102 The Human Fall 2 day
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The document discusses the human condition and the concept of evil based on biblical passages. It suggests that the original sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was an illicit sexual act, as Lucifer tempted Eve and she had a sexual relationship with Adam before they were mature or married. This act caused the fall of humanity and separation from God. As a result, humans were born with original sin and faced consequences like internal conflict, suffering, and a fallen world. While God gave humans freedom, He grieved over their choice to disobey and the impact of sin.
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102 The Human Fall 2 day
- 3. The human condition People Conscience Evil mind Goodness, joy Evil, guilt Struggle
- 7. The story of Adam and Eve
- 8. Biblical language Much of the Bible is written in metaphor and symbol. We need to understand how the people who wrote it understood it. E.g. A tree is a symbol for a person “ For the vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting . . .” Proverbs 11:30 “ I am the vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5
- 9. What was the serpent? Serpent Symbol? Literal? “ Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made.” Genesis 3:1
- 12. What was the fruit? Fruit Symbol? Literal? “ Here and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Matthew 15:10-11
- 19. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil The tree could produce either good or evil fruit depending on whether love was God-centred or self-centred ‘ To know’ a woman - a Biblical metaphor for sex
- 20. When should the fruit be eaten? The fruit Mature and married Immature and unmarried Goodness Suffering God gave the commandment to protect Adam and Eve
- 23. What happened at the Fall?
- 28. Why did the fall take place?
- 29. What should have happened? God Lucifer Angels Universe God Lucifer Angels Universe God Lucifer Angels Universe Adam & Eve Immature Adam & Eve I Cor. 8:3
- 31. The motivation and process of the Fall
- 34. The Spiritual Fall God Lucifer Eve Adam Felt less love Wanted to rule humans Wanted to experience love and become like God before time was ripe
- 35. Adam and Eve
- 36. The Physical Fall God Lucifer Eve Adam Rid herself of dread and stand before God
- 37. What were the consequences of the Fall?
- 41. Loss of the First Blessing Conflict between spirit and flesh People born with original sin “ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” John 8:44 Object Subject Addiction Greed Laziness Lust Dishonesty Contradictory nature Good inclination vs evil inclination Sinful Person Mind Body Satan
- 42. Loss of the Second Blessing “ I will greatly multiply your pain in child-bearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” Genesis 3:16 Unfaithfulness Abuse Tyranny Violence Society Nation World Fallen Family Adam Satan Eve
- 43. Loss of the Third Blessing “ Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you.” Genesis 3:17-19 Materialism Consumerism Environmental degradation Hell Person Creation Satan
Editor's Notes
- Even though the fall of man was the fault of human beings, people feel that God should be doing something about it. People sense that we cannot solve the problem ourselves because there is no one pure enough or good enough. And God has been working his providence to save his children to restore or put right the mistakes that were made. This is the history of religion. To understand it we have to understand the principles that can be uncovered in the Bible. These Principles are based on the Principles that we explored in the lecture on the Principle of Creation.
- To answer such ultimate questions or to try to explain such mysteries religions use myths. To call something a myth doesn’t mean it isn’t true. On the contrary it is a way of exploring and transmitting spiritual truths. Many levels of interpretation.
- The story or myth of A&E
- The Bible contains many genres of writing. Some is historical, some wisdom literature, some poetry, some myth etc. To take it all literally at face value is to misunderstand it. Have to be discerning. Prayerfully interpret it, guided by reason, tradition and the Holy Spirit. So let us examine and unpick the metaphors and symbols in the story. Detective work
- Also II Peter 2:4 Michael casting Lucifer out of heaven
- Now God had told A&E that you must not eat the fruit. Also they would die on the SAME day as they ate of it. In other words NOT 80 years later. So physical death not a result of the fall but is natural. They didn’t die the same day so it obviously wasn’t a literal poisonous fruit. So what was it?
- The fruit is symbolic – real fruit could cause stomach ache but not sin. What does ‘fruit’ symbolise in the Bible?
- Song of Songs – love poetry between bride and bridegroom. Here the bride is talking about her bridegroom. Tree = man; Fruit – literal? Slang, euphamism, for love
- Bridegroom speaking. Locked garden = virgin. Again fruits = love
- Bride talking – what fruit is she inviting bridegroom to eat? Apple tree – giving birth
- In the advice that a father gives to his son he warns him about prostitutes and their activities. In this advice eating is used as a metaphor for having sex.
- Is adultery an eating disorder? Again eating a metaphor for sex
- If you eat an unripe fruit it leads to stomach ache. If you wait till it is ripe it is very enjoyable to eat and life giving. God gave commandment to protect A&E God wanted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit when they had grown up and matured. Then he would have blessed them in divine marriage and they would have consummated their marriage. They would have experienced God’s love in their marriage relationship and would have experienced the deepest ecstacy and joy in their sexual relationship. The children of such a marriage would have been sinless and good.
- The happiest day for God would have been seeing his children happily married and having a happy family
- Rewind to see what happened
- The sin of the archangel was fornication. With whom?
- Offering fruit to Eve was having sexual relationship
- After the fall they were ashamed of their nakedness. Little boy caught eating biscuit -> covers his mouth. Adam and Eve covered sexual organs not their mouths. After eating the fruit A&E felt dirty, guilty. No joy.
