Transcript
Good morning everyone, it’s time to begin service today.
Today we are continuing on with our William Branham series. We have been dealing with some topics that are of interest to people who are leaving the cult following of William Branham.
In case you are not familiar with why that might interest us, it’s because I and most of our listeners here were formerly part of William Branham’s cult following known as the message. There are certain things, that when we exit, can be pressing questions for us. Today we are tackling another one of those subjects.
Today, the topic we are looking at is titled “Who is Cain’s father?”
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 In this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
1 John 3:8-12 (King James Version
Let us pray. Lord God, we love and appreciate your greatness. We thank you for your Holy Spirit, which you have imparted into us. Lord, our desire today is to have a better and clearer understanding of what is written in the scriptures. Help us, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Today the topic we are asking the question, “Who is Cain’s father?” We are talking about Cain, who was born in Genesis chapter 4. Cain was the man who grew into an adult and ended up murdering his brother Abel. He fathered a family of really wicked people.
And we are asking the question, who is his father? To most Christians, that question is a no-brainer. For the average person, there is not really even a controversy over who Cain’s father is. Most everyone says Adam was his father. But William Branham had a very unorthodox explanation for Cain’s parentage, which we are going to examine today.
As we dive into this topic, I will be breaking this message into four parts:
- First, we will briefly explain the message interpretation of who Cain’s father is.
- Second, we will take a few minutes to explain where the message interpretation came from.
- Then we will point out the weak points in the message interpretation and see who the Bible says fathered Cain.
- Lastly, we will examine what the Bible says about the children of the devil.
And as we begin, I will start by explaining the message interpretation of what they call “Serpent Seed”. This is a topic I heard many times. I have preached this topic myself, and I actually believed this teaching most of my life. So, I am very familiar with the topic.
Message Intepretation
Message Interpretation
Serpent seed is a very important teaching in the message. It forms a key part of message beliefs and it flavors many of their doctrines. In essence, William Branham taught that the devil was the father of Cain.
And there are many times when William Branham said that Satan impregnated Eve, and was the father of Cain. William Branham was teaching serpent seed from the very earliest days of his ministry. You can find him slipping into his message even on his very earliest taped sermons.
But the first recorded sermon where he preached it in detail was in 1958. I will read you a quote from that sermon:
And she saw it was pleasant, so she went and told her husband, but she was already pregnant, by Satan. And she brought forth her first son, whose name was Cain, the son of Satan.
58-0928E – The Serpent’s Seed
Rev. William Marrion Branham
So, William Branham very clearly taught that Satan impregnated Eve, and Satan was the father of Cain.
And I just want to point out to you, because if you are from the churches we were in, Raymond Jackson and the other preachers there totally lied to us about this. They would pitch a fit and insult anyone who would accuse William Branham of saying Satan was Cain’s father. But that is exactly what William Branham said. And the truth is, if you go back and line it up, the majority of the time, William Branham would say Satan, or devil, was Cain’s father almost every single time he ever talked about this subject. And, the preachers in our part of the message were just flat out lying to us. And they knew they were lying. It really hard to trust or respect them anymore, after you see how obviously they were lying to us. And you can test them. Just go ask them, Did William Branham say that “Satan impregnated Eve and was the father of Cain?” You go ask them that question, and they will most assuredly lie to your face about that and tell you William Branham said no such thing. But you can go look for yourself, and find the truth.
Now William Branham taught that the devil had demonically possessed an animal – the serpent. And it was through his demonic possession of that animal that he impregnated Eve. But most of the time William Branham never explained that part. Honestly, it’s only a small handful of times he ever said it that way. 9 times out of 10, he would just say it was Satan.
But in the handful of times he gave a more elaborate explanation, William Branham said that the serpent was an animal, that was something like a primitive cave man, a neanderthal, a miss-link type of creature who did not have a soul. So the serpent would have looked very similar to a human being, but he was an animal who had no soul.
And William Branham went on to say that the story about eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge was symbolic of sexual relations. And so the sin in the garden of Eden was involving sexual relations. It started when the serpent seduced Eve. And, the serpent, possessed by Satan, impregnated Eve. Then Eve, already pregnant, went and seduced Adam.
And William Branham said that is what caused the fall of mankind.
And then after the fall, Cain and his offspring intermingled with the rest of mankind. And that is what produced all the sin and evil that is in the world. Cain inherited his evil nature from his father. And he passed that on to all his offspring.
In essence, William Branham boiled sinful nature down to something genetic, something passed down from Cain to his offspring.
And William Branham incorporated that idea into many other teachings. And we called that idea Serpent Seed, and it is baked deeply into the overall teachings of the message.
For example, that is why William Branham said there was a need for a virgin birth, so that Jesus was not born with a corrupt nature inherited from Cain.
That is an example of how serpent seed was intertwined with everything we believed.
