We begin this chapter of the Bible with a talking snake, not Satan (as I'd always been taught), convincing Eve that she will, in fact, not die if she eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As it turns out, the serpent is correct. God, however, punishes not only Eve, for disobedience, but Adam, for listening to his wife, and the rest of mankind for, well, for being born. And, it's not just a small punishment, either; the high points include a nasty little trait called mortality and increased pain in childbirth for the ladies! Oh yeah, and not just for the original sinners, but for all their descendants and for all time. That's pretty harsh!
Now, I have a few questions, and they pertain mainly to the idea of fairness. Specifically, is it fair for God to punish all of humanity for the actions of two people? Most Christians would say this is where the concepts of original sin and sin nature derive from, and we'll cover those in more depth in a moment. But for now, just consider the idea that from my view, it is immoral to punish someone for the actions of another, especially if those actions were committed thousands of years in the past. If God is, as believers claim, benevolent (intending or showing kindness), then how does this punishment make sense? It would be akin to me punishing not only my son for not cleaning his room, but also my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, et cetera. How is this moral? Also, if God is omniscient (all-knowing), he must have known that Adam and Eve would disobey him, so why bother creating them in the first place? It's like the late Gene Roddenberry is reported to have said, "We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."
Which leads naturally into the concept of original sin. Most Christian sects believe in some form of original sin (the notable exception is the Mormons), though it has, in some Protestant circles been supplanted by the term "sin nature." Either way, it is the concept that humans are, by nature of their descending from Adam and Eve, flawed from the beginning. To Catholics, the entire human race is to be held accountable for the sins of Adam and Eve, as well as their own. They are, as Augustine said, "utterly depraved in nature." It is because of this idea that Catholics adopted the idea of Limbo. After all, what would a benevolent God do with all those poor, dead infants, too young to have sinned themselves, yet burdened with this idea of inherited sin? It strikes me as a bit of a cop-out (not officially part of Catholic dogma, I was surprised to find) designed to assuage the guilt of believers who are unable to reconcile their loving God with creating a set of rules that would damn babies (and fetuses and sperm, for that matter) to eternal suffering through no fault of their own.
Holding a somewhat more modern, progressive view are the proponents of man's having a sin nature. By this view, we are not held accountable for the sins of our ancestors, but rather, we are unable
to lead perfect, sin-free lives because we descended from them. Adam and Eve were created perfect, though, I guess not quite perfect enough. Once they sinned, they became flawed, and passed this along to all their descendants. Sin nature is all about desire. We want, as humans, to sin, and only through the grace of God are we able to overcome those desires. Some have even tried to draw a connection between sin nature and the presence of genes that code for a predisposition towards alcoholism and other "sinful" conditions. I am, of course, skeptical, though I admit it would lend a small level of credence to this aspect of Christian theology.
Whichever view you take, this is the first time we start to see some of the personality of God. Prior to Genesis 3, he is merely a creator, albeit of everything. Now, he is seen to be taking an active role in his creation, dealing with humans directly, walking and talking with them, commanding them to behave a certain way, punishing them when they don't... As a character in this book, God is becoming more complex. It'll be interesting to see what comes next.
One final note, this from a literary criticism view, this chapter ends with an incredibly striking image, that of a group of angels (cherubim) and a flaming sword guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. It's breathtaking, even for an atheist, to picture Adam and Eve, having lost so much for all humanity, leaving their home to build a life in what was a very different world already. Whoever wrote this part of the Bible certainly had a flair for the dramatic.
Next time, Genesis Chapters 4 and 5, wherein we learn what Nino Brown meant when he said, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jon,
ReplyDeleteYou've made some interesting points that bring up a lot of major theological topics.
In an attempt to answer your first question, "Is it fair for God to punish all of humanity for the actions of two people?" He doesn't. The only person that was ever punished on earth for the actions of Adam and Eve was Jesus. Because of his crucifixion, the rest of us have the free gift of salvation available to us. The only way our natural human desire will ever accept this free gift of salvation is through the Holy Spirit drawing us in to God and convicting us of our sinful nature. Until then, we're not aware.
Adam and Eve's sin affects us all in a couple of ways. There is inherited sin from the original sin of Adam that causes the rest of humanity to be born into a sinful state. The corrupted sin nature that we inherit from Adam begins in our Mother's womb (Psalm 51:5 & 58:3). There is imputed sin wherby Adam's sin and guilt is attributed to us and our legal standing before and relationship with God is negated. By the grace of God, the sinner's guilt and condemnation is imputed to Jesus, who atones for sin on the cross and enables his righteousness to be imputed to the sinner as a Christian.
Before I get into the depravity topic, I want to comment on the "babies" comment. If someone has not had an opportunity to reject the Holy Spirit calling them to pursue God, then I don't see any possible way they would be sent to Hell. Although we are born with this sin problem, God can always choose to save us from it.
Catholics are wrong about us being "utterly depraved". Instead, we are TOTALLY depraved in that our every motive, word, deed, and thought is affected by sin. This includes the mind (Ephesians 4:18), will(Romans 6:16-17), emotions(Titus 3:3), heart(Jeremiah 17:9), conscience(Titus 1:15), and physical body(Romans 8:10). This means we can't fully trust any single aspect of our being because it is tainted by sin, therefore not perfect. This shows we need God's Spirit, God's Word, and God's people to help us see truly and live wisely. I do feel that we each have genes that may have a predisposition towards a certain type of sin. That's why the greatest commandment is "love God with all your heart". If you do that, then your focus is taken off of some of the sinful desires you have and put on Him instead. Think about it, haven't you ever noticed that when someone quits a habit, they replace it with another? Most of these problems are "worship problems", not diseases. We all have this empty space in our hearts that is made to worship something and put something first in our life. If that something is God, a lot of these "chains" of sin can be broken.
Finally, let me say that because people are made in God's image with a conscience, you will soon see the Bible does speak of some non-Christians who, while not holy and living to God's glory, do some "good" things. The existence of people doing "good" is evidence of God's common grace. Nonetheless, without saving grace we sinners are unable to do anything that makes us pleasing in God's sight because it is not done in faith as an act of worship out of love for God.
In regards to God being all-knowing and making "faulty humans". Since, Satan (who by the way, throughout scripture is named in a variety of ways, including the Devil, the dragon, the Serpent, enemy, tempter, murderer, Father of Lies, adversary, accuser, destroyer, and the Evil One) was created before humans, is it not possible that God, knowing how cunning Satan was and is, didn't allow "the fall of man", so we would be able to see how helpless and doomed we are without him?