This series has 3 parts, namely:
Part I –
The Need for understanding of the topic, background, and the fall
Part II –
The Consequences of The Fall
Part III – Controversial Issues on the topic
In this final part, we are covering the controversial issues of the topic. The word, “controversial” is subjective. What one considers as controversial maybe to another, not so. We have to bear this in mind when we look at the issues. In general, any ambiguity is purely due to the lack of details or information given to us, in the Bible. There is of course, nothing wrong with the Bible, it was never the intention of God to have everything written, how many volumes do we want the Bible to be?! Of course, it is always possible that we have not fully understood everything that was written in the Bible, including the cross-referencing and cross-linking of verses in the Bible.
Here are some of the “controversial” issues:
1. The serpent is Satan.
2. The death referred to by God in Gen 2:16-17 is not the physical death (1st death) but condemnation to eternal living in suffering in the burning lake of fire in Hell, an eternal separation from God.
3. Notions of spiritual and physical punishments
4. The consequences of the Fall pass down generationally, affecting all of mankind
5. Concerning the physical punishments on woman
6. Concerning the physical punishments on man
7. Punishments on Satan
8. Tree of life, Garden of Eden, and the banishment
9. Why did God give the prohibitive command in the first place?
The serpent is Satan
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. 2 He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Gen 3:1-2)
How do we know that the serpent was referring to Satan? Genesis is the first book of the Bible, Revelation is the last. It is from Rev 20:2, that we conclude that the serpent is Satan. Rev 20:2 –
He [the angel with the key to the Abyss and a great chain] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
The death referred to by God in Gen 2:16-17 is not the physical death (1st death) but condemnation to eternal living in suffering in the burning lake of fire in Hell, an eternal separation from God
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Gen 2:16-17)
God said that if man breaks that command, he would surely die. Did man break the command/prohibition/law? Yes; did man die? No; not in the natural or physical sense. We know from Scripture that subsequently God put man out of the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve lived to give birth to 3 sons, Cain, Abel and Seth. So, was God’s word of no effect, empty threat, or worse still, God lying? Of course not, and so, the death that God was referring to, was not the natural or physical death.
We say it was referring to the separation from God, or commonly being referred to as the 2nd death. And this 2nd death is the living forever in Hell, in the lake of burning fire. Man, because of his spirited soul, can never die in the sense that it will become nothingness. I believe a spirited soul lives forever, either in Heaven or in Hell. Having to live in Hell is an eternal separation from God, and is a spiritual punishment, on the spirited soul. If you have read my article on the
Tripartite man (or Man is body, soul and spirit), you will understand my reasoning here.
[23/03/2011 - I have deleted the paragraph on Luke 16:26 concerning the rich man and Lazarus, as there is no consistency on view of whether or not "Abraham's bosom" Jesus referred to, was at that time, in Hades or Heaven.]
Notions of spiritual and physical punishments
In the above paragraphs, I mentioned that having to live in Hell is an eternal separation from God, and is a spiritual punishment, on the spirited soul.
My understanding is that the spirited soul cannot die (in our sense), so any punishment would be a living punishment, and having to live in Hell eternally in the lake of burning fire is a living punishment for the spirited soul. I prefer to use the term, spirited soul (and not spirit) because we know that the rich man in Hades, in Luke 16, had feeling, he could feel.
Likewise, for the bodily or physical life on earth, God meted out living punishments for man. Of course, I have explained the rationale for God not killing Adam and Eve immediately. Had He killed them immediately, instead of letting them live and gave birth to children, we might not have been able to tell apart that, the death referred by Genesis 2:16-17, was referring to the 2nd death, because it would have been masked by the 1st death (had God killed them immediately). Had God killed them immediately, still God would have been true to His word, despite we might have missed the concept of the 2nd death; the physical death or 1st death would have placed man into the spiritual realm which eventually would have led to the 2nd death, with no hope for man. But because God was and is true to his original purpose of wanting man to populate Heaven, God allowed man to live on, without contradiction to His words of Genesis 2:16-17, and set into motion the salvation plan of mankind, which until today is still unfolding. But in the allowing of man to live on, on earth, God decided to mete out living punishment for the physical living on earth. These physical punishments were listed for us in Genesis 3:16-19.
