I have to say that I was mad at God for a long time because of the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis.
I didn't understand why God would put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden and then tell Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree. At my worst point, I speculated about who was the greater villain, God or the Devil (the serpent). At my worst, I thought that God may have been the greater tempter in the story.
People would talk to me about Adam and Even needing to be given a choice to do right or wrong, be given free-will, and be given the chance to do the right thing in spite of the "allure" of the wrong thing...eating of the fruit. They also talked about the serpent and that the real sin was pride...wanting to be like God.
I was not convinced, because I thought that Adam could have sinned in any number of ways (by refusing to name the animals, etc). He could have evidenced rebellion against God in any number of ways besides eating of the fruit.
So all these reasons fell on deaf ears.
Matt Timm told me that Orthodox Christians have a different interpretation of the story of Eden. In Orthodox Christianity, God intended for Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just not yet. They were not mature enough to eat of the fruit.
What I understand from this is, if God says that we are His children, made in His image, breathed into, and are co-heirs with God, then this was God's design for Adam and Eve. Additionally, they were immortal (since that was one of the punishments of their sin...the sudden introduction of death and returning to the earth). This design of God to have Adam and Eve mature before eating of the fruit fits with this picture of God loving His creation and inviting humanity into close community. This fits with God wanting closer and closer community as time passes.
I was comforted by this interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve.
One of the more interesting parts of meeting with Wes Jackson is that he believes the story of Eden is confused with the story of Cain and Abel. To Wes Jackson, the Fall is intermixed between the two stories; eating of the fruit entailed more a loss of innocence than a sin and was more accidental than pertinent. The story of Cain and Abel highlights Wes' belief that sin entered the world through farming (the first time we started to damage the planet). Abel's sacrifice was acceptable because it was of the hunting & gathering period (offering meat from grazing animals). Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable because his offering came from farming, which raped the land of its nutrients. To Wes, we need to either cross-breed crops from annuals into perennials (making it like grazelands for humanity) or return to hunting and gathering.
I found this perspective fascinating even if I can't accept in wholly.
I didn't understand why God would put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden and then tell Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree. At my worst point, I speculated about who was the greater villain, God or the Devil (the serpent). At my worst, I thought that God may have been the greater tempter in the story.
People would talk to me about Adam and Even needing to be given a choice to do right or wrong, be given free-will, and be given the chance to do the right thing in spite of the "allure" of the wrong thing...eating of the fruit. They also talked about the serpent and that the real sin was pride...wanting to be like God.
I was not convinced, because I thought that Adam could have sinned in any number of ways (by refusing to name the animals, etc). He could have evidenced rebellion against God in any number of ways besides eating of the fruit.
So all these reasons fell on deaf ears.
Matt Timm told me that Orthodox Christians have a different interpretation of the story of Eden. In Orthodox Christianity, God intended for Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just not yet. They were not mature enough to eat of the fruit.
What I understand from this is, if God says that we are His children, made in His image, breathed into, and are co-heirs with God, then this was God's design for Adam and Eve. Additionally, they were immortal (since that was one of the punishments of their sin...the sudden introduction of death and returning to the earth). This design of God to have Adam and Eve mature before eating of the fruit fits with this picture of God loving His creation and inviting humanity into close community. This fits with God wanting closer and closer community as time passes.
I was comforted by this interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve.
One of the more interesting parts of meeting with Wes Jackson is that he believes the story of Eden is confused with the story of Cain and Abel. To Wes Jackson, the Fall is intermixed between the two stories; eating of the fruit entailed more a loss of innocence than a sin and was more accidental than pertinent. The story of Cain and Abel highlights Wes' belief that sin entered the world through farming (the first time we started to damage the planet). Abel's sacrifice was acceptable because it was of the hunting & gathering period (offering meat from grazing animals). Cain's sacrifice was unacceptable because his offering came from farming, which raped the land of its nutrients. To Wes, we need to either cross-breed crops from annuals into perennials (making it like grazelands for humanity) or return to hunting and gathering.
I found this perspective fascinating even if I can't accept in wholly.
4 comments:
Brent, I think your questions are healthy and legitimate, and should be asked on the journey toward discovering Who God really is.
Those thoughts of Wes Jackson have all of my discernment alarms going off at full volume. If eating the fruit was not sin, why was there a punishment? God shed the blood of animals to make clothing because of that sin.
And remember that it was God's idea that man was to till the soil, not man's. So is Wes Jackson saying that God is now telling man to sin?
The very idea that farming is a "rape" of the earth is against common sense at the very least. Yes, it uses up the nutrients of the earth. So did the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So did EVERY SINGLE growing thing in the garden of Eden. That's why God put nutrients in the soil---so that they can be used by plants to grow. And God put plants on the earth so that mankind can eat them and thereby use the nutrients that the plants extracted from the earth to nourish our bodies. The point of Genesis is that before the Fall, the earth gave up it's fruit without any effort from mankind. If anything since the Fall is out of order with the original design, it is the killing and eating of animal flesh, not farming and eating of plants.
