I have been looking at Genesis 2 - 11, how some common assumptions about Genesis don't actually fit what is going on. Now I am going to look at what may be going on. This is new to me, but interesting.
First, we realize in Genesis 3 that evil (whether it is a serpent or the Devil working through a serpent isn't clear here) is alive and well in the Garden of Eden before Eve or Adam sin. Tempting someone to do evil would be right up their on the sin-o-meter, so you can't argue it as an unclear or grey area - temping someone into disobeying God is a sin.
Did God put evil into the Garden just to check Eve's obedience?
Some say yes, but others say no.
If we take the tempter as part of God's plan to have us all fall, then rescue us through Jesus, it puts humans as the centre piece of the story, creation and everything God does. When humans fall, the world goes bad, God needs to rescue us and we should feel really, really guilty for being born in sin (meaning we are already sinners before we sinned due to Adam passing on his fallen nature to all of us). Everything on earth was great until we showed up. Bad us. The Story quickly becomes all about our sin. It ignores that fact the world really is red in tooth and claw, evil lurks around, and death is part of our survival (if no bacteria died, we wouldn't have made it passed those first seven days).
Is it helpful to feel really disgusted with ourselves for being born as we were (sinners)? Will that motivate us to avoid sin, or make us feel helpless towards sin?
If we take the presence of the tempter in the Garden as a state of how things were on earth before humans arrived, we see the fall as us being complicit with the present evil. The world is already red in tooth and claw, darkness lurks and looks for company, and death is a burden we already have to bear. We are born in bondage to sin and need to realize this - not just in the truth that there is sin, but in what that means for us.
Is it helpful to feel really disgusted with the devastation evil has wrought on God's creation? Will realizing that our sin aids the forces of darkness to regain control over God's beautiful creation (including people) and our obedience to God reverses the dark kingdom's control?
That former view is the Fall summed up in Penal Substitutionary view of the atonement, the latter is the Fall summed up in Christ Ransom or Christus Victor view of the atonement.
First, we realize in Genesis 3 that evil (whether it is a serpent or the Devil working through a serpent isn't clear here) is alive and well in the Garden of Eden before Eve or Adam sin. Tempting someone to do evil would be right up their on the sin-o-meter, so you can't argue it as an unclear or grey area - temping someone into disobeying God is a sin.
Did God put evil into the Garden just to check Eve's obedience?
Some say yes, but others say no.
If we take the tempter as part of God's plan to have us all fall, then rescue us through Jesus, it puts humans as the centre piece of the story, creation and everything God does. When humans fall, the world goes bad, God needs to rescue us and we should feel really, really guilty for being born in sin (meaning we are already sinners before we sinned due to Adam passing on his fallen nature to all of us). Everything on earth was great until we showed up. Bad us. The Story quickly becomes all about our sin. It ignores that fact the world really is red in tooth and claw, evil lurks around, and death is part of our survival (if no bacteria died, we wouldn't have made it passed those first seven days).
Is it helpful to feel really disgusted with ourselves for being born as we were (sinners)? Will that motivate us to avoid sin, or make us feel helpless towards sin?
If we take the presence of the tempter in the Garden as a state of how things were on earth before humans arrived, we see the fall as us being complicit with the present evil. The world is already red in tooth and claw, darkness lurks and looks for company, and death is a burden we already have to bear. We are born in bondage to sin and need to realize this - not just in the truth that there is sin, but in what that means for us.
Is it helpful to feel really disgusted with the devastation evil has wrought on God's creation? Will realizing that our sin aids the forces of darkness to regain control over God's beautiful creation (including people) and our obedience to God reverses the dark kingdom's control?
That former view is the Fall summed up in Penal Substitutionary view of the atonement, the latter is the Fall summed up in Christ Ransom or Christus Victor view of the atonement.
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