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Monday, January 14, 2008

Capacity to Sin

Ok, so officially I have been wrestling with this question, or more of a line of thought, for 3 days now. Here it is: Was the life that Adam and Eve had in the garden pre-sin ultimately fulfilling and completely joy-giving, was it complete and without lack? Ok, hold your ponies before you answer. Here's a background. What did pre-sin life look like IN (not for, but they themselves look like) Adam and Eve? I can't picture it because I live in humaness, I have a great, I mean GREAT capacity to sin and mess things up. They didn't. They didn't struggle internally, they didn't fuss or fight, they didn't get mad. But they did think illogically one fateful day that marked time forever. So did they have the capacity all along to sin? How was sin never in the world and then a sneaky snake soon to be slithering comes along and brings temptation with it. Isn't contemplating temptation a sin, so didn't she really sin before she sinned the memorable one? Ok, you free-willers out there, I hear you. God loves them so much that he allowed them the choice to live life and they chose sin. So He built them fallible? They had to have had the capacity to sin in order to sin, right? so how was sin not always in the world if they were able to sin?

Stop. Let me retrace all of the questioning and potential slandering that I just did. I believe in an abundantly powerful, ultimately life-giving and joyous God. But what rubs me wrong is our theological tendency to get so high up that we don't think elementary-like (made that phrase up). My statement is this: "One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet." prov 27:7 (read my last entry). If we are full on God, like they should have been in the garden, why would you want more, how could you think there could be more? Stop looking at it in humaness with a sinful eye. Was it simply a curiousity, but isn't even that wrong and wrong was not in the world. Or here is another example: would you EVER cheat on your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend? Why not?.. so how could you in your very sinful humaness not want to cheat on your other half and yet they wanted in their perfectness to cheat on God? They didn't think about it that way I am sure, but how did they think about it imperfectly if they were perfect?

I'll stop. I have much more to say but I dare not dig my hole deeper. These are just thoughts you see, less of questioning and just thoughts really. And just for clarifications sake- I believe in a God that's ok with me saying stuff like this, just so you know.

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