Original Sin

I can give one view of Original Sin, or perhaps Innate Depravity would be the better term.God established a Covenant with Adam and Eve. They broke the covenant. This covenant is called the "Covenant of Works."A synonym for the Covenant of Works is "conscience." Now the Covenant of Works is as hard as nails. If you break it once, it is broken forever. The proof that the Covenant of Works is still operative in our hearts is that we know about it and cannot keep it. We constantly break the inner covenant of our conscience. After all, who has not told merely one lie, but a thousand?This is the proof that we are innately depraved.We know the covenant and cannot abide by it.

The term "Covenant of Works" is a Calvinist idea. I don't know that the phrase appears in the Bible. It's called the "Covenant of Works" to distinguish it from another covenant, the "Covenant of Grace" (Christ's ransoming). The Covenant of Grace does not demand "works" (good deeds), only faith.

Well, yes ...--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Therein lies the mystery of the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil."There are two views you can take about morality in relation to God:1. Good is good because God proclaimed it so.
2. Good is good in and of itself, and God is following goodness.Adam and Eve already had a conscience--you might say with one and only one law (don't eat of the fruit of that tree). This corresponds to #1.Or you might say that Adam and Eve had no conscience; it was the breaking of the Covenant that created the conscience. This corresponds to #2.The Calvinists, I think, thought that the story of the tree was meant to illustrate that it is both.

By no means. Their concept of good and evil was what God proclaimed.
Do not eat that fruit. That was good and evil for them. Some sects have proclaimed that #1 is correct.It's a very problematic issue, and some believe that this mysterious story about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil addresses this issue, for remember, God said they would die if they ate it.They didn't die.

That question cannot be answered.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 01-11-2005 18:43 AM

But I will tell you what I think about this profound story--the story of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.It reminds me of the idea in the Medieval Jewish Kabbalah tradition--the idea of the Zimzum (withdrawal).Perhaps there were two withdrawals: (1) the withdrawal of God to make way for the physical world and (2)the withdrawal of God to make way for the moral world.The first bite of the apple was the beginning of the second Zimzum.