And in the churches I come from, we believed that people had varying degrees of serpent seed within them. And people who had a high degree of serpent seed within them, they simply could not be saved. Because they didn’t even have a complete soul. Our preachers were very plain in telling us serpent seed did not have full souls. And since they didn’t have full souls, they were more like animals than people.
And that is what it meant to be a serpent seed. It meant the person was halfway an animal, and they didn’t have a full soul. And because of that, they didn’t know how to respond to God. They had this fraction of a soul, so they knew they needed to be religious. But because they lacked a proper soul, they just could not have a right relationship with God.
And because of that, Serpent Seed was very tightly incorporated into our beliefs on election and predestination.
And basically, if you boiled it all down, serpent seed was based on genetics, who your parents were, how much of this serpent seed was in your family.
Now how the serpent seed got to the other side of the flood varies, depending on which preacher you listen to. William Branham taught that Ham’s wife was serpent seed and that is how serpent seed survived the flood. Through Ham’s wife, and then into Ham’s descendants.
Raymond Jackson had a little different view. Raymond Jackson taught that Noah was himself a serpent seed, and that there were no pure seeds left. Basically, everyone was serpent seed at some level.
But Raymond Jackson also taught that Ham carried the higher degree of the serpent seed nature, compared to his brothers. And that is why Ham’s son Canaan ended up with his curse. And that is why Ham’s family invented idolatry.
And so either way, Ham’s children were the worst serpent seed when you get to the other side of the flood. And Ham’s descendants represent the worst serpent seed in the world today.
Besides that, there was another aspect of serpent seed that was also taught by our pastor at Faith Assembly, Raymond Jackson – he taught us that the serpent in the garden of Eden had been intended by God to be a servant to Adam and Eve. Basically, the serpent was part of a race of soul-less servants who would serve Adam and Eve. They were always intended by God to be servants. And that on the other side of the flood, that curse to be servants was put on Ham’s son, because his family had the nature of the serpent seed.
And so, whether you listen to William Branham or Raymond Jackson, that is where it lands. The worst serpent seed people are the descendants of Ham.
This also carried into our end-time teachings. We believed that in the millennial kingdom, all these sort of people would become the servants of the bride of Christ. And the Bride of Christ would rule over them as Kings and Queens.
You can find detailed explanations of that in message literature. If you want to find it in William Branham’s teachings, you can check out his 1958 sermon called “Serpent Seed”. You can also check out his 1960 sermon, “The Ten Virgins and the 144,000 Jews”. Or you can listen to William Branham’s sermons called “The Two Laws of Eden” from 1990, and “The Curse of Ham” from 1974.
And some of those publications have been redacted or removed since I left the message, because there is an active effort to hide some of this from the public. But if you would like originals, I do have them, and you can check out that tract section on our website ChristianGospelChurch.org to find them.
Where the serpent seed doctrine comes from:
Alright, so that takes us to the second part of our lesson. Where did this serpent seed teaching come from? And, in this lesson, I am not going to go through the evidence, but if you would like to see that, there is an article in the tracts section of our website. And there you will find an article called “The Case for the White Supremacist Origins of William Branham’s serpent seed teachings.” And there you will find evidence for what I am about to say. And what I am going to say here is very, very well documented, and if you will spend a little time searching, it’s not hard to find all the documentation.
William Branham was misleading us when he said he learned serpent seed from a supernatural source. The truth is that William Branham learned serpent seed from his White Supremacist friends. That is exactly where William Branham obtained the serpent seed from. Because, as you may have clued in, serpent seed sounds a whole lot like a master race ideology, where there is a permanent underclass of slaves who get to be servants to the master race.
And that is exactly what serpent seed is. It is the white supremacist ideology from the 1800s for keeping non-white people as a lower class of slave and servants.
William Branham just cleaned it up a bit. William Branham was deeply connected to the Ku Klux Klan and many of the leading white supremacists of his day. William Branham was ordained as a preacher by a man named Roy Davis. And Roy Davis had been second in command of the Ku Klux Klan before he ordained William Branham. And in the 1960s – when William Branham was preaching all this stuff – Roy Davis was at times the national leader of the KKK. And Roy Davis was at the meetings with William Branham during that time.
And Raymond Jackson, and other names I can mention, were right there with William Branham and Roy Davis in those meetings. It’s on tape, even. There is just no question, serpent seed came directly into the message from the KKK. And yes, my former pastor, Raymond Jackson, was also acquainted and sat in service with Roy Davis, the national leader of the KKK. And so were, very, very sadly, a number of other people I have known. And they have a lot to hide. And they are lying big time over this stuff.
The Ku Klux Klan believes in an ideology called Christian Identity Theology. That is a branch of a larger ideology known as British Israelism. And in that Christian Identity ideology, they believe the people of Western Europe are the true children of God. And all the other people in the world are lower orders of people. And they believe it is the destiny of the white race to rule over all the other lower orders.
And they trace it all back to the serpent seed, when the serpent impregnated Eve with Cain. This is a very ugly and evil racist ideology. And it is still believed and taught by many white supremacists in the United States today.
