THE DOCTRINE OF THE FALL
A
Look at what the Bible Says
Since God
has revealed Himself to us in
Scripture, and the doctrine that He wants taught in His church is
nothing other
than what the Bible says; it should be obvious that those who refuse to
teach what
the Bible says, or affirm that it is true, do so because another authority has replaced
the
authority of Scripture in their lives.
Genesis 3: 1 ¶ Now
the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he
asked
the woman, Did God say, You should not eat
from every
tree in the garden?
2 And the woman said to the serpent,
We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has
said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
4 And the serpent said to the woman,
You will
not surely die:
5
For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes will
be
opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.
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 to make one wise,
she took some of its fruit, and ate, and gave some to her husband who was with her; and he ate.
7 And both of their eyes were
opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the
LORD God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the
garden.
9 ¶ And the LORD God called to
Adam, and said to him, Where are
you?
10 And he said, I heard your voice in
the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked; and I hid myself.
11 ¶ And
he said, Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you
should not
eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom
you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said to the
woman, What is this that you have
done? And the woman said, The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 ¶ And the LORD God said to
the
serpent, Because you have done this, you are
cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your
belly
you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life:
15 And I will put hostility between
you and
the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your
head, and
you will bruise his heel.
16 ¶ To
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your
conception; in
sorrow you will bring forth children; and your desire shall
be to your husband, and he will rule over you.
17 ¶ And
to Adam he said, Because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife,
and have
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat
of it:
cursed is the ground for your sake;
in sorrow you will eat of it all the
days of your life;
18 Thorns also and thistles will it
bring
forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of your face you
will eat
bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it you were taken:
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.
20 ¶ And Adam called his wife’s
name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 ¶ The LORD God also made
tunics from skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 ¶ And the LORD God said, Since man has become like one of us, to know good
and evil:
he must not now put out his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat,
and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God
sent him out of the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he
was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he
placed
Cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which
turned
every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
THE
SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FALL
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty
years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image;
and called
his name Seth:
Psalm 51: 5 Behold,
I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[Comment: These
verses tell us that Adam’s descendants are born in the image of sinful
Adam,
rather than in the image of God. And, the image of Adam consists of
every
change in our nature that took place as a result of the fall, including
being
conceived in sin, with a heart that is “deceitful above all things,
and
desperately wicked”.]
Romans
Romans 5:18-19 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation… by one man’s disobedience many
were made
sinners.
Ephesians 2:2-3 Wherein in time
past you…
were by nature the
children
of wrath, even as others.
[Comment: These
verses make it clear that because of the sin of Adam we are, by our
very
nature, condemned, under the sentence of death, and children of wrath.]
Romans
11
There
is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They
are all gone
out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none
that doeth
good, no, not one.
13
Their
throat is
an open sepulchre; with their tongues they
have used
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14
Whose
mouth is
full of cursing and bitterness:
15
Their
feet are
swift to shed blood:
16
Destruction and
misery are in their ways:
17
And
the way of
peace have they not known:
18
There
is no
fear of God before their eyes.
[Comment: These
verses make it clear that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory
of
God.” And, because God did not create us with a sinful nature, that
fact is a
consequence of the Fall.]
THE
PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL
Genesis
17 ¶ And
to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat
of it:
cursed is the ground for your sake;
in sorrow you will eat of it all the
days of your life;
18 Thorns also and thistles will it
bring
forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of your face you
will eat
bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it you were taken:
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.
Job 14:1 ¶ Man that is
born of a woman is of
few days, and full of trouble.
[Comment: These
verses tell us that because of sin childbirth is
difficult, life is full of hardship, and we are all destined to die.]
CONCLUSION
The historical record of the
fall is just as much a doctrine of Scripture as anything else that the
Bible
says (2Timothy
“The pure doctrine is simply
nothing else, absolutely nothing else, than the pure Word of God.” (Law
and
Gospel, page 349) “Neither ought
any doctrine be taught or heard in the
church but the pure Word
of God, that is to say, the Holy Scriptures; otherwise accursed be both
the
teachers and hearers together with their doctrine.” (Martin Luther)
Gary
Ray Branscome