THE WAY OF CAIN: THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE NEVER ADDRESSED

            The first man born into this world was a murderer.  His mother, Eve, had higher hopes for him: she thought that Cain might be the promised savior who would crush the serpent’s, Satan’s, head.  Instead he manifested a violent, jealous, and vindictive nature that drove him to murder his brother, Abel.

            Of Cain’s direct descendants, one stands out as more evil than Cain himself.  His name was Lamech, and he prided himself in his murderous ways:

Lamech said to his wives,

"Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me;
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(Genesis 4:23-24)

            In the New Testament book of Jude, we read that there are people who have chosen the way of Cain:

Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain . . .”  (Jude 1:11)

             As Charles R. Erdman pointed out, Adam’s sin was disobedience to God, but Cain’s and Lamech’s sins were “utter disregard and defiance of God.”  It has been noted that often what parents excuse in moderation, their children indulge in in excess. 

            The root of violence in our world is sin.  That’s the reality that is never acknowledged, and therefore is never addressed.  It is a hypocritical society that decries violence in schools and yet forbids students to carry a Bible to school, that stops students from praying over their lunch, or mentioning God in a valedictory speech.  When a society pursues the way of Cain, disregard for God and His Word, God will give that society over to its desires and it will suffer the natural consequences.  (See Romans 1:18-32)

            There is, thankfully, another way!  Adam and Eve had another son, Seth.  Of the line of Seth we read:

To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26, emphasis added.)

The one who stands out in the line of Seth is a man named Enoch.

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)

            Twice in the space of just four verses, the Bible calls attention to what set Enoch apart: Enoch walked with God!  And the only way to walk with God is by faith in God’s Word, and that’s why the writer to the Hebrews states: 

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. (Hebrews 11:5, emphasis added.)

            Erdman noted that Enoch had the same inherited genes as the murderers Cain and Lamech, yet he walked with God by faith, and as a consequence, he was pleasing to God!

            God’s judgment at last came down upon that progressively wicked world, but He would preserve mankind and begin to form a special people of God through Enoch’s great-grandson, another man God calls “righteous” – Noah.

            The Beloved Disciple, John, urged Christians to shun the way of Cain, but to pursue genuine, biblical love:

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.  (1 John 3:11-12)

            As long as our secular society chooses to shut God and His Word out of public life, we can only expect more violent manifestations of the way of Cain.

DEPRESSION AND HOLINESS

There are plenty of preachers, Christian writers, and professors who are quick to say that depression and holiness are totally incompatible.  They look at depression as sin, or at least the result of personal sin.

 Well, every human malady is ultimately a result of what happened in Genesis 3.  We are fallen creatures.  Each genuine Christian has his or her share of faults that distort the perfect image of Christ that we show to the world.  But before we jump to the conclusion that a person who is suffering depression cannot possibly be also holy, we should consider the cases of some of the most conspicuously holy men in Church history.

The first that comes to my mind is the godly David Brainerd (1718-1747).   Brainerd was a pioneer missionary to the North American Indians, and was known for his intense devotion to Christ and his long, early morning seasons of prayer.  Brainerd suffered from what was then called “consumption,” which took his life at age 29.  Brainerd also suffered from depression.  His diaries, edited at Brainerd’s request and published by Jonathan Edwards, reveal frequent bouts with depression during which he felt himself an unworthy servant of Christ.  We might theorize that his physical disease predisposed him to a depressed mental state, but the history of the Brainerd family reveals a similar temperament through generations.  Though Brainerd did not live to marry and have children, a relative some generations later commented that a “dark cloud” seems to hover over the Brainerd family.  Yet David Brainerd’s Journal is a devotional classic that has inspired generations of missionaries on both sides of the Atlantic!

 Upon my return from missionary work in Italy, I got into a discussion of David Brainerd with a very godly seminary professor I had studied under.  “Tom,” he said, “my students today say that David Brainerd was wrong in not taking better care of his health.  What do you think?”  I answered, “I’m not worried about there being too many David Brainerds in the ministry!”

 Another conspicuously godly missionary who suffered from bouts of depression was Henry Martyn (1781-1812), who translated the New Testament into Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian before his untimely death.  He lived long enough, however, to present the Persian New Testament to the shah of Iran in the palace.  The shah was so impressed that he ordered that a passage from the book be read in his court every morning!  One historian wrote that there was “no more heroic figure in 400 years of English history than Henry Martyn.”  And who inspired Henry Martyn to pursue such holy devotion to the cause of Christ?  Martyn’s biographer writes:  ". . . in the autumn of 1802 he read the life of David Brainerd and found his hero.  He who would know Martyn must ask what manner of man was that Brainerd who called out his depths of admiration."  (Henry Martyn, Constance E. Padwick)

Brainerd’s influence also reached the heart of the godly Robert Murray M’Cheyne, of who it is written, “To know him was the best interpretation of many texts” (The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Andrew A. Bonar).  M’Cheyne’s journal entry for June 27, 1834, reads, “Life of David Brainerd.  Most wonderful man!  What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancement, victories, within thy torn bosom!  I cannot express what I feel when I think of thee.  Tonight, more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.”  Henry Martyn also had his impact on M’Cheyne:  “November 12 (1834).  Reading H. Martyn’s Memoirs.  Would I could imitate him, giving up father, mother, country, house, health, life, all for Christ.  And yet, what hinders?  Lord, purify me, and give me strength to dedicate myself, my all to thee!”

The last example I would like to offer (though the examples could go on and on, and include even the great preacher Charles Spurgeon) is the poet and hymn writer William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) (1731-1800).   Cowper’s episodes with depression were by far the worst of any discussed here.  More than once he had to be hospitalized because of his emotional condition.  Cowper was a good friend of John Newton, the former slave ship captain who gave us the beloved hymn Amazing Grace.  Newton and Cowper collaborated on the volume of hymns titled, Olney Hymns.  One of Cowper’s hymns in that collection reveals his deep longing for the heavenly peace that he knew only God’s Holy Spirit could supply:

O for a closer walk with God,

            A calm and heavenly frame,
            A light to shine upon the road
            That leads me to the Lamb.

 

Return, O holy Dove,

            Return, Sweet messenger of rest;
            I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
            And drove Thee from my breast.

 

The dearest idol I have known,

            Whate’er that idol be,
            Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
            And worship only Thee.

 

So shall my walk be close with God,

            Calm and serene my frame;
            So purer light shall mark the road
            That leads me to the Lamb.

 

Cowper also wrote There Is A Fountain, that speaks of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, as the Apostle John promised in 1 John 1:7, 9.

 Cowper’s case reminds us that it is not unusual for highly creative, artistic people to suffer severe depression.  The cause or causes of chronic depression are still largely a mystery.  From a biblical perspective, we know it is one consequence of our fallen condition, and we know that God’s Word and God’s Spirit can bring relief.  But we must never conclude that because someone suffers periodic bouts of depression, they are not holy.  Brainerd, Martyn, and Cowper, among many others, contradict that conclusion!

 Note:  A helpful book on this subject is Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cures, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

DEALING WITH EVIL

            The hearts of all decent people, not only in America but around the world, ache along with the parents, family members, classmates and friends of those precious children and others slain in Newton, Connecticut.  Our sadness is mixed with a sense of outrage that these senseless mass murders continue and nothing seems to be able to abate them.  Instead, they are increasing in frequency.

            As expected, gun control advocates scream for “action” to control gun ownership, as though the guns were what motivated that troubled young man to do what he did.  While we in America tend to compare this tragedy with previous ones in our own country, notably Columbine, we should not forget the mass murder of young people on the Norwegian island of Utoya by convicted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.  Before going on his shooting spree on the island, Breivik set off a large bomb in central Oslo.  Altogether, Breivik killed at least 91 of his countrymen, many of them young people.  (The Observer, Saturday, 23 July 2011) Yet Norway, along with most of Western Europe has strict gun registration and control laws, which include the prohibition of high-capacity ammunition clips, the kind Breivik used.  Breivik shopped the world for his arsenal.  In a 1,500-page manifesto written the day of the massacre, Breivik wrote: “e-Bay is your friend.”