The message is not the only place that believes in serpent seed. It is also taught in the KKK. It is taught by the Aryan nations. It’s believed by some of the Neo Nazi groups. Serpent seed is the ideology of white supremacy in the United States.
They developed the serpent seed teachings in the 1800s in order to justify the continued oppression of people who were not white. That is what Serpent seed is. That is where it came from. That is William Branham learned it.
And William Branham cleaned it up. He took out the words black and jew. And then he told us it was a secret revelation he got from God.
And I want you to know, just about every single message preacher where we come from, they know serpent seed is racial. They almost all believe it is racial. I heard from their own lips, many of them.
And when they tell you they don’t, they are lying to you. They are boldly lying to you.
And God’s my witness. I am not afraid of standing before him on judgment day, because I know I am telling you the truth. They are lying to you.
And the truth is, if you listen carefully to their denial, they will usually just say, “we never preached that.”
And they say it that way because they are very careful in how they word it in their sermons.
Just like William Branham – they will usually not say the words black or Jew. But they will tell you that you have to read between the lines. You just have to get the revelation.
And if you get with them in private, and start talking about it, they will tell you that black people are serpent seed. Because that is what they believe.
And you people who believe in that, but are lying about it publicly, I want you to know you are going to hell. You are not a Christian. It’s not going to be ok for you.
And you people who think that is not what your preachers are secretly trying to say to you, you need to wake up. In Jesus’ name, wake up. Because you are responsible for supporting that thing. And just like me, you share guilt and blame for being part of that evil ideology. And you need to repent of that thing. And quit supporting it.
You might have to live in Babylon. But don’t be a Babylonian. Be a Daniel. Be an Esther. And do what is right. And if you have to get thrown in the Lion’s den, well, you will be in good company. The Lions in here are pretty friendly. I am doing just fine. Amen.
Who is Cain’s father?
So that brings us to the next part of this message. We are going to answer the question, who is Cain’s father? And before we go to the scriptures to read what the bible says, let’s first think about the evidence that the serpent is Cain’s father.
And the truth is, there actually isn’t any. The belief that the animal known as the serpent is Cain’s father is not based on a plain reading of the bible. The belief that Cain is the son of the serpent is an assumption, and it’s based on interpreting symbolism. There is not a single verse in the bible that actually says the serpent is the father of Cain. It’s something that people in the message arrive at by deduction.
And there is nothing wrong with arriving at something by deduction. That is called reasoning. And reasoning things out is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. God reasons. Jesus Christ reasoned. The Apostle Paul reasoned. Reasoning is perfectly fine. But reasoning can get you to a correct conclusion, so long as you have accounted for all the details. But if you leave out verses or details, then it’s possible your reasoning can be faulty.
And that is how message people arrive at the idea that the serpent is Cain’s father. They arrive at that by reasoning.
Now there are verses like the one we read from Jesus at the start of our lesson where John says Cain is of the wicked one, or like Jesus in John chapter 8, tells people they are of their father the devil.
But, remember, in the message, the serpent is not the devil. Our message preachers make a huge point out of that. The serpent was not the devil. So when Jesus said they are of their father the devil, if you use that, that would make the serpent the devil, not a cave man animal.
So if the serpent is the devil himself, that would really break the message explanation of serpent seed too. The serpent being an animal, and the serpent being the devil himself are two different things. And you can’t have it both ways.
So those two verses that infer that the devil has children – that can’t fit the idea that the serpent was an animal.
And animals are animals. Animals don’t know right or wrong. Animals can’t be wicked or righteous. They are animals. So the serpent, as an animal, could not be a wicked one. So I want to make sure I point out, those verses which would be the go-to verses don’t actually say the serpent was Cain’s father, the sense of being an animal.
And those are really the closest scripture you could find to say that Cain was the son of the serpent. But neither of them say that directly. You could only arrive at that through implication, or through reasoning.
Besides those scripture which point to Cain being of the wicked one, or people being of their father the devil, all the others scriptures used to justify serpent seed are based on interpretations of symbolism.
For example, Jesus told his critics one day, they were a generation of vipers, or a generation of snakes. So it is assumed they those were people literally descended from the serpent.
Another example is when Peter said sin is in the world by lust, it is assumed that is was sexual lust between Eve and the serpent.
Or they might take the fact that Cain is not listed in the family tree of Jesus, and say that is evidence he is part of an evil blood line.
And of course, they especially use the symbolism in the Genesis account. But the scripture does not actually say Eve had relations with the serpent. It says the serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit of a tree.
And so, my chief point here is that – there is nowhere in the entire bible that says Cain’s father was the serpent. You can only arrive at that idea by reason and assumption.
I am not going to go through all the different scripture used to back up serpent seed. But just consider for a minute that there may be other perfectly valid ways to read those verses without thinking they have anything to do with serpent seed.
For example, maybe Cain was left out of Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, because Cain and his family died out in the flood and left no offspring?
