God created a very good world, but it is not so good now. It
is a mixture of good and evil, so what went wrong? The answer is in part 2 of
the story of reality. It is all in the first chapters of the Bible.
God makes a beautiful garden for Adam and Eve, where
everything is provided and where they can enjoy God’s company. There is one
condition, God wants them to trust his moral judgement, so he says don’t eat fruit
from one particular tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
But God has an enemy, who enters the garden in the guise of
a serpent. He says “you can’t trust God, eat this fruit and you will be like
God, you will be able to know between good and evil yourselves. Make your own
rules, be independent of God”.
Adam and Eve waver, then they eat the forbidden fruit. They
disobey God. This may seem a small thing, but it is a test of trust, and of
loyalty. This one decision, this single act of disobedience, changes
everything.
They have turned their backs on God, and they quickly
discover the consequences.
When God queries them, the blame game starts. Adam blames
Eve, she blames the serpent. Their perfect harmony with each other and with God
is shattered.
They are now dead to the friendship they once had with God.
Their lives are full of suffering and they eventually die.
Because of their rebellion, God throws them out of the garden,
and they begin a life where things go wrong. Food production becomes a constant
struggle. Work becomes toil as the earth fights back with briars and thorns and
natural disasters. Woman struggles to bear children in labour and pain, and
clashes with the man who now rules her.
One of their sons kills his brother in cold blood. The
disease of sin spreads to the whole community, men boast of their ability to
plunder and kill others.
With each generation, human rebellion becomes more dramatic.
The darkness spreads. One thoughtless act of sin and self-will has changed the
world forever.
You may think eating the forbidden fruit is a myth. I don’t,
but even if it is, the reality behind it is by far the best explanation of how
a good world got corrupted, how humans are both good and bad, how we need
someone to give us hope, someone to rescue us from ourselves.
To be continued....
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