Source: TruthNet.org
I was talking with a Muslim person at an outdoor barbeque at my house last week in an attempt to share the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Muslims are taught by the Koran that God could never have a son because God doesn’t have a ‘consort’ and it is highly blasphemous to think God had sex with Mary.
I explained the logic Mohammed used in the Koran was faulty based on carnal thinking because God who created the heavens and the earth — God who make man from the dust of the ground — didn’t have to have sex with a women to beget a son. All he had to do was create seed in Mary’s womb, which he did. That seed, prophesied in Genesis 3:15, entered Mary’s egg and there was a normal conception.
Jesus is truly the only begotten son of God by divine conception. Adam is called God’s son but he was not begotten; he was formed from the dust of the ground and God breathed the breath of life into him and he became a living being.
While we were talking the subject of Cain and Abel came up. Before I discuss the implications, please read the record carefully yourself. Here it is:
Genesis 4 1-16 1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,
5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 “When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.
13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!
14 “Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
There is a full discussion of this account at TruthNet here, so I won’t go into great detail. The point I want to make is why Cain’s offering was rejected while Abel’s was accepted.
A Blood Sacrifice Was Required to Redeem Mankind
It’s very simple. Cain offered the works of his hands — the fruit from the garden he tilled and worked with his own hands — while Abel offered a blood sacrifice. Abel indicated he believed the prophesy given in Genesis 3:15, that a seed of the woman would be sacrificed (the bruised heel in the prophecy) to redeem man and crush the head (the rulership usurped from Adam) of the devil.
Adam was given the prophesy of Genesis 3:15 and interpreted it correctly. He passed this knowledge down to his sons, both Cain and Abel. Both Cain and Abel believed in God. This is obvious because they both brought offerings to him. But God only accepted Abel’s blood sacrifice.
Do you remember when Adam and Eve fell and they made clothing out of leaves to cover themselves? God showed them that their own works, in trying to cover themselves because of their sin, would not due. Instead God himself provided a blood sacrifice and took the skins of the slaughtered animal and made ‘coats of skins’ for them (read Genesis 3 for the full account of the fall and the temporary covering of man’s sin in the coats of skins). See Genesis 3:12 for the coats of skins.
The offerings by Cain and Abel repeat the same truth. Abel learned the lesson, but Cain did not.
There is No Blood Sacrifice with Mohammed’s Offering
What the Muslim religion all comes down to is a direct denial that Jesus is the Son of God and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. Muslims teach that Jesus was just made as Adam was, and that there was no conception, no ‘begetting’, no actual sonship by divine conception.
Muslims also teach that Jesus was not crucified. They say that at the last moment, Jesus asked who would volunteer to give their life for him and, of all persons, Judas offered. They claim that Judas was crucified in the place of Jesus and God simply took Jesus up to heaven alive, to return at a future date as a Muslim.
There is no blood sacrifice within the Muslim belief system to pay for man’s sin. They reject the entire teaching of the old testament, patterned in the blood sacrifices Israel was commanded to do repetitively, which signified the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross in payment for man’s transgressions. They reject the entire message of the Bible and say it was falsified.
With such teaching, all Muslims who reject Jesus as the Son of God who died on the cross are left without a redeemer. Their vain repetitious prayers (which Jesus commanded not to do since they are worthless) will not save them at the judgment. Their vain declaration that Allah is the only God and Mohammed is his prophet will do nothing to cross the bridge that separates them from the one true living God who created the heavens and the earth.
Muslims have followed the path of Cain and will receive the same fate — rejection by God.
The Story of Cain and Abel is the Story of Man’s Works vs. God’s Work in Christ
The Bible teaches two paths every person has the choice to take.
1) Try to save yourself by your ‘good works.’ Pray five times or twenty times a day, it does not matter. Cut yourself with stones to show how worthless you believe you are compared to God’s majesty. Don’t eat pork, don’t do this, don’t do that and if you do those things prescribed by your religion you will stand before God on the day of judgement and he will gladly usher you into his kingdom and perhaps give you a bunch of virgins to satisfy your lusty desires. Oh yes — you have to kill yourself as a martyr or die in Jihad to get that reward!
2) God would provide the blood sacrifice needed to redeem fallen man. To do this a man from the fallen race of man would have to a) be sinless and b) volunteer his sinless life as a sacrifice to atone for Adam’s sin. Well no normal offspring could qualify for this tremendous task because sin is transmitted through the blood and we are all offsprings of Adam.
What a dilemma!
But God made women so that the blood from the fetus never mixes with the blood from the mother. The blood in the fetus is soley supplied by the sperm — the seed. So God created seed in Mary’s womb and it entered one of Mary’s eggs and there was a normal conception. But the blood in that fetus came from the perfect seed God created in Mary’s womb — it was pure blood, uncontaminated from sin. This is why Judas said, “I have betrayed the innocent (pure) blood.”
Mary conceived and brought forth her first child and named him Jesus, which means “God is with us.” How was God with us? Because Jesus, being conceived from that pure seed, was the express image of God. Jesus was born without sin but was still ‘the son of David’, that is, he was still of the line of fallen man through Mary’s chromosomes. He was the first human since Adam to qualify to redeem man, but he still had to, by his own free will, live a sinless life.
Jesus lived his life in total obedience to his Father God. He did God’s will and not his own. In the garden, faced with his own bloody torture ad execution, he said boldly, “Not my will but your will be done.” Jesus was indeed crucified, was laid in the grave for three days and three nights, and then God raised him from the dead to see death no more.
Salvation is in the name of Jesus Christ Only
No other name is given under heaven by which men must be saved.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.
There is no salvation in Mohammed. His followers can scream and kill all they want but nothing will save them while they reject the son of God, Jesus and believe he gave his life on the cross in sacrifice. Until they believe God raised Jesus from the dead — which means they have to accept the fact that he was crucified and died, not simply ‘assumed’ into heaven — they remain without God and without hope in this world.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
Mohammed and Christ are foreshadowed in the account of Cain and Abel in the Bible. Which will you be like — Cain or Abel? If you want to be pleasing to God, reject trying to please God with the works of your own hands. Instead, accept the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son and believe God raised him from the dead.
Romans 10:9,10 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heat man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This is the Word of the Lord. Believe and be saved.