Posted on 11/22/2011 9:10:25 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.(Genesis 3:6)
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:(Romans 5:12)
Responsibility for the fall of man is laid at the feet of Adam, the father of us all, not Eve. Never in all of the revelation of God, is she seen as being primarily the cause of the fall. Adam was the person God called out immediately after the transgression, not Eve. Eve was deceived by the serpent, not Adam. The commission was given to Adam to guard and keep the garden.
Therefore it is interesting that the narrative of the fall centers around the woman. The serpent approached the woman, accused God to her, and presented his arguments to her. We are told in verse 6 that Adam was there with her, but verse six is an account of her inner thoughts which led to the transgression.
Is this not a warning that one of the tell-tale marks of the serpent is to marginalize the man from his God assigned position of primal responsibility?
The modern feminist movement , is not really about femininity, but rather is about the repudiation of the God assigned gender roles, based upon hatred and envy of male status. Men too can be femnists, for it is a satanic philosophy, an expression of rebellion against God.
Femnism is actually the enemy of all that is truly feminine, the beauty of motherhood, tender nurture, fruitfulness, loving deference and submission for the greater good of the family, sacrifice of self for husband and children.
These are seen as impediments to the modern ideal woman, now ‘liberated’ by abortion, and easy divorce. But liberated from what? Love? Stable marriage? Fruitfulness?
When Adam passively allowed his wife to take the lead in the couple’s dealing with the serpent, by default he abdicated his high calling to keep and guard the garden of God. He had been given the Word, and the commission to have dominion ovr the earth, not Eve.
But through the Serpent, Eve became the priest. It was Eve who mediated the serpent’s false “Word”, and she who “ministered” to Adam the “sacrament”,(ie the forbidden fruit) . Adam perversely took part in the sinful rite which was supposed to “open their eyes” and make them wise, and to become “as gods”.
What we are seeing in the deliberate confusion of the gender roles today , even in the church, is the mark of Satanic influence. Motherhood, and being a wife have been repudiated, in favor of “careerism”. Female leadership in Home and church is a denial of the Divine order.
But wherever the confusion of gender is celebrated as a ‘liberating’ accomplishment, homosexuality is never far behind. Note that the mainstream churches who once vigorously debated the ordination of women, now have succumbed to the ordination of homosexuals.
The forbidden fruit was the knowledge of good and of Evil.
To “know Good and Evil” is to know everything, the whole spectrum of knowledge. In fact to be “as gods, knowing…” is to have the ability to decide for yourself what good and evil are, thus to liberate yourself from dependence upon God and his Word.
We can see that by the time Eve paused to look at the tree, the Word of God had already been rejected by both of them, for her whole perspective is based on an inward acceptance of the lie;
* And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food… Who said that the tree was good for food? Not God! Not the Word of God, as given to Adam. God said “that the day you eat of this tree…you will surely die…” . But Eve could see (from her own vantage point, that the tree was good).
*…and that it was pleasant to the eyes… In our vernacular, Eve thought, “It looks good to me…”.
I have no doubt that the tree was pleasant to the eyes, but what does that have to do with what God had said about it?
But Eve is already acting on the serpent’s promise that she and Adam could be “as gods, knowing good and evil” because she is deciding for herself what good and evil are. She had departed from the Word of God and was making her own judgments about the tree.
*…and a tree to be desired to make one wise, – But here is an indication that she really wasn’t entirely as independent in her thoughts as she imagined, For this thought was entirely influenced by the lie of the serpent who was the only source for the idea that eating of the forbidden tree would make her “wise”.
*…she took of the fruit thereof…and did eat… Ages of pain, sorrow, disappointment and suffering hung in the balance of those few seconds it took for her to think through the temptation, but, as we all know , she reached out and took it, (in rebellion against her maker).
She stretched out her hand, and took the fruit for her self,(self-improvement; it was the secret way to become wise!).
And she ate it.
It would be easy to assume that this is a story about Eve, because the scripture focuses on Eve’s thought processes,and on her sin. Adam’s fall is reported almost incidentally to Eve’s,
*…and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat…
But it was Adam’s fall that was the goal. When Adam himself received the fruit from his wife, and ate it, the fall of man occurred. That was the point at which death entered that all of the pain, sorrow, death, disappointment, terror, fear, hurt, disease, futility, in short everything we experience as a direct or indirect result of sin, came into the world.All of humanity was counted “in Adam” and fell “in Adam”.
*…and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat… We will be told later by the apostle Paul,
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.(I Cor 15:21-22)
Paul would further assert that the disobedience of Adam has had a universal effect on all of mankind, so pervasive that there is only one effective counter to the “One Offence” out of which all of human sin is but an outworking.
That would be the what Paul refers to as the ”obedience of the one” man, the last Adam, the second man, Jesus Christ the Lord.
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.(Romans 5:18-19)
“Anti-Woman old men like you will be the end of Christianity.”
How is this “anti-woman”?
“You repel, you do not attract.”
