‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (4)

by Fr Ian

Punishment and Promise

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Chapter 3 of Genesis concludes with an account of God delivering his sentence on Adam and Eve - and the serpent.

The serpent is cursed by God to ‘go upon its belly’ and ‘eat dust for all the days of its life’. Eve learns that from now on she will experience great pain during childbirth, that her relationship with her husband will be contaminated by lust and a struggle for dominance. Adam is condemned to onerous and frustrating work which will often be largely fruitless. (Genesis 3:14-19).

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (2)

by Fr Ian

 

The nature of the first sin

God showed his protective care and his trust of his human creatures by issuing a strict commandment, a prohibition: ‘...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die’ (2:17).

Apart from what this says about God’s character, it also tells us that human beings weren’t created as robots; their reverence and obedience towards God wasn’t somehow pre-programmed and automatic. God made them so that they had to choose voluntarily to co-operate and share responsibility with him in the care and maintenance of his Creation.

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (1)

For many church communities the Season of Lent started again a week ago on Ash Wednesday. Lent is the main penitential season of the Church's year and in a series of articles Fr Ian discusses the Catholic view of human nature as it was originally created by God and as it became after the fall of Adam and Eve. 

A lantern slide depicting the original harmony that existed between God, humanity and creation

Are we now living in the Great Apostasy? (1)

by Ray Caldwell

Is original sin no longer applicable?

Is the message of salvation from our sins through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ now null and void?

Do we no longer need to be born again through baptism and filled with the Holy Spirit?

Charles Darwin 1809 – 1882, portrayed as an ape in a cartoon

in The Hornet Magazine, 22nd March 1871