Ancient Churches Lexicon Entry:
Cain
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Cain was not the name of an individual person, but of a heretical sect of the Most Ancient Church (AC 337). Even in the Most Ancient Church there were those who cultivated faith, and when at length they separated faith from charity they were called “Cain” (AC 2417). Previously, the people of the Most Ancient Church had not known what faith was, because they had possessed a perception of all the things that constituted faith. But when they began to make a distinct doctrine out of faith, they reduced what had previously been a matter of perception into a matter of doctrine, and regarded that doctrine as if it were something new (AC 340).
Because the Lord foresaw that perception would die out, He provided for the preservation of the doctrinal things of faith. These doctrinal things were collected from the people of the Most Ancient Church by Cain and also by those called Enoch, so that future generations might know about celestial and spiritual matters (AC 920).
At first, there was still some good left in the people called Cain (AC 384). Cain in its earliest form still acknowledged love, even though they made it subordinate to faith (AC 409, AC 347). However, as more heresies were derived from this original heresy, Cain eventually departed so far from true faith as to have no faith at all. At this point the heresy called Cain was vastated (AC 407, AC 409).
See also:
Charity, Communication with the Spiritual
World, Doctrine, Enoch Who Walked
with God, Faith, The Fall, Heresy,
Lamech, Last Judgments, Perception,
Posterities
Passages relating to Cain and the Ancient Churches:
AC 325; AC 327; AC 329; AC 337; AC 340;
AC 347; AC 362; AC 384; AC 394; AC 398;
AC 400; AC 404; AC 407; AC 409; AC 434;
AC 441; AC 609; AC 916; AC 920; AC
1179; AC 2417; AC 2435; AE 329; AE 817;
AR 17
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