Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Post 2: Adam and Eve: God's will revealed in the light of paradise & God's will lost in the darkness of sin


PART I: God's perfect will revealed in the light of paradise


Premise: In the beginning God did not give Adam dominion over the woman . . . please read on . . .

Passages of Scripture examined in this post are:

Genesis, chapters 2 & 3 (KJV or ASV)

Genesis 1:26-28 (note: bible verses are listed after each set of facts)

FACT 1---- The word "man" in verse 26 represents "humankind" and is not speaking of Adam alone. As the Word of God always interprets itself, the context is speaking of both Adam & Eve and is understood by the word "them" in all of the verses below. Four times (4x) the word "them" is used concerning God's will for both Adam & Eve.

FACT 2  Both Adam and Eve were made in the image of God

FACT 3  God told both Adam and Eve (them) to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over all the earth.

1:26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

1:27  And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

1:28  And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:18 - 25

FACT 1 God searched for a compatible companion for Adam, but He found none that was suitable for him in all His creation. Thus, the woman is made from Adam's rib, from his side, to be side by side with him.

FACT 2  In verse 24 the relationship of the man to the woman is clarified. Adam was to "cleave" or rather "be joined" to the woman, and not to usurp authority over her. Neither Adam nor Eve usurped authority over the other.

2:18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.

2:19 And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

2:20  And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him.

2:21 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:

2:22 -25  and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

PART II: God's perfect will lost in the darkness of sin

THE CURSE

FACT #1---- Anyone claiming to have dominion over another, whose claim is solely based on gender, and is propagated in the name of God is wrong. The need for this type of control is fleshy and the work of a fallen humanity.

FACT 2 ---- Much that has been taught concerning the story of Adam and Eve has been premised on speculation, and not fact.

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The devil then tempts Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree.

Gen 3:2 - 6   And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

At this moment both spiritual and physical death entered the human race, and Adam, Eve, and all of creation fell under the curse of sin. By this transaction of accepting the devil's offer, the whole earth fell under Satan's dominion. They lost their original spiritual life with God and any hope of eternal life. For God said,

Gen 3:22 - 23  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Simply put, God could not allow this state of corruption to live forever. He would need to redeem man from the curse through Jesus Christ.

THE AFFECTS OF THE CURSE ON ADAM & EVE

Please note when reading the following account that the curse is a result of sin and not a conscious act of God or a commandment of God to cause humanity to suffer. When you come to the words "I will" please keep in mind the following information:

"Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do” (Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, 823).

Gen 3:16 -19:Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

In other words for the woman:And though your desire will be for your husband, yet he will dominate you.The word "desire" means longing or craving. Some bibles have added footnotes to state that this desire means women want to have control over men.

This is mere speculation, there is no indication in the verse that this is the case. Some also suggest that God was speaking to Eve and it was Adam who would exercise control over Eve. Anything is possible, however, I hope I have demonstrated here that the need of some men to control women and take authority over them is not the work of God, but the result of the curse of sin.

6 comments:

Magdalene - NY - USA said...

Thank you for your comment!

My Response:

The content in this blog is not based on assumptions, but as far as checking my bible facts, they are already presented here in this post. If I were to state that because Adam called Eve "woman" this means he had dominion over her, then I would be presenting an assumption. What is not an assumption is God's description of "oneness," for both the man and the woman and their "dominion" over the earth together. In addition, the exercising of dominion over the woman did not become an issue until after the fall. These facts are in the bible, and clearly presented in this post.

Heaven's view as stated by the Apostle Paul:

Gal 3:25-29: But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster [the law]. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is [Gk-present active indicative or now] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

If anyone believes that God has gifted them to lead, feed and care for His flock, then let them do so in a spirit of humility, leading others into their true freedom in Christ and not lording it over them. Let each Christian exercise their gifts from God as coming from the Holy Spirit and not the realm of the flesh. Let every Christian treat others as they would be treated in the fear [deep respect] of God, and honor one another! We conduct ourselves in such a manner not because we were born male or female but because we are the children of God and one in Christ.