Or maybe when Jesus called people children of the devil, he didn’t mean children of the devil biologically, but children in some other spiritual way.
And perhaps when John said Cain was of the wicked one, he wasn’t talking about his biological parentage.
And maybe when Peter said sin was in the world because of lust, he meant covetousness, rather than sexual lust.
And maybe when Jesus called the people “a generation of vipers,” he was just speaking metaphorically – like when he called Herod a fox.
And perhaps the symbols around the tree of knowledge mean something besides sexual relations.
Those are all possibilities because the bible does not plainly spell out any of those things. And someone who would tell you the bible does plainly spell those things out, that is someone who is lying to you.
Because in the message, we did not believe in serpent seed because the bible plainly spells it out. We believed in serpent seed because we thought God sent a prophet who was able to reveal the meaning of the symbolism in the bible. And that is why we believed serpent seed. Because that prophet, we thought, revealed to us what the symbols of the tree of knowledge were pointing to, not because the bible says it, but because the meaning of the symbols was revealed to William Branham by God. So we thought.
But that is not true. We know now he was tricking us. So it is warranted for us to go back and reexamine these things.
But again, please recognize my point. The bible does not plainly say the serpent is Cain’s father. There is no verse you can go point to in order to say that. And if you are going to base your faith on the word of God recorded in scripture, the word of God does actually plainly say the serpent is Cain’s father. It’s not the bible we got that idea from. We believed the serpent was Cain’s father because we thought William Branham had divine inspiration to interpret these symbols.
And that is true of many things we believed in the message. And very sadly, most people in our churches have totally lost sight of what came from the written word, and what came from the spoken word.
But William Branham was tricking us. So today, we are just looking at what is in the written word.
Now, if you are going to examine a topic from the bible and draw conclusions about that topic, you need to include every single verse on that topic. And that’s where the message goes wrong with serpent seed. There are certain verses in the bible, which could indeed lead you to the impression that serpent seed is valid. But, then there are other verses, which the message does not take into consideration, and so they form the idea of serpent seed by cherry picking scriptures, and ignoring others.
If I want to know who the father of Cain is, I need to look at every single verse related to that topic. And whatever explanation I come up with, it needs to fit every single verse. It needs to be compatible with every part of the bible that talks about Cain’s father.
And if I find a part of the bible that conflicts with the idea that the serpent is Cain’s father, then the serpent cannot be Cain’s father. And if the bible plainly tells me who Cain’s father is, that is who his father is.
If you have one verse that plainly says Adam is the father of Cain, then it doesn’t matter if there are 100 verses which you can interpret symbolically to say Cain’s father is the serpent. You are making a serious mistake when you use the interpretation of symbols to contradict the plain reading of scripture.
And this is something I am afraid is very common in the message. That has a whole lot to do with the mess they are in. Most of their beliefs are not based on the actual plain reading of the bible. Most of their beliefs are based on William Branham’s interpretation of symbolism. And the problem is that he interpreted many of those symbols in a way that directly contradicts the plain reading of the bible.
And he did that, because instead of actually getting his revelations from the Holy Ghost, he was copying the things he preached from Mormons, and Jehovah Witnesses, and other groups who were cults.
And the message elevates William Branham’s interpretation of symbolism over the plain reading of scripture.
And what has resulted, is that people no longer believe the plain reading of scripture anymore. They are instead consumed with their interpretation of symbols.
And that is exactly what they have done with determining who Cain’s father is. They have elevated their interpretation of symbols over the plain reading of the bible.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
And now let’s look at some scriptures. The plain reading of these scriptures destroys serpent seed, and let’s start with Genesis 4:1. You can turn there with me, it says:
Genesis 4:1 (King James Version) “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.”
Now, brothers and sisters, there is only one way to plainly read this verse. It begins by saying that “Adam knew Eve his wife.” And all through the books that Moses wrote, when it says a husband knew his wife, it means they had relations.
And so, Adam knew his wife, they had relations. And then, after they had relations, what does it say happened next? It says, “and she conceived.” Conceived – that means a life was created in her womb. Notice also that word “And” – that is a conjunction. “And” is a conjunction that connects this conception and the relations. So they had relations, AND she conceived. It’s the same sentence. It’s the same subject. It’s the same topic.
Adam had relations with Eve his wife, AND she conceived. What did she conceive from? She conceived from her relations with Adam.
And then what? What happened next? “And she bore Cain.” Again, notice the word “AND.” That is another conjunction. It’s all the same sentence. It connects all this into a string of cause and effect.
Adam knew Eve his wife, which caused her to conceive, which caused her to bear Cain. The whole string of cause and effect is recorded here for us.
And, I have to say, there is only one way to plainly read this verse of the bible. Cain was born, after his mother conceived him, from having relations with Adam.
Adam is Cain’s father. We have the whole cause and effect recorded right there. From relations, to conception, to birth. Adam knew his wife, and she conceived, and she bore Cain.