- Main cause of broken homes is misuse of love. Adultery destroys marriage -> divorce and break up of family
- This is what should have happened. A&E should have grown to maturity to be incarnation of the word of God. As such they would have won the respect of Lucifer who would have joyfully become their servant. He would have realised that God dwelled in A&E and by serving them he could serve God. God wanted A&E to be Lords of Creation including lord of angels. I Cor. 8:3 “Do you not know that we are to judge the angels?” God loved Lucifer very much and he basked in God’s glory. However, God loved A&E as his children. L didn’t think they deserved it. He thought God had made a mistake.
- Irenaeus was the first theologian of the Catholic Church, Bishop of Lyons AD 160 and important link between east and west churches. Eastern Orthodox Churches follow Irenaeus in believing A&E created immature. Augustine in 5 th century suggested they were created perfect and fully formed – Michaelangelo depiction follows Augustine. Jesus also ‘increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God’ Luke 2:52
- Michaelangelo
- Lucifer very arrogant. He thought God had made a mistake. He thought he was better than Adam and Eve. He didn’t respect A& E and refused to bow to them. Instead he wanted to control them and replace God as their parent. The way to gain control of them and take the place of God was to make them break the commandment and engage is a love relationship with him. FALLEN NATURE Lucifer saw Adam from own point of view. Self centred. Couldn’t respect. Didn’t see A&E as God’s children but as rivals. Envy. Refused to bow down. 2. Left position as servant of God. Wanted to replace God Frank Tallis, the author of Love Sick, describes jealousy as ﾒ a necessary condition of love because its absence suggests indifference and impartiality: a level of detachment that we cannot reconcile with passion and desire ﾓ .
- After she ate the fruit Eve realised that she had sinned and felt guilty and cut off from God. Her eyes had been opened – she had lost her innocence. She realised that Adam was supposed to be her husband and not Lucifer.
- Lucifer felt that God loved Adam and Eve more than him. Even though he continued to be loved by God as much as he was before he felt jealous. Like all things created by God he wanted to be closer to God and receive more love. This is like Jesus’ parable about the labourers who worked all day and were angry that they received the same wages as people who had worked for just an hour even though they received what was promised at the start of the day. Lucifer didn’t think Adam and Eve deserved to loved more than him. At the same time he was drawn towards Eve because she was so beautiful and radiant as she was loved so much by God. Eve was attracted to Lucifer because he appeared to be so sophisticated especially compared to Adam. Lucifer, who was much older, enjoyed the attention he received from Eve and wanted to have her for himself. He envied Adam and didn’t think he deserved Eve. So he drew Eve towards himself and realised he could bring her under his influence. He then persuaded her to eat the fruit knowing that through this he would gain power and control over her. He did this by talking her into bed, confusing and undermining her conscience with clever arguments. He told her half- truths just like a modern drug pusher. Eve was persuaded that by eating the fruit she would become like God – a half truth. FALLEN NATURE. Reversal of dominion The temptation Lucider approached Eve alone. Not A&E. isolated her. Made her engage in autonomous rational discussion. Caricatured God’s commandment. You may not eat of ANY fruit. Eve responds failing to quote commandment accurately. Garbled and exagerated. May not TOUCH -> divine commandment unreasonable. Tells won’t be harmed => what can be wrong? Consenting adults etc. Gave into lust cos looked good Jesus by contrast responded with word of God Fallen nature of Lucifer. Passed on to Eve then Adam
- So she offered Adam and fruit
- Adam instead of saying “No” allowed himself to be tempted and seduced by Eve and also ate the fruit. As a result both of them became cut off from God. When God questioned Adam, he didn’t own up and take responsibility for what he had done. Instead he blamed Eve – i.e. said that she controlled him. When God questioned Eve, she didn’t own up and take responsibility for her actions. Instead she blamed Lucifer i.e. claimed that she was controlled by Lucifer. In other words she wasn’t a free person. FALLEN NATURE Multiplication of Sin
- Blessings became curses. People born damaged, spiritually deformed. Original sin – easier to be bad than to be good
- Conflict between husband and wife. Women abused and mistreated throughout history. Men also nagged and dragged down by wives. Conflict between parents and children – generation gap – child abuse etc. Familial problems expand to social and world conflict. Ultimately Satan’s lineage – Satan’s habits and way of life. “You are of your Father the devil and your will is to do your Father’s desires”. Satan’s lineage
- People dominated by creation – materialism, consumerism also neglect and exploitation of environment
- God foresaw the possibility of the fall and so to protect and guide his children he gave the commandment with clear explanation of consequences of breaking it. If God had prevented fall he would have been interfering in human responsibility – which would show lack of respect for them. How does a teenager feel is treated as a child? Heart of God – heart of creation, heart of fall, heart of restoration and reconciliation. If the father had not allowed the son to have his inheritance and insisted he stay at home, the father would have kept the son’s body but lost his heart. The son’s heart and mind would be in the city. God gives people the freedom to be responsible, to make mistakes and hopes we will learn from them.
- Sexual sin corrupts the soul and the heart. It is an act against God who is love.