Genesis 3 tells the tragic story of the famous (or infamous) fall of the first humans into sin and corruption. Because of a choice that took them out of their assigned place in creation, under God but like God, their insistence on being “gods†distorted the image of God in them. Instead of derivative, yet creative knowledge, they disobeyed their “prime directive.†The penalty was not merely final physical death, but painful, hard-won work, struggling with creation instead of working with God’s created order. Their created image was not destroyed, but it was marred and distorted. James 3:9 affirms that humans are still “made in the likeness of God.†What have been the consequences of a distorted, yet not lost, image of God? [Read more…] about Devotions: Bearing the Image of God (2)
the fall
What about Adam and Eve? Part 1
Introduction
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts concerned with Christian questions about evolution. One of the biggest dilemmas is what to do about Adam and Eve.
- Were they real people?
- How were they created?
- Was Adam the father of all mankind?
- What about the story in Genesis 3 of the fall of Adam and Eve and consequently all of mankind into sin?
- Do the creation stories in Genesis communicate real, historical events or are they myths that God is using to communicate timeless truths?
These are the concerns I want to address in this and my next post.
Two book model of revelation
In my first post in the Christianity and science series I talked about dealing with the tension between science and the Bible. The Bible teaches that God reveals himself to man in two ways. One is through scripture (the Bible) and the other is through what we observe in nature (using science). This is perhaps best seen in Psalm 19 and in Romans 1:20. [Read more…] about What about Adam and Eve? Part 1
Government even without the fall?
InterVarsity’s Undergraduate Ministry at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) sponsored an Election Day panel on Religious and Secular Authority at Election Times. What an excellent idea! Why? Because the panel, which included myself and a CMU History faculty, provided an opportunity to publicly present and wrestle with difficult culture-making concerns in real time.  I came away with the impression that some students, who wouldn’t let us go, couldn’t wait to field test some of the material in the midst of election coverage conversations. …
In my opening remarks, I briefly explored whether government would exist even without the fall, see below.  Have you given consideration to this topic? If so, please comment. If you have resource recommendations, please pass them along. Seems like an important question for political scientists in particular, but of interest to many others as it informs our regular interaction with the state.
Would government exist even without the brokenness caused by Adam and Eve’s choice of willful disobedience? Now this is controversial, but my answer is Yes. Why? Government provides structure for the creative and healthy interaction of the various spheres of the Creation, e.g., creation care (remember naming of the animals in Genesis 2:19), marriage, family, school, business, guilds, arts parties. … But without the fall? As we live in the reality of the fall, it is difficult to envision how this would look except to say that God would rule over the structures as they serve Him to the blessing of all of creation. In addition, no use of force to suppress evil in the process of culture formation would not be necessary, except in restraining or resisting external evil influences/beings. So I’m asserting that government is not optional, even in the Garden of Eden at the beginning and the end of time. The various Utopian visions, both within and outside of the Church, fail to take into account the deep brokenness caused by the fall and the presence of evil across the layers of being, identity, and reality. My development of this perspective has been encouraged by The Basic Ideas of Calvinism (H. Henry Meeter, revised by Paul A. Marshall. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1990, pp. 77-90) and C.S. Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy, referred to some as The Space Trilogy. This requires more thought. …