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In the beginning things were vastly different

Posted: July 1, 2011 - 11:12pm

John Ring


In a recent open forum discussion on Genesis (the first book of the Bible), it becomes clear the world that God created is vastly different than the world we know today. We may not think it is that important. Our minds might not let us think much beyond what we know as normal now. However, it makes a tremendous impact on how we view many key elements of our faith.

Some have said that just about all the key theologies of Christianity can be found in Genesis.

The deeper the weekly open forum discussion dives, it is apparently true. Within the first few chapters one can find God the Father, the trinity, God's redemptive plan, the fall of man, depravity, Satan, life, death, salvation, man in the image of God, Eden and heaven, and lots more. With that we haven't ventured much past chapter 4.

It is sort of like looking into one of those pictures that once your eyes adjust, there is another picture within. Too often we read the Scriptures but we don't study them. We don't meditate or think deeply about the details of the stories.

As we were openly discussing the fall of man it became obvious to us that the world pre-fall of man potentially was vastly different than what we think. It is possible animals talked. Eve was not amazed that there was a talking serpent. There were no thistles, briars or much of anything to affect cultivation and plant growth. Some have considered that pre-flood and maybe pre-fall creation could very well have been like a hyperbaric chamber with oxygen levels in the 30 percent bracket if not higher. Thus growth (human, animal and plant) would have been drastically different.

As we consider the precise words as written in Genesis it sticks in our craw that as one author wrote, "it was not supposed to be this way." In other words, sin has made such an impact on life as we know it, we have a hard time fathoming the holiness and glory of God.

While we are "made in the image of God," we are not God, nor are we capable of comprehending a different world. It was a world that would take reality and blow it up.

No wonder we have issues. No wonder we try so hard to make this life Eden. No wonder we rest in so many things that give us temporary peace. We are made to be in relation with God, not in separation.

Some think it is God who separated himself from us. No, we are the ones who separate ourselves from the relationship.

It has always twisted my mind why God didn't start over when Adam and Eve defied Him. Surely, their offense didn't have to decide for the rest of mankind. Couldn't God have just put them to the side and created two more that would get it right? He could. God could have done it anyway he wants (sovereignty). However, without the pain and struggle of life as we know it, is it possible we would not grasp the greatest of the attributes of God being love and grace?

We like to read the Bible and say that Adam and Eve are removed from the Garden due to their sin, end of the story. However, upon careful inspection, Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden due to the beginning episode, scene 1, act 1, of God's love and grace. Check it out some time. Genesis chapter 3 says God (reference to the trinity upon careful observation) decided to remove them so they could not eat of the Tree of Life. What difference does that make? Man has already sinned and "become like us (God) knowing the difference between good and evil." God removes them so they don't eat of the Tree of Life (which there is no reference they couldn't) and stay in their condition forever. That is love and grace at its best. They messed up but God made sure their error was not unredeemable. God's redemptive plan kicks in big time.

That same redemption continues thousands of years later. The redemption is based upon God continuing to pursue man, not man pursuing God. The redemption for Christians is found in Christ, who paved the way for a renewed relationship and is based upon on not we do, but rather what Christ did. He gave his life as a perfect ransom for our errors and sins. The curse was broken. Man can come freely to the very creator who made him in the first place.

Why did God do it this way? We don't know. However, just like he told Job and others throughout history, we aren't god. He is God and he reveals his love and grace by loving his creation even when they think they are god which is every day, all day. One tree was defiled while another tree becomes the universal symbol of redemption. Redemption is the love and grace of God.


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