Was Cain an offspring of the serpent?
57-0925 QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.HEBREWS.
57. Was Cain an offspring of the serpent? (This is a good one.) If so, why did Eve not conceive until after Adam knew her?
« 178 † The same… The next question’s the same…?…
58. Was it a–a literal tree from which Eve ate the fruit? She saw that it was good for food.
All right, brother, sister, ever who it was, let’s go back into Genesis and find out something here. Let’s go to Genesis 3:8, if you will. All right, and listen real close now.
« 179 † Now, I’ll bring the story up. It was all pure and holy; there was no sin or no defilement. Now, I’ll get the–your–this first question first. The tree in the life–the middle of the garden, in the midst of the tree… The tree was the woman. Now, I’ll prove that to you by the Scriptures if you’d just be patiently a few minutes.
We’ll get first whether she was–whether she conceived before she knew Adam or not, or ‘fore… Listen.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden, and in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
And the LORD… called unto Adam, and said… Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked;… (Now, he didn’t know that the day before; something had happened; something revealed to him that he was naked.)… and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou were naked? Has thou eaten of the tree,…
Eating of the tree make him realize he was naked? As I’ve often said (This is no joke; I don’t mean it for a joke.), “But if eating apples caused women to realize they’re naked, we better pass the apples again.” See? It wasn’t naked… It wasn’t a tree, a apple they eat; it was sexually.
« 181 † Watch.
… has thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman who thou givest me, to be with me, she gave me… the tree, and I did eat.
And the LORD… said unto the woman, What is this that thou has done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me,… (Huh?)… The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (Long time before she had conceived, see, by Adam.)
Adam knew her, and she conceived and brought forth–and brought forth Abel.
« 183 † But I want to ask you, just from a literal standpoint. Now, to prove to you that she was the tree: every woman is a fruit tree. How many know that? Aren’t you the fruit of your mother? Certainly, you are. And in the midst of the fruit, or in the midst of the tree, the fruit that she did not touch…
If you’ll notice, wasn’t Jesus the Tree of Life? Didn’t He promise over in St. Matthew–or St. John the 6th chapter, “I’m the Bread of Life that come from God out of heaven”?
« 185 † If a man eats of the woman… And look, through the birth of–by the woman, we all die; ’cause we’re subject to death (Is that right?) through a birth of the woman. Through the birth of the man, we all live forever. The woman is a tree of death; the man is a tree of life; for the woman doesn’t even bear life in her. That’s exactly right. The–the life germ comes out of the man (see?) correctly, goes into the woman. And the woman’s nothing but a incubator; and the baby’s not connected, only the navel cord. Not one speck of the mother’s blood’s in the baby; borned in her blood, but not one speck in the baby. Go find… Read the doctor book, or ask your doctor, you’ll see. It’s not there, no, sir, not one speck of it at all. She’s just the egg; that’s all. And the life comes from the man.
That is a beautiful type to show that through the woman, through natural birth, we all have to die, because we’re dead to begin with; and only through the Man Christ Jesus can we live. And there’s the two trees in the garden of Eden. Can’t you see it?
« 187 † And watch. And in that day there was a Cherubim set a guard this tree, that if they ever tasted that Life Tree, they would all live forever. How many knows that? They’d all live forever. And the first time they could taste it… The Angel said, “We’ll guard It.” And they put Cherubims there with their flaming swords towards the east to guard It. They took It back to the east, and guarded that Tree with flaming swords so they could not get in to get It (this Tree).
And when Jesus come, He said, “I am the Bread of Life, that a man eats this Bread will never die.” There’s your Tree. There’s your woman; there’s your sex that brings death. Just as sure as there’s a sexual desire, there’s death left by it. And as sure as there’s a spiritual birth, there’s Eternal Life left by it. Death come through the birth of a woman, and Life come through the birth of a Man. Amen. There you are.
« 190 † Now, let’s take back to Cain. Could you tell me where that spirit and that meanness come from? If Cain… Look, if Cain was the son of Adam, which was a son of God, where did that evil come from? The first thing when he was born, he hated; he was a murderer; he was jealous. And now, take the nature of his daddy, the very start in the beginning, Lucifer, and he was… In the beginning he was jealous of Michael, what started the whole trouble. How many knows that? And Cain was the nature of his father, which he was jealous of his brother and slew him. That pure… That nature could not come out of that pure seed. It come, had to come out of this perverted stream. And notice, Cain, as soon as he was borned…
And then Abel was born after him, then she conceived by Adam, and he knew–knew her and she brought forth the son Abel. And Abel was a type of Christ; and when–when Abel was killed, Seth took his place: death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in type.
