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NASB | Genesis 4:17 ¶ Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 4:17 ¶ Cain knew his wife [one of Adam's descendants] and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city and named it Enoch, after the name of his son. |
Subject: Where did Cains wife come from |
Bible Note: Hi, FT; You made a couple of assertions about God (he made you the way you are; he wouldn't dislike you because you ask why). But you are theorizing about a God you do not know, a God you are not certain even exists. You are describing God as you think he should be. Other than the time factor (you may get hit by a truck tomorrow and find that you dithered too long), there's nothing wrong with that; I did it myself for years. The danger is that armed with a pre-conceived idea of what God's nature should be, you will likely reject evidence of a God that does not conform to your idea. Better to be open to the possibility that your ideas may need adjusting. That is the essence of free thought. It is easy to go to the Bible and find reasons not to believe. It is easy to find reasons why God does not measure up to our standards. The fact is, it's easy to find fault with God. I do it often. But God isn't going to change his thinking to conform to my ideas, so I've found it much more reasonable to change mine to conform to his. Regarding Cain, you have had answers from mature Christians who have answered out their knowledge of God himself; they have gone beyond the bare facts to be found in Genesis. Having read the Bible as a non-believer and studied it as a believer, I can tell you that it reads entirely differently depending on which direction you approach it from. I'm not talking about some kind of secret knowledge here. I just mean that when I encounter an event that seems to make God look bad, I eventually discover that it was simply a matter of looking at it through my own eyes rather than his. If Cain is stumbling block for you, move on. As for the remark about cattle, I can only assume that you included it because you believe you have encountered some here. Perhaps you have. You will find cattle among "free thinkers" as well. You will find people who are so bound up by their own opinions of how things ought to be that they are utterly blind to how things are - they are far from free. I have a friend who is so enslaved to science that he changes his whole worldview with every promising new hypothesis. He believes he is a free thinker. I'm not promoting a debate here, merely hoping that you will ask yourself if your thinking is free enough to recognize the truth when you see it. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |