As our Father, God knew man would not
comprehend His warning about sin, disobedience
and their dire consequences. So God formulated
a plan whereby man, through his own
choice, might first experience evil and then
righteousness (in God’s kingdom). This contrasting
experience will demonstrate the beauty
and righteousness of God’s law and the dire
consequence of its violation as no other process
could.
The recovery from sin is called redemption
in the Bible. Redemption simply means the release
from sin and death through the payment
of a price. The thought is similar to the releasing
a person from prison when a benefactor
pays the fine the prisoner couldn’t afford. This
release through the death of Jesus is often considered
as an afterthought of God to salvage
some of the human race. But the depth of
God’s wisdom is shown by His foresight in devising
a plan that provides for man’s free
choice and experience with evil, redemption
through Christ and ultimate eternal happiness.
Thus Isaiah 46:9?10 speaks of God knowing
and declaring the end from the beginning.
Eden: Actual History
The third chapter of Genesis is the divinely
provided history of man’s free will choice.
God instructed man that if he practiced righteousness,
he would live forever. If he disobeyed,
then “dying he would die.” Death
would be a process of sorrow and suffering
culminating with the grave. Note well that
death, not eternal torment, is the penalty for
sin (Genesis 2:17; Psalms 146:4). Like the
child and heat, man did not know what suffering
and death were. He disobeyed. God is now
giving man a controlled experience with evil.
We read in Ecclesiastes 1:13 and 3:10, “This
sore travail hath God given to man to be exercised
therewith.” Man’s travail with evil is for
a purpose, that he might be exercised or taught
certain lessons by it.
Some will say, “Don’t tell me you still
believe in original sin! Just because Adam
and Eve were disobedient, the whole human
race are sinners?” In I Timothy 2:13,14; I Corinthians
15:21,22; Romans 5:14; and John
8:44, both Jesus and the apostles refer to the
event in Eden as a real time-space situation.
What better proof can we have that the Genesis
account of Eden was actual history? Unfortunately,
the logic of this concept has been obscured
by Dark Age superstitions that have
been attached to it, such as “hell fire,” with a
vindictive God who must be placated. Modern
man is rightly repelled by the superstitions
contained in some church theology, but these
superstitions are not taught in the Bible. Shorn
of Dark Age theology, there is no better explanation
of man’s miserable plight than the
Scriptural teaching of original sin.
Another Look at Sin
Not too long ago, sin was treated lightly. It
was called “ignorance,” only a growing pain of
the human race. Give man a bit more education,
let him become a little more civilized and
he will evolve out of his sin, leaving evil behind
him. But now we are not so sure. The heinous
events of World War II (12 million murders,
leveled cities, gas chambers), followed
by the continuing senseless acceleration of
war, crime and violence (old people killed for
kicks, 70-year-old women molested) and other
immoralities, have forced man to take a second
look at the problem of evil.
A fresh look at sin is pointedly reflected in
the words of Dr. Cyril E. M. Joad, a noted Professor
of Philosophy and Psychology at the
University of London, and listed by the editor
of The American Weekly as one of the world's
great scientists. Joad said:
“For years my name regularly appeared
with H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, and
Aldous Huxley as a derider of religion….
Then came the war, and the existence of
evil made its impact upon me as a positive
and obtrusive fact. The war opened my
eyes to the impossibility of writing off
what I had better call man’s ‘sinfulness’as a mere by-product of circumstance.
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