“The Fall” Bugs the Heck Out of Me – Greg Albrecht
Question/Dilemma:
I have wrestled with what so many Christians believe about “The Fall” for decades. They say that Adam and Eve “fell” and because of that every human being has been separated from God, and God it seems, was and is the one who enforces the separation because Adam and Eve did not follow his instructions. But how does this interpretation of the early part of Genesis hold water when compared with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
After observing and thinking about how we individual humans eventually grow up into fully-formed, healthy adults (hopefully – there are sadly many who remain immature all their lives and populate prisons, among other things) I understand that learning to ‘think for ourselves’ is a very natural requirement (as both individuals and as members of societies). For example, the so-called ‘Terrible Twos,’ when a child suddenly becomes able to say “No!” – to express a will of its own, is essential to child growth and development. Hopefully, it is just a stage – but it is a healthy development. It seems that those who explain what happened in the Garden deny God the patience of the self-identifying revelation in Christ as a loving father.
When I read or hear a preacher explain “The Fall” it is treated as a catastrophe – “breaking news” reporting the earliest interact of God with humanity, whom the same book of Genesis, in the same introductory chapters, presents as creating these terrible humans who Fell, and when they did there is hell to pay, until a redemption in Christ many centuries later. I don’t know why the Bible interpreters and preachers and teachers over the centuries have given it such a negative spin as opposed to a natural one, in terms of physical humans, and then far beyond that, the Christ-centered gospel teaching of how we are, transformed in and by Christ, by God’s grace, mature followers of Christ.
On the physical side, what Adam and Eve did was Inevitable. Humans being human. But “The Fall” seems to me to become the origin of so many problems for religious people – many thus wrestle with the implications of “The Fall” as taught by so much of religion. The implication is I AM A SINNER vs. I am a human who still sins, who falls short and who is forgiven. Call me a heretic, but I reject the widely believed interpretation of The Fall. Am I a heretic? It seems to me, thanks be to Jesus, I now have a desire and willingness to keep growing and to become more fully-formed, spiritually – to become, by God’s grace, mature in Christ.
I have concluded that this Bible story of Adam and Eve is, among other things, a description of the natural development of humans. God did not create us as robots, as zombies or as clones of God. He created us, for all experience and human history tells us, as free-choosing, developing individuals – who will, one day, be mature enough to “choose love!/God”.
OF COURSE we cause all sorts of evils and disasters as we struggle through this stage of our development (analogous to our Teen Years!!?) … and, sadly, many of us never grow up much in this life and remain a disaster to everyone around us … that’s the sad part (the consequences of life). BUT the ability of humans to be able to choose! is the ENTIRE POINT of humans on earth – or so I have come to believe.
I’m sure that theologically, I’m missing huge points in all this. But I cringe at the way that our ‘Christian’ culture has spun and understood all this. To me – it’s all just the normal development stage we’re going through. Paul said in Romans 8:19 that creation groans awaiting the children of God to be revealed. Just like the parents often ‘groan’ through the challenging years of raising ‘over active,’ very inquisitive, and independent-to-a-fault, teenagers! Where in all of this “Fall” stuff is our loving Father? Your thoughts will be appreciated.
Response:
Thanks for your honesty, and your willingness to ask whether The Fall is like the Emperor dancing in the streets, in what his tailors have called a magnificent new suit of clothes. and while so many are admiring his suit of “new clothes” this “outfit” of The Fall seems to be a mirage – something is seriously amiss.
I agree with the direction of your thoughts and will add a few of my own, but first AN INTRODUCTORY DISCLAIMER:
I have not read and studied all the scholarship that defends the centuries long interpretation of The Fall. It is quite possible for someone to read what I say in what follows and point out that the fine print of many theological explanations allow for what I protest against. That may be true. My “beef” with “The Fall” (and a number of other distorted biblical teachings) is that Christ-less institutionalized religious entities have taught and do teach a popularly accepted and believed view on a given topic, in this case “The Fall,” and while they may offer nuanced explanations to those who take them to task, their popular teaching is never addressed or changed. Why?
When a drug company introduces a new drug, it extensively advertises and promotes that new drug with careful wording, illustrating its promotion with photos of charming, well adjusted, healthy and prosperous looking folks whom we may presume are users of this particular drug. However, following the promotion and its carefully vague “promises” comes a page long, sometimes even two page long, fine print, insisted upon by their legal departments, that admits this drug can cause all kinds of problems, including death, and thus leave the unsuspecting who hope for a cure in far worse shape than they would have been had they never heard of this new drug. Why do drug companies do such a thing? Well, among other things, they are now in the business of not only paying for all the research necessary to present a new drug, now they need to do what companies do … make money.
When it comes to the “drug” of “The Fall” one must search high and low for a Christ-centered, gospel-centered, grace-based New Covenant explanation of what “The Fall” was all about. Perhaps the “drug companies” who push “The Fall” are content to allow the vast majority to remain under the spell of expectations of the flawed teachings about “The Fall.” OK – I know some folks will not like my characterization, and further, perhaps I am wrong. But that’s my INTRODUCTORY DISCLAIMER.