You see the words, you do not understand them.
Of course! After all, that is exactly how Christ rebuked people! He only rebuked those who were already contrite!
Like the Pharisees.
And the moneychangers in the temple.
This article is quite good, despite your opinion of it. Eve was deceived by the serpent, but it was Adam that made the conscious choice to defy God in order to be with her, rather than with Him. Adam's was the greater sin, but Eve sinned in her own right as well.
Moses writes that when the couple ‘ate’ the fruit they realized they were naked. And the couple partied in the ‘fig’ grove as it was with ‘fig’ leaves they covered their nakedness. Wonder now think maybe Christ was referencing this first mention of ‘figs’ when He said to learn the parable of the ‘fig’ tree? Figs do have an interesting horticultural requirement to produce.
His problem was being offered food by naked Eve.
I think ... it wasn’t and apple!
Anti-Woman old men like you will be the end of Christianity. You need to become more emotionally liberated.
Still following haSatan with his fruit. Seek YHvH in His WORD WOW !
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Welcome to FR
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Taking those facts together, you can posit the scenario that the Serpent in the Garden was not a snake but a threatening dragon and that it was not seducing the couple but threatening them with death if they did not eat the fruit. Adam's sin then was eating the fruit because he did not trust in God to resurrect him after he was killed by the serpent. He did not have enough faith that God would protect him so he ate to save himself.
Jesus on the other hand did have the faith required to die trusting in the Resurrection.
Obvioulsy, it is not a binding Catholic doctrine, but I thought it was an interesting thought exercise. Happy Thanksgiving all.
SEE: serpent Gen. 3:1, 4, 13; 49:17; Exod. 4:3; Num. 21:8f; Deut. 8:15; 4 ma. 18:8; Eccl. 10:8, 11; Ps. Sol. 4:9; Amos 5:19; Isa. 65:25; 2 Co. 11:3; Rev. 12:9, 15; 20:2 See: dragon Isa. 27:1; 51:9; Rev. 12:3f, 7, 9, 13, 16; 13:1f, 4, 11; 16:13; 20:2 The woman is a metaphor for Israel Notice dragon is used in Isaiah It is used elsewhere as well
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
having produced the Messiah.
as part of the salvation of His People.
5 For YHvH is good; Psalm 100:
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him,
bless His NAME.
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.
I know God created us with the means to have sex and bear children so within a marriage it is pure and good to God but when Eve was tempted (or seduced) by the serpent it “opened their eyes” and they then became as one of the immortals “knowing good and evil” and then they “knew” that they were naked, felt ashamed, and hid themselves. God stated that there would then be enmity (strife and hatred) between HER seed and the SERPENT”S seed. Cain killed Abel. Didn’t God say to Cain something to the effect that he is like his father the devil? Then he said that Eve’s desire will be ONLY for her husband and she’ll have children in pain. I cannot believe that all this change and punishment (even death) is based upon eating a piece of fruit. I think it is figurative.
enmity between
Interesting, could you spell it out more clearly what you mean about the relevance of figs?? Never paid attention to that.
It's not because they ate a piece of fruit.
It's because they disobeyed a direct order. It's because they were prideful enough to demand the knowledge for know;edge's sake.
The act was merely a symptom.
Yes;
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
I'm not sure you can stretch the WORD to suggest
that there was a Dragon in the garden however.
The Greek word drakon can mean "dragon" but at other times it is a serpent. It seems to be used interchangeably with ophis sometimes.
It was not so much the fruit, which yes was a piece of fruit, but the fact that Adam disobeyed God. It was rebellious disobedience that caused Adam to fall out of divine blessing and into the curse. He now had the knowledge of evil. Now he knew what it meant to not trust and obey The LORD which is what evil is. It is possible that you cannot really comprehend good unless you know what evil is.
Your high school classmate erred in assuming that the world as it is now, is the same as it was then. It was actually quite different according to the limited number of Biblical passages that provide us with some description of the antediluvian world. No rain, plants "watered" by mists rising from the ground, seasons as we know them not present. Whatever sort of calamity struck to create a global flood changed all that, quite thoroughly.
Some have suggested a large icy comet would have set the world reeling and wobbling, inducing seasonal variation when there was none, greatly increasing the amount of surface water while simultaneously breaking up the "great fountains of the deep," etc.
An external introduction of a great deal of (warm, salty) water combined with a massive impact might make a certain amount of sense, geologically. Not that such a thing would be required for God to destroy the world, but it's human to try to puzzle it through and look for explanations.
But...being all-knowing...when He made us didn’t He know that we would have a curious nature that along with free-will might make us disobey Him? It’s like when you have a child...you know there are going to be times when they will disobey you but do you, upon the very first infraction, condemn them and their children forever more to such severe penalty??? Why have that one particular tree with “forbidden fruit” there for them to access in the first place? Why allow a serpent the power to deceive them? I’m a Christian and I love the Lord but I do wonder about Him. It’s almost like it was a game when he made us humans.
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