I'm really excited about the series we embarked on last week, "Questions I've always wanted to ask God," that gives the opportunity for you to ask some really cool questions that maybe you've never had a chance to ask. Or maybe you were asked by someone else and didn't know the answer! Either way, this series is all about questions! This past Sunday we tried to answer the question, "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" . . . why there is evil in the world! We touched on the ideas that we live in a "fallen world," where man has "free will." But as we explored the Book of Job, we saw that in all the suffering that Job endured, God never really gave him an answer to why.
This week we'll be answering the question . . . If a person lives a good life helping others, giving of themselves for others, but doesn't consider themselves Christian, why would they not be welcome into heaven? Is being good, good enough? If you've ever wondered this, please make sure you're with us this Sunday!
I was also handed another question that intrigued me, the premise of the question is "Where did Adam's children get their wives?" If we are to believe that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, where did their wives come from? So I started doing some research and thought you might be interested in my conclusion. A lot of this information comes from a book by Josh McDowell entitled "Answers to Tough Questions."
In the book of Genesis we read: Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. Genesis 4:17
First question is why does this matter where she came from? Well if we believe in a literal translation of the Bible that the creation of the world happened just as the Book of Genesis' said, then we're faced with this question—where did this woman come from? One idea is that there were "other" people living on the earth. But this is directly in conflict with scriptures like 1st Corinthians 15:45 . . . So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Genesis 3:20 . . . And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Genesis 5:4 says, After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters, so if we believe in a literal Genesis' (and I do); with the long lives led by the people of that day, it is quite possible that Cain married a sister, niece or grandniece. Going further on with this thought process; McDowell says that in a conservative estimate that the population at the time could have been several million. And from our Sunday school flannel boards we see Cain and Abel as young men, but hundreds of years could have passed.
So the question is "Did they practice incest?" According to the Law of Moses, isn't that scripturally forbidden! First one of the commands that God gave to the earth was what? –"be fruitful and multiply," but this time is "pre-Moses." Also, McDowell says in his book, "Since Adam and Eve were created directly by God, and perfect, it can be presumed that their genes were perfect. When sin entered the world at the time of the fall, bringing with it death, disease and destruction, the gene pool would gradually become corrupted. Incest was prohibited in Moses' time, from a biological standpoint, because it now was dangerous and resulted in deformed or otherwise defected offspring. At the initial formation of the family structure in Cain's day, it is difficult to presume what happened with intermarriage. Thus, we cannot be sure to what extent incest occurred. One thing is certain: after God's ordained family structure stabilized, incest was sin.
I hope that answers the question that I was asked and I hope that you, the reader, will either agree or disagree! But don't just take it on my word, get your Bible out and read it! Remember, we've got a few more weeks of this series, and if you have a question, please send an e-mail to mitch.caton@gmail.com.
Have a great week, and bring someone to church Sunday . . . you could save their life!
Mitch
No comments:
Post a Comment