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him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies"
(8: 44, N.I.V.).
If these words are true, and they surely are, terrible thought they may be, then they
indicate that there are two seeds among mankind. At the very beginning, after the fall of
Adam, God indicates that there would be two seeds, one from Adam and the other from
the serpent (Satan). He said, "I will put enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman
(Eve), and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
his heel" (Gen. 3: 15 A.V.). This terrible revelation had been given by Christ in
parabolic form (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-42); the wheat and the tares represent these two
companies. "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the
children of (ek) the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil" (Matt. 13: 38,
39 A.V.). There is not the slightest hint in this parable that the good seed were ever tares,
nor could tares ever become wheat. The only end for the tares was to be burned up and
finally completely destroyed (40-42). The aim of the enemy (Satan) here was to make a
sowing of that which would look exactly like the true seed so the false seed could not be
distinguished from it. Thus the true sowing would be corrupted and ruined.
We see this working out with our first parents. In spite of her sin, God promised Eve
that her seed should bruise the serpent (Satan), and evidently she thought her first child,
Cain, was the answer to this promise:
"Now the man having come to know Eve his wife,--she conceived and bare Cain and
said `I have gotten a Man, even Yahweh (Jehovah)'." (Gen. 4: 1, Rotherham).
It is noteworthy that Cain was not said to be begotten in Adam's likeness. This was
reserved for Seth (Gen. 5: 3).
When we come to John's first epistle, we get further light on Cain. In 3: 12 we
read, "Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And
why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were
righteous". We should note here that the words "belonged to" expressed the Greek ek
(out of, expressing origin). It is a preposition that John uses frequently. Cain's origin
was linked with Satan the murderer, and no wonder he became a murderer himself. The
same proposition is used by Christ when he says to the Pharisees, "you are of (ek) your
father the devil" (you originate from him). John makes a clear distinction between the
seed of Satan and the seed of God, the tares and the wheat.
All this is part of the great conflict of the ages which primarily is not between Satan
and the human race, but between Satan and God, the enemy constantly seeking to
overthrow God's redemptive plan, so that in the end he (Satan) can triumph, take God's
place, and rule all creation. The Pharisees who opposed the Lord Jesus were the dupes of
Satan in their blindness and hardness of heart, however much they imagined themselves
to be the true seed of Abraham. Actually the Lord is telling them that they are not
Abraham's seed but part of the seed of the serpent and at the end, instead of receiving the
gift of eternal life, they would get eternal death.