Adam and Original Sin

Orthodox Christianity for the most part teaches the doctrine of original sin based solely on the teachings of Paul (Romans 5:12-21). After much prayer and meditation and studying, I am not sure that I still believe in this doctrine. For starters, the concept of sin was never once mentioned to Adam after he ate off of the tree. The tree itself was neither good nor evil. The Bible calls the tree "The tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil." The only thing that the Bible says occured after Adam and Eve ate of the tree was "the eyes of both of them were open and they knew they were naked." Notice, the only thing that happened to them was that they ceased to be ingnorant and instead became knowledgable that there was good and evil in the world. Once they KNEW, they became responsible for choosing one or the other. Also notice that God cursed the ground and he cursed the serpent, but he never once cursed Adam or Eve. How could He, when he had already blessed them. He told the woman that He would multiply her sorrow and conception and that in pain she would bear children and that her desire would be to her husband and he would rule over her. (More about Eve and this prediction later) But this was only a prediction of things to come, not a curse. To Adam, God said that he would have to toil and sweat to get anything from the earth, but God never cursed to Adam HIMSELF. God merely cursed the earth and because of the curse on the earth, it would no longer easily yield food and sustanence to man. Notice, God could not even take back the dominion that he had blessed Adam with over the earth. He could only curse the earth so that it would not yield to man's dominion.

And what of the warning from God that the day Adam ate of the tree he would surely die? Well, as a Bible scholar, I am a big fan of concordances and original meanings of words. The original Hebrew word for death is "Muwth" (pronounced "mooth"). The word means "to kill, to die or to be worthy of death." So could it be that rather than meaning that Adam would literally drop dead the moment he ate of the tree, God could have meant that Adam would be worthy of death or that eating of the tree was essentially a death sentence for him. The fact is, God never actually sentenced Adam to death. He only put Adam out of the garden to restrict him from eating from the Tree of Life. God Himself said in Genesis 3:22 that if Adam ate from the The Tree of Life, he would live forever. So, Adam was going to die anyway. It was up to him to choose eternal life, but he chose instead to know good and evil. So maybe, Christ is a tree of life to us who believe in Him, basically giving us back the choice that we lost when Adam was cast out of the garden of Eden.

During this event refered to in religious circles as "the fall of man" the word sin is not mentioned. In fact, the first time sin is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 4 where God warns Cain that sin lies at the door. Later, in the same chapter, God curses a person (Cain) for the first time by pointedly stating "you are cursed..." Genesis 4:11. Therefore since, Adam was never said to have sinned and according to the Bible was obviously not cursed, the doctrine of the original sin must be erroneous. Even if there was in fact an original sin of man and a resulting curse upon man, then that sin and that curse would have had to come through Cain, not Adam.

ALONE WITH GOD

There is nothing in the world more rewarding than being alone with God. I think that most Christians undervalue the benefits and worth of meditation. I have learned to sit and not just pray, but to actually have conversations with God. I talk to Him and I listen to Him. I grow closer to him through this private time we spend communicating. I believe that Jesus knew the value of being alone with God. After all, the Bible says he spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying. It also says that he sometimes got away from the crowds and got alone to pray. I wonder how many people recognize the complete joy and peace that can be found in just being alone and talking with God? Part of living the Jesusist way of life is finding quiet time to be alone with our Creator; to practice speaking with him and practice hearing his voice. There is no greater act we can perform than to have communion with the Almighty. Our intimacy with Him grows through our communication with him. In order to recognize His voice and His guidance we have to get used to hearing His voice. "My sheep know My voice." In order to truly be His sheep and have Him as our Shepherd we have to learn to recognize His voice. I know you have probably spoken to God, but ask yourself, when was the last time you actually heard Him?