God has made us His representatives on earth, and we are charged with the care and management of the world God made. We are accountable to the Creator for how we manage what rightfully belongs to Him. God gave us meaningful work to do in His world and we are participating in the ongoing development of creation. The material world is good, and we should never call something evil that God made and called “good.” But now we must acknowledge that something bad has happened to the good world that God created. The Christian worldview acknowledges that there was a great Fall (See Genesis 3.6-24). This Fall and the effects of it reverberate throughout the rest of the Bible. We cannot understand reality unless we understand something about the Fall as recorded in Genesis. Unfortunately, this part of the Bible and the Christian worldview has been hotly debated by Modern critics. The Modern, scientific worldview makes no allowance for a Fall or for the entrance of corruption and death into creation.
Sin and its Effects
Using the word “fall” implies that the world is at a lower state than before so that things are not what the original design intended. When we say that something falls short, we mean that it is clearly not a perfect thing. There is a defect. And while the thing may not be completely ruined or destroyed, there is clearly something wrong. God’s good creation has been marred, warped, and distorted.
When we say that the world is fallen, we are taking for granted that we know something about what it ought to be. We are making a distinction between what is normal and what is abnormal, or between something that is healthy and something that is sick. If we do not have some idea of what a healthy person looks like, then calling someone sick would be meaningless. The funny thing is, nearly everyone has some idea of what the world should be like and that the world is in fact not like that. This is true even of people who do not accept the Biblical worldview. There seems to be some collective, subconscious memory deep in the human soul about a perfect world that has been lost and that we desperately hope might be re-gained somehow. Even when we are not thinking about it, all our human energies are focused to try to regain a little bit of our lost paradise, if even for a moment.
We know that there is some invisible force in the world that is keeping us from being everything that we want to be. We never seem to be able to fully enjoy life. There may be momentary times of enjoyment, but these do not last and are replaced by moments of pain and suffering. And no matter what we might enjoy in life, we must all come to terms, sooner or later, with our own mortality.
When all is said and done, we seem to accomplish very little with our lives. We are like a man on a treadmill who works very hard but never actually moves forward. This experience is universal and is captured in Scripture most vividly in the book of Ecclesiastes. That book should be read as a kind of personal commentary on the effects of the Fall. The author of Ecclesiastes uses the word “vanity” many times over to describe life in a fallen world. Because of sin, the world has been subjected to vanity, frustration, or futility. We seem to all be caught in a meaningless cycle that is going nowhere, like a dog chasing his tail. Life on earth has been compared to a giant wheel in the sky that just keeps on endlessly turning. We are born. We suffer in various ways, while perhaps enjoying a few momentary pleasures as well. And then we die, taking nothing with us out of the world. And then another generation is born and the whole cycle repeats. And there is no way out of the cycle! Any thoughtful and observant person can see that these things are true, even without reading the Bible.
However, only the Bible can correctly identify the cause behind the effect. The Fall was caused by sin, or disobedience to God’s commands. Here is where the Biblical worldview becomes controversial and diverges from other worldviews. Other worldviews can identify the effects, but not the underlying cause. And as anyone who tries to solve a problem understands, unless you can correctly identify the underlying cause there can never be a true solution to the problem. Human civilization, even with all its legitimately great achievements, has never been able to solve the underlying problem or even properly identify what the root of the trouble might be. Something is terribly wrong with the world. Something is terribly wrong with human beings.
We see how evil and twisted human society can be. The corruption and injustice are everywhere in the world and we all see it every single day. We can even recognize that our own lives are less than perfect. But only the Biblical world-view and those who accept it as true can identify what is wrong. All evil in the world is the direct result of mankind’s rebellion against the Creator and His will for human life on earth. We have been alienated from God and are suffering all the consequences of that broken relationship. Not only are we alienated or distanced from God we are hostile to God. We do not want God to rule our lives or to interfere with what we want to do.
The Extent of the Fall
We must acknowledge that the Fall has had an impact on every aspect of creation. Nothing is exempt. We would all like to think that perhaps there is some little island of goodness that has remained pristine and unaffected, but this is simply not reality. Reformed theologians coined the term “total depravity” to communicate the fact that there is nothing in all creation that has not been somehow tainted by sin. This can be a hard pill for us to swallow, especially for people who have high ideals and high hopes for a happy and fulfilled life. At some point, the reality of the Fall shatters our dreams for the perfect life. Here we see one of the great practical uses of the Biblical worldview. Adopting the Biblical worldview can keep us from becoming completely bitter and despairing of life. Christians know the world is fallen and that our ultimate source of happiness will never be found in this world. This helps us have realistic expectations for our lives in this world while we wait patiently with hope for the world that is to come. This fallen world must still be redeemed.
