Lamech said to his wives,
"Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
Give heed to my speech,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me;
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
Yippee.
I crushed a soda can on my forehead once--does that make me a man, or the crushing of said soda can holy?
Let me give you a postmodern version of this assinine fallacy: "The United States has vanquished the nation of Panama for threatening a dozen of its citizens. If our ancestors were avenged for the deaths of hundreds in great wars, we will be even more greatly avenged for the deaths of one or two Americans in small wars."
I hate to break this to those of you out there who are unconditionally "rah-rahing" the military and political actions of this country on the basis of its so-called Judeo-Christian heritage, but I seriously doubt that the Founding Fathers (many of whom were Freemasons and/or Deists) were in tune with the cross of Christ when they wrote the Constitution. After all, this same Constitution classified African Americans in terms of fractions (3/5 of a person) and (initially) limited the hallowed franchise of voting to anyone with a substantially large portion of landed property. The Bill of Rights (which so many of us remember and cherish) did not originally appear in the Constitution but was a compromise to ensure that the 13 colonies would actually support it (hence the reason that the Bill of Rights is a set of 10 amendments (not articles) at the end of the Constitution).
I won't grouse about the inability of women to vote (personally, I think the American woman's voting record during the past 70 years leaves much to be desired) or about the ill-treatment of the first peoples who lived in the continental United States (who were not, contrary to PC education, pacifistic nomads who elected to walk meekly into oblivion), but I think that any honest treatment of American history should account for the fact that, in New Testament terms, this nation did not begin with the kind of "Christian" roots that conservative religious public figures depict in their lofty, wistful encomiums of "the good old days." Christ was right when he said to Peter that those who live by the sword die by the sword, but unfortunately, those few short words seem to have disappeared from many of our nation's churches, Christian schools, and ministries. Instead, it is "America, God's nation," and damn to hell anyone else who gets in our way.
Let me ask you something: Do you honestly think that the example Jesus set for us in the Gospels bears an iota of resemblance to this nonsensical hoopla? I'm not judging those of you who care about our country's well-being (as do I), but I am (emphatically) pointing out that the cross of Christ Jesus destroys for anyone who takes on the name of Christ Jesus the luxury of living up to any standard that is lower than the one set by Christ Jesus himself. Did you see Christ hitting people in the Gospels? Avenging himself on anyone? Even defending himself when he was accused? (I'm sure someone will be willing to take some verses out of context to prove me wrong, but be warned: if you do, realize that my knowledge of the Bible is as good as yours.)
There may not be a line of Cain (see Genesis 6-8 for an explanation of that), but there is a legacy of Cain. We are no less violent and wicked today than Cain's descendants were, and as the following chapters will show, we are no less potential objects of God's wrath today than our spiritual "ancestors" 6000 years ago.
Let us never forget that--and let us ever be mindful that Christ's mercy (which is God's mercy) should never be mistaken as a sign of weakness.
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