            No, the problem lies not in the weapons, but in the killers themselves, and more precisely, in what drives them to such atrocities.  Now at this point our secular world will turn to psychology, psychiatry, and sociology for answers, and wishfully, for solutions.  But those disciplines, useful as they may be within their limits, have failed to discover the real source of the problem – evil.  Indeed, it is not fashionable in our post-modern (or is it post-post-modern?) era even to acknowledge the existence of evil, or sin.

            The Bible has the answer, but it’s not a popular one:

 

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  (Romans 5:12) 

 

            That “one man” was our first father, Adam.  Genesis 5:3 informs us that although Adam was created in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26, 27), his children were born “in his own image,” a distortion of the character of God, twisted by sin!

            So we are all by nature sinners, capable of horrible acts that we dare not imagine.  But, wait a second!  We may all be sinners, but we are not all mass murderers, child killers!  True, but left in our natural state, apart from the grace of God, we are vulnerable to the manipulation of Satanic forces.  Paul describes that condition in his instructions to his young protégé Timothy:

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.  (2 Timothy 2:24-26 Emphasis added)

            Those who have not received the grace of God in the gift of His Son, are vulnerable to the devil’s influence and manipulation.  And those who pursue the occult invite further demonic control.  Jesus told us that the devil was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), and he moves people to murderous acts.

            Thankfully, God has given us a cure for both our inherent sin and the influence and control of Satan.  Paul continues in Romans 5 –

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.  (Romans 5:17)

            Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind.  His grace is the cure for evil.  And as for Satan, the devil, the enemy of God and man, the Apostle John sounds his judgment:

 The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.  (1 John 3:8)

            The solution to the problem of evil is a personal relationship with God through faith in His Son as Lord and Savior.  Everything else is a bandage on a deadly spiritual cancer.  

          

 

How Badly Do I Really Want to Know?

I have noticed lately that many professing Christians, even some pastors, have given up trying to understand some of the more difficult passages of Scripture.  There are many reasons for this, more than we can deal with in this article, but one question we should all ask ourselves if we claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God: How badly do I really want to understand God's Word?

Daniel received some visions and prophecies from God that were difficult even for him to understand.  Chapters 9-11 are among those passages that many preachers these days gloss over with generalizations, if they treat them at all.  But notice Daniel's attitude toward understanding the Word:

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession . . ."  (Daniel 9:3-4a)

In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.  (Daniel10:2-3)

To Daniel, as it was to Job (Job 23:12), the Word of God was more precious than food or sleep!  Daniel knew that the only true interpreter of Holy Scripture was (and is) God Himself!  He knew that through earnest prayer and confession, God would grant him understanding.  Since Daniel was a prophet receiving special revelation, God sent an angel to explain the vision and prophecy.  Believers today have a constant divine companion and Comforter to guide us in our understanding of Scripture -- the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27)

While the Holy Spirit moved upon Daniel to give us inspired Scripture (2 Peter 1:21), every believer has that same Holy Spirit to illuminate and give us understanding of those Scriptures.  Again, the question is, How badly do I really want to understand?

Daniel's determination paid off!  God sent His angel who had to fight off demonic forces to get the message through to His choice servant. 

And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come."  (Daniel 10:11-14) 

Let's not shy away from deep passages of Scripture; let's seek the guidance of God's Holy Spirit for understanding.  Let's also study the whole Bible more diligently because the best commentary on Scripture is Scripture.  Remember, we have one thing that even Daniel did not have:  a complete Bible!   

So "Be diligent to show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."  (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB) 

What Have They Done to My Hymn, Lord?

