The Fall

Disobedience leads to Death

&Ancestral Sin

The FallStory of Adam and Eve Basis for understanding our sinful tendencies and need for salvation.

Significant in understanding differing views on salvation.

Early Christians emphasized consequence of Fall, death,not on some kind of inherited guilt.

This condition we inherit

This we call ancestral sin.

Ancestral Sin

Scene: Paradise

Key Players: The Devil & Man

Plot: The Fall thru Disobedience

Consequences: Death

• What is Paradise like?

• A mystical and subtle subject

• It existed before the Fall and exists now.

• Visited by some.

• The goal of our earthly life.

Paradise

Paradise is Beautiful

• God caused every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food to grow from the ground. (Gen 2:9)

• Saint Gregory the Sinaite. Placed between corruption and incorruption, it is always both abundant in fruits and blossoming with flowers, both mature and immature.

Man in full communion with God.

• What did man do in Paradise?

• The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it. (Gen 2:15)

• Saint EphraimThe tilling consisted of keeping the commandments of God…

• Saint Nilus of Sinai Prayer is the tilling of Paradise.

What was Place of Animals?

• Animals existed outside of Paradise. God had to bring them to Adam to be named.

• Paradise was a divine place and a worthy habitation for God in His image. An in it no brute beasts dwelt, but only man, the handiwork of God. St. John of Damascus

Live like Angels

Saint John Chrysostom

Before the fall men lived in Paradise like angels; they were not inflamed with lust, were not kindled by other passions either, were not burdened with bodily needs; but being created entirely incorruptible and immortal, they did not even need the covering of clothing.Homilies on Genesis 13:4, 15:4

What is Paradise?

A place that is Beautiful.

Made in God’s Image from dust & potentially immortal.

Free of bodily needs - like the angels.

Free from suffering.

Free from passions.

Given a challenge and responsibilities.

The Devil

• What do you think about the Devil?Who is He or She?

What Does Term Devil Mean?

• Hebrew word Satan is often translated into the Greek word diabolos, which most commonly is translated as Devil.

• Diabolos means the accuser, slanderer, maligner, one who separates.

• Known by numerous other designations In NT: devil (e.g., Matt. 4:1), the tempter (e.g., Matt. 4:3), the accuser (e.g., Rev. 12:10), the prince of demons (e.g., Luke 11:15), the ruler of this world (e.g., John 12:31)

Who is the Devil?Scripture tells us:Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. (Jude 6, II Peter 2:4)

Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (Luke 10:18)

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev 12:7-9)

Ready for Action

Stage set for Fall of Mankind

Man created in Image of God - freewill

Lives in Paradise

Devil working to deceive world

Now the serpent... said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat from every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said..., “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Then the serpent said..., “You shall not die by death. For God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree beautiful to contemplate, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate. (Gen 3: 1-6)

Michelangelo's Temptation and Fall from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.

Fall of Mankind

Why Did the Devil Tempt Adam and Eve?

He was envious.

He saw man as an inferior creature yet he as a superior creature is part of a non-spiritual existence.

Why Did He Come In The Form of a Snake?

John Chrysostom In the beginning the snake was a friend of man and one of the closest of those who served him. It was similar to that of the dog today.

In ancient mythology the snake was a symbol of wisdom.

Why Was the Devil Successful?

Devious, shrewd and clever.

Knew what was in human heart:Desire for self-gratification and worldly things.

They were not willing to submit to God’s will.

• Genesis continues the story:

• Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Gen 3:7)

• Significance of Hiding Their Nakedness?

Significance of Hiding Their Nakedness?

Lost glory of God and now only saw lower things of this earth. Soul came under the domination of the body and its passions.Self-centered.Separated from Spirit.Lost their dispassion and began the passionate earthly life.

What Was God’s Response?

Genesis story continues:And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.... Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”“Where are you” means?

Indicates separation from God and God’s loving immediate searching for them to return. God is calling for them to repent. “Where are you?”

How Did Adam and Eve Respond?

Adam says:“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

Eve Says,“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”Responded with self-justification.Adam blamed EveEve blamed the snake.There was no humility, no remorse.

Consequences of the Fall?And the Lord God had commanded, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:15-17)

Paul says: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. (Rom 5:12)

The wages of sin is death. (Rom 6:23)

Death is consequence of disobedienceWhat they chose. What we inherited. All who follow, suffer death, causing tendency to sin.

Lost Home in God’s Kingdom

Then God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken... He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 3:22-24)

In place of immortality, mankind beheld death and separation from God. An act of mercy? How?

God did not reject man.He took away neither His image, freedom of his will, nor his reason.Man still had image of God - tarnished.Nature changed: Body became grossly material and subject to corruption and death.Man now needed help of a supernatural power to overcome death, be transformed, and return to live in union with God.

Did God Reject Man?

Consequences

• Turning away from God and towards concerns of oneself breaks our communion with God

• When the communion is broken we have death.• By death we are all held captive by Satan.

• We become self-centered and live in sin.

• It is only by victory over death, Satan’s great power, that we will become selfless and restore our communion with God.

• This victory is found in communion with Christ.

ReflectMan was created in Paradise in full communion with God.Made what is created (fruit) the object of his desire.Looked at things of this world for fulfillment rather than his Creator. Thru freewill, disobedience, separated himself from God.Suffered the consequence he was foretold of death.Nature changed to material and biological.Now, we struggle trying to preserve life.Have we not already paid for Adam’s Sin?

