Perhaps greed was not the motive Cain had in mind when he presented his offering to God. I suspect only God and Cain know ultimately why his offering was rejected. I often wondered why Cain’s sacrifice was less favorable- certainly it was not because he had so many mouths to feed. If indeed it was the quality of the offering that God needed (and did not receive), I suppose Cain should have given Him the best. Judaic and Islamic interpretations of this story differ from the simplified explanations that I grew up hearing in sunday school. Personally, I’m still unconvinced about the motives for God’s rejection of Cain’s offer, and why it was necessary for Cain to slay his brother.

It’s what you would expect of uber-liberal Christianity: psychiatric, spiritually empty, vague and watered down. But what struck me is that when looking at this verse, he sees the source of mankinds suffering as being God’s sin. You see, we are all misunderstood children, just trying to do our best before God. Cain was no different, and yet that mean ol’ God rejected Cain’s sacrifice, which was a sin for God. So Cain goes and kills his brother . . . what could you expect of him? He was hurting inside, trying to deal with the loneliness and rejection, blah blah blah.

It’s the worst kind of justifying I have ever seen. Making our sins God’s fault. If I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Tried Calvinist Gadfly. Read about justification. Feel those who believe we are saved by works are both right and wrong. Those who believe we are saved by faith are both right and wrong.

We are told that we must have works. Works are actions that show what we really believe. A real question is if we can truly have faith if we have not works. We are not saved by those works, for we are only saved by faith in Christ. But the way it is posed tells us that we have not faith if we have not works. We are told to put our money where our mouth is. Professing faith is easy, the Lord expects more than that. As usual he gives us the benefit of the doubt.

I am only aware of three places in scripture that mention where Christ cleaned the temple. These seem to indicate two different occasions, one near the beginning of his teaching and the other near the very end. In John 2:13 to 16 at the start of his mission to teach us the good news we read that “when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple,”. If he was in the midst of anger would he have stopped to braid together a “scourge”? He comes across to me as a very careful individual who carefully thought out the ramifications of what he was saying and doing.

When presented with a woman taken in the very act, he stooped down and wrote in the dust. I believe he carefully considered his actions at length before answering those who were trying to trap him.

An instance also sometimes claimed as an act of anger is that of the fig tree that he caused to wither. A close reading does not show any anger then either. He set us an example, and anger does not seem to be a part of that example.

As usual I both enjoyed the presentation of an idea by La Shawn and the comments brought out by those who have commented on it.

Bless you all

Maybe…but I think it also goes to “thou shalt not have strange gods before Me”. We always think of “strange gods” as being Baal and the Golden Calf, but really, it’s _anything_ we make more important than God. If you have a spouse/sweetheart who “can’t” come to a special dinner because s/he has to work late, don’t you wonder who comes first? Sometimes it’s just life that gets in the way, but if something else _always_ gets in the way, you have to wonder. Talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words. Cain valued something more than God…Able didn’t.

“for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God”

With all due respect Lashawn, Anger is almost always a sin.

There is such a thing as righteous indignation but it is rare. Very rare.

Usually when I tell Christians that, they respond by saying Christ got angry when he threw the money changers out of the temple. But if you look at the Scripture closely it doesnt say he was angry. Only that he threw the money changers out of the temple.

Very respectfully,

TM

Cool beans.

Thanks for the comments on Cain and Abel.

This reminds me somewhat of a recurrent theme in life – some of the worst atrocities are committed by those close to people – often their own family – because people trust them, and are therefore vulnerable.