And then Eve says, “I have received a man from the Lord.” And I have heard our preachers say that Eve was telling a lie here. This was a cover-up – she was lying. And, granted, there is nothing here to give us that idea that she is lying. There is nothing at all to give us the slightest indication she is lying.
But if she is lying, what about Moses? Was Moses lying? When Moses wrote down, “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived, and she bore Cain,” was Moses lying about that? Had Moses made a mistake when he wrote Genesis 4:1?
I got to say, I don’t believe that. I mean, if Moses made a mistake and wrote down a lie, then we need to throw away everything Moses wrote. And unlike William Branham – Moses was a real prophet. And real prophets don’t lie in the name of the Lord. Only false prophets do that.
If Moses didn’t know what he was talking about in Genesis 4:1, then how can we trust any of it? If Moses was writing lies, then what good is any of it?
Message preachers like to convince you that bible prophets told lies. Because it allows them to justify William Branham. Because he is a man who told many lies.
But, brothers and sisters, I believe Moses. I believe Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and she bore Cain. I believe the bible.
If you believe the serpent was Cain’s biological father, then you do not believe the bible. And all the symbolism you can throw at it this does not undo the plain reading of scripture. Faith comes by the word, and faith that contradicts the word is not faith. It’s foolishness. And I am afraid that is all some people have, they just have foolishness.
Moses said that Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived, and bore Cain. And Moses is a prophet I trust. And you know who else I trust? I trust the apostle Paul. So let’s see what he had to say.
Let’s go to Acts chapter 17. And in Acts 17, Paul is preaching a sermon. And I will read three verses of his sermon, starting in verse 24.
Acts 17:24-26 (King James Version) “24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.”
So, all the nations of men come from one blood. That is to say one family, one kindred. But how can that fit with serpent seed? How can all the nations be of one blood, or one family, if they are of two different fathers?
If serpent seed is true, we should say all nations are made of two bloods. So serpent seed does not fit with the plain reading of that verse.
Now in the message, we would say, this verse is talking about Noah. But that really does not fit here. Because Paul said all nations of men – past, present, future – all nations of men who have dwelt on the face of earth. The word “all,” that means everyone. So this verse would include men who came before Noah was even born. Mankind of all ages, came from one blood, not two. That is the plain reading of that verse, and it is incompatible with serpent seed.
Let’s have another verse from Paul, Romans chapter 5, verse 12. It says:
Romans 5:12 (King James Version) “12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
And the thing to catch there is that sin came into the world by one man, not one woman, not two men, not a woman and an animal, but by one single man. And if you read this chapter, Paul says that man was Adam.
And when Paul speaks of sin and death here, he is talking about sinful nature. And he is talking about the curse of sin, which is death.
That sin came into the world by one man, and if you will take the time to really honestly compare these statements to serpent seed, they just don’t fit. If serpent seed were true, Paul would have written this chapter very differently.
Serpent seed teaches that sin came into the world by woman, Eve. And it teaches that fallen nature comes from Cain, who inherited it from the serpent. According to serpent seed, Adam is not responsible for sinful fallen nature. And it teaches Eve brought sin into the world.
But Paul says sinful nature comes from Adam. Our sinful nature is not from Cain. It is from Adam. When Paul describes the origin of sinful nature, he points the finger at Adam. And, no matter how you twist yourself, that just does not fit with serpent seed.
If the sinful nature came from Cain and the serpent, Paul would have surely said that here in this chapter. Because that is Paul’s entire purpose in writing Romans chapter 5. It is to explain the origin of inherited sinful nature itself. That’s his main point here. And Paul traced it all, with 100% of the blame falling on Adam, not just for the first sin itself, but also for the introduction of fallen nature.
The truth is, whether it’s Jesus, whether it’s John, whether it’s Peter, whether it is the writers of the old testament – whenever they explain how sin began in the world – they all pin it on Adam. And no one, anywhere in the bible, pins it on Cain.
Cain was a sinner, just like his father Adam was a sinner. Cain inherited his sinful nature from his father, Adam, who was a sinner before Cain was born. Adam is Cain’s father.
And just think about that. Be honest with yourself. Don’t go twisting yourself into knots. Don’t go off into symbolism and trying to read between the lines. Just read what the scripture says here and acknowledge that there is not the slightest thing here that would lead us to believe in serpent seed. In fact, this pretty directly contradicts it. You can take time to read all this for yourself, but I will just read a couple more verses here so you can get the gist of it.
Romans 5:12-14 (King James Version) “12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”
Did you notice what that said? Verse 14 implies to us that, from Adam until Moses, people did not sin like Adam had. Verse 14 is telling us there is something unique about the sin which Adam committed.
What Adam did was in some way unique, and it is possible to read verse 14 to say that no one from Adam to Moses committed the same sin as Adam. To say that Adam’s sin was totally unique to those who came after him. There are other ways to read that verse too, but there is at least a hint there that there is something unique about Adam’s sin.
