Monday, December 21, 2009

• Item by James T. Moore

The vast majority of human beings, both male and female, have it all wrong. In our haste to absolve ourselves of biblical consequences, we assume that because our names are not Adam and Eve, God could not possibly mean that WE also are sinners.  We couldn’t be, could we? After all, we didn’t eat that darned apple, Adam and Eve did.

So we conclude that God’s wrath and disciplinary action of throwing the Original Couple out of the Garden finished the drama and therefore mankind is free of sin forevermore. In other words, Adam and his wife paid the price of freedom for all future generations, and that’s that. Period.

At which point, I quote Puck: “What fools these mortals be.”

What we fail to realize is that God’s wrath didn’t end with Adam and Eve.  Who says so?

Well, for one, the Bible: “Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow 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 harkened to 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 sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.”

Can anyone, after reading that passage conclude that just THAT Adam and THAT Eve were cursed, and that every man and woman thereafter was home free?

We seem, however, to overlook one rather obvious thing: when God created Adam and Eve he put His idea of what man and woman should look like in tangible form —a “template” or pattern, so to speak, from which all human beings, from the Beginning, would take that shape, as apart from the multitude of other living forms.

If this theory has any merit, then what the Lord did, ostensively, was to lay a curse, not just on Adam and Eve, but on all future mankind, by physical reproduction if nothing else. And that being the case it is not difficult to see how the idea of “we are all born in sin” came into being.

It also puts to rest the idea of how innocent babies who have never had the opportunity to disobey God, could possibly be “born in sin.” But apparently they are, because whatever else we may name a baby, it is either an Adam or an Eve.

All of which has lead me to this conclusion: We may call ourselves by many names but these are all insignificant misnomers; the truth is, all men are Adam and all women are Eve.  Because we all are replicated products of God’s original creative idea; His vision of the human species.

And why not? We are all cut from the same cloth. We all partake of Adam’s and Eve’s nature. As identical visions of the Original Couple who disobeyed God, we all transgress in one way or another. Therefore, by an extension of God’s anger we are all victims of His rejection.

This being the case, is there any hope for us?  Yes, but it’s conditional.

According to a fundamental Christian belief, God sent His son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to “save” the Adams and Eves of this world (you and me) from the Original Sin of their namesakes, which God had cursed. All we need do is confess our sins—and believe in our hearts—(not just give it lip service) that Jesus came to earth in person, and died on the cross to save us, and all our sins will be forgiven, and the slate wiped clean.

But as I approach the end of this article I am prompted to reveal my dilemma with this scenario. I have told myself over and over that God, in His infinite wisdom and forgiveness, did indeed send His son Jesus to our earth to save the “believing” Adams and Eves of this world from their sins.  My problem is, I am stuck with just “saying it” over and over. But the key: “to believe it in my heart” keeps eluding me.

So will I, Adam, and other Adams like myself, ever be saved? Lord only knows.

James T. Moore

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