June 17, 2010

This is an article late in coming.  And it will touch alot more on exacting scripture than I really intend for Lifequill.

In a comment to my Easy Apples post, the writer NFQ asked some questions regarding the creation story, specifically regarding the forbidden fruit and the consequences of eating it.  (You can see that post here )

There are a few things I’d like to address regarding the post, along with the final question asked.

In the post, NFQ states:

“God lies to Adam and Eve and tells them that eating the fruit will cause them to die that day. (We know it’s a lie, because they do eat the fruit and that’s not what happens.)”

But this is untrue, actually.

The problem herein lies in that NFQ is working from an English translation of the Bible.  The phrase is rendered, “And you shall surely die.” This does lend to certain problems in understanding the text.  (For reference, the section of the Bible being discussed is Genesis 2:17; “… 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.”)

Two sections need to be considered.  The phrasing “in the day” and “you shall surely die.”  I’m going to start with the second.

If you examine the Hebrew, the wording and verbiage used would come out word for word, “…dying you shall surely die.”

It contains a few things that really matter (grammar specialists take note, everyone else feel free to skip forward a bit).

It contains the imperfect form of the Hebrew verb (you shall die) and the infinite absolute form of the same verb (dying).

What exactly does that mean, you ask?  First and foremost, that there is a strong emphasis on the fact that a kind of death will happen.  But to best grasp it all, one can look for other uses in the Bible.

This same basic phrase is found in Numbers 26:65.  In it, God tells the Israelites that because they refused to trust Him, the adults would die over the course of 40 years.  The phrase, dying you shall surely die, is used specifically.  But it is clear in that context, and from the following events, that God did not mean every adult would die instantly or at once.  (Hence part of the use of 40 years).  But that it could be gradual, still with the same outcome.

What of the second phrase, “in the day…” doesn’t that suggest that it would happen that day?  Well, no.  Again if you look at the Hebrew and how it is used in the Bible it often does not mean a single day.

For instance, the same word that creates this phrase is used to describe the six day period of creation.  Not a single day.  (Genesis 2:4)  It is also used again in Numbers 7:10-84 to describe a twelve day period of sacrifice.  The word itself can either be a specific day, or a number of days, or even more, and is dependent on the context of the text it is contained within to determine the case.

There are multiple ways of interpreting the line in regards to Genesis.  It seems clear that a spiritual death DID happen that day.  Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden; they “hid themselves from God.”  Their once close relationship was now broken.  But where the earlier text suggests that they may have lived eternally before (the part about eating any other tree, actually translates more correctly as everlasting feasting), they were now cursed to toil, experience pain, and eventually die.

There is nothing in the Hebrew text to suggest that the best translation would be, “If you eat the fruit, you will die instantaneously (or even this day).  Just that the death would be a grave one.  (It is emphasized in seriousness, not necessarily in timeliness)

So God was in fact telling the truth.  Eating the forbidden fruit led to both a spiritual, and eventually a physical death.

But there is still another important question from NFQ’s post I feel need be addressed.

In it they ask (and allow me to paraphrase), “Is it fair for God to punish Adam and Eve’s actions, when by the very text admittance, they did not know the difference between right and wrong?”

Yes.  Yes it is.  We as humans, more specifically parents, do exactly that every day.  When we have very young children, they often begin to do something because they do not know any better.  As a parent, we will see their action and warn them to stop.   The child understands what the parent has said, what they wish.  But chooses to do so anyways.  Again, not realizing that what they are doing is ‘wrong’.  Not knowing any better.  Yet afterwards, we still punish them.

Why?  Because even if a child did not realize what they were about to do was wrong, they do know the sound of a parent’s voice.  The intention of their words.  And chose to ignore it.  We punish as much for that as for the wrong.  Adam and Eve did not have the knowledge of right and wrong.  But they did have the knowledge of what God wanted and what He did not.  And they chose their own will anyways.  As with a child, they were punished.  They, and the child, later knew what they did was wrong.  Not just because of the action being wrong, but because of the disobedience.  A child may not yet have understanding of good and bad, right and wrong, but they do have an understanding of listening to a parent.  And we further instill that by holding them to it.

A life without consequences equates in nongrowth.

NFQ specifically asks: “So, the story of Adam and Eve suggests either that the justice of the Judeo-Christian God runs contrary to our most basic notions of what fairness should look like, or (less likely) that the Judeo-Christian God is so arbitrary as to cross the line into antagonism. If you believe in this God and you revere the text of Genesis, please tell me: which one is it?”

The answer actually is the first.  One need not look further than the Bible to see that, as stated in 1 John 1:9.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

From the beginning man has as a whole done more wrong than right.  More harm than good.  Given free will, we choose destruction more often than not.  It is hard to find a person who is blameless.  (I do not believe one exists on this earth)

From the beginning all men have sooner or later chosen their own path over God’s.  Reveling in our knowledge instead of His.  Man’s justice claims that all crime should be punished.  Yet, as John tells us, God’s justice involves forgiveness.  When is the last time a judge offered a criminal forgiveness?  Yet that is God’s way.

So although NFQ was trying to get at something else, (which I admit I sidestepped entirely with my earlier answer on exactly why punishing Adam and Eve is ok), I still find the answer to the question to be a resounding yes.  What we find just in this world, it seems God would try to avoid for a greater sort of justice.

NFQ also asks: “While we’re at it — why wouldn’t God want his people to know the difference between good and evil? Wouldn’t God want people to be able to choose good over evil, and doesn’t that require being able to distinguish between them? A deity that punishes his people for finding out the difference between right and wrong does not sound very benevolent to me.”

I must simply point out what man has done with his knowledge of evil.  God has knowledge of good and evil.  Yet He is pure, and does only good.  Man on the other hand is not the same.  Capable of both good and evil, man chooses evil.  And though yes it can be said that not all men are “EVIL” in the large truly horrid sense of the world.  No man is purely good either.  And drawing a line becomes a task so large that the rolling stone of “what isn’t too evil?” will flatten even the largest city.

Without the knowledge of good and evil, man could not do evil.  But God didn’t strip that knowledge from us.  He forbade it, yes.  But He didn’t stop us from attaining it when we made the choice.  The crux of free will.

January 27, 2010

I sometimes get asked, “If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat the apple, why did He make it so easy to get?”

The question revolves around the idea that God could have just as easily put the tree on top of a mountain, or made it impossible to reach in some way.

The problem is the question misses the entire point of what God really wanted.  What God wants.

God built mankind with the express intent of giving them freewill.  The ability to choose.  It’s one of the things that separates us from everything else in the universe.  Angels know God exists.  And have no choice but to worship Him.  The animals, the earth, even the very rocks would call out in praise of Him if no man or woman did.  (Jesus briefly touches on that fact in Luke 19)

But God wanted something more.  He wanted man to be able to make a choice.  To believe Him.  Or not.  To worship Him.  Or not.

We all know to a degree why He’d want something like that.  If someone does something nice for you because they have to, or because they have no choice but to, it doesn’t mean anywhere near as much as when someone does something nice because they want to, they choose to.  Does it?

Angels cry out in worship every moment to God.  But a single moment of Man’s worship moves Him far more.

God wanted to build a creature that would choose to believe Him.  Believe in Him.  Worship Him.  The one downside to that is, God would have to build a creature that could choose not to believe Him.  Or believe in Him.  Or worship Him.

And so the very first choice came with a fruit.  Mankind was told not to eat it, or else there would be dire consequences.  A serpent said to eat it, and that there would not be any such dire consequences.

Now I have to ask you, my reader, if the fruit had been impossible to get would it really have been a choice?

Let me ask this way.  Imagine you enter a restaurant.  You are greeted warmly by your server and they ask what you would like to drink.  You naturally inquire as to the choices.  Imagine the server told you, “We have water.  And we have soda.  But the only way to get the soda is to travel to Mount Everest, ascend it, and claim it yourself.”

Is soda really a choice in that situation?  No, no it is not.

For something to be an actual choice, one option must be as relatively as easy to choose as the other.

If God had made the fruit impossible to obtain, He would have chosen for Mankind.  Instead of allowing Mankind the choice.

May I address something else here?  Choice also involves consequence.  And taking responsibility for our choices.  This is the very second mistake Mankind made.
First Mankind chose to believe the serpent over God.  Then Mankind chose not to take responsibility for that choice.

Eve blamed the serpent, saying “The serpent deceived me and I ate it.”

Adam blamed both Even AND God!  He said, “The woman YOU put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (emphasis mine)

Notice first he points out that Eve gave him the fruit, then he points out that God was the one who made Eve in the first place.  Therefore it’s “His fault.”

That’s a pretty big mistake to make.  Because let’s face it.  Eve chose to believe the serpent.  Adam chose to believe Eve.  They were told by God there would be dire consequences.  And they chose to believe otherwise.

And do you know something else?  The very question this topic asks makes the same mistake.  It tries to put the blame on God.  “Well if God had put the fruit out of reach, then Adam and Eve couldn’t have eaten it.”

But the problem isn’t what God could have done.  The problem is what mankind should have done.

