Cain- and Abel families in restoration
- This page is part of an ERW course: Home Church.
- By John Eagles, March 15, 1991.
In the process of restoration, there appear the names of many families. We know about restoration in Adam’s family, Noah’s family, Abraham’s family, Isaac’s family, Laban’s family, Jacob’s family, Zachariah’s family, Josef’s family, Peter’s family.
In the ideal, there is God’s family, True Adam’s family, original Adam’s family.
Often it is very complicated to have the right understanding about the position of families in relation to each other and in relation to the central figure.
When we look at one family, any of the families just mentioned is first of all and always Adam’s family. Adam’s family can be fallen Adam’s family, or it can be True Adam’s family. Fallen Adam’s family can be evil Adam’s family or more-or-less-restored Adam’s family.
What is the meaning of Cain- and Abel families?
To understand it right: Cain - and Abel families are also each first of all Adam’s family. Cain family is a fallen-Adam family, but Cain to another family, Abel family, which also is a fallen-Adam family, or a restored-Adam family, or True-Adam family.
Can and Abel, when applied as adverb to 'family' means the same as when applied to individuals. When there are a Cain family and an Abel family, it means that God has a claim to work with the Abel family, temporarily or for longer, and Satan has a claim to come to the Cain family, temporarily or longer.
These positions of Cain and Abel sometimes suddenly switch, when for instance the Abel family makes a mistake and the Cain family does restore something. From God’s viewpoint, however, one family is always more Abel than another family, because of God’s work in the ancestry of the Abel family and less of God’s work in the Cain family. That means: one family has always the mission to be Abel, in God’s eyes, and another family the mission to be Cain. The Abel family must fulfill as Abel because God gave so many blessings to that family, usually because of ancestral merit.
In the society, we can usually not speak so clearly of Cain – and Abel families, because in most families there doesn’t take place much restoration. That means, these families are just fallen families in which God cannot do much to help them to be restored.
When there is a central figure through whom God works, then there also is the possibility for restoration of the families in which God’s central figure resides. If the first chosen family doesn’t fulfill, then there comes a Cain-Abel situation.
In Jacob’s course, the family of Isaac should have fulfilled to become restored-Adam family. But Abel, Jacob, was not protected. Then Jacob, God’s central figure had to go a more difficult course in a family which from God’s view was Cain to Isaac’s family, that was Laban’s family. Laban’s family had to fulfill what Isaac’s family failed to do. Although Laban’s family was Cain from the viewpoint of original mission and its ancestry, but in Jacob’s mission that family became actually Abel to Isaac’s family.
In Jesus’ life, Zachariah’s family should have fulfilled as restored-Adam family, but this family failed. Jesus came to live in Josef’s family, which was actually a Cain-family in relation to Zachariah’s family, but because Josef’s family accepted Jesus, they came to stand as an Abel family. Yet, when they did not receive Jesus in the right way, there came the need for yet another family to fulfill to become restored-Adam family. That family was Peter’s family. Before Josef's family failed, Peter’s family had been Cain to Josef’s family. But when Jesus was rejected by Josef’s family and received by Peter’s family, Peter’s family came to stand in an Abel position. Peter’s family had to restore what Josef’s family did not restore, that is the mission of Zachariah’s family.
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