Adam and Eve were the progenitors of fallen humanity720. Their disobedience put a temporary end to the prospect of eternal life for all humanity:
“As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men”721
Adam is the type and federal head of fallen humanity that lives under the reign of death. Cain who was in a literal sense the firstborn of fallen creation is the type of individual reprobates, being those who become rejected by themselves rejecting the interior witness of Christ in their hearts. In his short epistle, Jude warns against false teachers who would come into the Church, whom he describes as deluded, defiled, disregarders of authority and blasphemers of the glories, both barren and uprooted so twice dead. He adds:
“Woe to them for they have gone in the way of Cain”722
Cain was a murderer, not a false teacher, yet he is referred to in type: the human first-plant and the first person to be cursed by God and given over to the devil who according to the Genesis account he was potentially capable of mastering. Scripture affirms Cain to be wicked, satanic and the type of those devoid of moral restraint or compassionate love – inhumane, heartless psychopaths:
“For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous”723
Cain’s parents had been banished from the paradise garden and the source of eternal life. However, they and their offspring had not been banished from JHWE’s benign presence724. They continued to worship and bring offerings to God, as did Cain and Abel. But after the elder son’s defiance in rejecting God’s personal plea to him to resist the Sinful One crouching at the portal of his soul, after slaughtering his righteous brother a further degree of banishment from God’s presence was established in his case:
“My punishment is more than I can bear; surely you have driven me out this day
from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from your face”725
Cain - the first defaulter from the Universal Covenant of life
Cain defaulted from covenant for wilfully defying the God who had pleaded with him and failing to do what he was perfectly capable of doing: maintain his integrity and thereby not permit the Evil One to get the better of him by slaughtering his brother and showing His contempt for His Maker. Having defaulted, he becomes alienated from the rest of humanity (“whoever finds me will kill me”) and from God’s providential care (“from today I will be 720 1Cor15:22
721 Rom5:18. This and similar seemingly absolute-universalist statements by Paul are resolved once one acknowledges the existence of an inclusive covenant into which all enter but some default 722 Jud11a
723 1Jn3:11-12
724 Gen4:1,3,4 cf. 4:14,16
725 Gen4:13-14
112
hidden from Your face”). Cain is the type of those who become entirely alienated from God (the godless), having rejected and subsequently lost the witness of the divine will for humane living provided to the spirit and referenced by the conscience. Externally such will still be aware of standards of acceptable behaviour and will maintain it to a degree to be accepted in society; so even they do not usually exhibit “absolute depravity”.
As for such who operate within the Church to pervert doctrine or bring about schisms, a still higher degree of subtlety and sophistication is required if an agent of Satan is to be transformed into an agent of light726. To appear the spiritual master, apart from being erudite and voluminous, such must incorporate much that is seemingly sound and spiritual within the poison they are peddling if the faithful are to be deceived. Their true nature and intentions will be discerned by their character and legacy, but by then it can be too late; the damage will have been done.
For here is another mystery: God through His only begotten Son created all things including the human soul, but they were not all planted by Him727. Who was planted by whom will be determined by the outcome - whether they are finally rooted up728, but from a human perspective it will have been a matter of free will. Similarly, the elect are those who from a human perspective respond to the gospel and persevere in the faith, even if from God’s perspective they are foreknown and were divinely enabled to apprehend Christ.
Defaulting covenant is referred to in the New Testament as becoming reprobate ( adokimoi –
disqualified) or being removed from the Book of life729. No names are ever added to this book, only removed, which is the outworking of an inclusive covenant.
The counter-church
Those who go in the way of Cain could be said to be an inverted image of that other vocational group called out from the world to go in the way of Christ. Like Christians, the devil’s children are also no longer their own; they are in the ownership and service of another730; they too are spiritually directed and empowered by the effectual working of their lord731; they too are no longer one of the lost: the “sheep without a shepherd” upon whom Christ will have compassion732. These are not lost for they have found their herdsman or rather he has found them. He had been prowling around seeking whom he may devour733; he had crouched at the portal of their souls desiring to possess them. It looked promising, and so he had sifted them as wheat to see if there be any underlying faith within them734. Such an analysis will appear obscure and arcane to many: but it is scripturally based and pertains to the mystery of evil; by far the most intriguing aspect of divine providence required to unlock the Mystery of God.
726 2Cor11:13-14
727 Rom9:21,22; Mt15:13
728 Mt15:13
729 Rev20:15
730 1Jn3:12
731 Eph2:2
732 Mt9:36
733 1Pet5:8
734 Lk22:31-32
113
The elect: assigned to Christ
The elect are planted by God and earmarked for Christ, as affirmed in His high-priestly prayer:
“I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of this world. They were
Yours – You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word”735
Note how our Lord prays: “they were Yours”. Surely everything is God’s, but He means they were of God and not of Satan, like Cain who was of the wicked one. The genitive (of Satan) pertains neither to creation nor procreation but to planting, ownership and party.
The wheat and darnel: inseparable within the gospel age
The two planters of souls are figured in the parable of the wheat and darnel736, which has particular relevance to the subject of this chapter as well as providing an indicator for the age to come. Whilst it is only a parable, it is explained by Jesus Himself on this occasion. It will not do to try to restrict it to the Church as Augustine and many others have attempted. Of course, it is analogous to the visible Church and the invisible wheat within her, for those in Christ who bare no fruit will be rejected737, but Jesus explicitly tells us i t
pertains to the world and everyone in it738. The parable suited to the Church is Paul’s, concerning the “great house” and the vessels of honour and dishonour within it739. In Jesus’
parable, the wheat represents all men and women who are planted by God in the sense described above. The darnel represents human seed planted by Satan740 whom Jesus specifically describes in the parable as “children of the Wicked One”741. Jesus characterises them as distinguishable by their own wickedness and the fact they ensnare others into sin742, just as in nature darnel can damage and poison wheat. As the darnel is gathered and burnt, a similar fate awaits the satanic seed, but not until the end of this age. Keeping in mind God’s undoubted sovereignty and the fact that Christ has already triumphed over these evil entities, their continued presence must be by divine prerogative; likewise, the planting or assigning arrangement.
A further reference to this mystery is provided by Paul, for the seed planted by Satan equates to the instruments of God’s retribution created for destruction to whom the apostle refers743. In the same chapter, he mentions “instruments of His mercy” which he makes clear exclusively refer to elect Jews and Christians. It is therefore assumed by many there are two groups whereas in fact there are three. The third are the bulk of humanity who are neither destined to be co-inheritors with Christ, nor those “created only to be captured and destroyed”744; the souls who Paul says have been adjusted or adapted 745, 735 Jn17:6
736 Mt13:24-30
737 Jn15:2
738 Mt13:38
739 2Tim2:19-21
740 Mt15:13
741 Mt13:38
742 Mt13:41
743 Rom9:22
744 Rom9:22 and 2Pet2:12
745 Greek: katertismina
114
being foreknown and destined for satanic use to fulfil God’s wondrous purposes, such as having His own Son betrayed and executed for the salvation of mankind and the ultimate defeat of His arch-enemy. This is typified in the example Paul himself provides in Romans chapter nine to explain the purpose of such vessels of destruction: the exaltation, hardening of heart and final humiliation of the Egyptian Pharaoh to display JHWE’s power to save and deliver His people from their oppressors.
Three eschatological outcomes are evident in Scripture old and new. In God’s Revelation to Jesus Christ relayed through John, the largest eschatological group are pictured as the “nations of those who are saved”, whose kings bring their treasures to the city in which Christ is enthroned with His elect who are privileged to see Him face to face746.
In Isaiah, they were (under Plan A) those who from Sabbath to Sabbath would come to the holy city where the elect dwell with their Lord and bow in the Lord’s presence, “and on their way out they will see the corpses of those who rebelled against God who will be an abhorrence to all humanity” 747. In the Gospels they are the sheep of Matthew 25; the elect having already been gathered to Christ to be spared the climax of tribulation748. In the epistle to the Romans the majority are those longing to be liberated as children of God who do not have the first fruit of the Spirit waiting for the revelation of the sons of God who do749. As for the Lord’s related parables, darnel is never converted into wheat nor goats into sheep – they are different in in nature from their conception. Rather, some of the lost sheep are found; the soiled wheat recovered and “saved to the uttermost” – hence the three categories. God’s special blessings and curses are applied to a small proportion of the human family as was the case in populating the postdiluvian world. The Book of Enoch distinguishes between the “holy and elect” on the one hand who will be honoured at His coming, and others who will not be honoured but having repented will be “saved in His Name” for “His compassion is great”750. As always, there is a third group who will be unwilling or unable to repent or bow the knee and they will not be spared.
Some will understandably be mystified by Romans chapter 9 and the concept of souls adapted for destruction in terms of God’s justice. As Paul wrote, it is not for His own pleasure that God endures these people’s abhorrent ways, but for the ultimate benefit of those He would bring to glory (v22,23). As for God’s justice, these are often persons of great renown751 who enjoy wealth, power and prestige in the world such as the example of Pharaoh given in Romans 9. As well as enjoying a sumptuous lifestyle they may be influential in politics, industry or religion (for sure), and be greatly esteemed and respected, even by the good, as were certain hypocritical Pharisees in Jesus’ time, and as recently as the last century, a democratically elected Chancellor of Germany. For often being respectable these people will not be easy to identify. Only God and on occasions those filled with His Spirit may gaze into the window of their souls and discern the emptiness there752. That pertains to the fact that evil is not a metaphysical entity, rather it is a deprivation – an absence of good.
Likewise, the people under consideration in this chapter are not so much defined by what 746 Rev21:22-27; 22:4
747 Is66:23-24
748 Mt24:31,40,41
749 Rom8:21-23
750 Enoch50:3 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Enoch_(Charles)/Chapter_50
751 Cf. Gen6:4
752 Acts13:9-10
115
they possess and practice as by what they lack (a living spirit, a functioning conscience, compassion, truth), and so fail to practice.
Such people leading the Jewish community in Jesus’ day could not fool the Saviour who declared quite plainly: “You are of your father the devil”753. That was not the way Jesus generally addressed or approached “sinners”; the multitudes whom He loved and regarded as sheep without a Shepherd754. Others within the devil’s party more readily display their affiliation, such as those criminals who abuse, dehumanize or destroy others without mercy or remorse and take pleasure in doing so. The behaviour of such can be so inhumane as to be beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Their absence of conscience, remorse or empathy for their victims has been the common observation of judges, juries and victims’
families when such people are brought to justice. For if the divine light provided to the mind’s eye of natural man still leaves him in the dark and in need of spiritual healing, how deep will a man’s darkness be if the eye itself is darkened. As Jesus expressed the matter, though it is invariably mistranslated, “if the light that is in you is darkness, how much darker is the darkness”755. Thankfully, most people demonstrate by their moral restraint and empathy that they have a working conscience. Their mind’s eye is enlightened, yet they will continue in a measure of darkness until they are finally liberated from the bondage of corruption into which they were born756 or encounter the grace of the gospel in the meantime.