Sou

Body

God

Our Present Condition

Soul

God

Our Natural Condition

Body

Western View

• Many Western Churches have a distorted view of Sin. Original Sin - We inherit guilt from the actions of Adam and Eve. We are born in sin.

What is Original Sin?

• Unknown by East and West until Augustine in the 5th century (354-430).

• Greeks used concept of ancestral sin.• Greek is amartia (ἁμαρτία) - means missing the mark.• Sin is not a violation of an impersonal law or code

of behavior, but a rejection of the life offered by God.

• Original Sin not idea of a guilt that is passed on from Adam and Eve.

• A condition we inherit, like a disease.

SAINT AUGUSTINE• Augustine wrote some things that are in variance

with the teachings of Saint Paul on sin.• He introduced the notion that death was a

punishment for the sin of Adam - legalistic• Paul views the Fall as a battle between God and

Satan. According to Paul, Eve was deceived by Satan and they both were taken captive by the Devil through death. We are un this battle.

• Need a savior to become free.• Last enemy to be destroyed is death (1Cor 15:26)

“the sting of death is sin”

Loving God• This error leads to a judicial view of sin versus a

disease view.• A law was broken, we are punished for it by

a vengeful God.• Instead of inheriting a disease from which we

need to be healed by a loving God.• Paul says that we are a slave to the devil by his

power of death and a sinner because the flesh is unable to live according to the law which is selfless love.

Victory over death

• The main act of Christ was His victory over death, His Resurrection. He destroyed the greatest power of the Devil.

• The spiritual war against the devil and the striving for selfless love is centered in the Eucharistic life of the Church - Body of Christ who is the head.

Orthodox Goal• Being subject to sinful tendencies, sickness,

suffering, and death as a result of our descendence from Adam, what do we need?

• Savior. Christ frees us from death and shows us the way to perfection.

• We need help of Holy Spirit to overcome our sinful tendencies.

• Where do we get this?• We get this only in union with Him as part of the

body of Christ, the Church. Requires relationship not a payment.

• Our goal is to perfect ourselves in cooperation with God so we can live in union with Him.

Ancestral Sin

• How is one considered to be guilty?

• Only from an act they freely commit.

• Can our guilt be given to someone else?

• We can’t sin for another. We need to be forgiven our own transgressions, not to be forgiven for Adam’s first transgression.

• For Adam sin came first and then death. For us we inherit death from Adam and our sin follows.

How does reality of Death impact us?

• Self-Preservation, fear and anxiety: Self-assertion, egoism, hatred, envy.

• Fear of life becoming meaningless: Strive to prove ourselves, seek self-worth, compliments and success, fear insults, envy others success and desire to be liked.

• Seek security and happiness in wealth, glory and bodily pleasures or a misguided individualistic possession of God’s presence that brings happiness.

• Zealous over idealistic principles of love yet hate closest neighbor.

Ancestral Sin

• Our lives are dominated by the struggle to survive. Become self-centered. Set adrift by fear of death we can become alienated from God.

• Salvation is a transformation from the tragic state of alienation and autonomy that ends in death separated from God into a state of communion with God and one another that ends in eternal life with God.

How Do We fall into Sin?

• God gave us the gifts of freedom, reason, and love.

• What comes with this freedom?• The possibility of wavering in one’s choices thus

temptation is possible.

Two Primary Temptations

• Reason - How can this temp us?• To grow proud in mind.

To seek the knowledge of good and evil outside of God. Not acknowledging the wisdom and goodness of God. Not accept His commandments and make our own selection Make ourselves God.

• Love - How can this temp us?• In place of love for God and one’s neighbor,

love ourselves and everything that satisfies lower desires and gives earthly enjoyment.

What is Evil?

The moral order that results from exercising our free will separated from God.

Is Misfortune Evil?

• Misfortunes are in themselves neither evil or good.• One must have reverence for the all-wise order of

the world.• We cannot understand all the ways of God. We are

his creatures, created by Him.

Endlessly, the various and mutually opposed strivings of blind elemental powers and organic creatures, man acting separated from God, forces are colliding with each other at every moment. They are mysteriously brought into harmony by becoming a source for continual renewal in the world.

How About Our Difficult Sufferings?

• When did suffering begin?• with the Fall.

• We are cause of diseases and sufferings• Consequences of moral evil spread from people to the animal

world and to the whole of creation.• For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth

in pain together until now… For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected it in hope: because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Rom 8:22, 20-21)

How About Our Difficult Sufferings?

• Evil is a deviation from the original condition of Paradise.

• Can we make God the cause of moral evil?• Due to our separation from God, unwillingness to do

as He commands, and inability to follow natural law written in the human conscience. Why?

• Ancestral sin, death. • This separation from God is called sin.• We can choose to join with Him, to become united

with Him, and avoid sin.

Review• Human action responsible for

Sin.• Man has free will. • Consequence of first sin was a

separation from GodDeath and expulsion from Paradise.

• Mankind’s nature was changed.• We inherit consequences of death

and loss of the kingdom.• We are in need of Salvation.

Ancestral Sin

Questions?

What Next?

To be saved we need to overcome the fear of Death and tendency to sin.

How will be do this? How does God lead us?

Preparation begins with story from OT.