Gen 3

God’s Gift

Our

Rejection

REVIEW; EVERYTHING SO FAR..

God (Our meaning & purpose in life!)

Jesus (God in the flesh/Incarnation)

Faith (Man’s response)

1. Sacred Scripture

2. Sacred Tradition

“..in the light of Christ..”(2 Cor 3:14, 4:3-6)

The understanding of Genesis, chapter 3,

which is called The Fall,

is to be interpreted 'in the light of Christ’.

In this session, many things will be

taught, that are NOT in

the scriptural text of Genesis 3.

Here's why...

The misconception of EVIL…

CCC 387 Without the knowledge Revelation

gives of God, we cannot recognize sin

clearly and are tempted to explain it as

merely a developmental flaw, a

psychological weakness, a mistake, or the

necessary consequence of an inadequate

social structure, etc.

This is … SIN

CCC 386 Sin is present in human history;

any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark

reality other names would be futile.

CCC 1850 Sin is an offence against God.

Sin sets itself against God’s love and turns

our hearts away from it. ..it is

disobedience, a revolt against God…

The origin of Sin is revealed…

in the light of Christ.

CCC 385 We must approach the question

of the origin of evil, by fixing the eyes of

our faith on him (Jesus) who alone is its

conqueror.

CCC 388 We must know Christ as the

source of grace in order to know Adam as

the source of sin.

CCC 386 To try to understand what sin is,

one must first recognize the profound

relation of man to God, for only in this

relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in

its true identity as humanity's rejection of

God and opposition to him..

We look back at… God & man

REVIEW OF CREATION:

GOD, the creator

God created all things; seen and unseen

God created out of love; God is love

God is the source of life; God is the life

God is good; all that God made is good

God is one of proclamation;

not manifestation

REVIEW OF CREATION:

The dignity of ‘Man’

1. Man is made in the image and likeness of

God, formed from the earth, had God

breathe into his nostrils, and became a

living soul.

2. No other creature is in the likeness and

image of God; no other creature has both

a corporeal body and a living soul.

REVIEW OF CREATION:

Original Holiness

1. Man has a divine intimacy with God; there

is no death, no suffering, man has

original/sanctifying grace and has a share

in the divine life..

2. No other creature has this relationship /

holiness with God…

Through God’s divine providence, only man

is able to know and love God. (CCC 356)

This is achieved by sanctifying grace.

Grace: The unmerited favor / gift from God.

Sanctify: To be made holy.

REVIEW OF CREATION

Original / Santifying Grace

CCC 377 … free from the triple concupiscence..

REVIEW OF CREATION

Harmony of Original Justice

CCC 376 There is inner harmony of the

human person, harmony between man and

woman, and finally, harmony between the first

couple and all creation..

Gen 2:25 And they were both naked,

the man and his wife,

and were not ashamed.

CCC 404 We do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature.

As long as man remained in the divine intimacy, the harmony of original justice would be transmitted / handed down to all of mankind. (CCC 376)

REVIEW OF CREATION

The transmission Original

Justice

God also gave: Free Will

Ecclus 15:14 God made man from the beginning,

and left him in the hand of his own free choice.

Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the

man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you

may freely eat.

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil, you shalt not eat of it; for in the

day that you eat of it, you shalt surely die.

Tree of the knowledge

of good and evil

EVIL is a “lack of…” (Fr. Robert Barron)

EVIL is a “deficiency…” (St. Augustine)

CCC 276 The "tree of the knowledge of good and

evil" symbolically evokes the insurmountable

limits that man, being a creature, must freely

recognize and respect with trust.

Is it about… Forbidden Fruit?

“Do not think that it is about food, or about

bad / forbidden / poisoned food,

or about an evil planted thing…

for God did not create any evil thing…

(St. Augustine)

It’s about: Obedience

…But by the precept He gave, God

commended obedience… an abstinence

from one kind of food in the midst of great

abundance of other kinds that was so easy

to keep,—so light a burden to the

memory,—and, above all, found no

resistance to its observance in lust…”

(con’t St. Augustine)

Building the muscle

of ‘self-control’

Personal excerpt from a corporate motivational

psychologist on ‘goal setting’.

Now, we start Gen 3, The Fall

Gen 3:1 ‘Now the

serpent was more

subtil than any beast

of the field which the

LORD God

had made.’

What is: wise / subtle / crafty?

Augustine/Aquinas on fallen angels..

“…evil, NOT by nature, but by will…”

subtle: e'rom, phronimos, prudentes

(one who is skilled in knowledge / prudentia)

Mt 10:16 …be as wise as serpents,

and as pure as doves.

What is: The Serpent…?

Draconem (Latin): huge serpent, dragon

Drakien (Greek): “to see clearly”

Rev 20:2 “…the dragon, that serpent from

the beginning, which is the Devil…”

God allows Satan to ‘test’ the righteousness

of Job... just like in Gen 3 (Job 1:6-12)

A quick view on Angels… part 1

Angels are spiritual creatures, created before man. St. Augustine and the Church Fathers say they were created when light was created; “Let there be light”. The word “angel” does not refer to their species, but to their ministry. ‘Angel’ means messenger or proclaimer. Therefore, these spiritual beings are created to spiritually tell men of God’s glory…

… and probably on the first, and greatest of these was the ‘son of the dawn’, that is, Lucifer, or the devil. All these angel were also given a free choice to choose the truth of God “I PRAISE YOU GOD”… or to choose the pride of self, “I am God!!” The fallen angels chose pride of self, and Jesus himself says that the father of these pride filled angels, is this serpent, the devil.

