The Self-Empowerment Trend Started in the Garden of Eden

...and other Christian truths you're probably not going to hear at church

I’ve committed myself to re-reading the whole Bible, cover to cover, although at the pace I’m going, this will be a decades-long effort. The first time I did this, I just tried to get through it as fast as possible. This time, I’m trying to really comprehend everything I read and think more deeply about it. This sometimes means that my daily reading amounts to exactly ONE verse.

Like yesterday, when I read Genesis 4:1,

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.”

I don’t know about you, but to me, there seems to be a slight undertone of hubris in this statement.

Not “The Lord granted me the grace to bear a child.”

Not “By the power of God, I have born a child.”

But “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.”

The second part feels like an afterthought: My achievement first, and oh yeah, the Lord helped a little too.

Even after having been kicked out of Eden for insubordination and thinking she could be like God, our darling OG mother hadn’t learned very much, it seems. No wonder that Cain was doubly cursed. For one, he was the first child of wrath (more about this below) and second, he had a pretty conceited mother.

Imagine your mom telling you that she has produced you, and that it is in your power to do likewise—to harness those “innate powers,” that “spark of divinity” that resides within you. And if you do, you can have anything you want and accomplish anything you set your mind to.

It’s called self-empowerment, and it’s been the bane of humanity from the beginning.