Sunday, April 14, 2013

Creation, Fall of Man and other Myths?

I am sitting in church today listening to a message about Creation.  I have always had an issue with the creation story; it has hampered my ability to be a Christian and to believe as one most of the time.  We are told that a perfect creation was made and Man was given charge of it.  In fact along with naming all the animals and keep order we were also told, "by the way, those two trees, you can't eat from them."  Man was setup to fail. Add to that in this perfect creation, the serpent.  Satan is present in this world and he is not limited by the 'all-powerful' God we are told about.  Satan wanders up to Eve and begins to tempt her (THIS IS THE ORIGINAL SIN), Eve is an innocent, she does not know good from bad, she does not suspect ulterior motives and is an easy mark.  Once she has eaten of this fruit Adam is just another mark for the carney, his fate is sealed.  God gets mad at Man, kicks him out of Eden and THEN puts up guardians to keep peopel away from the two trees. 

All of this seems to be either a MUCH less than perfect creation of a not quite all-powerful God or, perhaps, the plan from the beginning.  In any case it is NOT Man's fault that creation fell, original sin was created by Satan and man and the rest of creation was infected with it.  I can see where perhaps God's plan is also including a chance for even Satan's redemption but I am sick and tired of being told that the state of this world is Man's fault when the story just does not back it up.  If God is a Good God, then there is a lot that we are not seeing, misinterpreting or just ignoring.  The story our church is giving us about Creation is not aligning with the facts that we know.

It seems to me that Adam and Eve were created  with knowldge and maturity along with a childlike innocence.  This, as we all, know is a very easily shattered state when confronted with someone who is not innocent and has no consideration for  those who are.  Man, it seems, was DESTINED to fail.  Perhaps we were created to create some kind of path for redemption for Satan and the rest of the fallen angels, as well as ourselves in the end.  We live our 80 years in a hell of Satan creation.  A place where he rules but cannot quite control and a place were God dwells but does not quite control. All in order that everyone, including the fallen angels can, one day, dwell with God in heaven.

I am beginning to believe that our accepted religions have missed the mark from the very beginning and in so doing have spent a lot of time and energy telling the WRONG story.  Satan caused the fall but Man's job is to redeem it.



:: A thought that has occurred to me, has no grounds in the Bible or any teaching I have found BUT, consider the image of the Prodigal Son.  That ruler just wanted his child back, he was willing to forgive and willing to move mountains to make it so.  What if God and the original Prodigal, Satan, are put in this picture.  What if mankind was created to eventually be the tool that not only redeems themselves but redeems Satan because a being of perfect love may always want the lost sheep to have a way home.  I am not sure I believe this but it is an interesting thought.

1 comment:

Laura McCarthy said...

John,

Ironically, I thought James could solve his problems with creation and the fall via disc golf with you, not strengthen his angst, lol. Your thought process is extremely similar to James on this issue.

Through his questioning, I have begun to examine the god as either imperfect (creating evil) or not all powerful (not over coming evil). I have had a similar thought that perhaps the tension between good and evil pre-existed the creation of the world, and I love how you illustrated the possibility of god redeeming this struggle in its entirety through the fall struggle which leads to redemption. Thanks for the post and let's continue the conversation.