And you can go check this out in pretty much every interpretation; it reads the same way, or even clearer. Here it is from the NASB:
Romans 5:14 (New American Standard Bible) “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam…”
So there you go, somehow Paul wrote his most detailed and comprehensive explanation about the origin of sin without mentioning even the slightest thing about serpent seed. Paul actually seems to say Adam committed a unique sin that was not committed by the people who came after him.
And here is the thing: This explanation here in Romans 5 about what happened in the garden of Eden was enough explanation for the early church. It’s also enough of an explanation for us today. If you want to be restored to the faith of the apostolic fathers, then read what Apostles wrote about the garden of Eden, and just stick with that.
If you want to understand how to interpret what happened in the fall in the garden of Eden, then come read chapters of the bible like Romans chapter 5 and let the apostle Paul tell you how to interpret the fall in the garden of Eden. And if you go inventing an interpretation that contradicts Paul, then I have to say, you must be the one who is wrong, not Paul, not Moses.
Let me read one more passage about this. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. And Paul there actually tells us the nature of the sin that Eve committed. Let’s read this very carefully. 2nd Corinthians 11, I will read the first three verses.
2 Corinthians 11:1-3 (King James Version) “1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Now Paul is using the analogy of a marriage here, and he wants to present the people as chaste virgins to Christ. We realize that he is speaking symbolically because these people in the natural are married, they have children. In verse 3, he actually says plainly what happened to Eve. Verse 3 says, her mind became corrupt. And that is what he does not want to happen to you or I.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Paul is looking at something in the hearts and the mind of Eve, and he is comparing that to the hearts and minds of people of his day. The unfaithfulness Paul is afraid the church will commit against Christ is in their hearts and minds. He compares that to Eve and her unfaithfulness, something in her heart and mind.
And just notice, Paul is clearly using an analogy of being unfaithful here. And Eve’s unfaithfulness was in her mind.
And as you read on the rest of this chapter, Paul really explains what he is talking about quite clearly. The unfaithfulness was in believing a lie that turns you against God, and against the truth. That is the unfaithfulness that Eve committed. She believed a lie and turned towards things that are false in her heart and mind. She rebelled against God, and so did Adam.
The serpent told her, “In the day you eat of that fruit, you will be like God.” And that appealed to Eve – being like God in some advanced way, being like God in some way which God himself had not already made her. The same with Adam – taking of the fruit of that tree was in direct disobedience to God, and it was because the serpent had tricked them into thinking it would make them into something that was like God, something that was greater than what they already were. Their lust for that thing, to be greater, that seduced them.
And that is the root of the sin in the garden of Eden. It wasn’t in sexual relations; it wasn’t the taste of a juicy piece of fruit. It was the pride that was born in their hearts, a desire to be as God, to usurp the things of God, to be more than God made them to be. It was a sin that began in their hearts, in their minds, in their spirits, and then it manifested with an outward act of rebellion against God.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
And I won’t read on further, but if you do, you will find this where Paul talks about Satan presenting himself as an angel of light and how false preachers do the same things. This whole chapter is about how false teachers corrupt the minds of people, and it all stems from the explanation of the garden of Eden – that the serpent seduced Eve, not sexually, but he played on her desire to be like God in a way God had not intended.
If I want to know how to interpret what happened in the garden of Eden, then I need to let these New Testament passages inform me. And that is where I have to stand. I have to stand with scripture, and I have to say, Cain’s father is Adam, and the serpent beguiled Eve, not sexually, but he played on her desire to be like God. That is what the bible says.
And the fact that Cain is not mentioned in Luke’s genealogy is a good case to be made that Cain’s family entirely died in the flood. There is actually no scriptural basis to say any of Cain’s family survived the flood, none whatsoever. Let that sink in. Scripture really leads us to believe that Cain’s entire family was destroyed in the flood. To say otherwise is really to ignore scripture because the plain reading of scripture would lead us to believe Cain’s entire family was destroyed in the flood.
And the message is just flat out wrong on this.
And here is the thing, there are more scriptures than these four we could look at, which prove serpent seed to be wrong. I could probably preach ten messages just on this topic, but what I have said here should be enough to get you started in the right direction. For the sake of time, I am going to move onto the fourth and final part of this lesson.
Who are the serpent’s seed?
And in the final part of this lesson today, we are going to examine who the serpent seed is. We know that in Genesis God told Eve that He would put enmity between her offspring and the serpent’s offspring. So the Bible tells us the serpent does have offspring. Who are they? Who are the offspring of the serpent? And how are his offspring created?
The first question we need to answer is: who is the serpent? Is the serpent really a soulless animal that was possessed by the devil? I don’t think so. I am sorry, but I don’t believe that God created a race of soulless animals that looked like people, could talk like people, who were intended to be Adam and Eve’s servants. That is an idea that came from the evil mind of someone who wanted to justify slavery. That is not from the Bible.
I think the real obvious answer is that the serpent is exactly who the true Christians have always believed he is – a manifestation of the devil. Paul believed the serpent was the devil in 2nd Corinthians. John believed the serpent was the devil. The book of Revelation says it too.