I see the popular idea of “The Fall” – not the theological small print – but the stuff the laity believes, and stuff that by and large does not seem to be corrected, as a heavy handed manipulation of the first chapters of Genesis. It is a similar Christ-less mistake as saying that God in the Old Testament told the nation of Israel to commit genocide, to kill children and animals, and then Jesus, God in the flesh, told us to love our enemies and do good to those who use and abuse us. How in the world can the popular sense of “The Fall” make sense in the Light of Christ?
I do not doubt the sincerity of religious professionals who do not, for a variety of reasons, including their loyalty to the denominational indoctrination they have accepted, challenge the presumed historic interpretation of “The Fall.”
“The Fall” as a Christ-centered teaching is hopelessly dead on arrival at the gates of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
- Much of the focus of “The Fall” is on human determinism, things humans do and don’t do. It is heavily dependent on the religious idea that if one does the right thing as much and as often as religious professionals suggest then God will give the hard worker a prize. “The Fall” as popularly understood for centuries, and virtually unchallenged, presumes far too much on the human reaction and response to God.
- Did, for example, the Prodigal Son “fall?” Well, I guess. A Humpty-Dumpty fall. But the Parable does not say the father told the son when he wanted to come home that the way was blocked with an angel brandishing a flaming sword. The parable is all about the forever love of the Father – which is far from the religious construct imposed by the popular assumptions of “The Fall” wherein God the Creator, in the Garden, reacts to Adam and Eve. One might say that God comes unhinged, as presented by those who interpret “The Fall.” Sorry – hope I am not exaggerating – I am presenting what most people assume “The Fall” is all about after they have been taught and believed what they have been taught.
- So, as you query, why for so many years have preachers, and priests and theologians allowed this Christ-less interpretation of “The Fall” to stand? For surely “The Fall” emphasizes the sin, the shame and the guilt of Adam and Eve, and an unforgiving father who curses and banishes them.
- Further, “The Fall” leans heavily on the idea that God, the Creator, who created, formed and fashioned humans in the first place, either had no idea what he was doing or was terribly upset with them for being who and what they were – human. The popular idea of “The Fall” has God confused and hurt by this catastrophic decision of Adam and Eve, so surprised that he had to scramble with some kind of option. He, as it seems one the thematic tracks of “The Fall” presents, is shocked that the humans he created actually do what humans do – he is shocked at humans being human.
- So God decides that while Adam and Eve could have lived in a paradise like bliss, now they were disenfranchised and homeless. Homeless and without any resources is, as it seems, a convenient place for humans to be, as Christ-less religion sees it, so that humans who are, according to The Fall, under a curse because Adam and Eve screwed up royally, now have to work by the sweat of their brow, to redeem themselves by the programs of religious rituals, obedience, church attendance, doing and giving and performing.
- So again, how was it a “fall” when Adam and Eve did what they did and not a “fall” when the Prodigal Son did what he did? Why the differing interpretations of the long term implications of the two fathers, who we are told, are one and the same? And they are one and the same – it’s just the religious teaching is not the same!
- The popular interpretation of “The Fall” is so very human, as we humans love to scapegoat. Scapegoating is as human as humans get. We see our problems as caused by other people. People who did bad things and now we have to pay. Parents, grandparents, people who have hurt us and humans who fired us from jobs, who betrayed us, and therefore, we are under a “curse.” Of course other people are one of the causes of our problems, but to somehow infer that humans are under a curse, and should be guilty and ashamed because our Creator God, our Heavenly Father, will not forgive the sin of our great-great-great-great to the max grandparents is rather preposterous. The popular idea of “The Fall” is that we (Adam) have screwed up and God will make us pay. It’s a similar line of thinking that Christ-less religion teaches when it says that Jesus’ Cross is an atonement paying for all of the bad things we have done, because if he didn’t the father, the Mad Dad, would have to kill us instead, because he cannot tolerate those who break his laws. His law is therefore greater than his love. And he is far more about (according to Christ-less religion) penalties and curses than he is about love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.
So, as I see it, the popularly understood explanation of “The Fall” is not on the narrow path of grace, the Jesus Way wherein Christ followers journey on a narrow road to life (Matthew 7:13-14) but rather on the broad way that leads to destruction. The Old Testament and all we read there must always be understood in the Light of Christ. The New Covenant is not equal to the Old Covenant – it overwhelms it, makes it obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). The New Covenant in Christ embraces us, forgives us, lift us up and offers us hope, whereas the Old Testament and its Old Covenant, without the Light of Christ, leaves us in shame, guilt, unforgiven and banished by an angry god. So let us shine the Light of Christ on the widely held assumption of “The Fall.”
One again, I know there is much more to say here, but time and space allow only for a brief summary as to why I reject the popularly understood message of “The Fall.”
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