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Why did God choose Abel's sacrifice over Cain's?  They both gave equally and in obedience.  One theory I heard was that, while Abel gave of his first born lambs, in one complete offering, Cain gave a portion over time,  maybe indicating a weaker faith than Abel's.  Thoughts?

love,

Sopranette

Able gave out of faith and pointed toward Jesus...
Cain offering did not show faith toward Jesus..

Why did Able also offer up the fat?

 Genesis 4:1-7

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.

And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.  


 Hebrews 11
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.


2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.


3 Through faith [which cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God; and being not hearers only, but doers of the Word of God] we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.


4 By faith [defined as above] Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.


6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.


7 By faith Noah, being warned [by the Word] of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.


The reason that Cain's was not accepted and Abel's was accepted, laid in the fact that Abel had offered unto God what God had previously prescribed to offer to him as a sacrifice to him, and he did so in the proper manner and order, God had prescibed (commanded) to offer a sacrifice to him - Cain did not.

The sacrifice and offering God required was a blood sacrifice - that is an animal sacrifice; it is the blood that makes attonement. And this was understood as far back in human history as Adam and Abel and Cain (etc.). Only Abel was willing (sufficiently humble, and believed in God's promises, enough) to do as God commanded; where we see that Cain was not.

Study the revelation in Scripture concerning what constituted acceptable sacrifices to God and how they were to be offered, then you can better understand why Abel did as he did.

The account in Genesis does not go into the detail about what and why blood sacrifices of clean animals was required and expected by God to be offered to him. Abel and Cain had been properly instructed in all this by either their father Adam (who must have been instructed of all these things by God himself), or by by God himself - you can be sure of this.

While we are not privy to this instructional discourse given by God to Adam and/or Cain and Abel (and others), we can know though this was indeed the case, by thinking it all through, after comparing and then studiously harmonizing all the scriptures that speak to the subject of sacrifices and why they were to be given. We also see though that only Abel took these commands to heart, and by faith and the fear of the LORD, did as God commanded to be done. - Cain did not. Hence his sacrifices were not accepted by God, because they were not acceptable to him.

I think the reason Abel was accepted and Cain was rejected was because Abel brought the first and the best he had, while Cain just brought an offering, (Gen 4:3-4). I think about it like the difference between offering someone the first place at the table and giving someone your leftovers. I know the common belief is that God required a blood offering, but I can't justify that conclusion specifically from the text.

I have heard the same thing [many many times] and I likewise agree it is not based on the text. 

Nice picture too.

Thank you, I have some cute ones from his first time at church this weekend I want to post later.

Agreed.  We have no indication at this time that God had demanded blood sacrifices.

There is no indication until the Law of Moses that sin offerings were required.  Whole burnt offerings, yes, but not sin offerings.

The only thing we can say for certain about Abel and Cain is that Abel's heart was right before God and Cain's was not.  It was a heart issue more than anything else.  It may be that God required Cain to offer from the ground, but his evil heart led him to offer it in some unacceptable manner, as has already been suggested.

Good explanation.  Manna.

Because Abel pictures the life of the nomadic herdsman, and Cain pictures the life of the agrarian urbanist.

Cain owns the curse of his father.  Abel's good fortune relies on God's providence.  It's a trust issue.

Man is the human race.
Cain was "of that wicked one" because Eve was seduced in a sexual sense says Paul.

Cain, (from a musical note) because Moses was writing in inverted version of the Babylonian texts, represents (Jesus said a parable from the foundation) the agriculturalists down in the deep, dark soil where the Cainites dwelled.  They depended on the rains because they were pegged to the land. If a rain did not come the world's first professional was an emotionally and sexually challenged person who could DRUM UP the rains. He was excluded from work and they developed the fertility rituals they were still trying on Jesus.  These invovled sexual and homosexual rituals believing that this bound the body and spirit together and seduced the "gods" to give them good gifts: Praise singing was always to AID or THREATEN the gods.

Cain was not "of faith" but I doubt that God would curse him if he was sincere: being NOT OF FAITH defines the character of people then and now.

When Jesus went to Caesarea Philippi and took the good confession from Peter, this was the HEART of the agriculturiists.  Just up the slopes of Mount Hermon was the Gates of Hell or the temple of PAN: Pan is defined as one of the BEASTS in the Greek.  There is a great slab of rock in front of the MOUTH or cave of "hell" and people once threw infants into the maws of hell to appease the devil. This was repeated in Jerusalem where the MOLECH image burned infants while the priests drummed and played instruments to drown out the cries. The presiding priest claimed to hear the voice of the "gods" giving him a message no one else could hear. Does that sound familiar?