Revelation 12:9 (King James Version) “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Isn’t that exactly what that old serpent was doing in the garden – deceiving the whole world? He is the father of lies. In the garden of Eden, Satan manifested himself as a serpent to speak to Eve, and that serpent was the devil.
So when Jesus called the Pharisee children of the devil, He truly was calling them serpent seed, in one sense, but it’s not in the biological sense. They were not literally biologically children of the devil. We will let the apostles explain it to us.
Turn with me back to 1st John, chapter 3. The Apostle John is explaining what Jesus said back in the gospel of John, chapter 8. John knew what made someone a child of the devil, and the explanation he gives here is adequate.
1 John 3:8-10 (King James Version) “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
So just think about what John is saying here. John is saying there are indeed people who are children of the devil himself. And John here gives us a very clear indication of what makes someone a child of the devil – it is the fact that they sin. People who live in sin are children of the devil, not because they are biologically descended from Cain, but because they are living in sin. It is their actions that define who their father is.
The devil is the father of evil, lies, and murder. He is the father of evil deeds. People who follow the devil’s ways are his spiritual children. But people who come to Jesus Christ and follow God are God’s children.
Let me read this again, verse 8:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
So there in verse 12, the wicked one is clearly the devil because the devil is who John is speaking about here. And Cain was of that wicked one, and he killed his brother Abel because of jealousy. It was something on the inside. The devil had beguiled his heart and his mind, and played on Cain’s desires to turn him to murder.
It becomes very clear that what made Cain of the wicked one was his behavior. It was his evil works that defined him as a child of the devil, not his biological parentage. That is what you draw from these passages. Being a child of the devil or being a child of God is not based on our genes and our biology, but it is defined by our behavior and our relationship to sin or righteousness.
John is looking at the life of Cain and the life of Abel, and he is looking at their behavior to see whose children they were, not at their biological parents. When you turn serpent seed into something biological, something genetic, something that you assign to a particular family or race, you are going totally against the very spirit of the gospel.
The gospel is Jesus saying, “Whosoever cometh unto me I shall in no wise cast out.” The gospel is to every nation, tongue, and kindred. The gospel and salvation are for whosoever will. When you take serpent seed to its logical conclusion, it leads to really bad things. You stop looking at people around you as humans who are worthy of respect or dignity. You see it in the way they treat people who leave. They treat us literally like animals. Quite literally, because that is what they believe we are – just animals being controlled by wicked spirits. We are not human beings, made in the image of God, worthy of respect, love, or dignity. And that is very much how they justify all the terrible hateful abuses they have perpetrated against us in these past years.
But being a child of the devil is not something biological, it is something spiritual. It is something defined by what is in our hearts, minds, and actions. Paul looks at this very similarly. Let’s turn to Ephesians 5:6. Paul writes:
Ephesians 5:6 (King James Version) “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”
So you see, these children of the devil are defined also as children of disobedience. Just like John, Paul is using behavior to define these children of the devil, not biological parentage.
Colossians 3:6 (King James Version) “For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.”
Again, children of disobedience. You can read the rest of this for context, but it is clear that with Paul, this thing is not biological. People who obey God, their spiritual father is God. But people who disobey God, show their spiritual father is the devil.
And this is a common way to talk about things like this, not just spiritual things. In this world, we call people who originate something the father of it. There is a father of modern art, a father of medicine, a father of conservation, a father of the automobile. When you follow someone’s discipline, methodology, or philosophy, you acknowledge them as the father of your craft or ideology, and you are their offspring – not in a biological way, but in a spiritual, ideological, or practical way.
That is very similar to how people are children of the devil. It’s not that they are his biological children, but they are following his discipline, his way of life; they are modeling his patterns of behavior. They are following in a way that the devil pioneered, a way that he fathered. In that way, they are his children. It’s not biological, but it’s spiritual, ideological.
And here is the thing – everyone is born speaking lies, everyone is born a child of the devil. Everyone is born serving sin; that is our first birth. And that is because of Adam. By one man, Adam, sin came into the world. We are born sinners because of Adam; Adam’s whole family tree is children of the devil, children of sin, because Adam was a sinner, and he passed that to all his children. It is committing sin that makes you a child of the devil.
That is the plain reading of scripture. But when we come to faith in Christ, Jesus saves us from our sins, and then we become children of God. And when we become children of God, the Bible characterizes it like an adoption. When you are saved and born again, it’s like an adoption. You are transplanted from one family into another family. Instead of being in Adam’s family, you get adopted and become part of Jesus Christ’s family.
And here’s the crucial point – Adam’s family is going to hell, all of them. They are children of the devil, children of disobedience, because they have chosen disobedience. They are all doomed. There is nothing that can fix Adam’s family; they are going to burn, that’s just all there is to it. They are doomed. The only hope of salvation is to get adopted into a new family, and you can’t adopt yourself into another family. Someone on the outside has to adopt us; it’s not something we can do on our own. We need someone who is willing to adopt the children of the devil and give them a new family name.
