In recent months I had become convinced that the whole reason our Cosmos is spiraling toward death is because Adam believed the serpent's lie rather than the creator's statement.
The serpent had told Eve that eating the forbidden fruit would not cause them to die, but rather that it would allow her to have forbidden knowledge, making her like God. He implied that God didn't want this to happen because God didn't want to share the top spot.
Adam and Eve believed the lie, and ate of the fruit, and the rest is history (literally).
The problem, looking at it from this standpoint, is one of faith. Faith in God's word would have saved us; instead, faith in something other than his word destroyed us.
While reading a Jehovah's Witness[1] publication a while ago, another thought came into my head. What if Adam and Eve believed the Serpent (just like they did), but obeyed anyway, submitting to God's authority even though they believed he was lying to them?
It seems to me that Adam and Eve would still be living today in paradise if that had been the case. They were not told to believe God; they were told to obey Him.
So, in a sense, faith is the basis of our salvation. In a different sense, submission to God, regardless of faith, is the basis of our salvation. I think it's healthy to keep in mind, when reading the scriptures, that it's legitimate to claim that "faith saves us" and that "faith without works is dead". So often we make it an either-or situation, when I suspect the truth of the matter is more a question of nuance.
Footnote:
1. The term "Jehovah" is a man-made term, and has no business being used in reference to the God of the Bible. Google is your friend.
3 comments:
Interesting. But, due to 1 Timothy 2:14, I'd have to conclude Adam did believe God still. After all, he wasn't deceived, and deception can only occur when you no longer believe in something. So it seems logical to think Adam stil believed God was right, but for whatever reason, didn't obey. He believed in God, therefore wasn't deceieved.
Be sure to also read http://www.divinename.no/pronunciation.htm about the name Jehovah. You'll be surprised.
Hmm, you make a good point about 1 Tim. 2:14, which reads (for the sake of others): "And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."
If we take this at face value, and I see no reason why we shouldn't, then anonymous is correct: Adam disobeyed knowing full well that it would lead to death, despite the serpent's (and probably Eve's) assurances. (I've often wondered if Eve's appearance changed after she ate the fruit such that Adam could see the change, or if it looked to him like nothing had happened as a result of her eating and so "why not?" I've also wondered if he ate out of a sense of cameraderie with his wife, as in "whatever happens to her happens to me, because we stick together".)
On the other hand, Timothy could be saying that the original person deceived was Eve rather than Adam, instead of saying that Adam wasn't deceived at all.
At this point, I believe I'm tending towards anonymous' view.
Concerning the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, that article was certainly interesting. (It would help if the author would have someone more conversant in English clean it up; the errors were distracting and at first led me to believe the author was sloppy, but then I realized that the author appears to be Norwegian and English is probably not his native language. (Note, writing errors don't disqualify what he wrote; they're just distracting.)
The arguments didn't sway me to his conclusion, but they certainly inspire me to do further research, and to retract, at least for now, my claim that "Jehovah" is a man-made term, pending further evidence. Instead I'll say "Many believe 'Jehovah' to be a man-made term, although counter-arguments have been made that this is a valid rendering of the Tetragrammaton."
Thanks for the comment, anonymous! This spurs me to do further research. It's good to be challenged on one's beliefs; I don't get much of that generally, and I fear that sometimes without someone challenging my thinking I talk myself into erroneous beliefs.
chyntt wrote:
Concerning the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, [the arguments in] that article ... didn't sway me to [the author's] conclusion, but they certainly inspire me to do further research, and to retract, at least for now, my claim that "Jehovah" is a man-made term, pending further evidence.
Well, I've done further research, and my conclusion is that "Jehovah" is indeed a man-made term.
The clinching evidence is that the Tetragrammaton is not always marked in the Hebrew text with the vowels for "Lord"; when it is in conjunction with the actual word "Lord", the Tetragrammaton is marked with the vowels for "God", so that the audio reader would render the phrase "Lord God" rather than "Lord Lord". If the Name was truly "Jehovah", the reader could simply read the text as written, "Lord Jehovah".
An interesting side note is that I had a dialog with a Jewish scholar who assured me that "Jehovah" is not the correct term. He claimed that a few of the Jewish elite, himself included, such as the members of the Sanhedrin, know the actual pronunciation of the Name, but are forbidden from revealing it to the world at large. (Yeah, whatever.) He also assured me that "Yahweh" was not the correct pronunciation either.
In talking to him I found it fascinating that I have more respect for his written scriptures than he does, as he has more respect for the interpretation of those scriptures as given by the Oral Law, as delivered by the Sanhedrin, regardless of all the warnings in the Torah against adding to or taking from the written word. His only substantial argument was to appeal to something Jesus said (ironic, ain't it, as he's no Jesus-follower?). He pointed out that Jesus said in Matt 23:2 that because the "Sanhedrin" sits in the Seat of Moses we should obey them. But it seems pretty clear to me from the context that whatever Jesus meant by this statement, he did not mean for us to elevate the traditions of the Sanhedrin over the written word of God.
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