On Eden, God's Plan and authority in: Heaven and Earth Part 3

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.

Now that I have wasted half my 'free' day, I need to justify my time spent pondering....

What The Adam and Eve story could mean.

If the Adam and Eve story (which I will refer to as Eden) is an allegory, is it alluding to something?, and in this day and age that 'something' can only mean one thing.

I have noted in past posts that the Adam and Eve story is similar to other ancient Mesopotamian cultures', but different too.  In the Gilgemesh epic the woman seduces the man, in Eden the woman compels the man to eat forbidden fruit.

The story, as an allegory, sounds like the "forbidden fruit" means something else, but weather that is because it is alluding to sexual sin/temptation or weather it is carried over from the early epic that did deal with sexual enticement is something that needs to be considered.

I am going to assume it is not dealing with sexual sin per se but all sin.  here is what I think the allegory is telling us.

Humans are great at making excuses for bad behaviour.  Sure, in the olden days Judges didn't go lenient on youth because of a broken home, or poverty, but they sure blamed one group for their sins.  In the Middle East of the gospels women were not only less then men, they were the tempters.  The Pharasees bring Jesus a woman "caught in the act of adultery"!!!!  Um, and she was alone?  Of course not (rhetorical question).  But she was the women in this act, and a man was considered to be easily tempted, so easily, in fact, that he wasn't really capable of saying "no", so the Pharasees are implying she is a wanton woman, or a prostitute or someone who enticed the poor man, who is just a victim of her cunning charm.

Well, maybe not entirely, but think about the East for a second.  Who has to cover up - the women.  Why? in order to not tempt men.  Um, if a man sees a beautiful woman he is incapable of restraining himself? If a couple is caught in adultery who is going to get stoned?  Never have I heard of a human rights case pleading for a man to be spared a stoning, lashing, jail sentence because he was caught in adultery (with a woman).  No matter how 'right wing' and 'eye for eye' a society is, it seems the concept of a woman's charms are a guaranteed excuse for immoral behaviour.

So, back to Eden.  In Eden the man and woman are completely innocent - that is, unaware of the power of sexual attraction as well as sinless.  They can walk around naked, yet never fear being overcome with lust, sort of the opposite of the Bibical Jewish, and all ancient eastern, culture(s) - that would assume any young couple left to wander around naked together ought to be stoned for their sin (for a sin would surely have occurred).  Adam is free from the tyranny of a Woman's charm, in the beginning.

This is where it gets tricky.  Is the women then, once fallen, able to tempt Adam because she is now sexually alluring?  Is she using her sexuality/femininity to win him over to herself? or her schemes - apple eating-?  Or, is this a story about people in a state of innocence, unencumbered by worldly lusts just being human and sinning no matter how free from excuses they may be?

I side with the second idea - Eden is a sin-free, excuse-free setting.  God is not saying people lived in a state of innocence once, he is saying IF people lived in a state of innocence, raised free from parental foibles (hence no mom or dad), societal/ cultural pressures (hence no one else around) and other's sins (hence no 'fallen' world) they would still mess up.  We are sinful by nature, not nurture. 

I like the fact that Eden doesn't really have a 'real' sin in the story.  Eating fruit is hardly a sin, but disobedience is a sin and is actually what all sin is.  So, from this analogy we all let God down (aka fall short of the Glory of God), even if God eradicated our past, scrubbed our memories and put us in a magical garden, made us as pure as the driven snow, and hung out with us every day, we would sin (and not be slow about it). 

Note: This is just my opinion and could change.  I can find very little in evangelical literature on what the allegory of Adam and Eve in Eden is saying, since most evangelical's take it literally or if not, debate it's veracity.  I just want to learn what God is telling us through this allegory, and throwing out my own views here.