Adam and Eve - doomed to failure?
Hey all. In conjunction with Easter Week, as well as a rather thought-provoking cell group discussion session today, I have to share a few thoughts that might potentially ruffle a few feathers, but ah what the heck, eh?
So here we go. As Christians, we know that Christ died on Good Friday about 2000 years ago for our sins. That, is not the point of contention. We move back a few thousand years prior to Christ's death and resurrection, the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
For we gloss over the details of Adam and Eve's temptation. How could they be tempted in the first place? The serpent told them not only would they not die if they ate the forbidden fruit (which by the way is not an apple), they would be as wise as God himself. But in order to want to be that, they would first have had to possess the quality known as "greed", or hunger for power in the first place. But in that sphere of time, where there is no notion of sin itself, wherefore does greed arise?
I believe that the decision that Adam and Eve made was out of their own choice. They were influenced into biting the forbidden fruit, yes. But ultimately it was still their own choice to. Why would they even believe the serpent in the first place? The reason is actually simple yet confounding to us, in modern times. They believed the serpent cos they trusted the serpent. Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit that caused the fall of Man, their trust was absolute in everything. I wouldn't call it naivety, but rather, childlike innocence. Why does this seem so unexplicable to us now? Cos over the course of the intervening millenia, this concept called "skepticism" has been ingrained into us. Since we've been brought up to doubt first and trust later, obviously, the fall of Man due to Adam and Eve's childlike innocence sounds contrived.
God is omnipotent. He is said to be all-knowing and all encompassing. So if He knew that Adam and Eve were about to sin, why didn't He do something about it? Or rather, why did He choose NOT to do anything about it? Granted it was only a short while after the creation of Man, but if He knew that one mistake was all it needed for Satan and sin to take center-stage, why not do anything about it? Why did God choose to press the "Be Right Back" function at this point of time?
The reason is simple. It lies in the gift of free will. Adam and Eve's choice to not obey God's instruction was an act of free will, probably the first notable choice made by Man. God cannot give Man the gift of freedom of choice and will one moment, and withhold the chance to exercise that gift of choice the next. Anyway, without the existence of sin in this world, without the notion of sin, the notion of the morally reprehensible actions, the following statement too would not exist. If life is fair and roses had no thorns, there would be nothing to look forward to in Heaven. Exactly. If no evil existed, Man would stay in paradise, in a utopia. Sounds good to us now, cos the world we live in sucks. But if no evil existed, good will not exist to. The notion of good vs evil only exists as the two are counterpoints to each other. The lack of one will mean the extinction of the other too. Instead of appreciating that we got to stay in paradise, what this means is that we will just take it for granted, for humans are complacent by nature.
The original plan as stated in the Bible would probably be for all of mankind to stay in the Garden of Eden for eternity, enjoying eternal life in paradise. Yet Adam and Eve's actions put paid to that plan. In essence, is this not saying that the conventions of Christianity, that Jesus came to die for our sins, was in the grand scheme of things nothing but Plan B?
But so what if this world we live in was a Plan B? What a hell of a Plan B it turned out to be! Personally, though this world sucks, I'd rather there'd be something to look forward to in Heaven, as opposed to living life with no knowledge of what's good or bad.
Feel free to drop your opinions if you come across this and you have any.
This is Dan signing off.
Shalom.