The Pastorals [Abel] lived up on the slopes of the mountains and when the grass ran out they could move their flocks. They never developed the fertility rituals of vile paganism. Remember that the MESSAGE of God and the Tabernacle was that He was not pinned down to one spot like the later temple of the now-pagan Israelite state. The Feast of Tabernacles was a giant fertility ritual and talent show and Jesus refused to go up until the opening ceremonies were over: he knew that the singing, playing, dancing and reciting did not prevent them from looking for Jesus to murder him.

If that is not true then Moses just flat swiped the Babylonian legends which probably began as history and some were 3,000 years old when Moses was born.

Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees who "spoke on their own" the sons of the Devil. By calling them hypocrites he pointed to Isaiah and Ezekiel who identified the speakers, singers and instrument players where everyone WENT OUT TO SEE the performers and God's message to Ezekiel that they treated him like God himself as a sexual partner.

Nothing has changed: the shame is the same.

p.progress is right, God requires a blood sacrifice.
Abel did so properly, Cain did not.

Further, the very ground from which Cain brought his offering had been ... cursed (Genesis 3:17).

That ain't gonna make it. lol



Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16), the continual blood sacrifice man needs to meet God.

That's exactly what I was thinking as I read over the posts.  God knew their hearts.

God didn't always require a blood sacrifice.  There are a number of times in the OT when He demanded the first fruits of harvest as a sacrifice.

love,

Sopranette

There is no way to know from the text that required a blood sacrifice out of both Abel and Cain.  There is no indication that God was requiring sin offerings here.

Also, if any offering from the ground is not gonna make it, because the ground was cursed, then God would never have required offerings from the harvests, as sopranette pointed out.

Don't you think that When God killed the animal to dress Adam and Eve, that he explained the redemption plan?

Killing the animal...shedding his blood...covering our shame. Good picture of what Jesus did for us.

Why were they giving sacrifice to God if they were not taught to? Maybe it wasn't a law, but there parents taught them?

Who knows? ::shrug::

It really isn't so much that God chose Able.  It is rather that God rejected Cain.  And Cain's rejection is clearly on Cain's own head.

Gen 4:6  Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

Sopranette, why have you changed your avatar?  ::frown:: It used to be quite nice to look at, but now it's ... well ... a dog.

Whether God taught them anything about the plan of redemption is purely an assumption.  In my opinion, since God did not really spell it out to anybody else in the Old Testament, such as Abraham with the giving of the covenant or his sacrifice of Isaac, or the Israelites with the plan of the tabernacle and the sacrificial system, then He did not spell it out to Adam and Eve either.

That God taught them to make sacrifice is a given since that is what they were doing.  The specifics of what they were taught is what we don't know.

Hee hee!  Okay, I'll look for something nicer, I promise.  My own dog has those strange yellow eyes, is why I picked it.

love,

Sopranette

Abel's offering was by faith (Heb 11:4).  Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17).  Thus we see that Abel's offering was done in accordance with God's word.  Although Moses did not record God's guidance in the first few chapters of Genesis, the passages from Heb and Rom assure us that God did provide such guidance.  Abel obeyed, while Cain disobeyed.

I don't think that the God of Creation ever commanded sacrifices to satisfy some blood lust.
People made voluntary sacrifices under the Patriarchal period and The Book of The Covenant made conditional laws of sacrifice: IF you sacrifice then THIS is how you do it.  That began on plain earth.

The Law of Moses was added because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and God abandoned them to worship the starry host (Acts 7 etal).

The Spirit of Christ spoke through the PROPHETS, therefore it is important not to go to the records of the King's Scribes to define the nature of God.  God IMPOSED animal slaughter by His permissive will and NOT because He got hungry or loved to see innocent animals "made dumb before the slaughter" by the musicians (parasites) and then have the "Heretic" lift them up to cut their thoats.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Isaiah 1:10

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
        I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;
        and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. Isaiah 1:11

When ye come to appear before me,
        who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Isaiah 1:12

Bring no more vain oblations;
        incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths,
        the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;
        it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Isaiah 1:13
 
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
        Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jeremiah 7:21
For I spake NOT unto your fathers,
        nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
        concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
        Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
        and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you,
        that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23
But they HEARKENED NOT, nor inclined their ear,
        but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart,
        and went backward, and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24

Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day,
        I have even sent unto you all my servants the PROPHETS,
        daily rising up early and sending them: Jeremiah 7:25
Yet they HEARKENED NOT unto me,
        nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck:
        they did worse than their fathers. Jeremiah 7:26

The Atone-ment as defined by the word LOUO and STAUROS or the Cross and speaks of COOLING the passions or blood lust of humanity and not because God had to be appeased. The REAL sacrifice of one recognized as The Son of God brought to light the horrors of their pagan sacrificial system.