The ravages of sin have not just touched human life, the entire cosmos has been affected as well (See Rom. 8.19-22). Sin is like a disease that has spread throughout the entire world. We remember that when God created the world, He gave it into the hands and the dominion of mankind. When mankind fell, his dominion went down with him. Part of what makes our lives so frustrating is the fact that the creation will no longer completely submit to our dominion but is working against us. Instead of growing what we want, it produces thorns and thistles. Only with great exertion, by the sweat of our brows, can we make the created order serve our needs. Nature seems unconcerned with our safety and wellbeing. Unless we take great care and precautions, the natural world will kill us. The sky refused to rain, and we get drought and famine. Or, the clouds will not stop raining and we get a flood. Painful diseases invade our bodies. The animals that Adam once named in Eden now turn on us and injure or kill us. A person who thinks Mother Nature is kind has never stared down a tiger or swam with a shark!
However, the Fall did not obliterate creation and her glory, neither does the Bible identify creation as evil. Evil does not and cannot have the power to undo God’s purpose for the world. God’s will must be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Despite the entrance of sin and death, God did not write off the creation or abandon it. This is one of the great themes of the Bible and is clearly seen in the Genesis account. Even after Adam and Eve had sinned, God patiently sought them out, covered their shameful nakedness, and gave them a promise that the serpent would eventually be defeated (Gen. 3.15). Everything in creation retains a portion of its former glory and goodness, which can never be completely suppressed. Even a fallen world declares the glory of the Creator.
The Appearance of Evil
Christians are often depicted in popular culture as starry-eyed idealists who are out of touch with reality. But this is simply not true. Christians are the only people who really understand the nature of evil in the world. The Bible is completely realistic about evil and its devastating effects, but not to the point of utter despair. Christians are aware of evil, but we are always hopeful in the face of evil because we know that evil is not equal in power to the great, eternal Goodness that is at the center of all things. The pagan philosophy of Dualism teaches and believes that Good and Evil are equal but opposite Powers eternally locked in a struggle for dominance in the universe. But there is a serious fallacy in this kind of thinking. Evil is distinguished from what is good because it is merely a distortion. The good thing is the ultimate reality. The evil thing is a flawed reflection, a twisted image, a crooked line. To call evil equal with good would be to remove all definitions of good and evil. Evil, therefore, must always be parasitic to the good, not equal to it.
In the New Testament, the term “world” is used to refer to this distortion of God’s good creation. The world is something that has been perverted and should be avoided by Christians (See Rom. 12.2; Col. 2.8; James 1.27; 4.4; 2 Pet. 2.20; 1 Jn. 2.15-17). In Paul’s writings, this term refers to “the totality of unredeemed life dominated by sin outside of Christ” (Herman Ridderbos). In other words, the World is sin-infected creation.
The trouble is that Christians often identify the world only as a certain area of polluted creation, which we call worldly or secular, rather than seeing how sin has permeated every aspect of the creation. We are warned about worldliness not only in certain aspects of creation but anywhere and everywhere it may be found, including our own affections. Sometimes the term “earth” or “earthly” is also used (Col. 3.2, 5; Phil. 3.9) as in direct opposition to the will of our Father who is in Heaven. To be worldly is to be in opposition to God and to His intentions for human life on earth. This opposition to God manifests itself in a thousand different ways, but at the heart of the world is rebellion against God.
Our freedom is found in a right relationship with God and where that right relationship is compromised there is bondage to sin. If we will not serve God, then we will serve sin, which also brings us under the domination of the Kingdom of Darkness that rules the world. Satan exercises control of people who are slaved to sin. The concept of bondage is foreign to the Modern mind, which values independence and autonomy. We are proud of our supposed freedom to be and to do what we want, all while failing to see that our freedom is an illusion. In this world, we must serve somebody. If we are not serving God, then we are serving sin and the Dark Power who rules this present, evil world.
The Sin of Idolatry
In Eden was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God allowed for the possibility of disobedience and for the man and the woman to depart from what He intended them to be. The original sin was a desire to put something other than God at the center of life. It did not matter that this was only a piece of fruit. The type of transgression is not important. The heart of sin is a turning away from God and taking something else in hand instead of His will for our lives. The eating of some forbidden fruit in Eden was the first instance of the sin of idolatry.
