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October 20, 2005

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Daily Dose of Heresy #8 (Free Will)

Let’s look at the bible as a metaphor (come on, it’s easy, I’ve done it before).

Here’s a question: Is evil evil, or is the fact that we can do evil evil?

Strange question, right? Even sort of nonsensical, maybe?

Look at it this way: When Lucifer rebelled against God, maybe it wasn’t because Lucifer was inherently evil, but because he was somehow able to find free will that he became evil. Then God, angered by this discovery, cast Lucifer out of heaven, in turn erradicating free will from heaven once and for all (see, Isaiah 14:12-15 – NKJ).

A divergence from the traditional view of Satan’s fall, I know, but try to go with me here…

Fast forward to the creation of earth and all of the heavens. God made man in His image: a being that, as the bible tells us, was “good.” Man was placed in a perfect ecosystem (the Garden of Eden) and was in complete communion with God, his Maker.

(And here’s where I’ll diverge from tradition even more.)

But, what if Satan was not on earth? In the book of Isaiah (as referenced above), we learn that Satan was “...brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” That doesn’t sound like the Garden of Eden to me. Because of this, let’s not think about Satan for a while now, ok?

So, Adam and Eve were living in the garden. They were a harmonious pair, tending to the garden and to each other. They walked and talked with God and they loved creation as we would later come to know how only Jesus Christ could love.

'Free Will,' by Joseph M. Thompson (2004)Enter the Tree of Knowledge — and the serpent for that matter — which brings back the concept of free will.

Some of the theological concepts that a lot of people find issue with can be found in these typical questions: Why would God create something so perfect (the universe), only to also be inhabited by evil (Satan)? And, if Satan existed on earth, why would God place humankind within it?

But, maybe Adam and Eve didn’t actually find Satan in the Garden of Eden. Maybe they actually found (once again) free will. God had given Adam and Eve the directive not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, yet, something (the serpent as a possible metaphor here) coaxed them into doing so. Adam and Eve didn’t desire to rebel against God, but free will took over and their hearts changed tunes: Adam and Eve suddenly had the ability to choose.

Enter evil: our own free will.

How often do we feel the serpent slithering up a nearby tree? How often are we deceived, not by Satan, but our own will?

Artwork in this entry: “,” by (2004). Used without permission.

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Posted at 10:16 am

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Comments (2):
But Satan was an angel and the leader of angels before the fall. So the last part is satan tempted adam and eve to make the choice to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God told them not to. Free will is not evil. Assume satan found free will, satan still could have chose not to rebel against God even with the free-will given. The answer to those questions is God wanted humans that are in the likeness of God not God to chose Him in the midst of all the other choices around them. He loved us enough to have us choose Him rather than be robots with no opportunity to choose Him. So for me it wasn’t the free will but the giving into temptation that was the problem. Being tempted is not wrong but the giving into temptation that is wrong.

dh () - October 20, 2005 at 10:34 am

Our own will or propensity to sin was created by Adam and Eve making the wrong choice not the ability to choose. Some call this definition by the term “original sin”(“through Adam sin entered into the world”) (this might not be a good term in that people have different definitions of the term but it is the best term we have).

dh () - October 20, 2005 at 10:40 am

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