Using similar logic, every breath we take would be a violation, because we are using up molecules of oxygen from the "Earth's" atmosphere.
It smacks of Earth-worship and "Gaya" theories to me.
Ben, thanks so much for your post.
And you can help keep me on the straight and narrow.
I have a few follow-up questions, because I don't know that much about botany or theology.
1) Was it God's idea that man till the soil before or after the Fall? I can see one part about thorns and thistles and working the land but that also seems part of the punishment of God for the sin. To put it another way, is there now, new enmity between both land and humanity? Land produces new thorns and thistles and man must till the soil which erodes the land...like a cycle of sin downward?
2) I have heard that most crops use up nutrients in the soil, except for legumes which put nutrients back into the soil.... hence why George Washington Carver loved them and crop rotation to rebuild soils. If grasses and trees are left in the soil, and the soil doesn't erode as fast because of the roots staying there, is the soil being rebuilt?
3) I know there is a conversation regarding the phrase "make all things new". I have a friend who mentions that this means redemption of all existing things, not a creation of new things. I wonder if the balance has been upset. Where since God proclaimed that His entire creation was good, if it was also supposed to be in balance...not a wholesale use & abuse thinking that God will come again before the Earth is destroyed.
4) I know what you're saying about using up the Earth's oxygen. I read a book recently where the only conclusion I could come to is that 5 billion people should commit suicide. Because our living is unsustainable. But it seems like there has to be a middle ground.
1) Genesis 3 indicates that when God sent them out of Eden it was to "till the land." This was part of the curse, and the punishment, as you said. What I am saying is that, while farming is an unpleasant fact because of the curse, it cannot be sin, or else God would have prohibited it. (Remember the law was given as a guideline until the time of the New Covenant.) If one wants to say that tilling the soil is sin, then they would have to concede that giving birth in pain is a sin, because both conditions were set up for the same reason.
The only laws that speak of farming to my knowledge are those that command that each field should be tilled for 6 years, then have a turn to lie fallow for the 7th year, and this was on a rotation, so that every year had tillable fields available. That shows me that God was providing for restoration of the soil even before mankind knew what it was all about. And obviously they didn't understand its importance, because most Israelites ignored that command anyway.
2) Agreed that clearing land leads to erosion. This again, is a part of the curse--the groaning of creation. It would be part of our responsibility to keep that to a minimum.
3) To me it doesn't seem to matter if old things are renewed or made over again, unless someone is trying to argue that we will gradually make the world better and better. That is just patently false. We will not make the world better and better. The world keeps getting worse and worse. Not enough time to spill much more of this can of worms:-)
I agree that things are out of balance. There is no community with God anymore, unless it is through His Son. And the Bible promises that one day the balance will be restored.
4) I hope I correctly sense the bit of "tongue-in-cheek" about the suicide comment.
I do not know what the answer to the world's "problems" are anymore than anyone else does. Those that say they know exactly what to do are self-deceived.
But because I know something of God's character as revealed through His word, I know that "He is not willing that any should perish." Therefore any "solution" to the problems of the world that would advocate honoring the planet, any part of creation, any nation-state or government MORE than people--I reject entirely.
Men and Women are created in God's image (another lengthy conversation over this meaning as well). So I believe that dishonoring men and women dishonors God. That is why I am on-guard against any suggestion that we elevate anything as more important than people.
God did not put us here to serve the earth. We are here to know Him.
Oh, this is a good discussion!
Okay, I have a lot more questions.
1) I'm wondering if we try to subvert the punishment that was installed (thorns & thistles and possibly tilling the land) if that is also rebellion against God. I don't have to call it "sin", because God proscribed it, but I could also work against it (much like pesticides are used...only better). That we wouldn't till the ground (not because God was telling us to sin, but because the punishment is too severe).
2) I love the idea of crop rotation and letting land lie fallow.
3) I am Christ-centered and believe that redemption happens through Christ. But I don't believe just in the redemption of humanity but also of the world. And if that Christians were to be working to bring the Kingdom, that caring for the environment would necessarily be part of that vision.
4) The suicide comment came because I was half-way through an incredibly dark and hopeless (at least the first half) book about peak oil and humanity's ability to survive. The book posited that we have used more than a billion year's worth of decomposed matter in the form of oil and natural gas and that there wasn't anything out there that was as good of a substitute. And if I'm simplifying, it seemed to suggest that humanity, would one way or another get down from 6 billion plus people down to 1 billion people (war, natural disaster, etc.) because only 1 billion people can be sustained on earth if we can't use coal, oil, or natural gas. I had to put the book down.
Part of the appeal of Wes Jackson's interpretation of the Fall and Cain and Abel(and probably part of the danger) is that it provides reasons for God's displeasure of Cain's offering. A displeasure that I never understood by reading directly from the passage. Pastors try to tease it out but never seem to explain well (at least to me).
Another book I'm reading is East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which although fiction, provides another interesting question about Cain and Abel: Does God have preferences? For instance, could God, just because he really LOVES lamb, say to Abel: "I really like your offering" but because he doesn't like vegetables as much say to Cain "I really don't like your offering."
Post a Comment