Saturday, August 30, 2008

Adam and Eve leave Eden

When I was 10 years old, Chester Kemper, the young senior past of our Nazarene mission church preached often that we should read our Bible daily. Thus I looked diligently through a catalogue and chose a Bible with references for my parents to purchase for me. Since that time I have purchased many Bibles, but that first one in the old King James version is still my favorite, because I learned to listen for the voice of God as I read daily through its pages.
Today I picked up this old Bible and found a favorite passage that I had not yet underlined.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
Many say that God created the earth in 6 twenty-four hour cycles. Many say that Man evolved through a long process of life changes. Even though I believe in one of the Big Bang theories, and that man and woman was a separate experience from the animal kingdom, I don’t think you must believe this to have a right relationship with God. In all the confusion, the most important information is that God created the heavens and the earth and God breathed into man and gave him a soul. This breathing into man made him different from all the rest of God’s creation in this universe.
Man is a special creation with the gift of God’s breath and eternal life, whether with Him or elsewhere, commonly called Hell.
Even though God made man to till the earth in the garden of Eden, it was more than that reason that He created mankind. He made man with the idea of relationship and love, that evasive, relevant, most important word.
Can there be such a thing as love if there is no choice to walk away from that relationship? There cannot be love if there lacks choice to not love. Choice by its very nature means potential disaster, failure, and ruination of the original plan. By giving mankind choice, God is even greater and more powerful than if we just had one possible path of existence.
We do not have unlimited choice. There are natural laws to the universe, and there are laws to behavior. We can choose to not have a relationship with God, but the consequence is separation from Him. Who in his right mind would want this? And yet by our very behavior, we over and over again walk away from the One who loves us the most.
God gave Adam and Eve one rule to not eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. They disobeyed and sin entered the human race. Sin is ugly and heinous in the sight of God. It was so terrible that God Himself slew an animal to cover the newly discovered nakedness of Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:21
Eating the fruit of a tree doesn’t seem that terrible. However the consequences of that one act was the killing of an innocent animal and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. No longer did Adam and Eve talk face to face with God in the cool of the evening.
Sin separates us from the true relationship with God for which we were intended. If you say that we were not born in sin, then why is it that we do not see God with our physical eyes and hear Him with our physical ears? We are born separate from Him. Unless something happens we are separate from God, hopelessly alone.
Before the Perfect Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, an innocent, perfect animal was slain to cover the sin of man. Sin is so awful that blood is the only thing that can cover it in the sight of God.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. Hebrews 9:22, Leviticus 17:11.
Now Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice, was offered for our sins. As we accept His atonement, we have a right relationship with Him and our sins are forgiven as we confess them. We can walk with Him in a spiritual way. In our souls we can hear Him calling to us. We have hope of eternal life with Him.
Ask God to forgive your sins through the gift of salvation offered by Jesus Christ. Walk with Him in prayer, by reading your Bible, and by your daily habits, both self and towards others. You will have difficulty in hearing Him because we can no longer hear Him with our mortal ears, but with our spiritual ones. We still want to do things our own way and not submit to the humble path that we must follow in order to follow God. Let us talk to one another in our struggles and offer encouragement to one another, because, after all, we really do need each other.

9 comments:

jeleasure said...

Vicki stated:
"Even though God made man to till the earth in the garden of Eden, it was more than that reason that He created mankind"

I believe there is more to God's creation of man. You have stated it below. I have devoted an entire blog to bring some insight to this reason. Aside from this, I do want to point out there are similarities in the Hebrew words for 'dirt' and 'man' (I bet a lot of woman will just love this last phrase).
The Hebrew word for 'tilling' or 'working the ground' can also be understood as 'cultivating'.
It is difficult to suggest this for fear of being criticized. However, I would rather always be open minded and teachable. My thoughts on Adam being placed to work the ground are that God needs no help in planting Gardens as we see in the fact that he set Adam in Eden. So, I suggest that this cultivation of the land (dirt/Adam) is the cultivation of Man.
I have considered that Adam was placed as a creation of God with a relationship with God for the purpose of cultivating Man's relationship with God.
Where are the other men?
Well, when Cain killed Abel and was banished from the Garden, there were others outside the Garden whom Cain feared would kill him.
I may do a blog post on this, except for having been criticised enough. I just have to remember that I have an open, teachable mind.

Gigi said...

Ahh - what different beginnings we come from Vicki...My Sweet Hubby and I were born into, raised and schooled in the Roman Catholic faith and we were NOT encouraged to read the Bible. Quite the opposite in fact; as we were told that only the priests had the spiritual discernment to understand Biblical teaching. Therefore, the priests would read and "translate" the Bible to us. I grew up feeling a "lacking" even though my family was very involved in the Church. I tried many times as a child/teen to read the Bible myself, but I just couldn't wade through the language and was easily frustrated and just figured that what I had been taught all those years in Catechism classes was true - the Bible was NOT for me to understand. But oh, I always felt like something was missing...