All animal sacrifices stemmed from the ritual sacrifice of the kings as the agents of the gods. The kings got wise and offered human sacrifices.  After Mount Sinai animal sacrifices were IMPOSED because the people were involved in BLOOD LUST and one could eat flesh in many places ONLY if it had been sacrificed to a god.

The theme of COME TO THE TABLE has spread to mean that the Lord's Supper is a sacrificial meal offered to God and He eats with us while we burn the fat with jubilation.   Some have observed the Lord's Supper with swines flesh still in their teeth.

Psa. 50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
Psa. 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee:
      for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Psa. 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
Psa. 50:13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

NO: therefore offer the fruit of the lips and in Isaiah 573 God supplies the fruit.

Psa. 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Psa. 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Even if you are correct [and I do not think you are] that Romans 10:17 means nothing can be done "by faith" unless it is specifically instructed, you must still speculate to try to explain what it was about Abel's sacrifice God accepted.  You still have a long way to go to prove that it was the difference between meat and the grain.

Anyway, I think it is interesting that the text says Abel's sacrifice was "accepted" and Cains was not.  God doesn't really mention sin until He sees Cain is upset and tells Cain to be careful because, if he does not do well, "sin is crouching at the door."  It appears the sin God was addressing was Cain's jealous reaction more than it was how Cain performed the sacrifice.

"They both gave equally and in obedience." 

No on both accounts.

Equally? No. One gave an animal sacrifice - a blood sacrifice - a blood sacrifice from a clean animal, a lamb. As was obviously what had been communicated to them by the Lord to offer to him - though we have no record of that particular exchange.

In obedience? No. If I instruct my two sons to come to me at 6am and bring with them to me their sharpest knife, their fire, some wood, a unblemished lamb to make sacrifice; and only one does this, but the other one instead brings me their rake, hoe, shovel and garden gloves: Then I am not going to commend him for his showing up on time and say he has obeyed me, when he did not do what I instructed him to do. I will not respect his efforts to bring all these things, when he was commanded to bring other things for the occasion I had preplanned on the morning. He did not DO what was right. The reason he did not Do what was right, is because his heart is not right.

Cain knew what to do, but it was not important to him; he wanted to do what he wanted to do - he wanted to offer to God what he wanted to offer - NOT OFFER what God had instructed to bring to him as an offering...as a sacrifice.

The fact that we are not provided the details of the conversation where the LORD God laid all this out before Adam and his sons, does not mean that this conversation did not take place. If anyone cannot understand that such a conversation took place, then they have not learned to examine the texts ALL of them, and have yet to learn HOW TO make a diligent search of the scriptures. Once you have, then you will easily begin to see and understand how necessary it is also to take all the available texts on a subject - such as the issue or subject of sacrificing - and then  harmonize what is revealed ALL TOGETHER.

When you do this regarding the issue at hand...the questions posed and the issues sourrounding this text in Genesis 4, you will not be subject to being misinformed or mislead or found guilty of misconstruing and misrepresenting the facts within a passage or a section or on a subject of scripture.


Read...it says that if he DID right would he not be accepted. Cain DID WRONG, so HE was not accepted. God tried to be kind and gentle in corrections towards Cain. But Cain showed he did not love or care to honor God; and on top of all this, he goes and murders Abel for his goodness. In mudreing Abel, Cain sought to retaliate towards God for his own lack of acceptance. Cain wanted God to accept him as he was and regardless of the fact that he did as he pleased. And frankly, nothing has changed in that regard from that day to this present hour.   

No indication? Wrong.

Whether sin or whole burnt offerings, the fact is that the narrative accounts found in the book of Genesis DO indicate that animal sacrifice was practiced and that would INDICATE that they were instructed what and how to sacrifice to God.

The issue of FAITH, what it is and how it is proven to have been properly exercised by the man in the Word of God, and rewarded by God, is something that requires understanding regarding the will of God on such matters as the definition of faith. Abel, Noah and others could not please God apart from their faith; and their faith was born when they HEARD the WORD of God. They mixed what they heard from God's lips, the faith that they placed in the credibility and certainty of God's Words, and what God promised those that obeyed them (and those that rejected them).

