Symposium–Satan, the blood is against you
Socrates (470-399 B.C.) was a famous Greek philosopher from Athens, who taught Plato, and Plato taught Aristotle, and Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Socrates used a simple but cleverly profound method of teaching by asking revelatory, psychologically probing questions. The Greeks called this form Dialectic – starting from a thesis or question, then discussing ideas and moving back and forth between points of view to determine how well ideas stand up to critical review, with the ultimate principle of the dialogue being Veritas – Truth.
Jacopo Palma: Cain Slays Abel (circa 1590) – And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. ~ Genesis 4:10
“He [Socrates] was the first person to demonstrate that life is open to philosophy at all times, in every part, among all kinds of people, and in every experience and activity.”
~ Plutarch
“Not only did the blood take care of what you did, it also killed what you were about to do.”
~ Bishop T.D. Jakes, 1994 Sermon: Satan, the blood is against you
Characters:
Socrates {also channeling Heraclitus and Plutarch}
Bishop T.D. Jakes
Socrates: We are gathered here today at my Symposium in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., with Bishop T.D. Jakes whose sermon – Satan, the blood is against you, is taken from the book of Genesis 4:1-12. Let us hear and obey the Holy Word of the Lord:
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.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
Bishop T.D. Jakes: It is a little old fashion, but it is true the blood is against the workings of the Enemy. I believe that we need to go back to preaching the blood. Some of the critics of Christianity make statements that they don’t want to be a part of our Gospel and our ministry because there is so much blood in the Scriptures.
From cover to cover you will find a bloody trail. From the coats of skin that covered the nakedness of Adam, to the animals that are slain in our text, to the spotless lambs of the Levitical priesthood, to the blood that was extracted from the lamb of each house applied to the doorpost of the believer, on and on and over again you will see a bloody Gospel. The Bible have said, “That the life of the flesh is in the blood.” And the life of the Gospel is in the blood. Without the blood we have no Gospel at all…
It was at the Passover where the blood was shed and if there is no Passover, there can be no Pentecost. Exactly 50 days from Passover, Pentecost instantaneously occurs on its own if there is a real Passover experience. We do not have to labor for Pentecost because if we have a real Passover experience Pentecost is an automatic follow up to a real blood atonement experience that will happen in the life of every believer.
Bishop T.D. Jakes: We are looking at the Book of Beginnings and the beginnings of the first family, and the beginnings of the first troubles. And if you are going to be able to determine how things are going to end, you are going to have to look at the beginning and understand the many, many truths of this text… And the Bible begins to talk about it says that Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was tiller of the ground:
- He [Cain] is a type of flesh, a type of works. He works that that God has cursed. He keeps trying to bring before God something that was drawn from a place God had already cursed and rejected. He is a picture of Humanism. He is a picture of vain religion. He is a picture of dead works. He is a picture of mankind trying to please God through his own efforts. He is a picture of man trying to impress God with earthly, natural things that were taken from the earth.
But when it talks about Abel, Abel is a foreshadowing and a picture of Jesus Christ because Abel like Christ is a shepherd. He’s a shepherd, he takes care of sheep. He has caused the sheep to graze in the grass and from the sheep he brings to God what God really wants which is a blood sacrifice. For the Bible later says, “That without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”. …
When Cain offers up that which he has raised himself, God rejects it. In other words God doesn’t receive it. No fire falls upon it; God doesn’t consume it; God rejects it, and here comes Abel, and Abel comes before the presence of the Lord and offers up a more excellent sacrifice. And when he does, God receives the sacrifice.
Now understand something here, God is not a respecter of persons. There’s no need of you getting upset when God blesses one person and not another. God is not a respecter of persons and He is not prejudice… He is not a respecter of Persons, but He is a respecter of Principles… People have a problem with people being blessed. As long as Abel had not won the affections of God, Cain was alright, but the moment Abel offered up a sacrifice to God that caused God to consume the sacrifice, all of a sudden Cain had an attitude, because the Bible said, “that God had respect unto Abel’s offering.”
Socrates: Bishop, all my life I tried in vain to fit in with society. I tried being a soldier, a man of war and found no lasting peace or purpose. As a young man I got married, and was driven to despair and to philosophy. People said, “You seem to have a gift for talking to people, Socrates, and getting their opinions. You ought to go in for public life, and stand for office.”
