cautionary tale, used by Christ and the apostles to stress the importance of brotherly love. Otherwise, they cautioned, Christianity would be plunged into the same type of violence that marked the antediluvian era. Their intentions were good. But just as the mark of Cain – murder and revenge – was largely ignored by the antediluvian world, it was likewise neglected by Christendom.
Cain’s legacy after Christ
As has been shown, Cain’s inclusion in the New Testament is because he shared many similar characteristics to those exhibited by the false brother, of whom Diotrephes was a chief example. Cain was a powerful reminder to the ecclesia about the effects of pride, ignorance, and hate; dangerous characteristics, which were already present among some of the brothers and sisters in the first century AD.
Not only is Cain an example of the kind of wickedness that was and still is existent among the brethren, but because his actions set in motion a series of tragic events, which culminated with the earth’s destruction in the flood, his legacy is also a powerful exhortation for Christian believers on how it is possible for history to repeat itself. As the following comparison illustrates, the sequence of events that befell the antediluvian era is comparable to events occurring in the Christian era, to such a degree that the latter is a mirror image of the former:
- Abel And Christ
In the Antediluvian Era (AE): Abel, a righteous man, was murdered by his brother, Cain, a man who appeared to be God-fearing, but inwardly was proud, ignorant, and violent.
After Christ (AD): Christ, the son of God, “the mediator of a new covenant,” whose blood, “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel’s” (Heb 12:24), was murdered by his Jewish brothers; specifically the priesthood, who had the appearance of godliness, but inwardly were a “brood of vipers” (Matt 3:7). - Seth and the Disciples
AE: In the wake of Abel’s murder, Seth and others continued to spread God’s message by proclaiming His name (Gen 4:26).
AD: In spite of Christ’s death, his brothers, the disciples, continued to preach the word of God. - The Growth of the ecclesias
AE: The antediluvian ecclesia celebrated an initial period of growth, where men and women “called out to the
Lord” (Gen 4:26).
AD: The first century ecclesia met with initial success, attracting large groups of men and women throughout the eastern portion of the Roman world (Acts 6:7). - The Faithful aided by God
AE: Representing the ecclesia, Mahalael’s name, which means “blessed” or “praised of God” (Gen 5:14-15), suggests that faithful were aided by the Almighty, although the particulars are unknown. Cain’s ancestor, Mehujael, whose name means, “smitten of God” (Gen 4:18), suggests that God cursed his lineage, although the details are once again, omitted.
AD: God blessed the Christian ecclesia, which was evident in its growth in Judea and elsewhere. Moreover, God’s hand was visible in the many miracles, when people were healed or raised from the dead, or when apostles miraculously escaped death or imprisonment, spoke in different languages, and prophesied. On the other hand, the Jews were seemingly “cursed by God,” since they suffered heavy persecution under the Roman yoke, which climaxed in 70 AD, when Titus tore down the temple, slaughtered the people, and scattered the remnant. - The Decline of the Ecclesias
AE: After the ecclesia’s initial period of growth, the ecclesia began to decline, as Jared’s name suggests (Gen 5: 15-16). This decline may have been in the number of believers or in the quality of the worship. If the latter is correct, one likely cause of its corruption may have been the inclusion of pagan ideas via marriages between the believers and non-believers (Gen 6:2).
AD: By the close of the first century, the apostles, gifted with the Holy Spirit, had mostly died. The loss of these leaders resulted in the increase in the corruption of God’s word. Men such as Diotrephes arose with increasing frequency, creating divisions, spreading untruths, and preaching false doctrines. Thus, while so-called Christianity flourished in the second and third centuries, it was not representative of the true ecclesia of Christ. Those who remained true to the simplicity of Christ’s message either separated themselves or were themselves disfellowshipped from the greater Christian church (3John 10). One might also see a correlation between the marriage of the faithful and non-believers in the antediluvian era, with Christianity’s marriage of opportunity, convenience, and toleration with pagan superstition, philosophy, and gnosticism; a marriage contributing to the corruption of God’s word. - The Triumph of the Wicked
AE: Those who preached against the rising corruption on the earth were eventually murdered by wicked men, as was in the example of Enoch and Lamech (Gen 5:18-24; Gen 4:18-24). Enoch, a prophet of God, chastised Lamech’s polygamy, which wounded his pride and aroused in him the desire for revenge. Although Lamech’s attempt to murder Enoch was thwarted by God, nevertheless his intent to kill opened the door to further violence; the result of which was that the “whole earth was filled with violence” (Gen 6:11).