The consequences of The Fall pass down generationally, affecting all of mankind
To many Christians, this has been accepted, nothing controversial about it. But there are still those who did not believe the Original Sin was capable of being passed down the lineage of mankind. These people accept the concept of sins, and that we need Jesus to forgive our sins so that we do not end up going to Hell, but they would not accept the concept that at birth, before they even did anything, they were already sinful. Denying the passing down of the Original Sin is denying the primary justification power of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Maybe some people aren’t perceiving well enough; in that they can accept the physical consequences, as listed under Genesis 3:16-19 because they are indeed seen in man, even to today, but they cannot accept the spiritual consequences of man, of being damned to Hell, and loss of the original righteousness, being also passed down the lineage of mankind. Perhaps, that is the point, the unregenerate man go by sight, and not by faith.
The Apostle Paul clearly believed that the original sin passes down the generational line of man (he expounded also, the concept of justification in the Book of Romans). This is what he said concerning the passage of original sin down the line of man:
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come (Romans 5:12-14).
Concerning physical punishments on the woman
For the woman, God said her childbearing pain would be increased as one punishment. It is wrong, I believe, to suggest that there was supposed to be no childbearing pain before this. God said He would greatly increase, implying that prior to this there was still supposed to be childbearing pain, but not as great a pain.
Also, I believe, it is wrong to suggest that prior to this fall there was no intention for man to procreate. The commission for man to be fruitful and multiply was given independently of this event, most possibly prior to this event.
God did, however, say here that a woman’s desire would be for her husband, and he would rule over her. What are we to say if a woman does not desire her husband? What if she does not allow him to rule over her? I believe I am being objective when I say that this is God’s punishment, and we should just accept it. It is NOT because I am a man, I say this. If you are a woman, this is your lot. Accept it. It is the punishment that came down from Eve, NOT your fault but just accept it. But you may say, but I have no (more) desire for my husband. What is a punishment? If you want to bear a child, you accept the punishment that there will be pain, despite you NOT liking the pain. Similarly, if you decide to marry and have a husband, desire him, even if you feel NOT liking that. It is also the same with ruler-ship. This is NOT my words but God’s words - a husband will rule over his wife, accept it. When a command is for the man, the man must accept it, likewise if it is a command for the woman, and you are a woman, accept it. NOT accepting is disobeying, and disobeying is a sin. Do NOT doubt the good intention of God; that was what Eve did, and it led to the Fall of Man.
Now NOT everything is gloom and doom. In fact, we do find many cases of women having relatively easier childbearing, have no problem desiring their husbands, and also no problem having their husband ruling over them, or that their husbands are ruling over them NOT in dictatorship but in love. If we have the punishments coming through to us as light and NOT heavy, IT IS GRACE. Be grateful, be thankful to God. He has been gracious to you.
Concerning physical punishments on the man
To the man, God said he was to obey Him, God, over and above anyone else, including his wife, but he had failed to do so – he disobeyed a direct command or prohibition by God. For that, God pronounced a curse on the ground with the result that it would not be so easy for the man to satisfy his food need from the ground; he would need to toil painfully for his food all the days of his life. The soil will not be yielding good food for man all the times, at times all man will get, will be thorns and thistles, and man will need to sweat for his food until he dies.
As for the woman, the same can be said for the man, not everything is gloom and doom. Again, if you have it easy, and there are many men who have it easier than others, it is by the grace of God. Be grateful, be thankful to God. He has been gracious to you. Instead of boasting, you should bless others; that I believe, will please God.
I want to say it is NOT right to say from here, God’s instruction was for man to eat only plants – be vegetarian. Please, just because animals were NOT mentioned here, it did NOT mean man could NOT eat animals’ meat. When God created all the plants and animals, and then Man, and God declared that Man was to have dominion over them all; to me, that included eating the animals. Just because it now mentioned here that Man were to eat the plants of the ground (through toiling and sweat), are we to say that prior to this, man did NOT eat anything, NOT plants, and NOT meats – this way of interpreting the Scriptures, to me, is inappropriate!