Nevertheless, I struggled mightily against convention and consensus, against Professional Liars and Political Demagogues. I made an sacred oath to God declaring that – “My voice and my reason, agreed against politics.” Through many years of struggle, pressure, pain and through much Sturm und Drang (‘Storm and Stress’ or Drive, Urge), God delivered me to receive this Grand Revelation – I will let no man or god take from me God’s Destiny for me – “I am the sort of person who is persuaded by nothing except those propositions which appear the best when I reason.”
Bishop T.D. Jakes: Socrates, my ‘Reason’ is Praise. I praise God because I’m a worshipper. I was always taught never, never, ever come to church without an offering. I blessed the Lord at all times. I enter into his presence with thanksgiving and a praise. {Turning to the congregation} There is no use in you rolling your eyes when I offer up the sacrifice of praise from the fruit of my lips and God sends down a strong anointing and the anointing overshadows me, and I get my Healing, and I get my Deliverance, and I get my Joy, and I get my Peace. There is no need in you saying, “That I’m putting on and I’m acting in my flesh, and it doesn’t take all of that.” It takes all of that and more. Once you find out what God likes, give Him what he wants!
Once you find out how to get God’s favor, don’t you allow anybody from anywhere to cause you to forfeit the blessings of the Lord. If you know that praising God opens doors for you, you ought to learn how to praise Him more than anybody else… If it’s working for you, you’ve got to stick with what’s working for you.
I don’t stop people from sitting up and being quiet and folding their legs and looking important and looking distinguished. It doesn’t bother me at all if you want to sit up and act like a professor and drop your glasses down on your nose and impress us with how distinguished you are and how much you paid for your suit – As long as you don’t mind me dancing overtop of your shoes and leaping overtop of your Bible, we can always get along together! {Praises to God}
Rembrandt: Cain and Abel Offer Sacrifices to God (1650s) Cain kills Abel (1650s)
Socrates: How can rational people, people dedicated to Reason and Veritas (Truth) believe in Darwin’s lies of Evolution Atheism when the blood has its own unique voice mankind has only recently discovered in the unique DNA Sequencing Code contained in every living thing?
Bishop T.D. Jakes: And the Bible said that the ground opened its mouth and received the blood. And when it received the blood, all of a sudden the Lord said, “I have heard the voice of thy brother’s blood crying to me out of the ground.” I want you to touch three people and tell them, “The blood can speak.” You don’t have to fight for yourself, because the blood can speak. You don’t have to speak for yourself, because the blood can speak. You don’t have to do nothing to nobody, because the blood can speak. The blood will testify, if you ever got it on you, it will get in your life. The blood leaves a stain in you that you cannot get out and I don’t know what you thank Him for, but I thank God for the blood… I thank Him for the power that is in the blood – say Yes!
Socrates: {channeling Heraclitus} The story of Cain and Abel is the primeval story of the fallen state of Humanity leading to existential or perpetual War through the Ages. It is what English philosopher Thomas Hobbes called in his great opus, Leviathan (1651) – Bellum omnium contra omnes (the war of all against all). From the beginning God prophesied this existential war between God and Lucifer who with his demons fell from Heaven and became Satan. Then the war between Satan and the seed of Man in Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel.” (At His Crucifixion Christ was pierced through his hands, side, and feet).
Bishop T.D. Jakes: Devil, you not just fighting me, you’re fighting the blood. When the blood falls on you, it will give you a voice. When the blood falls on you, you can communicate in the heavenlies. When the blood falls on you, you will open your mouth… When you get a good dose of the blood, it will make you speak up. You don’t have to take the devil’s junk – You don’t have to live beneath his bondage. You don’t have to be who you used to be. I thank God for the blood. The blood will change your heart. The blood will change your attitude. The blood will change your running habits. The blood, the blood, the blood!
The blood will make you turn around on a bar stool and leave the club. The blood will make you leave a hotel in the middle of the night. The blood will make you hang up on an old lover. The blood will make you throw away lottery tickets. The blood will make you throw away a bag of dope. The blood will make you flush it down the toilet. Touch somebody and say, THE BLOOD! That’s what we need to preach – the Power is in the blood – Deliverance is in the blood – Healing is in the blood – Life is in the blood – Joy is in the blood… The Blood!
Touch someone and tell them, “I did a whole lot of stuff, and I almost” – You don’t know what you almost did. You don’t know who you would have been. You don’t know what you would be into. If it had not been for the blood… The blood not only straightened out what you did, but it killed out what you could have done, what you almost did, what you thought about doing, what woke you up in the middle of the night – the Blood, the Blood…
The blood is against you. The blood is against you. The blood is against you. Not another generation Satan! The blood is against you. I plead the blood over my children. The blood! … Everything in the house is covered by the blood, Yes!
