Sin is not the presence of something evil, but the absence of something good. PROGRESSION OF DEATH: God breathes His life into man . . . "and he became a living soul" Man prefers a human conscience to a Holy Spirit . . . the knowledge of good and evil God removes his Spirit . . . "on the day you eat of it, you will die" Men respond with defensiveness . . . "the woman that you gave me" God tells Cain that he must master his sinfulness . . . Cain is alone Cain becomes jealous of his brother. Jealousy becomes murder. So spiritual death (the absence of God) leads to fear, insecurity, and defensiveness. These fears and insecurities lead to all other sins (name one not related to a fear or insecurity). These sins can lead to all kinds of physical, emotional, and/or psychological dysfunction, even death. Then Jesus comes to puts God back in man ("I have come to give life, and that more abundantly"), and the Holy Spirit begins to restore the pre-Fall man ("from glory to glory into His image"). Do you agree?
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6 comments:
From Rick Mugele:
“If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire (8669) is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7) This passage is from the story of Cain and Abel. Something is being said about the nature of sin, and God’s wishes, and our desires. A Hebrew word for “desire” (8669), “teshuwqah”, is used two more times in the OT.
In Genesis 3:16, Eve is told “Your desire (8669) shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
In the Song of Solomon 7:10, the Shulamite sings “I am my beloved’s, And his desire (8669) is toward me.”
Your summary of the events of Genesis is helpful and insightful. One things leads to another. I agree.
However, the sentence beginning, "So spiritual death..." represents a leap in logic. It is not obvious that your conclusion follows from the previous sequence of events. In particular, how do you pick fear, insecurity, and defensiveness as the three things that lead to all other sins? Even if someone cannot think of a sin that does not originate from one of these (and I can), that is not an argument that you are correct, i.e., the lack of a counterargument does not affirm your conclusion.
I suppose fear, insecurity, and defensiveness are the kinds of symptoms a person would feel when left by a strong authority. Like how a child would feel being abandonded at Disneyland. I'm sure you could add others to the list, but they are all related to our Spiritual Death.
So what is this sin that is not related to Spiritual Death?
It seems like a good explanation of our current state of affairs. I think you could flesh out your logic a bit more, as Kurt points out. I can see Cain's jealousy as stemming from his insecurity, having his gift rejected by God. By why did he offer a wrong gift in the first place? He seems angry because he is proud...his gift SHOULD be good enough as far as he can tell. How does pride factor into the abandoned child concept? It seems like pride is the initial problem and still remains...we feel because of that bent to independence, and its still in us. Some say that all sins stem from pride.
oops, we *fell*, not "feel" because of pride, I mean.
That sounds like "pride" is this black goo that crawls into our souls while we sleep and tries to take over. But pride is not a creature or a drug. Every effect must have a cause.
Why are we proud? I think it is because we are programmed as vessel-creatures. We are not meant to be independant. We need someone or something in charge. And if we can't trust God (as Eve was tempted to do) we must trust ourselves. We make ourselves a replacement for God. We must defend ourselves, love ourselves, provide for ourselves. Selfishness = Sin. Selfishness (pride) is the natural result of spiritual death.
But Eve was alive, right? Yes. But so are we. We need to "live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" as Jesus did. There is will involved. And as we grow, our souls will learn to love and trust God, and pride will fade like darkness at the growth of light.
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