Like I said, there is no indication that sin offerings were required prior to the Law of Moses.  You are trying to lump sin offerings and whole burnt offerings together and that will not work.  They are two completely separate ceremonies with two different methods and two different purposes.

Immediately after man sinned in the garden, God promised the seed of the woman (Christ), who would crush satan.
And he clothed Adam & Eve (shed animal blood) in skins.

What does this mean to you?

Jimmy said:

  It really isn't so much that God chose Able.  It is rather that God rejected Cain.  And Cain's rejection is clearly on Cain's own head.

Election is  being chosen


GTM

It's probably symbolic of Christ shedding His blood for us.  Still, I don't think Cain's sacrifice was rejected because it wasn't a blood sacrifice.  Like I said before, there are many examples in the OT where God demanded a sacrifice of the first fruits of the harvest.

love,

Sopranette

So where in that passage do you see anything about election?  God clearly laid the problem on Cain.

Backtracking here a moment: They did not give equally nor did they both give in obedience. Theories and guesses are one thing, but to present the facts would better serve all reading this thread. And that only can be discovered by closely and more thoroughly combing through scripture to discover what is the answers to our questions; or at the least, present the best case scenario founded upon the evidence.


One: Abel did not bring grain, vegetable or fruit, but brought "of his flock"...meaning an animal; specifically meaning a sheep; a "firstling of his flock", ...meaning a young sheep, a lamb; ...which also means a 'clean' animal, as opposed to an unclean one (i.e. not swine). But he also brought "of the fat thereof" of that animal as part of the offering to God. That indicates that the offering was a sacrifice, a blood-sacrifice, ...even indicating a offering for sin - not a 'firstfruits' offering (i.e. the engathering of produce from the fileds) such as was commanded later under the Law (as was at Pentacost).


Two: It wan't that Cain's offering indicated a 'weaker faith'; but rather a lack of faith, a lack of honor and disrespect towards God - he did that which was not "well" or acceptable before God. He knew what to do, what was acceptable and unacceptable to 'bring' to God as an offering; he just chose to do what he wanted, and expected it to be accepted based upon the self-effort itself he put into it, it appears.

He was "wroth", "very wroth" and his "countenance fell" because he was evil and resented that God would not 'honor' and 'accept' (have respect for) what he brought. He was not ignorant of what was required - just proud, independent and self-absorbed. He did not want to honor God, he wanted God to honor him. 


Genesis 4 
1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Romans 9:15-16 says, "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."

Romans 9:13 adds, "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

There is a bunch of scripture clearly stipulating that God chose a people for himself before the foundation of the world. We don't know who they are, and certainly there is nothing in the Bible that reveals His processes for choosing those He chose. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, "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,"

Isaiah 55:8-9, harmonizes even further, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

And if the foregoing isn't enough: Romans 9:20-21, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it , Why hast thou made me thus?  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"

Seems to sum it up pretty well, wouldn't you say?

Not really.  Didn't God tell Cain that it was because he didn't do well?

God tends to move in surprising ways.  While there are many sensible possabilities covered so far, it is extrodinairly unlikely, but not impossible it was to create the worlds oldest joke:

Q: Why did Cain kill his brother?

A: Because he was Abel.

Sorry, just had to.  Please return to your reasonable discussions unabated.

Ezekiel 36:22-32 says this: "Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.  And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this , saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel."

No where in these citations can there be found any intimation of man's contributions to the LORD's salvation plan. Paul didn't do "well" until the LORD saved him, and clearly he detested the whole idea and ideology of Christendom. Yet, the LORD made him His own, not the other way around. There is nothing Cain can do to please the LORD, in and of himself and under his own steam. The Holy Spirit has to be a part of this, or there is no salvation or regeneration and, consequently, there is nothing that Cain, Paul or anyone of us can do to please the LORD.

That's all very nice, but that's Ezekiel (uh...and your own interpretation) It's not exactly part of the context.

In Genesis, God says to Cain:

Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

Genesis 4  
1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Seems clear to me that God placed it back squarely on Cain, not on some imagined unknown process for choosing those He chose.

W_S, what is the "do well" you think God wanted from Cain?

In a word, obedience.

How was Cain not obedient to God?

Blood

"and he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. -Lev.14:25

"I said to him."Sir, you know." And he said to me, "these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  -Rev.7:14

"And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.  -Rev.12:11

"but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
for "All flesh is like grass and its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers, and the flower falls, "but the word of the Lord remains forever. "And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  -1Pet.1:19-25