The world is the evil system designed and created by Satan to usurp man and distract man from enjoying God. But how did the world start?
If we read the Bible carefully, right in the first few chapters of the first book of the Bible we see the producing of a worldly culture without God. After Cain killed his brother Abel, he didn’t repent before God but rather ran away from God’s presence and built a city to protect himself, calling the name of that city Enoch, the name of his son (see Gen. 4:16).
Humanly you could say that this is not negative, you need a place to live and protect yourself, etc, but if we look at this from the divine perspective we see things differently.
Because man lost God’s presence, man lost everything. In the garden of Eden man used to have God as his everything; God was his supply, protection, maintenance, and amusement, and man simply tilled the ground and cooperated with God and he was satisfied. But after man lost God, man started to invent things that would replace God as his everything.
After man fell, Satan entered into man and instigated man to invent things such as music to replace God as his amusement, cities and weapons to replace God as his protection, herd cattle for a living to replace God as his supply, etc. As a result of man’s fall, man invented a godless culture to replace God, and this godless culture developed and evolved to become the world system today as we know it.
Eventually, this godless culture will consummate in the Great Babylon and it will be judged and completely destroyed by God (see Rev. 17-18).
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see what the beginnings of the world as the evil system created by Satan are, and may we choose to stand with God, enjoy Him, and allow nothing else to replace Him in our life.
Without God our life has no meaning, no matter how many things and entertainments the world has to offer us to try to replace God. With God our life is meaningful, and He is our real life-supply, life-maintenance, life-amusement, and life-protection. When we enjoy Him by exercising our spirit we are content and filled, and God is our everything!
Seeing how the Godless Worldly Culture was Produced
Gen. 4:16-17 And Cain went forth from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
In the New Testament we have clear definitions and warnings concerning the world, and both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle John tell us that the world is evil and it opposes God. However, in the Old Testament we see the clear picture of how the world started (see Gen. 4) and what the world really is (see Exo. 7).
In Genesis, we see that Cain murdered his brother Abel and rejected God’s appearing by not repenting but running away from the presence of God. When God asked Cain, Where is your brother Abel? Cain lied to God; God offered him an opportunity to repent, yet Cain was arrogant, lying to God and running away from God’s presence.
He chose to leave God’s presence and go away, and then he built a city which he named Enoch, after the name of his son (see Gen. 4:16-17). Cain was afraid that people would kill him (just as he killed his brother Abel) and he built a city for his protection and existence.
This city was not initiated by God but by Satan in Cain declaring independence from God and trying to replace God as his protection. And he named the city not “the city of Jehovah” but “Enoch”, something initiated by Cain. Cain was the first city planner, city architect, and city builder away and apart from God.
This was the start of the godless worldly culture which will consummate in the Great Babylon in Rev. 17-18. What Cain started by inventing a religion (his own way of worshiping God – and not God’s ordained way) continued in jealousy, anger, hatred, and murder, lies, and the invention of a godless culture which becomes the world, the evil system of Satan to keep man away from God.
After leaving God’s presence (Gen. 4:16), Cain constructed a city for his protection and self-existence. Within this city he produced a culture without God. In the garden God was everything to man—his protection, maintenance, supply, and amusement. When man lost God, he lost everything. Man’s loss of God forced man to invent human culture, the main elements of which were cities for existence, cattle-raising for making a living, music for amusement, and weapons for defense (vv. 20-22). The godless culture invented in Genesis 4 will continue to develop until it climaxes in the great Babylon (Rev. 17—18). (Gen. 4:17, footnote 2, Recovery Version)
We today have a choice: even though sin is in our flesh making us sinners and sinful before God, and even though Satan is in our self instigating us to declare our independence from God, we can turn to God and contact Him, touch Him, and enjoy Him.
We can choose to turn to the Lord again and again and not be like Cain but take God’s way of redemption, apply the blood of Christ, exercise our spirit, and enjoy the Lord throughout the day to be filled with Him.
When Man Lost God, Man Lost Everything
God is everything to man: He is man’s protection, maintenance, supply, and amusement. When man lost God, he lost everything.
When man was in the garden of Eden, he enjoyed God’s presence and he was satisfied with God being everything to him. In the garden of Eden God was everything to man: God was his protection, his maintenance, his supply, and his amusement.
When man fell, man lost God and therefore he lost everything. Because man fell and lost God, he invented a worldly human culture to replace God in his life.
In Genesis 4 we see that Cain and his descendants invented a godless worldly culture to replace God as their everything. Cain first invented religion, rejecting God’s way of redemption and inventing his own way of worshiping God. Then, he built a city for his protection, trying to replace God as his protection.
His son Lamech married two wives (living in the lust of his flesh) and his children also invented things to replace God. They built cities for their existence, they raised cattle for making a living and having a supply, they invented music for their amusement, and they made weapons for their defense and protection (see Gen. 4:20-22).
The godless worldly culture invented by Cain and his descendants was instigated by Satan in order to replace the God who was everything to them but whom they lost.
If we have God, we have the real life supply: He is our life, and God today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to supply us constantly with life whenever we call on His name (Rom. 10:13).
God is the source of our living, our maintenance, our daily life; Christ lives in us, He is being formed in us, He makes His home in our heart, and He is transforming us, constantly working Himself in us to be lived out of us for God’s glory.
God is our real entertainment and amusement: if we have God, we have all joys, we have real happiness; when we are filled with Christ we don’t have any heart or desire for any worldly entertainment that tries to replace God as our amusement.
God is our real protection and defense, and when we are in Christ, He is our shelter, our covering, our armor, our protection, and our shield; even more, Christ makes us more than conquerors and, as His Body, He is one with us and makes us one with Him to defeat His enemy and cast him into the lake of fire!
If we choose to spend our energy, time, and money in the world and enjoy the world, our life is worthless and has no meaning, being unworthy to be counted before God. But if we spend time with God and enjoy Him again and again, He counts every day of our life as being worthy and precious before Him, and our daily walk becomes a memorial between us and Him into the New Jerusalem.
Lord Jesus, save us from living a worthless life by enjoying the world today. May nothing of the world replace You in our life. Lord, we take You as our life, our life-supply, our protection, our existence, and our amusement and entertainment. Expose the evil system of the world in its endeavors to replace what You are to us. Lord, we choose You! We choose to turn to You and enjoy You in Your word. We choose to depend on You and rely on You for our joy, amusement, protection, supply, maintenance, and living. Lord Jesus, You are the meaning of our life and You fill our life with meaning, purpose, and joy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Albert Lim’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 24, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 5 / msg 5, The Vision of the World.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Though very great is all the world, / And very small is your heart, / Yet the great world with all its wealth / Never can fill your small heart. / If you have Christ, you have all joys; / Without this Christ, only pains; / Where there is Christ there morning is; / Where He is not, night remains. (Hymns #1125)
# I’ve given up the world because / I’ve found something better: / I have found the Living One / And He breaks every fetter. / Yes, He’s the One who set me free. / Oh, how my spirit soars! / I called His name, I’m not the same, / I am for the Lord! (New song on, Giving up the World – we found Christ!)
# Lord, there’s nothing in this world like You; / You fill me up completely. / And I would never give You up for anything / Because nothing else could satisfy me so. (Song on Treasuring the Lord)
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