As I pointed out in my last piece, the Gnostic sect responsible for the “Gospel of Judas” is said to have worshipped Cain as a hero.

I find there are lots of people who view Cain in a favorable light, seeing him as some sort of poor chap given a bum rap by God.

PBS journalist Bill Moyers, for example, in his 1996 book, “Genesis; A Living Conversation,” argues, “How do we come to terms with the God who plays favorites? With the God whose own preference turns brother against brother, making them enemies? The God who is silent, as Mary was saying, in the moment of violence? The God who just doesn’t give answers to these deep questions?”

In an audio study over the internet by Oklahoma radio and TV preacher Les Feldick, he says, “I’m always amazed at how many people who have been in Church all their life have never caught why Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, and Cain’s was not.”

Similarly, my pastor, Richard Jordan (Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.), once observed in a study he gave, “It’s always fascinated me how every liberal, modernist do-gooder who ever lived quotes the verse, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ The answer is, ‘Yeah, you are.’ And that’s the statement of a murderer trying to alibi his way out before the Lord.”

The reason the story of Cain is so important to keep straight is it represents the establishment of Satan’s policy of evil on the earth and lays the groundwork for all of mankind’s ongoing rebellion against God.

“(Satan’s) ‘course for this world,’ with its catering to man’s own sinful nature, thus intensifying man’s enmity against God, got itself underway with Cain and his activities,” writes Bible scholar Keith Blades in his 1994 book, “Satan and His Plan of Evil.” “Cain was ‘of that wicked one.’ He was not only unjustified and belonged to Satan, being a part of his rebellious dominion, but he was also the active servant of Satan, especially when it came to murdering his brother and his activities that followed. Just as the ‘seducers’ and ‘false prophets’ which John was writing about were ‘children of the devil,’ pursuing a course among the saints that was of Satan’s making, so also did Cain. In fact, these ‘children of the devil’ John was writing about were following in the same course Satan had originally instituted way back in the beginning with Cain.”

As we know, when Adam and Eve sinned, God put them out of the Garden of Eden and implemented rules as well as jobs. They and their two sons, Cain and Abel, were instructed by God to approach Him for fellowship and acceptance by faith through an animal blood sacrifice.

While Abel had a career of sheep-herding and brought God an animal sacrifice as required, Cain, a farmer, rationalized and decided he’d offer a bloodless sacrifice made up of some of the food he’d grown.

“Here in Oklahoma we can picture very readily that maybe on the other side of the mountain was Abel with his sheep, and Cain said, ‘There’s no reason I should make my way over that mountain and barter with my brother Abel for one of his sheep. Surely if I do the very best I can, if I put together the most beautiful sacrifice for God, surely He will accept it,’ ” explains Feldick in his internet audio study. “But you see that rationalizing, and not doing what God said to do?

“Now think about it? Isn’t that what the vast majority of people are doing today? Instead of coming into the Bible and seeing what God clearly says through the Apostle Paul in this Age of Grace—what we have to believe for salvation, as found in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and Romans 10:9-10—they rationalize and say, ‘Well look, if I do such and such, or live in a such-and-such behavior pattern, surely God will accept me.’ Listen, God is not going to accept that person any more than He did Cain! It has to be God’s way!”

When Cain got angry, God came back with, “But, Cain, I’ve provided a lamb for you to sacrifice and all you’ve got to do is go to your tent door, pick it up and bring it to me.” Still, Cain, destitute of faith, wouldn’t do as he was told.

Envious of the fact his brother was right with God and he wasn’t, Cain killed his brother in a jealous fit.

Upon being asked by God about Abel’s whereabouts, Cain lied, saying he didn’t know, delivering his infamous line, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

In response to Cain’s unrepentant heart, God issued the punishment: “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; 12. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." (Gen. 4:11)

“Now Cain comes back and cries doesn’t he?” says Feldick. “He cries just like Esau did. Remember in Hebrews, Esau cried bitter tears, but he was still destitute of faith. . . All Cain would have had to do was just let his pride come down, say, ‘Oh God I’ve sinned, I’ll do what you want me to do, I’ll go and get that sacrifice, and bring to you.’ But Cain doesn’t, and you just see the man go down, down, down

From Gen 4:13, we know Cain cried to God, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”

“Cain’s gone, ‘Oh, no, I can’t take this,’ and this is a tremendous punishment for God to inflict upon a man who’s a farmer,” says Jordan. “Here’s a man with superior talent in agriculture and God says to him, ‘You’re not going to farm anymore.’ It’s a double curse because now he’s a fugitive, so Cain’s pretty upset.

“It’s the language of desperation but notice Cain’s not confessing that he’s a sinner and that he’s committed a great crime. It’s the language of self-pity. He’s not saying, ‘My sin is great,’ he’s saying, ‘You’re just unfairly punishing me for my sin.’ He’s saying, ‘I’m not so bad and you know you’re taking it out on me unmercifully.’ ”

Cain then argues to God that he’ll undoubtedly be tracked down and killed for his crime, but he’s assured security through a mark of protection God puts on him.

“God marked him and had he just believed God and trusted Him, he could have found rest in the provision God made for him, but he wouldn’t do that,” says Jordan. “ So what’s he do instead? Verse 16 says he went to dwell in the ‘land of Nod.’ The word ‘nod’ means ‘wandering.’ He goes away from the Lord and dwells in this land of wandering east of Eden. He pitches his tent out there and looks at that Garden and there’s this constant, continuous longing for what he lost in his heart but is unable to have.”

Cain got married and had a son, Enoch, for which he named the earth’s first city—built by Cain in direct defiance of God’s word.

“God said, ‘You’re going to wander from here to here to here and you’re never going to have a certain dwelling place,’ but Cain said, ‘It ain’t gonna be! I’m not gonna do it your way, I’m gonna do it my way!’ ” explains Jordan. “In the spirit of rebellion against God’s will, Cain went and dwelt in land of Nod, established a family and then built a city.”

By this time in history, there were at least 40,000 people on the planet. From Gen. 4:17-24, we’re told Cain’s city became very advanced.

“They were no bunch of cave-dwellers,” says Jordan. “They had all kinds of metallurgy and sciences going. They were advanced economically, culturally, commercially and politically. This was no mean little place.”

As Feldick says, “These (pre-Flood) people had everything going for them. They had cities; they had manufacturing; they had music and culture; they had livestock production. . . This Cainitic civilization is going to explode knowledge and technology—and it’s going to explode in population—but it’s totally destitute of a relationship with God. There is nothing spiritual in this civilization whatsoever. Remember now, God’s out of the picture. And when you force God out of a situation, there’s this natural phenomena, and who comes in? Satan.”

The point is that the first city, as well as with all subsequent cities, embodied and expressed man’s rebellion against God. The very spirit of the city, we see through Scripture, is man’s attempt to avoid the curse of God brought about by man’s sin.

“God places a curse on Cain and he builds a city to overcome the curse HIS way,” explains Jordan. “The first city is the result of Cain’s attempt to satisfy his own desire for security—a place belonging to him—and the whole issue is to express himself and be sufficient in himself. That’s why when he names the city, he names it after his own son. His own son represents what Cain can produce in life—the passing on of his life. That’s what the city is all about. It’s a monument to man’s attempt to raise a monument to his own self-sufficiency; his own desire to do it his way.”