The Fall

About three weeks ago I attended a sermon at my church on the topic of The Gospel. It laid out the “Gospel message” following a narrative one would expect in an evangelical congregation. I’m probably going to do a terrible job summarizing this but I think this message can be briefly laid out as follows: In the beginning of time, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, sinning against God and thereby causing the entire future human race to fall into a state of sin. In this state, we are lost and damned to an eternity in hell. Between this event known as The Fall and the birth of Jesus, humans could atone for their sins by performing sacrifices that could make them right with God. Jesus’s death on the cross acted as the last sacrifice and ultimate atonement for man’s sin. This atonement frees humans from spending eternity in hell. All that one has to do in order to partake of this atonement is to “believe” in Jesus.

In evangelical circles, believing in Jesus is initiated by a single prayer - often referred to as the “sinner’s prayer.” In this prayer you confess that you are a sinner, you ask God to forgive you of your sins and ask that Jesus come live in your heart and you acknowledge that Jesus is the lord of your life. With that prayer you are free from the bondage of sin. Your sinful nature has died with Jesus on the cross and a new you is resurrected with him. This prayer is the rite of passage from an unsaved state to a saved state. Once saved, the Christian is guaranteed to spend eternity with God and the rest of the saved population in heaven.

Now Christianity has covered a huge huge spectrum of thought and nuance over the last 2000 years. Many have argued over various details of the above narrative, thousands have died and been killed over these arguments and many many schisms and divisions have arisen to form the many many churches and different belief systems that make up global Christianity today. That said, the above summary of the Gospel I think fairly paints what most evangelicals in the US believe today. These beliefs are almost always meant to be accepted literally. It’s becoming more common to find those who see the Adam and Eve and creation story as more allegorical than literal but I don’t think that is the norm.

This evangelical camp is the camp I grew up in. I made a solid exit in my early 20’s where I essentially burned my beliefs to the ground, put away my bible and thought all of Christianity was ridiculous. Then I read the bible again a few years ago and sort of fell in love with it. I have returned to the church but I hold the stories and lessons of the bible very differently from my evangelical friends and churchmates. So sitting through this sermon can be a little frustrating but not a big deal. I am very familiar with the message. I know it is the evangelical status quo. I come to this church for various reasons of my own choosing and occasionally being doused with this narrative is all just part of the ride. Fine. Overall I like the church. I like the people. I like the pastors. I like what the church does for the community. I very much appreciate that this church provides me with a home to find and know Jesus.

Not far into this sermon the pastor says “If you have the fall wrong, you have it all wrong.” Oh boy. This bothers me. First, I can assure you that I do not see the fall as the pastor does (by the way this pastor I hold in the highest respect and think I would be a better person if I was more like him). So in his mind I guess I have it all wrong. This phrase has stuck with me like a festering sore. There is a voice inside of me that asks,”is this true?” Do I indeed have it all wrong? Of course I don’t think so but I want to take a good look at this Fall that I see very differently from others in my church.

I re-read Genesis chapter 3 which is the part of the bible that covers the fall. This chapter starts with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden being tempted by a snake to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge - the very thing God told them not to do or else they will die. It ends with them eating it and being banished from the garden and cursed to live lives filled with toil and pain.

After reading this chapter, which I have read many times, it basically reaffirms my original stance that it is not a damnation of human kind or a statement that humans have an evil or sinful core. There are a couple details that I don’t remember picking up on before like the fact that this tree of knowledge is in the middle of the garden and they are not banished as a result of eating from it. Rather they are banished so that they do not eat from the tree of life (a different tree) because then they will live forever. The more I think of this story now, I find it totally fascinating.

Here is the main thing that grabs me as I reflect on the story. This “fall” was inevitable. The whole story paints a scenario that seems totally setup for Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

First, they are not even alive for more than 10 minutes it seems before this all happens. Ok maybe 10 minutes is an exaggeration but if we read the story literally, I am going to say it is less than 9 months since they have not procreated which is likely one of the first things they would do. So things went wrong immediately. Also, there are only two humans. What if they had become a society of just hundreds? That would simply increase the odds that someone would eat that fruit.