« 192 † But now, Cain worshipped, all of his carnal works, just like the carnal church today, they go to church; they worship. Cain worshipped; he wasn’t an infidel; he wasn’t a communist. Cain was a believer; he went to God; he built an altar. He done every religious thing that Abel done, but he didn’t have the spiritual revelation of the will of God. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. There you are. Do you see it? He didn’t have the spiritual revelation, and that’s what’s the matter with the church today. And Jesus said He’d build His church on that spiritual revelation. You get it? Oh, my, your eyes come open now. See? The spiritual revelation…
Cain come; he built an altar; he worshipped; he brought sacrifice; he knelt down; he praised God; he worshipped God; he done everything religious that Abel done. And God flatly refused him, because he didn’t have the spiritual revelation.
« 194 † Follow that same line of Cain right down through to the ark, from the ark right up into Israel, from Israel right on into Jesus, and from Jesus right on till this day, and see if that carnal, fundamental church, stiff and starch, scholarly… I mean men who have the Scriptures, who knows all the doctrine and the theologies; they can explain it, boy, just like [Brother Branham snaps his finger–Ed.] that, but without spiritual revelation. That’s right. That’s the doctrine of Cain.
The Bible said, “Woe unto them, ’cause they went the doctrine of Cain, and run in the errors of Balaam, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.” The same Book, Jude, he–it said, “They was predestinated to this condemnation.” Certainly, they are. See?
« 195 † What was Balaam? He was a bishop. He was over all the church. He got up there just as fundamental as he could be. He offered… Look there at him standing up there in the celebrity, standing up there in their great celebrity. And they wasn’t infidels; they were believers.
That–that tribe of Moab come out of Lot’s daughter, Lot who lived… Lot’s daughter who lived with their father, and conceived and brought a child, and that child was–sprang the tribe of Moab. And they were a great denomination, great, flowery people; and they had princes and kings and celebrity. They had bishops and cardinals and everything.
And here come a bunch of holy-rollers up, the other group, Israel, a little old bunch that was undenominations, interdenominationals. And they done everything there was on the map to be done bad too. But what it was, they had the spiritual revelation, and God was with them in a Pillar of Fire.
Oh, I–I know they had carnal things, and the people said, “Such a bunch of backwash as that, nothing to do but kick them out.” But they had the spiritual revelation, and they had a smitten Rock; they had a brass serpent; they had a Pillar of Fire going with them. Hallelujah. I know you–you think I’m excited, but I’m not. I just feel good.
Notice. When I think, “That same God, today, lives with us.” It’s still the spiritual revelation of the Word. Certainly, it is. It’s eternally right. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Yes, sir.
« 200 † There stood him up there with that fundamental, them bunch of Baptists and Presbyterians stood up on the hill, and got their bishop out there. And they were just as religious, in the same kind of religion; they worshipped the same God. They said, “Look down there at that bunch of trash. Why, they don’t even have a denomination. They’re nothing but a bunch of quacking, squealing, holy-rollers.”
Is that right? Exactly, they was. If you don’t believe they were holy-rollers, take back in Genesis and find out when they crossed… When a miracle was performed, and Miriam grabbed a tambourine and went down the bank, beating it, dancing in the Spirit, and Moses sung in the Spirit. If that ain’t a bunch of what we call free holy-rollers, I don’t know what is: singing and jumping and praising. And all the time the nations hated them, but God was with them. They had the spiritual revelation, was following that Pillar of Fire.
« 202 † And Moab said, “Now, looky here. We’ll call all the cardinals, and all the bishops, and all the presbyters, and get them out here. We’ll do something about it, ’cause we’re a religious nation. We’ll not let that propaganda get mixed up in our fine denomination.”
And so they got them out there. And they built twelve altars; that’s just exactly what Israel had: twelve altars. They put twelve sacrifices on it, bullocks; just exactly what Israel had, what God required. They put twelve sheep on it, representing the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, twelve sheep in both places.
All the celebrity, the bishops and all stood around. They lit the sacrifice. They prayed; they raised their hands to Jehovah and said, “Jehovah, hear us.” What was they trying to do? And their old Balaam went forth like that, and the Spirit come down upon him, sure, but he was a carnal.
The Spirit can fall upon a hypocrite; the Bible said. You’ve heard me teach that now. “The rain falls on the just and unjust.” But it has to compare with the Word; there’s where you get it.
« 206 † Then when he did, and the… When the Spirit though on him told the truth… He tried to curse Israel, and he blessed Israel.
Now, if God just respects a fine church, and a fine bishop, and a wonderful pastor, a scholarly bunch of people, He was duty-bound to accept that sacrifice, ’cause he was just as fundamentally right as Israel was right; but he didn’t have the spiritual revelation of the Word and the will of God. There you are; that’s the difference today.
« 208 † Look at Jesus. They said, “Away with that guy. We know he’s a Samaritan. He’s crazy. Why you teach us? Well, you was borned in adultery. You wasn’t nothing but a illegitimate child to come with. Who’s your daddy? Say God’s your father, you blasphemer. Why, you mean to tell us? We’ve been preachers; we been bishops; through our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers was preachers and bishops. We were borned and raised in the church. We’ve been through the highest of seminaries. We know every word to the letter. And you try to teach us? Where’d you ever go to school at? Where’d you get this learning?”