In some sense, I believe for both the woman and the man, the set of punishments selected here by God, were aimed at punishing the flesh side of Man. I believe perhaps, God cursed the ground because the flesh/body part of man was from the ground. The soul and spirit parts or the spirited soul (part) of man was already cursed through the breaking of the command/prohibition/law God gave to Adam (of not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil). To better understand the makeup of man, you can read my article on the
Tripartite man – man is body, soul and spirit.
Punishments on Satan
The serpent, of course, being the mastermind, deserved to be cursed; from being the most crafty wild animal, it became the most cursed animal.
God said He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and enmity between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s offspring. The offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and the serpent would strike the woman’s offspring’s heel.
I believe the serpent referred to, in The Fall, is Satan, and I believe the crushing of the serpent head and striking of the woman’s offspring’s heel were fulfilled on the cross – the crucifixion. The woman’s offspring was referring to Jesus Christ, and on the Cross Jesus crushed the head of Satan, and Satan struck Jesus’ heels.
I believe the crushing of the head of Satan is to be taken metaphorically to refer to the rescinding of all authority of Iniquity (or Sin) and Satan over Man.
Tree of life, Garden of Eden, and the banishment
Next, we look at the tree of life, Garden of Eden, and the banishment. In line with His word in Genesis 2:16-17, God had to disallow man to reach for the fruit from the tree of life, and banished man from the Garden of Eden.
I have 2 possible reasons for the above actions (Gen 3:23-24) of God. They are my beliefs, and so you can either accept them or reject them. But before we look at that, we need to consider what the “live forever” meant in Gen 3:22 –
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Gen 3:22).
From my article on the Tripartite man, I drew the conclusion that a spirited soul (the soul of man is a spirited soul) will live forever, meaning even when we die the physical death, our spirited soul lives on, it does not become nothingness; rather it either ends up living in blessedness eternally in Heaven or suffering in the lake of fire eternally in Hell. So, if this being the case, i.e. the spirited soul of the man doesn’t die, after physical death, why did God still talk about not letting man to eat of the fruit of the tree of life? I believe the tree of life confers life to the physical body, meaning if one takes of it, he will not die, physically, the highest dream of men for all times.
But from the Book of Revelation, we also read of the relevance of the tree of life in Heaven. How do I reconcile my suggestion that it is for a physical condition and yet it, the fruit from the tree, was for the taking (eating) in the heavenly realm which was also believed to be a spirit realm? My answer is this: I believe the life conferring power of the fruit from the tree of life works on both our current earthly body as well as the incorruptible body that God would give us, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Perhaps, the incorruptibility of the body is maintained through the taking of the fruit. Like I said, this is my belief, you can disagree with it.
Now we come back to the reasons for not allowing man to reach for the fruit from the tree of life. The first reason, which I believe is not difficult to accept, is that God’s word must stand. God gave a command/ prohibition/law, the penalty of which was a curse or damnation. God said that if man broke that command, he would surely die. Did man break the command? Yes; and so man must die, meaning man could not be allowed to live forever. If man could physically live forever, and this (in line with my belief above), would be possible had Man was being able (to continue) to eat the fruit from the tree of life; and God’s word would be of no effect, empty threat, or worse still, it implied God lied. If there was not 1st death, it would be difficult for 2nd death to be entered into (I would not say impossible as everything is possible with God). So, man could not be allowed (to continue) to reach for the fruit from the tree of life.
The second reason, which is more subjective to some, is my belief that in the first place, God did not create man to be able to handle the knowledge of good and evil, at least not without additional input from God. God only created man in His image, not as God. I believe the tripartite man, body, soul and spirit, as created by God, was not capable of handling the knowledge; and that was the reason God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit. Had Man not eaten of the fruit, and received not, the knowledge of good and evil, there would not be a problem/issue of man living forever. But that man had taken the fruit and had received the knowledge of good and evil which he was not created to wield, it would be disastrous when he and all his offspring live forever. Putting it very crudely, one Satan was bad enough; if we have a horde of satans that have physical body which cannot die physically, it would be havoc!