Back in 1970, folk singer Melanie Safka charmed the music world with What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?  I have no idea what she was singing about, but it was a lot of fun listening to her plaintive voice.

As I listen to contemporary Christian music, however, and try to sing along to new versions of old hymns, I can imagine hymn writers like Isaac Watts, William Williams, Frances Havergal, Charles Wesley, and Robert Robinson asking, “What have they done to my hymn, Lord?”

The revisers of modern hymnals have taken such liberties with the original texts that the deep scriptural truth and the author’s basic meaning are often lost.  Most disconcerting is when the redactors deem it necessary to “correct” the theology of the original author, an author usually more steeped in biblical theology that the corrector!

One category of revisions is the editing of biblical imagery.  When Robert Robinson wrote “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come,” in his great hymn “Come, Thou Fount,” he could be confident that his congregation and others in America and England would know the reference was from 1 Samuel 7:12 –

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us.’ 

The word Ebenezer has been eliminated in many hymnals and the entire phrase re-worded.  Did the revisionists fear that today’s worshipers would confuse the reference with Ebenezer Scrooge?  Shouldn’t we, then, be elevating the biblical knowledge of those who attend our services? 

Another example is the elimination of biblical imagery that just seems too harsh for our modern ears.  In Isaac Watts’ moving hymn, “Alas, And Did My Savior Bleed?” ( or “At the Cross,” the later version with chorus), the original version has these words: “Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”  Worm!  Well, that was just too much for our healthy self-esteem to tolerate!  So revisionists changed it to “sinners such as I” or “such a one as I”.  But “worm” was not too strong for King David when he wrote Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach and despised by the people” (v.6).  Neither did Job shy away from even stronger language:

How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?" (Job 25:4-6 NKJV)

Hymns from what is known as The Golden Age of Christian Hymnody (1700 to mid-1800s) were rich in Bible references and biblical theology, as well as biblical psychology.  Biblical thinking gave birth to biblical poetry.

Another issue in the revised hymns is the name of God.  The traditional English rendering of God’s covenant name, Jehovah, is an irresistible target for revision.  I can hear the argument: “We don’t really know how the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) was pronounced, but it was probably something like “Yahweh” or “Yahwah.”  The English Jehovah was a mistaken incorporation of the Masoretic vowel points for Adonai, put there so that Jewish worshipers would know to say “Adonai” when they came to that Name.  Well, this is all very interesting from an intellectual perspective, but to many generations of English-speaking Christians, the name Jehovah does mean something, something precious.  When I sing or hear Frances Havergal’s rousing paean to our loving, sovereign Lord, my faith takes flight:  “Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, finding as He promised perfect peace and rest.”  I haven’t seen any revisions of that hymn, and I hope no one tampers with it.

One of the greatest hymns to come out of Wales, that land of song, is William Williams’ “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”  A scene from the 1941 film How Green Was My Valley, showed Welsh coal miners returning home with blackened faces and clothes, filing past picket fences, and singing that powerful hymn as only a Welsh male choir can.  How it stirs the soul!  Yet some revisionist couldn’t let “Jehovah” stand!  The hymn title and the lyrics were changed to Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer.  (It seems the hymn suffered not only from the name Jehovah, but from the archaic “thou”!)

Names vary in pronunciation from one language to another; witness the Spanish pronunciation of the popular Latin American name “Jesus”.  To quibble over pronunciations is absurd.  Shakespeare’s Juliet had it right: “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  And I will still sing, as a prayer, “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.”

It comes down to this: If someone wants to do a remake of a popular song, have at it. I may like it or dislike it.  But when we’re dealing with the expression of our worship, our sacred hymnody, we should approach it with reverence, and only with great reluctance and with solid biblical reason make alterations. 

True, our hymns do not have the status of Scripture, but they are meant to reinforce our understanding of Scripture and express our biblical worship.  That is a high and noble task, and the godly men and women of that Golden Age did it well. 

Let the beauty and truth of their hymns keep on singing!

Suggested reading:  101 Hymn Stories and 101 More Hymn Stories.