AD: Beginning as early as the mid-to-late first century, bitter disputes, arguments, and divisions stirred up hatred within the ecclesia. These disputes reached a fever-pitch by 325 AD, when Constantine elevated Christianity to official status as the Roman religion. At the Council of Nicaea, the un-baptized “Christian” emperor settled a theological dispute between two major factions: he established the one as catholic (the universal church) and the other as heretics. In doing so, he permitted and encouraged violent reprisals against heretics (some of whom were guilty of distorting God’s word and others who clung to the simplicity of the truth as originally preached by Jesus). In this way, Christianity came to be characterized by murder and revenge. Just as vengeance has no end without forgiveness, Christendom, being void of Christ’s true spirit, shed blood until “the whole was filled with violence” (ibid.). - The Disappearance of Faith
a) AE: The last three generations of the antediluvian era saw the decline of the ecclesia and the near-disappearance of faith on the earth. Although faith declined, the world thrived in its humanistic pursuits (Gen 4:20-22): Jabal’s herds increased and migrated throughout the earth; Jubal’s music and the culture produced by his instruments succeeded in distorting the memory of God’s truth whilst deifying man; Tubal-Cain’s tools aided progress and provided mankind with the means to wage war; and Naamah’s arts in either seduction or beautification presented a stumbling block for weak-willed men, luring them away from their faith and hastening the ecclesia’s decline.
b) AD: Like Jabal and his herds, Christendom marched unto the ends of the Roman earth and beyond. In the spirit of Jubal, the memory of Christ was twisted by paganism, philosophy, and gnostic ideas, which resulted in the deification of popes and the transformation of men and women into immortal saints. Just as Tubal-Cain’s weapons “filled the earth with violence,” Christian zeal and intolerance filled the earth with bloodshed. The meaning of his name, “bring forth an aspect of Cain,” describes the fratricide, which pitted Christian against Christian. It forced the true ecclesia to flee “into the wilderness” (Rev 12:6) of the Roman Empire in order to escape Christianity’s sword. Just as God preserved the truth in Noah and a handful of others, He likewise “prepared a place” for the ecclesia in the Roman wilderness for “1,260 days” (Rev 12:6), where the truth could be preserved against corruption. There it hid for nearly two thousand years, until the spirit of the Enlightenment allowed the “woman” to come forth without persecution. Even Naamah’s influence infected the church. Sexual depravity of all kinds was, and still is rampant among the clergy and the people. - The Faithful Remnant
AE: Although the ecclesia vanished, there were a few individuals who remained faithful; in particular, Noah and his family. Angry with His creation, the Almighty sent the waters of the Flood to destroy a corrupt and violent world, while saving a remnant of the faithful (Gen 6, 7, 8 & 9).
AD: From one end of the earth to the other, the world is corrupt and full of violence. There remains only a few, by comparison to the earth’s billions, who have “not soiled their clothes, fallen asleep, or forsaken their first love,” and who have “persevered, overcome, and remained true to His name” (Rev 2 and 3). These men and women await “the great and glorious Day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20), when, like the Flood, Christ will return to rid the earth of its corruption and violence, and set up God’s kingdom.
Conclusion
This comparison shows how closely the sequence of events in the antediluvian era has thus far been echoed in the Common Era. The repetition of antediluvian history by Christianity was not necessarily an inevitable one, but owing to human nature, it chose to ignore the lessons of the past and followed a similar, tragic course.
Christendom is stained with many sins, but none so much as Cain’s “way.” His legacy of pride and ignorance, and murder and revenge resulted in millions being slaughtered in Christ’s name. No wonder the apostle Jude, armed with a prophetic vision of Christianity’s tragic future, wrote to the ecclesia with as much straightforwardness as he could and with as much as emphasis as is possible when committing ink to paper: “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain!”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One