He said, “You’re of the–your father the devil,” said Jesus.
« 210 † They had no signs and wonders among them. They had no Divine healings and things among them. They had no blessings among them. But Jesus was absolutely a spiritual revelation of the Scriptures.
They said, “Why, it’s written so-and-so.”
And Jesus said, “Yes, it’s also written.” But God vindicated His men by his signs.
Peter said the same on Acts 2; he said, “You men of Israel. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you by signs and wonders which God did by Him in the midst, and which you all yourselves know. (There you are.) Him being delivered of the… by the fore–or by the big Sanhedrin Council up there. But by the foreknowledge of God, God foreordaining Him to die this death. You’ve delivered Him up; with cruel, wicked hands you’ve crucified the Prince of Life, Who God raised up. And we’re witnesses of it.” Whew, what a preacher. Didn’t… He couldn’t even sign his own name, but he knowed God.
They said they took heed to him that he’d been with Jesus. Certainly, it’s a spiritual revelation. Oh, my. Now, there you are.
« 215 † Cain was just in that line. That carnal church is in the same line today. The spiritual church still has the Pillar of Fire, still has the signs, wonders, still has the same Christ; which it vindicates all the way from the dying lamb in–in the garden of Eden, until the second coming of the Lamb: absolutely, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And that line of Cain, religious and polished and scholarly, right down the same, just the same, every day just the same. Criticizers and persecutors, as Cain was of Abel, so are they today, and have been, and always will be: carnal, unbelievers. That’s right.
« 217 † Now, Genesis 3:8, and also I put 20 here; I was looking awhile ago.
And Adam called… And Adam called his wife… Eve; because she was the mother of all living. (See, that was after this beguiling had already took place.)
Cain was… Now, wait. You say, “How could a snake, a serpent?”
But brother, watch here, the Bible don’t say he was a serpent; the Bible said, “He was the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.” He wasn’t a reptile; he was a beast. He was a… And there…
And let–now, let me just give you this as a little token between us, if you will. That’s where science is all mixed up. The closest thing they can find to a man is a chimpanzee. How many knows that? But there’s something between there. They can’t make the chimpanzee bones meet with the man’s bones, yet it’s the closest thing. They can bring him up from a polliwog. They can bring him up from a tadpole. They can bring him on up to the animal and every animal. They can bring him to a bear. You take a bear and pull the skin off it; it’s just like a little woman, just the same thing. Take her back and everything, stand them there, and pull–pull the woman like–stand the woman like that. It’s just the same as a–as a–as a bear. The foot runs out the same, and the hand runs out like this, just like a human being. But a chimpanzee comes closer than that. It’s almost, but they can’t find it.
« 221 † Here’s a little secret, if you want to know it. You know where it’s at? It’s hid from them. They can dig all the bones they want to. They can dig… The sculptors can dig, and the science, and the–and the chronologist can measure the scales of time with the atomic measures, but they’ll never catch it. For that was the serpent that was more like a man than anything else there was on earth, and God cursed him and put him on his belly; and he’s turned plumb back to a snake with no resemblance of a man. Now, just scratch your head, them scientists, and let them take that for a while.
But the Bible…?… declares that, “He was the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.” That’s right. He was that joint that stands between man and monkey, and God cursed him and put him plumb back on his belly because of the–of the thing that he had did. He beguiled this woman, and she brought forth her first son which was Cain after the nature of the serpent, on inspiration; the devil had got in the serpent, that did that.
« 223 † And then she conceived and brought forth; she conceived again after she was beguiled. Now, watch, she beguiled… She was almost… Why, she done wrong. But she, literally, was legitimate when she conceived by her husband, for that might’ve been many, many times afterwards, many months and many days afterwards; you can’t tell that; we don’t know, but she did bring forth of Adam.
And someone even got the question, say, “Well, the son… He said she was… When as Cain was born, said she got a son of the Lord.” Absolutely, certainly, it had to be. It was the law of nature. That’s just exactly the way you are today. When you’re born, God just doesn’t come down and make you. You’re an offspring of your father and mother. And you’ll be a… There’ll be a… Your children will be offsprings of you. It’s a reproduction all the time, right on down, like seed trees and things like that; but back to the original. I hope that explains it.
« 225 † How much time we got? Haven’t got any more. Listen to this good one for next, the beginning Sunday: “By one Spirit we’re all baptized into one body.” We’d like to know that. Christ at the time… I think I get up some Scriptures, good Scriptures on that.
[Brother Branham answers this in Part II, paragraph 361, as question 60–Ed.]
« 226 † Here’s a good one, just like… Would you suffer me just one more minute or two, to answer this? It can answer itself.