That is exactly how the Bible characterizes it. Let’s look at some examples. Galatians 4:4-7 (King James Version): “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Jesus came so that He could ultimately bring about our adoption. He came so that we could be adopted into a new family. We were all children of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the devil. We were all defined by our sinful behavior. But Jesus came so that we might be adopted into a new family.
Turn with me to Romans 8:15, we will get another passage. Paul writes:
Romans 8:15 (King James Version) “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
So Jesus came so that we could receive the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry out to God as our Father. This is a clear image of adoption – being brought into a new family. It’s a spiritual transformation, not a biological one. Just as being a child of the devil is defined by behavior and spiritual alignment, so is being a child of God.
And that is the heart of the matter. We are not defined by our biological lineage or ancestry, but by our relationship with God and our behavior. It’s about whether we follow the ways of sin or the ways of righteousness. It’s about who we are in our hearts, minds, and spirits, not about our physical origins. This understanding brings us back to the essence of the gospel – salvation and adoption into God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:15-17 (King James Version) “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Notice how these things are spirits; it is spiritual. The spirit of bondage compared to the spirit of adoption. It was something spiritual that made us children of the devil, and it is something spiritual that makes us children of God. It’s not biological.
That is one of the biggest problems with serpent seed – it makes sin too small. It distorts the idea of what sin truly is. Sin is much bigger than you thought in the message. The message has a flawed definition of sin – it’s just skin deep.
But sin is much more than skin deep. It permeates into the very spirit of man. Man’s sin is not just a matter of his flesh; it’s also a matter of his spirit. Adam didn’t sin merely from his flesh; he sinned from within in his spirit. Sin comes from the inner man.
The message misses the true nature of sin. In the message, pride, greed, jealousy – all those deep-rooted sins in the heart and soul of man – are not treated as sins. The message doesn’t pay attention to them because its view of sin is only skin deep.
That’s the only way legalistic systems can function; they have to make sin smaller than it really is. If they presented sin as it truly is, you’d realize that you can never overcome it without a savior. Legalism convinces you that sin is small, and with enough effort and work, you can overcome it. But you can never defeat sin through your works; you need a savior. You need someone who will take pity on you, someone who will adopt you to save you from that evil father of yours – the devil.
As I bring this lesson to a close, I know this is a topic I could spend five or six messages on, but I don’t feel like doing that at this time. But I think we have covered enough that you can see that Cain’s biological parents were Adam and Eve.
However, his spiritual father was the devil because his life was evil. And that same principle applies to all men and women of all time. It is our deeds and actions, it is our relationship with God that truly defines who our spiritual father is.
Amen. Turn to Ephesians 1; I’ll put one last verse with this.
Ephesians 1:4-5 (King James Version) “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”
Amen. So who are the children of the devil? Who are the offspring of the serpent that God told Eve about? The answer is everyone. Every single person who ever sinned is a child of the devil because he is the father of sin.
But when we come to faith in our savior, we have been predestinated to be adopted by Jesus Christ into a new family. And now we are children of God; we are no longer part of Adam’s family, no longer children of the devil. You and I today are children of God.
Amen. Thank God.
Appeal.
If you are listening today, and these scriptures are speaking to you, if you are reading Genesis 4:1 over and over and you are tired of twisting yourself into knots to justify false doctrine, if you are beginning to realize that the false teachers you listen to have been hiding a secret racist agenda and maybe you are wondering what to do about it…
Well, the answer is pretty simple: Flee to Jesus, flee into the arms of the loving God. Jesus said it doesn’t matter what mountain you choose to worship on, so long as you worship in spirit and in truth. Becoming a child of God is as simple as having faith in Jesus as your savior from sin.
Amen. Brothers and sisters, this brings us to the end of our lesson today. If you are enjoying the series, come back next week. Our topic will be “What the Parable of the 10 Virgins is not.”
“What the parable of the ten virgins is not.” If that is a topic that interests you, join us at this time next week.
Prayer
Let me close in prayer.
Lord God, thank you for the Bible. Thank you for imparting your Holy Spirit to us, and thank you for waking us up to understand that the Bible actually means what it says – “Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived, and bare Cain.” Lord, thank you for showing your love towards us when we were yet sinners, when we were yet children of the devil, sons of disobedience. Lord, you had mercy on us, and you sent your son Jesus Christ. On the cross, you punished him for our sins; he died in our place so that we could receive adoption and become your children. Lord, we believe that by faith. Help us as your children to grow in grace, strengthen us day by day.
And Lord, you see all our friends who are listening right now; I pray for each of them, especially the ones who are trapped by wicked men, who use their power to hold them captive. God, I pray you break the powers of Satan, set at liberty those who are yours, and if the wicked men repent not and turn not from their ways, Lord, we pray you, the just judge, visit swift judgment upon them, bring them to naught so that the innocent may go free. In Jesus’ name, we ask it of you. Amen.