The Fall Of Man

[~=Ron=~ 0]

The Fall Of Man 

  "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places
seeking rest and does not find it." Matt 12:43

  I think it's very difficult for most people to appreciate the devastation
brought about by the Fall of Man.

  Even with our awareness of history and the world as it is today, 
until we can experience life as it should have been, as beings living in
a direct relationship with God's love,  we will always live in a muted
state of awareness, and never be truly shocked or grieved over the
reality of the Fall, the loss of man's true divine nature.
 
  The account of the Fall of Man in Genesis, for many, has faded into 
the category of myth, and doesn't attract the attention of serious thought
and inquiry.  And as it's written, it leaves many questions unanswered
that might cross the rational mind. 

For instance;
  
  Was there, literally, a poisonous fruit that God left in the garden as 
a test for Adam & Eve? 

  Why would a loving God punish them with death for failing such a
test?      

  Was there an actual talking snake who tempted Eve and therefore
caused the fall of man?  And who or what is Satan? 
 

How has sin been able to effect the succeeding generations of man
since the Fall? 

  Was the Fall of Man a part of God's predestination? 

  Why does God allow evil and suffering to exist? 
     
  I'm sure that many more of such questions can be asked in relation
to the Fall of Man.  In the following pages we'll try to provide new
insights and clear, meaningful answers. 
 

Literal or Symbolic? 

  The Fall of Man is perhaps one of the best illustrations of the use of
symbolic language that can be found in the Bible.  The Tree of the
Knowledge of Good & Evil, the Tree of Life, the Serpent and the Fruit,
are objects in the Genesis story that have meaning beyond what is
expressed literally. When we can decipher their inner meaning, we
will begin to see the makings of a quite different story.

  The Trees of the Garden 

  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil was only mentioned
once in the Bible,  however the Tree of Life, which stood next to it
in the midst of the Garden is mentioned numerous times, and in a
context that can only have symbolic meaning.

  Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire
fulfilled is a tree of life.

  Rev. 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may
have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into
the city.

     After the fall, Adam & Eve were driven from the Garden, and the
Tree of Life was guarded to prevent them from reaching it. (Gen 3:24) 
Since then, attaining the Tree of Life has been the hope and desire
of fallen man.  So it clearly cannot be referring to a literal tree. There
are other verses in the Bible that liken a tree to a man of righteousness.

  Psalms 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel
of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he
meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of
water, which yields its fruit in season.

  Psalms 52:8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of
God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.
 
  Isaiah 61:5 They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting
of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

   And Jesus said;  "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch
that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."
John 15:1 

  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I
in him, he will  bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:5
 

In the ultimate sense, a man of righteousness is a sinless man, a
sinless Adam, like Jesus.  The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was
symbolic of sinless perfected Adam.
 
  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, which stood next to the
Tree of Life, we can then conclude was symbolic of Eve.  Therefore,
the two trees in the midst of the Garden were none other than Adam
& Eve who stood at the center of God's ideal of creation. 

  The Fruit 
     
   Jesus said, "Hear and understand: "Not what goes into the mouth
defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."
Matt 15:10-11

     Fruit is meant for food to sustain life, and in a literal sense what
we eat is passed on through the body and doesn't directly effect our
succeeding generations.  And as mentioned earlier it is inconsistent
for a loving God to place a dangerous and tempting fruit in the
presence of His children, not to mention a fruit that can cause death.

  Since literal fruit can't grow on a symbolic tree we can likewise
conclude that the fruit that was eaten by Adam & Eve was not a literal
fruit, but has a symbolic meaning. The meaning of the fruit can become
more clear as we understand the identity and crime of the serpent.

  The Serpent 
     
  It states in Gen 3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made.  Indeed the serpent was able
to converse with Eve, had know- ledge of God's commandment and
deceived her.  These are not the traits and capabilities of a literal snake. 
There are other verses that identify  the fallen angel Lucifer as the serpent
who tempted Eve and was then cast out of heaven.
  
   Rev 12:9 The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent,
who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world,
he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels with him.
 
  Isaiah 14:12  How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened
the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into the
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the Stars of God; I will also sit
on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most
High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths
of the pit.

  So the serpent who tempted Eve was actually the Angel, Lucifer,
who through his sin and disobedience became Satan.

 The Crime of the Angel and the Fall of Man 
     
  So then what was the meaning of the fruit, and the crime of the
angel Lucifer?
     
  Jude 6-7 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain,
but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given
themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh,
are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

  It was sexual immorality and fornication that doomed the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and likewise it was the sin of fornication that
corrupted the Angels and Adam & Eve. They could not maintain their
purity and proper place in the garden, and were cast out. 

The fruit is the part of the tree through which it multiplies itself. Within
the fruit are the seeds of it's next generation. So the fruit of the garden
was symbolic of the sexual act.

     Song of Songs 4:12-16  You are a garden locked up, my sister,
my bride;  you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants
are an orchard or pomegranates with choice fruits.  Awake, north
wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden,  that it's fragrance
my spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its
choice fruits.

     The commandment not to eat the fruit was not a test, but it was a
warning given by God to Adam & Eve not to engage in the sexual act
before it was their time to do so.  Just as a fruit needs to ripen before
it is eaten, it was also God's plan for Adam & Eve to mature and perfect
themselves through the growing period before they could consummate
their love as husband & wife. The fact that they sewed fig leaves as
aprons to cover their lower parts shows that it was more than their
nakedness that they were ashamed of,, but it was because their sin
and shame involved their sexual parts. 
 

The Results of the Fall

  St. Paul wrote:

  Romans 7:21-24  "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good,
evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war
against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
at work within my members. What a wretched man I am!"

  Since the Fall of Man, like St. Paul, all of humanity, regardless of social
stature, has had to confront and struggle with their sinful and fallen
nature. St. Paul's honest lament of "sin living in me" (vs 17) is not only
a profound truth of the Bible, but a sad and sobering fact of life.

  The Fall not only derailed Adam & Eve in their growth process to
perfection, but also saddled their succeeding generations with nearly
irreversible original sin and fallen nature.

  Romans 5:19 "  through the disobedience of one man the many were
made sinners,"

  Because the Fall was sexual in nature, it's more understandable that
original sin could be passed down from one generation to the next,
through the blood lineage.  

  Hence,  Jesus said,  "you are of your Father the devil"  Jn 8:44 

  Adam & Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden signifies that
human history began outside the realm of God's purity, divinity, love
and Blessing. Even the first murder took place in the next generation
as Cain killed Abel.  And as history repeatedly shows us, when we
lose our morals, we lose our moorings and are set adrift.  Rome was
not destroyed from without,, but from within.

The Results for God

  Gen 6:5-6 And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the
earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

  For many, God is somehow transcendent of, and aloof to man's
sinfulness and in the end will bring about His grand judgment in the
Last Days. Condemning sinners to burn in Hell for eternity.

  Few have considered the thought of comforting a God who suffers. 

  God created to bring about an object of His heart. The end of the
creation process was determined from the beginning. That being a
perfect couple in union with God's heart, the original True Parents
of mankind.  Adam & Eve could not fulfill that expectation and
brought about a sorrowful history instead. 

  Rather than being a source of joy, love and happiness for God,
they and their offspring instead became the objects of His grief
and sorrow.