Hey guys, welcome back to the next session of Critical Thinking Aloud. Today we are continuing with our series on Why is the world the way it is? In the last episode we talked about the fact that our goal is not to give the common 21st century church goers answer of The Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.
As we pointed out last time there is nothing wrong with this answer per-say, it is not a faulty teaching or misinformation. The problem lays in the fact that it is an incomplete answer. While this answer is commonly given today, the Ancient Middle Eastern authors and initial audience of the bible, the Second Temple Period followers of Judaism, and the 1st century members of the early church would have a much more robust answer.
If you weren’t able to check out the last episode, get caught up here, since we will be building off of that foundation.
Thrice Dual Rebellions
Last time we talked about how the biblical authors and their initial hearers all held the same worldview. They believed the answer to the question of why the world is in the state that it is? ultimately comes down to this:
A proliferation of evil cause by three dual rebellions of both spiritual and human members of Gods family detailed in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.
The most famous one of these to someone who goes to church in 21st century is of coarse the fall described in Genesis 3 which initiated the dual rebellions. This was the dual rebellion we looked at last time. That passage chronicles the epic sedition of Gods right hand man “The Anointed Cherub” or as we know him The Devil. Even though this spiritual son of God was exulted to the highest position of the spiritual created order, in his pride he sought to usurp Gods thrown using Humans to stage his coup.
Humans on the other hand had also been put as the pinnacle of the physical created order. With the help of this divine rebel they were deceived by a desire to become gods themselves. This revolt lead them to be kicked off the mountain of God along side the Devil who now became the god of this world. Relationships between Gods family members was severed and Gods plan from the beginning to have a big blended family of both spiritual and physical being who He would share His authority with came to a screeching halter, or did it?
The price of freedom
Of coarse this did not surprise God in the least. He knew that giving both spiritual and human family members the free will to choose Him and by their own desires obey Him, the opposite was possible and inevitable. Humans were no longer allowed to access the Mountain of God nor inhabit the spiritual world, where they enjoyed Gods provision, community with Him, nor eat the fruit from the tree of life .
This did not stop Humans from being able to have relationship with God Himself only access to His thrown room and the tree of eternal life (we will talk more about the two trees in Eden in a future episode). In the very next chapter of Genesis we see Adam and Eve’s two sons engaging with God in conversation. They apparently had been taught how to sacrifice to God and seek a relationship with Him. This is an interesting fact that I want to spend little time on.
Total Inability/ Total Depravity
In the text of Genesis 4, this is the next narrative after the fall mind you, we read about Adam and Eve’s son’s taking their offerings to the Lord and His accepting of Ables and not the Cains.
“Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.”
Genesis 4:2-5
I bring this up to remind you guys of a Critical Thinking Aloud session we did on Total Depravity. In that episode we talked about how the Calvinistic/ Reformed community’s worldview rest upon the fact that no one can or will ever want to please God. Their systems acronym T.U.L.I.P. starts with a T. for Total depravity/ Total inability of the will to want God. They believe that because of the fall of Adam, all men can do nothing but sin and will never want to please God and therefore by extension cannot want God.
This system rests upon human beings not being able to recognize their need of God and eliminates any possibility for one to seek help from God or place their trust in Him for their salvation. This is why one must be chosen by God to be saved because of this fact that you are absolutely unable to do anything but sin. Check out our teaching on Total Depravity here and our other episode on a similar topic Can All Man Do is Sin? here.
Since in many instances (Genesis 4 being one of them) the biblical narrative stands in sharp opposition to this worldview we reject it was false. As the narrative of Genesis continues to relate to us that even though mankind has been cursed to live separated from Gods presence on His Holy Mountain, Humans are still able to have a relationship with Him. Of coarse because of the effects from the fall this relationship takes on a different nature. The biblical text explains, as in Genesis 4, at lease God is still interested in living in a relationship with his creation.
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7
* We will cover more on this topic in another post
We believe that while all men will sin and therefor die since “the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23, humans still posses the ability to confess their need for a savior and must place their trust in Jesus to be made right with God. This message of reconciliation is the theises of the biblical narrative.
Dual Rebellion number 2
As stated above the biblical narrative of the book of Genesis ascribes the escalation of evil to three sets of dual rebellions. In the same vein of Genesis Chapter 3, in Chapter 6 we get a similar narrative of both spiritual and humans beings in mutiny against the creator.
“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
Genesis 6:1-7
Here we see that the spiritual beings called Sons of God and human beings procreate and as a result a hybrid (half spiritual and half physical) is created called the Nephilim. Because of these giants, along with the multiplying of mankind, sin abounds. God even regrets that He created humans on the earth.
Remember that in our What is Sin? series, we defined sin as “a failure to become that which God has intended us to be”. As His Image Bearers here on earth we are supposed to represent Him by loving and obeying other people who are image bearers as well as God with our gifted free will. Check that teaching here if you missed it.
Here in Genesis 6 the world has been overrun with bent spiritual imagers and their offspring with wicked humans. The scene is grim and Gods actions are drastic. He is going to wash the world clean with a catastrophic flood that will end all life. In the midst of all this darkness we read this.
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Genesis 6:8
Dual Judgements
Once again just like before God doesn’t totally abandon Humanity to its own destruction. The rest button is pushed and all life has to be extinguished, but God gives hope. Through Noah and the ark that God commanded him to build anyone who would place their trust in the Lord to be saved from the pending doom could. The problem is no one listened.
Humanities rinse cycle commenced and all life besides that which was on the Ark, and that of the seas, perished. Noah and his immediate family were the sole surviving member left of Gods physical side of His family. As for the deserters of the spiritual world the New Testament Books of Peter and Jude tell us this
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others”
2 Peter 2:4-5
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
Jude 6
This dual rebellion is not the only patter that gets repeated in this narrative. In this forbidden union and between both members of Gods family the subsequent out come is the same as the first a dual judgement is pronounced on both trespassing parties.
He did it again!
Finally these three stories of how the world has become the way it is in Genesis chapters 3-11, not only share the same dual rebellion and judgement motifs, they also have in common a promise given by God to the human side of His family about their possibility for redemption. This takes place through a covenant given to Noah.
God makes a covenant with Noah and promises to never destroy the world again with water. Just as God did in Eden, He blesses Noahs family to be fruitful and multiply the face of the earth, whiling giving all the rest of creation into their hands to have dominion over. Again Humanity is called to transform the world by His authority into an Edamic state by partnering with their God.
“Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”
Genesis 9:1-3
This all of coarse came with the extra blessing that now through this family the redeemer would come. Just as was promised to Eve in the first narrative, the one who will reverse the effects of sin will be a descendent of Noahs lineage . It is truly amazing! Humans mess up big time and God still wants to give them His original Edamic blessing all the while the spiritual side of the family is locked away in the deepest darkest pit with no chance for redemption.
Gods wonderful grace
Humans with their own free will are found guilty of trying to forge an Edamic state for themselves in an attempt to retcon that which was forbidden by fusing the spiritual and physical sides of Gods family together again. All their efforts of trying to do what God had forbaded got them nothing in return except a literal hell on earth.
Mankind rejected our great God once again, yet He did not completely destroy us. In fact He did the opposite and moved heaven and earth to save us and extended His promise and blessing to us. This is the grace of God, and He did this because though it will cost Him everything, He will get want he has wanted from the beginning, a big blended family of both spiritual and physical beings sharing his authority to bring His kingdom to this earth.
Please leave any comments or questions in the comment section, we would love to hear from you!
Check out this short video series on Spiritual beings by our friends over at The Bible Project by clicking here. They are amazing and super helpful to better grasp what we will be covering in this series.