To make sure there was no way Man could ever come back into the Garden and eat of the fruit from the tree of life, God securely blocked the Garden from men (Gen 3:24). Until today, mankind had not been able to locate the Garden of Eden. Sorry folks, God would never let the elixir tree or its fruit be found by men. If you want to taste it, get yourself to Heaven!
[Added: 04/04/2011 - As an additional side note, I believe it is NOT unreasonable to assume that Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit from the tree of life, as part of their diet, before The Fall, for Gen 2:16-17 clearly said that apart from the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, fruits from all other trees, Adam and Eve could eat. That was the reason, in earlier paragraphs, I have enclosed in brackets,"to continue" as in "NOT to (continue to) to eat of the fruit from the tree of life."]
Why did God give the prohibitive command in the first place?
I believe the discussion of The Fall of Man will not be complete if we do not at least think about why there should be a prohibitive command/law for Adam in the first place. This prohibition, we read in Genesis 2:16-17 -
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
It is my belief that God, who was and is love, created man to be like Him, capable of loving. But loving has no meaning if there is no free-will. When affection is forced or there is no choice, it is not love. Love necessarily implied freedom to choose. And this freedom to choose is man’s free-will. If there is nothing to choose, there can be no exercise of free-will. God’s idea of love is a choice (Of course, it is also about faithfulness, and commitment, about obedience, and about sacrifice.).
For example, God chooses to love us. He made a choice. He could have chosen not to love us, but He chose to love Man. Is anyone worthy of God’s love? No, so why does God still love us? It is because it is a choice; he simply chose to; no one forced God. For us, man, we too, have to make a choice, whether or not, we want to love God. If God forces us to love Him, what God gets is not love. The moment it is forced, the affection is no longer love. We do have a choice, don’t we?
Another example, we can choose to love God or money. God’s word said that we cannot love both. So, we have to make a choice, money or God? Can a wife not love her husband? Can a father not love his son? Can. Why? Because it is a choice. Many wives chose not to love their husbands, and fathers, not, their sons (The Book of Malachi talked about hearts of fathers would be turned to their children, and the hearts of children would be turned to their fathers, in the last days. What was implied therefore, is that it is possible that fathers do not love their children and the children, their fathers). Many children chose not to love their parents. A good example is found in my country; we have a law that forces children to provide for their aged parents. How come this is necessary? It is because children can choose not to love their parents. It is very sad, but it happened again and again. When the law is used, what you see is not love; yes, the aged parent gets the money but money is all he/she gets, not love. The law merely forced it, and when it is forced it is no longer giving in love. It is not free-will at work.
People divorce; and one of the reasons is simply, at least one party had chosen not to love the other. Also possible, is a party of a marriage might have chosen not to love the other, but perhaps, love another, outside of the marriage. There is a choice available, and in this particular instance, the party choose not to love his/her existing partner anymore (but to love someone else). Let’s say there are only one man and one woman left in the world. The man has to marry the woman and the woman, the man. There is none to choose from. There must be something to choose from, in order that free-will can have any meaning, although choosing can be between apple and orange (e.g. money and God), and not necessarily between apple and apple (one woman over another woman!).
It is my belief that free-will was instituted in Man so that love may become rooted in Man. Someone actually asked me, how come such a severe punishment, eternal death? I can only think of this answer: For such a previous thing, love, to take root, we need a “weighty” punishment, much like for the preservation of life (precious), we, have to put the punishment for murder as death.
It is no wonder that Jesus defined love this way:
If you love me, obey my commands (i.e. you exercise your free-will and choose to follow God’s instructions),
and those who obey my commands, love me (your obedience is not to be out of fear of punishment, but because you love God) {John 14:15 & 21}.
Anthony Chia – At the base of it all, love is a choice.
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