Do you know something else?  This very topic also proves just how much God loves mankind.  He could have made it impossible to choose to eat the fruit.  But He would rather be able to lose us, not have our worship, have the outcome of us choosing something other than Him… than force us to stay in His presence, and worship Him.

That’s one of the things that seem to distinguish God from so many stories of gods and goddesses.  Often those gods and goddess demand worship.  God really could.  But all He does is ask and hope and extend His arms waiting.

But God is a parent, in so many ways.  We let our children choose.  But when they choose unwisely, such as misbehaving, we also hold them accountable for those decisions.

So that’s what it boils down to.  Yes.  God didn’t want Adam and Eve to choose to eat the fruit.  But what He wanted more was for Adam and Eve to be able to choose at all.

Without free will we are no different than cows.  Existing without any real choice.  Unable to grow, to succeed, to triumph.  But with free will we can do all that and more.  At the small cost that we also can and will fail.

Thankfully, God also created forgiveness.  Second chances.  And growth.  Our failures don’t define us.  But they do refine us.  And that’s important too.

December 29, 2009

Suddenly the sound of a crash careened through the room.  On the ground was a small china plate, cleanly broken in two.  And a lesson was about to be learned.

There are two stories I wish to write about today.  But before we delve into the story of a broken plate, let’s turn to the story of some very confused men.  Allow me to point you to Matthew 18: 1-5.  I’ll post it here in Today’s New International Version.

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 He called a little child, whom he placed among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Confusing?  Isn’t it?  What does it mean to become like a child?  And why should we be humble?  In today’s America, humble is something that is likened to a false sincerity.  You don’t acknowledge out loud how spectacular you are, but everyone knows you know it, so that you act like you are less is just that.  An act.

But children don’t act.  They are the most honest humans of all in their actions.

Let’s return to the initial story I began telling.  It is a story of me.  And my daughter.  She is, at the time, a beautiful and incredible three year old girl, who finds absolutely everything marvelous.
On this day she is enjoying a very special gift given to her by my mother.  It is a real china tea set.  Not just a plastic children’s set.  I had thought it too much for her, but wasn’t going to deny such a gift after my little one saw it and fell in love.

As young girls her age are apt to do, she immediately wanted to get it out and have a tea party with dad.  A request I just was not able to deny.  She poured the tea for me, set out the plates with the bread.  And we sat down for a little pretend lunch.  And something happened.  It might have been a phone ringing, or a knock at the door.  But I stood up for just one moment, looked away for the briefest second, and that’s when I heard it.

Crash.  Shatter.  The plate fell to the ground, broken into two perfect halves. And then I heard something that nearly broke my heart.

My daughter began to cry.  This is a father’s true weakness.  No man can stand firm in the face of this sound.

But then my daughter did two things that surprised me.

First she exclaimed through her tears, “I am so sorry, please don’t punish me.”

I was shocked.  My daughter is well behaved, and I can only think of one time when I had ever had to even spank her.  I could not and still can not think of any reason why she’d believe I’d punish her for what was an accident.  Little children will drop plates.  How wonderful and strange is a child though. She didn’t try to hide it, or lie.  She took full responsibility, almost too much responsibility.  How unlike an adult.

And then she gave me my second surprise.  After so quickly apologizing and seeking escape from a dreamed punishment, she lifted up her arms.  Seeking to be held, comforted, seeking the one person present who could make everything better.

How often does a human seek comfort from the very person who they believe might punish them?  How often is the man holding the whip also the man who holds safety?

But it was the act of a child, a lesson that I believe illustrates Jesus’ words so perfectly.

Humans, whether you believe they are born with sin or without, do sin.  We’ve all done it.  We’ve all done –something-.  Whether it was by accident, or on purpose.  The sooner we acknowledge what we’ve done wrong, the better.  Then we can ask for forgiveness. And then we can seek comfort.

Because God is a parent.  THE Parent.  He is like a Father.  And a Mother.  And His love is more complete, more full, than anything any human could manage.
Do you know what I did when my daughter reached up her arms and silently asked for me to pick her up?  To hold her?  To make it all better?  I didn’t punish her.  The thought never crossed my mind.  I didn’t scold her.  I didn’t have a single negative word to say.

I immediately picked up my daughter and held her close.  Dried her tears. And I did everything I could to make it ok.  I glued the plate.  I assured her over and over that it was ok. That I wasn’t mad.  That I loved her.

How could I do anything else?

And THAT my dear reader is the nature of God too.  He created us.  He loves us.  And whether your plate is literal or figurative, whether it’s your heart, your life, your sins, or anything else.  I promise you.  I guarantee you.  If you say today “I am sorry.  Please forgive me.” And reach out your arms to be taken in by Him.  He won’t hesitate.

A Father never could.