Thesis 15: Cain’s City: The Autonomy of the State

Cain’s polis was an attempt to escape the Presence of God,[1] and was an “autonomously creative” act of rebellion.[2] Apostate man has ever since been characterized by the City/State[3] (polis - a deified, fortified political system). Enoch was first to build a "city," but believers will eventually build a better city.[4] Unbelievers tend to take greater risks than believers, and in many cases "get there first" in their rebellion against God or their quest to get something for nothing.

Notes

1. Genesis 4:16
2. Genesis 4:17 (as distinguished from an “analogically re-creative” act, thinking God’s thoughts after Him [“Enoch” = “dedication,” “creation”])
3. Numbers 13:28; Deuteronomy 1:28; 3:5; 1 Kings 4:13
4. Revelation 21-22

References

R.J. Rushdoony, "The Cainite," Revolt Against Maturity, p. 91-96.

Jacques Ellul - The Meaning of the City

"The Enoch Factor" - Introduction James B. Jordan

Biblical Horizons » No. 37: The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 2: "The Enoch Factor"

Biblical Horizons » No. 38: The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 3 February, 1998

If we realize that human beings are the images of God, and that man hates God, then we realize that all non-Christian political philosophy is founded on a fundamental hatred of other human beings, a hatred manifest in contempt. All non-Christian political philosophy embraces the idea that most people are to be slaves of the elite. Non-Christian political philosophy inevitably thinks nothing of going to war and killing thousands, even millions, of images of God in order to advance some scheme. Think of the thousands of teenaged Iraqi soldiers slain by Americans in Mr. Bush’s Gulf War, which was fought, he himself insisted, merely to keep down the price of oil! They inconvenienced us, so we slaughtered them!

Biblical Horizons » No. 39: The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 4 The Nephilim Factor