It took my family being touched by the priest sexual abuse scandal before my Sweet Hubby and I could finally break once and for all from the religion of our upbringing. And lo and behold, guess what we found?? A PERSONAL relationship with God's Word and a church that encouraged it as a core principle. What a difference!! Although I will admit, the KJV is still a bit too much for me!

I really enjoyed your post...it speaks of God's great love for us that he does NOT control us, but rather, gifted us at creation with free will. He wanted us to choose HIM! It was to mankind's detriment that we allowed sin to enter the Garden. And you're so right - our sin grew throughout the ages until it was so ugly that it took the sacrifice of God's own Son to purchase our redemption. If that's not LOVE, I don't know what is.

Vicki said...

Gigi,thanks for your comments.
I think it is not only your hubby who is sweet. You are also the "sweet wifey".
I was blessed as a child to start reading the Bible. It has made all the difference in my life. Not that I am perfect, nor perfectly pleasing. I need the atonement that Jesus offers me. Praise Him for His sacrifice and conquering sin and death. Now I have a better life and the promise of eternity. Email or call me soon.
Blessings,
Vicki

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Even though I believe in one of the Big Bang theories, and that man and woman was a separate experience from the animal kingdom, I don’t think you must believe this to have a right relationship with God.

Good point, Vicki. I have listened to scientist and Christian Hugh Ross on this issue, and his has some good arguments.

We can choose to not have a relationship with God, but the consequence is separation from Him. Who in his right mind would want this? And yet by our very behavior, we over and over again walk away from the One who loves us the most.

From my PhD research I concluded that God made human beings as he did, knowing they would sin freely and not forcing or coercing human sin. God could have created different types of persons with levels of significant freedom, but did not. Some angels never fell, and we reason they have some level of significant freedom.

God wanted to ultimately produce beings that have experienced the problem of evil, sin, the atoning and resurrection work of Christ, and eventually the culminated Kingdom. Perhaps this would produce persons with a level of experience and spiritual maturity more pleasing to God than Adam and Eve before the fall, or another type of significantly free human like being God could have produced which would have not fallen and not needed redemption.

This is my sovereignty alternative to a standard free will defence. Calvinists and atheists will often challenge the standard free will defence stating God could have created significantly free beings that would never sin.

Vicki said...

Russ,
Free will makes God more sovereign, not less. He is in charge. He must be in charge.

The emphasis of Calvanism is sovereignty, not predestination. The emphasis in Armenism (sp) is holiness, not free will. Interesting how the secondary points destroy unity which so obviously is possible.

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Russ,
Free will makes God more sovereign, not less. He is in charge. He must be in charge.


The buck stops with God, and God will develop the type of citizens in the culminated Kingdom of God he desires.

As for predestination and free will I have looked at that for eleven years and have to a Reformed position.

In Reformed theology as God is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient, he is reasoned to be the cause of all things. Philosopher Louis P. Pojman explains that within determinism or hard determinism, an outside force causes an act and no created being is responsible for his or her moral actions, while for compatibilism or soft determinism, although an outside force causes actions, created beings are responsible where they act voluntarily. Within hard determinism an outside force would be the only cause of human actions, while with soft determinism an outside force would be the primary cause of human actions and persons the secondary cause. Pojman (1996: 596). I hold to soft determinism and therefore:

God causes all things, including human actions.

Human beings cause human actions.

Human actions are not forced or coerced by an outside force.

Theological concepts of predestination found in Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 work well with the philosophical concept of cause. God causes the elect to follow Christ, and by moulding their hearts in regeneration through the Holy Spirit, simultaneously has elected persons to freely choose God. Therefore persons although predestined, are not coerced or forced to believe.

Thanks and Happy Weekend, Vicki and Jim.

Russ:)

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Vicki said...

Russ,
I am slow in stating this, but I want you to know that I also am a fan of Hugh Ross. I've read 2 0r 3 of his books.
How are you? Jim started blogging again. I'm sure he is putting something really interesting together.
Blessings,
Vicki

Vicki said...

Russ,
I am slow in stating this, but I want you to know that I also am a fan of Hugh Ross. I've read 2 0r 3 of his books.
How are you? Jim started blogging again. I'm sure he is putting something really interesting together.
Blessings,
Vicki

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Thanks, Vicki (Hi Jim).

I am fine. I have had recent debates with a JW and a LDS.

I am waiting to hear when I am to go to Wales to defend the PhD.

Russ:)

Great Grandfather Humes

Great Grandfather Humes
Great Grandfather, Charles Humes, started the family interest in trucks. He is in the center of the picture and Great Grandmother, Eva Humes, is to the left of him.