There are a couple more details that seem designed to push Adam and Eve over the edge. The tree is in the center of the garden and God tells them don’t eat from it or you will die. Adam and Eve are effectively children. You put this big tree with fruit smack dab in the middle of their world and then you say don’t eat the fruit. According to the text, “it was a delight to the eyes.” What do you think is going to happen? They are going to want to eat that fruit. There is no fence or wall to breach. They don’t have to navigate thorns or even seem to need to climb the tree. Also God says do not eat it or you will die. What is death?! For Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, death must be a completely foreign concept. All the more spark for curiosity. Then you have creatures roaming about seemingly conspiring to get Adam and Eve to fail.

How could this fall NOT happen?

I want to know what this story is telling us about ourselves and our history. There is clearly a lesson trying to be conveyed here. However I just don’t think it is that we fell into an intrinsically sinful state in need of atonement to save us from eternal torture. If that’s the lesson, then how do we account for what seems like a terrible design flaw of the whole system committed by God himself. I know some would say that Adam and Eve are exercising free will and must succumb to the consequences of their own actions. I don’t buy that argument. They simply were not setup to succeed here. However I don’t think this is the point.

I think this is the story of the human race’s evolution from an innocent and largely instinctual way of interacting with their environment to a more self aware, organized and ambitious mode of operations. According to Genesis 3, they wanted to be like God, they wanted to have the knowledge of good and evil, they wanted to be wise. Of course they did. After eating, their “eyes were opened.”

One thing I find super interesting here is that the first thing that falls upon them after eating the fruit is shame. They are aware of their nakedness. They see their naked bodies as needing to be covered up. One wonders, I wonder, is it that they have fallen into a sinful nature? Or do they now simply have the perception of themselves as sinful?

I also wonder if God’s reactionary “curse” upon Adam and Eve to live a life of labor and hardship is a punishment? Or is it simply the natural consequence of this new way of life they are entering into? You want to be like God? You want to take dominion? You want to know things? You want to look upon the world and see sin and virtue. Welp, that’s gonna make things hard in many respects.

I don’t think we walk away here thinking that they have done something wrong. I think they have taken the next step in our human story and now life is going to be different. There is going to be work and structure and you will often feel bad about yourselves.

So is the gospel, which means “good news,” that you can now say this prayer which rids you of the consequences of sin? Or is it the message that you were never bad to begin with? Shame was your own invention. God sees you as good and is on your side. I think Jesus came to deliver that message. Despite the fact that we can do terrible things and feel terrible about ourselves, there is love in this universe that shines on us unconditionally. So much of what Jesus did was more than the sermon on the mount or telling parables, it was simply healing people. Healing people not because they had done some worthy thing to deserve it but healing them because that was what he was here to do. That was who he was. He came to show us who God is. God is someone who heals, God is someone who will eat with anyone, God will make himself weak and die to show us he loves us.

If the message is that by NOT believing in a specific historical person that appeared once in time and in a single place then you are doomed to eternal torment then that does not sound like good news to me. According to that message the vast majority of human kind simply will not make it at no fault of their own. After a life of 80 years or so, they will spend infinite eons in continual torture? If that is true, then I would expect Jesus to talk about this as his primary message. I would expect every church to talk about this every Sunday. I would expect every Christian to not shut up about this impending peril.

The fact is that they don’t (or certainly most). You know why I think they don’t? I think that most don’t truly believe this. They may say that they do or think that they do. At one point long ago I thought I did. It is easy to affirm when you are in the group amidst others who claim to believe the same. However when you are in a room with someone who does not profess Jesus but lives a truly good life and earnestly seeks what is right, do we really think they are going to spend an eternity in hell? I don’t think most evangelicals truly truly do.

I’m willing to be wrong here and cannot know the hearts or thoughts of others. This is just an idea that I have been holding lately. Many read the bible and claim every jot and title is literally and absolutely true. That might be tempting to do because it is easy, it gives us solace and provides a tangible structure that we can hang our ideas on. But this structure is brittle and weak. We cobble together passages from the bible and erect this artificial meaning. I think every Christian does and many come away with something totally different. How can we not do this? However when these beliefs simply don’t add up to our personal every day experience, I think we need to be honest and curious and not be afraid to ask questions.

I think there is a kernel of truth that lies beneath the text in the bible. It is that truth that binds us to our hope in God and Jesus and makes these things matter to us. This kernel is what really matters. It is not just in the bible but it is all around us. It is in our own breath. It is in the relationships we form with others. It is in every act of kindness. How do I describe this kernel? I don’t know exactly. It is probably better lived than talked about. Every single day I hope to come just a little closer. Every time I read the bible I seek to make myself receptive to it. In Christian practice, probably the best one can do to articulate this kernel is through the very name of Jesus.