Socrates: {channeling Heraclitus} “God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, plenty and famine, all the opposite which sustain things. Men are foolish creatures who must subject themselves to the logos or law. … The people must fight for the law, as for a defensive wall, for all human laws are nourished by the divine, which is one.”
Now Bishop, I understand the Cain and Abel narrative under the paradox that these twin boys who were one, nevertheless they had two opposing and warring worldviews. Abel’s worldview was one of obedience, Theism (God is the center of all things), sacrifice and Love foreshadowing the Blessed day thousands of years in the future where God would send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our ultimate sacrifice, whose blood would be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Cain’s worldview was one of disobedience, Humanism (Man is the center of all things), hedonism, jealously, and hatred and death.
Bishop, is Cain’s worldview the leitmotiv of Humanity? Does Cain’s worldview, does Cain’s Zeitgeist (Spirit of the times) control and curse this generation and condemn Mankind into the Abyss?
Bishop T.D. Jakes: When the Lord arrested Cain He said, “Cain, I want you to understand that no matter what you do, no matter what you plant, this ground will never yield unto you its strength.” I didn’t get the revelation on this until I was cutting grass in my yard one day and down in the cracks of the concrete there were weeds growing up in the cracks, so I pulled the weeds. Well the first time I ran over them with the lawnmower, and they came right back. I got sick of them and I got down on my hands and knees and I pulled them up by the roots. It stayed gone a long time, but after while it came up again. And I thought to myself, “How come, even after I pulled it up by the roots how can the weeds keep on coming?”
So I went to the hardware store and I said, “Mister! I got something growing up in the cracks and I don’t understand what it is. I cut it down and it comes back again.” He said, “Did you pull it?” I said, I pulled it up and it still came back. He said, “Well the reason it came back was that you pulled the plant, but you left the seed.” {Praises to God} He said, “I got something in a bottle that if you take it out there and just spray it – you don’t have to work, just spray it – you don’t have to cut it, just spray it – you don’t have to pull it, just spray it.” I said, “What will it do?” He said, “That not only will it kill what is growing, but it will kill the unborn seeds that are in the ground.”
So I got out in the yard and I started spraying the weeds, and while I was spraying the weeds I thought about the blood. See, I know you thank God for the blood and what God forgave you for and what He pulled up in your life – The things that you did, the places that you went, who you used to be, and what you used to do. The blood got that, but I’ll raise you one better. Not only did the blood take care of what you did, it also killed what you were about to do. {Praises to God}
Socrates: {channeling Plutarch} “He [Socrates] was the first person to demonstrate that life is open to philosophy at all times, in every part, among all kinds of people, and in every experience and activity.” People down through the ages call me a genius and the greatest philosopher that ever lived, yet I was able to bring understanding and Reason of complex things through God. It was He alone who gave me the gift of Clarity and Simplicity – to take the ordinary, the mundane, the unremarkable things of the world to confound the Wise – the Sophists, the Gnostics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Caesars – those legendary people whose names you no longer know or care about, yet through God’s Greatness and God’s Mercy and God’s Blood … The name of Socrates lives to this Day! But how can this be?
Bishop T.D. Jakes: I know its old fashion, but I thank God for the blood. You go ahead and thank him for your Mercedes, but I thank God for the blood. Thank Him for you silk dress, but I thank Him for the blood. Thank Him for your diamond ring, but I thank Him for the blood. Thank Him for your companion, but I thank God for the blood. The blood delivered me – The blood set me free – The blood cleaned me up – The blood washed me. The Blood! – Better than Confucius, better than Mohammed, better than Socrates. The Blood! – a Hightower – THE BLOOD!
The Blood! – When folks talk about you, plead the blood. When they bring up your past, plead the blood. When they try to slander you, plead the blood. When they try to scandalize you, plead the blood. Not your church – Not your organization – Not your denomination, but there is power in the blood of Jesus. There’s POWER! – {Praises to God} 50:45
If I ever preach right, it’s His voice. If I ever pray right, it’s His voice. If I ever do any good thing, it’s His voice. It’s coming from a dirty place, but it’s His blood. Don’t let the clay fool ya, the Blood!
*N.B.: For selected quotes attributed to Socrates, Heraclitus, and Plutarch, see Paul Johnson, Socrates: A Man for Our Times (Viking Press, 2011), pp. 76-80.
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