4. In the beginning

 

[1] ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’, trumpets the opening verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1). In order to learn the reason for the present state of suffering of mankind, one needs to start the search from this beginning. God, who created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them, created mankind alone in His own image (Read Genesis 1:27). What’s the big difference, some may ask. All the difference in the world! It is only because of that, unlike any other living creature on the planet; mankind alone has conscience and creativity. Animals and birds do not have a conscience. They do not have a sense of right and wrong. But, even the most atheistic of us have a sense of right and wrong. Conscience is inbuilt in mankind. We feel guilty when we wrong someone or do something inappropriate. The reason is simple: We are in God’s image. Similarly, no other creature in the planet has creative abilities. None of them has invented even a simple tool. Yet, mankind is progressing rapidly, inventing complex tools like IPhones and Space Shuttles. Why such a vast gap between us and them? Science cannot answer. The Bible does; only we are in God’s image and since God is a creator, we also are creators. It was God’s will that mankind should live forever and rule the world (Read Genesis 1:26). mankind was not created to die. It is important to grasp this. As specious as this claim may sound, it is true that death is not natural to mankind. If so, how then did death befall us?

[2] The newly created Man and Woman came to be known as Adam and Eve. Entire mankind descended from this couple (Read Acts 17:26). God had created Eden, a special garden for them to live in. Eden was a wonderful place and Adam-Eve lived happily in it for some time. All that they needed was present in Eden (Read Genesis 2:15,16). They knew no suffering or worry. They had complete freedom except for the one command issued by God to them. He had commanded them that they could eat the fruits of all the trees in the garden except for one, the tree of good and evil. If they were to eat of it, they would become susceptible to death (Read Genesis 2:16,17). God may have thought that it was not suitable for them to have that fruit at that point of time and may have had plans to give it to them at an appropriate juncture. Or it could have been just a simple way of testing their love and obedience to Him; after all He had created them and had given them all the comforts they could have asked for.

[3] But did Adam and Eve behave responsibly and prove themselves worthy of the great love shown by God? No. Tempted by the lustful words of Satan who came in the form of a serpent, they disobeyed God’s only command. But, who is this Satan? Satan was a powerful angel of God before he rebelled against God. He wanted to make Adam and Eve disobedient to God. So, one day when Eve was alone in the Garden of Eden; he assumed the form of a serpent and told her that if she ate that forbidden fruit she would become wise. Further, he also lied that she wouldn’t die if she ate it as God had warned her (Read Genesis 3:1-5). Believing his lies and lured by the fruit, Eve ate that fruit and gave some of it to Adam as well (Read Genesis 3:6). Thus, Adam and Eve transgressed God’s only command and thereby betrayed the love and trust shown by God towards them. It marked the beginning of a Dark Age for mankind.

[4] God’s command to Adam and Eve was not a hard one. It is not difficult or even inconvenient to skip the fruits of just one tree when there were countless others available. It was not as if Adam and Eve were starving and that was the only tree in sight. God had provided them amply and hence they had no reason to be lured by the forbidden fruit. Moreover, even though Satan was a powerful creature, it was not beyond their means to have resisted his temptations. The Bible says categorically that God will not allow someone to be tested beyond his or her means – ‘God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Hence their disobedience was inexcusable. When God came to know about their transgression, He had them removed from Eden and just as He had warned before, mankind became liable to death (Read Genesis 3:19,23). Man who was created to live forever, started to die and this has continued even till today – ‘sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people’ (Romans 5:12). God had created Eve from Adam (Read Genesis 2:21,22). Hence, Adam was in effect the father of the entire mankind. Due to his sin, the curse of death and suffering that befell on him was passed onto his descendants i.e. the whole of mankind. Today, we hear about children who are born with some handicap or other and some are even born dead. And one does ask – Why? The reason is simple: the curse of death and suffering hangs over humans even before the moment of our birth as we are all partakers of the sentence of death that Adam received. That is why even children suffer. That is why we all suffer. That is why death and suffering are universal and inevitable. If Adam and Eve had not disobeyed God, mankind would still be living in Edenic perfection, with no fear of death or sufferings. Alas, Adam’s sin made him and all of us lose that joyful life.

[5] Some may ask how it is fair to punish the entire mankind to this day for a sin that was committed by someone called Adam, thousands of years ago! Itis necessary to understand the concept of sin. Sin is a genetic condition, and thus gets passed on through our genes. Today’s science has unraveled that many of our character traits, our diseases and deficiencies are determined in our DNA itself. That is how diabetes passes itself from one generation to the next. Likewise, thanks to Adam, the desire to sin and the effect of sin is present in our genetic makeup itself, and that’s the reason we are all under punishment. Yet, we learn from the Bible that God did not let anyone who was willing to repent of his or her sinful nature to wander in futility. He extended His hand to them, and responded favorably to their quest to lead a righteous life. Though being afflicted with a genetic condition of sin, they were still flawed; God recognized their good intentions and communed with such people. And, even though they also had to die because of their sin-afflicted body, He has promised to reward them in the future. We will see how and when a little later. Enoch, Abraham, Noah and Job are just some of such people who lived in harmony with God. Some think that Yahweh was only the God of the Jews during the times before Jesus. It is a common misconception often held by even Christians. However, one reads in the Bible that when the gentile city of Nineveh repented of its sins, God forgave it and spared its people (See Jonah 3:10; 4:10,11). This incident shows clearly that while God gave His Laws to the Jewish people, He also did not leave anyone who was willing to repent from sin and seek Him to lurch in the dark. The Jewish Laws themselves had provisions outlining how gentiles could worship God, and there are historical and scriptural evidences which show that many gentiles did worship Yahweh based on those provisions. Yet, since sinful nature got imprinted in the genes of mankind, many only went farther and farther away from God by committing graver and graver sins. God cannot be faulted for that. He did not let go of even a single person who tried to fight his or her evil nature and live righteously. He showered such people with His love and care.

[6] Still, there is that question of why God allowed this to happen. Why did He not prevent Adam and Eve from sinning? Of course, He could have. But when God created mankind, He had given them free will. A free will means that we have the freedom to choose what we want, a freedom of thought and action (Read James 1:13,14,15). God has no interest in keeping mankind obedient to Him by compulsion despite having the might to do so. Thus, Adam and Eve were free to choose. God does not try to alter the thought process of any person by coercion. We all enjoy and cherish this freedom without which we would be nothing but robots. Yet, freedom comes with accountability. We are ultimately responsible for the choices we make and where they lead us. For example, an adult son, lured by the vices of the world, and wanting to explore the pleasures of the world forced his father to give his share of his wealth. That father did not prevent his son from leaving the home with his share of the wealth. He would have certainly advised him against it or asked him to be careful but he did not prevent him by force. Soon, the son threw away all his money on his vices and returned home empty handed to his father, who accepted him back with love (See Luke 15:11-24). Who is to be blamed for the son’s behavior and his subsequent suffering? Is it the father who gave his adult son his freedom of choice or the son who behaved irresponsibly and unwisely, ignoring his father’s advice? The son, of course! It was his father’s generosity that he was accepted back with love. Similarly, God cannot be held responsible for the actions of Adam and Eve and their subsequent punishment. He did warn them clearly and unambiguously. But, is God willing to forgive and accept back mankind, like the father in that story? Even if He is willing, what use will that be for the millions who have already perished? We will probe these questions in the coming chapters.

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