1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Iesus, who of God is made [causes us to be or to come into being ] unto us wisdom, and righteousnesse, and sanctification, and redemption:

2Pe 1:3 seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue;

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:

Every believer has the wisdom of Christ, is given all things for life and godliness, and is seated in the heavenlies with Christ.

If we understand these things, then I honestly ask, what is the problem?

God Bless You!

Anonymous said...

Blessings sister, while i concur with us being partakers together of righteousness, wisdom & a sound mind, sanctification, obedience to the faith & the sprinkling of the blood of christ, as well as both male & female being partakers of all spiritual blessing & a life of godliness; from what i read in the scriptures, there can be no doubt that the woman should not have a position of authority within the church as an office conferred in/directly upon her for the same reason stated in the book of genesis during the apple-gate incident.
the reason she partook of the fruit of the tree. she was deceived by the snake not the man. the man was created first for christ. the woman was created for the man. christ was created for god!!!(see corinthians/ genesis & timothy etc!).

Magdalene - NY - USA said...

Zaphenath,

Thank you for your comments!

First, God created an equal when He created Eve, one human being to another human.

Second, it was Eve who was decieved not you or I. Evidence demonstrates that this part of Scripture was stated as an address to the errors of gnosticism, and exalting Eve as the mother of all creation. This passage was not stated to declare that women were more ignorant than men, or as a right of passage to lord it over women.

Third, if Eve's error must be applied to all women, then Adam's error must be applied to all men, and we know that this type of thinking is wrong and not in line with reality.

Fourth, whether a woman or man is operating in God's authority, they operate in the power of God and not in the infirmities of the flesh.

Fifth, in answer to your last statement (who was created for who) Paul states in the same passage:

1Co 11:11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

1Co 11:12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

God Bless!

Emmanuella said...

Good afternoon,
First I would like to complement you on your discovery of God's place for us a women. I would like to bring to remembrance to all who read this passage that true we were cursed in the garden and was summitted under our husbands, but praise be to God through his Son Jesus Christ we all have been freed and who Christ has freed is free indeed. The Lord desire that we all return to whence we came which was as equal heirs to the thorn. Remember without the both of us working in God's Kingdom with Christ Jesus as our head we have alread lost the battle. Do not allow the enemy to deceive you. This talk will always bring division, let us work together as children of the Almight God freeing the lost and destroying the every attack the devil is trying to use to destroy what Christ died for.

God bless
Emmanuella

Anonymous said...

Dear, sis
I still thinking about your comments on Adam and Eve. Their one thing I cannot figure? You said, we cannot apply Eve error to all women, then we have to do the same to Adam. Well Romans 5:12 talks about Adams, sin. Others verse too? I also if God wanted us to know him, why would he make it so difficult for the average person? You say, not quoting you, but like, I check my greek or so, and so. What if at this day and age, we did not have this stuff? About, all the background info. What if all we had, is the Word of God. Could someone prove their arguments, just using the Bible, nothing else?

Magdalene - NY - USA said...

Thanks for your comments!

First, I will clarify what I meant by your quote of a statement I made in my post "if we judge all women according to Eve's deception, then we must label all men according to Adam's character flaw." It says in the Bible that Eve was deceived, but Adam was not deceived when they sinned. If we say that all women are deceived because Eve was deceived, then we must say that all men cannot be trusted, because despite the knowledge of sin's dire consequences to others, he will sin anyway. We know from life itself that many men are deceived, as well as women, and faithful commitment in our walk with God varies among both men and women.

The point is: both Adam and Eve knew the will of God, and by their free will both sinned. Neither one exhibited leadership skills.

To answer your next question, I can only draw from my own experiences.

I was very young when I first heard the Gospel, and the righteousness of the Lord's actions and teachings won my heart. I turned to God and He was there.

Third, I would think, if all we had was the Word of God, then we would rely heavily on comparing scripture with scripture, and rely on what was clear, since we would not be able to also address the context or culture of the times in which we received scripture.

For ex, Love God with all of your heart, and love your neighbor as thyself. (All of God's law is wrapped up in doing these 2 things)

God Bless!