A quick view on Angels… part 2

Is the Devil REAL?

YES! Jesus affirms it!

Jesus speaks of the devil, saying:

John 8: 44 …the devil... He was a

murderer from the beginning and has

never stood for truth, since there is no

truth in him… he is a liar and the father of

lies.

The fallen angel; The Devil

He is the main fallen angel, as Jesus says:

Luke 10:18 I watched Satan fall from

heaven like lighting.

The prophet also speaks of the devil:

Isaiah 14:12 How you have fallen from

heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground, who

laid the nations low!

PRIDE of the Fallen Angel

Isaiah echoes the words of Jesus

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart, “I will

ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne

above the stars of God!

Jesus speaks of the ‘heart of the Devil’

John 8:44 “When he (the Devil) speaks a

lie, he speaks of what’s his own character,

for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Devil; the Tempster

The devil is speaking of his own personal experience of pride and lust.

Gen 3: 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Gen 3:5 For God knows that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

PRIDE

Now, Satan's pride is passed unto the

woman who “saw”; that is, to say in her

own heart.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw…

she took of the fruit, and did eat..

Triple Concupiscence

What did she see…?

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired if you want to be wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

What was Adam doing..?

“…(she) gave also her husband (Adam) with

her; and he did eat.” Gen 3:6

“He (Adam) fell into disobedience.. into

impurity, because of pride and his desire

to please a woman. For he was so

concerned about pleasing and bowing to

to his companion…”

St Catherine of Siena- The Dialogue

Lust

Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Previously, naked and not ashamed, now, the faculty / perception towards the corporeal form has exceeded the faculty of the spiritual intellect. (St. Aquinas)

False Justification

Then, when questioned by the Lord God:

Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman

whom You gave [to be] with me, she gave

me of the tree, and I did eat.

Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the

woman, What [is] this [that] you have

done? And the woman said, The serpent

beguiled me, and I did eat.

The movement of Sin

Gen 3: 4-6 Temptation

Gen 3:6 Pride

Gen 3:7 Lust; and lost of innocence

Gen 3:8-10 Fear

Gen 3:12-13 Denial; false justification

Sound’s familiar in our lives, doesn’t it..?

What is: Sin ?

Disobedience “If you love me, keep my

commandments”

What is sin? A separation from God;

a rejection of God’s friendship.

To not choose the source of Life, the result

will always be death.

This sin, is the first sin of man;

called Original Sin

CCC 389 The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Saviour of all men..

A Cathecism definition of original sin:

CCC 405 …is a deprivation of original holiness and justice …it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, …an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence.

The consequences of

Original Sin

To properly understand original sin and

it’s tragic consequences, it must be

approached by understanding the loss of:

original holiness, original justice

and the loss of grace.

Original Sin:

Loss of Original Holiness

The fear in Gen 3:8-10 is the loss of original

holiness.

CCC 399 Adam and Eve immediately lose

the grace of original holiness. They

become afraid of the God of whom they

have conceived a distorted image - that of

a God jealous of his prerogatives.

What are the Curses…?

(St Augustine)…disobedience was the

punishment of disobedience… man’s

misery is his own disobedience to himself,

so, because he didn’t do what he could do,

now, he wants to do what he cannot…

This is concupisence; the loss of harmony

in the faculties.

The Curses are actually the

loss of Original Justice

CCC 400 The harmony in which they had

found themselves, thanks to original

justice, is now destroyed: the control of

the soul's spiritual faculties over the body

is shattered; the union of man and

woman becomes subject to tensions,

their relations henceforth marked by lust

and domination.

Original Sin is transmitted

down to humanity

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin

entered into the world, and death by sin;

and so death passed upon all men, for that

all have sinned:

Rom 5:19 For as by one man’s

disobedience many were made sinners, so

by the obedience of one shall many be

made righteous.

The loss of

Original / Sanctifying Grace

Sin can become ‘bad to worse’

In Rom 6:19, Paul teaches the importance of

sanctifying grace:

iniquity unto iniquity (The effects of original sin)

et iniquitati ad iniquitatem

justification unto holiness (The effects of sanctifying grace)

justitiae in sanctificationem

This is a type of:

“iniquity unto iniquity”

Adam Cain Lamech

Gen 4:23-24

In the person of Lamech, 7th from Adam,

are the manifestation of the sins…

Original Sin is washed away and

Justification retrieved again… through

Baptism in the Trinitarian formula.

Sanctifying grace is continually

received through the sacraments.

***..a footnote on Baptism.

“…He (God) would not allow any evil to

exist in His works, unless His omnipotence

and goodness were such as to bring good

even out of evil."

(St Aquinas, quoting St Augustine)

WAIT!!!

God isn’t finished yet…

Protoenvangelium

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee

and the woman, and between thy seed

and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and

thou shalt bruise his heel.

God has plans of Salvation…

Adam Cain Lamech

Gen 4:23-24

Adam Seth Enoch

Gen 5:3 Gen 5:23-24

Enoch, the 7th from Adam, is taken by God.

This is a prophesy of God’s plan of

salvation and the church.

THE END

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord JESUS,

May it be known all over the world,

That Satan, the prince of darkness is real,

He disguises himself s the light,

Entrapping and enhauling the unprepared,

He spreads the seeds of disruption,

Then sits back, waiting to gather the crop.

Closing Prayer con’t

As I draw nearer to JESUS’s fiery Love,

I also draw the evil of Satan’s attacks,

JESUS, protect me from such great evil,

Let not Satan or his friends approach me,

Keep me under you harmonious protetion

For I am your follower of righteousness.

Amen

THE END