The forbidden fruit in Eden was only there to illustrate the nature of sin and to show the two alternatives that human beings must face. We may worship God, or we may worship something other than God. There are only two categories of things that we may worship: The Creator Himself, or some aspect of the creation (See Rom. 1.18-25). If we do not worship the Creator, that does not mean we are choosing not to worship. It only means we are worshiping something that God has made instead of worshiping God. Mankind is instinctively and incurably religious. Everything in creation is sacred and all of life becomes religious where we must choose what we will worship and serve. We will worship God, or we will worship a false god, which is an idol. Our lives will glorify God or express rebellion against God. Sin is idolatry and idols are at the root of our alienation from the Creator. Idolatry is not just one kind of sin but is the root of every other sin.
Sin is the declaration of independence from the Creator so that we might choose what we want to worship. The trouble with this is that it flies directly in the face of ultimate reality. The fact is that there is only one, true God. To deny this is to go against the very grain of the universe. We can shake our fist at Heaven and tell God to leave us alone, but life simply will not work without God at the center. An automobile was designed to run on gasoline. If we refuse to fill up the tank, the vehicle will cease to work. Human beings were meant to work a certain way and life falls apart when that design is ignored.
Idolatry has a devastating effect on human beings. We were meant to image God in our dominion over creation. When we turn from God to idols, God’s loving rule is no longer reflected in human society and something else begins to grow up that is perverted and ugly. The early world became so perverted and ugly, God decided to destroy it with a great flood and start over again. It is difficult to say just how corrupt human life can become when people turn away from the living God.
There is a good reason why the commandments of God begin with a warning against idolatry (Ex. 20.3-5). If this commandment is not kept, then everything else in our lives will become distorted as well. If we choose not to worship and serve the Creator, there can be no moral boundaries in our social relationships with other people. We each become our own little god, deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong. The result of this can only be social chaos. One of the ways God judges the world for its idolatry is to withdraw and allow us to suffer the inevitable consequences of our alienation. We cannot ignore God and come away unscathed any more than we can ignore the law of gravity and not get hurt! The way of obedience is life and peace, but the way of disobedience is death (Deut. 30.15-20). According to the Old Testament Wisdom literature, such as Proverbs, to disobey God is to foolishly go against the very laws of the universe, which can only cause self-destruction. Sin brings a curse which ultimately ends in death (Rom. 6.23). We have a very strong inclination to disbelieve this basic Biblical fact. Perhaps we think that God is exaggerating the truth just a bit and that the situation is not really all that dire. Some people tend to think that God is just a cosmic killjoy who is out to ruin all the fun that we might otherwise have in life by giving us unreasonable commands and boundaries.
These thoughts were placed in the mind of Eve at the very first temptation, and the Enemy of our souls still puts these lies in the minds of men and woman today. Satan has convinced the world that it is better not to serve God.
A Cosmic Conflict
With the appearance of the Serpent in Eden, this world became a place of conflict where God makes a claim on humanity and Satan make his counter-claims. We call Satan’s counter-claims temptations. Satan’s true objective is to incite rebellion on earth, as he apparently once did even in Heaven before the creation of the world. Satan has set up a rival kingdom on earth, one of darkness and deception (Col. 1.13), where he is able to exercise his dominion over those who remain alienated from God. Behind the scenes, there is a dark conspiracy of evil as spiritual powers seek to deceive and then to dominate human life on earth. Those with a Biblical worldview have some grasp on the truly cosmic nature of evil. It becomes difficult for the mind to explain some of the evil acts of human history unless we see the demonic source. We should not underestimate the powerful grip Satan exercises over this world.
Satan’s power is limited, and he is certainly not equal to God. But he promotes the distortion of God’s good creation and he incites rebellion against God Himself. He wants people to assert their independence from God, which ultimately destroys human life. God gives life, but Satan takes life. God creates, but Satan perverts and distorts. Satan has always been a liar who presents humanity with a false option. He suggests that we would be happier without God when the truth is that there is no possibility of anything good apart from God. Satan’s greatest power is making us believe in his lies about God.
We now live in a kind of war zone where a cosmic struggle is unfolding. Two rival kingdoms are clashing on earth and we must give allegiance to one or the other. God calls for our obedience and our worship while Satan incites us to go our own way and do our own thing. “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan” (C.S. Lewis). Because the world listens to Satan, life in the world is frustrating. We struggle and never really get what we want out of life. Our rule over creation has been compromised and subjected to futility. Life does not submit to our will just as we have refused to submit to God’s will. Only when the children of God are fully redeemed will the creation itself become liberated (Rom. 8.19-23).
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