Adam and Eve and Original Sin

THE biblical story of Adam and Eve, being our first parents, and their fall into sin, the so called Original Sin, are myths. They are not true.

Adam and Eve never existed on this planet. Paradise was not lost because of their fall into sin. This does not mean that there is no truth in these stories. There is a “mythical” truth but not a historical truth in them.

We should not confuse the two with each other. With mythical truth I mean a spiritual truth. The historical truth is that the world, including mankind, was created by God in the beginning. The spiritual truth is that He created everything from the beginning “in his image.” God the Creator, as the Almighty, is perfect. His creation from the beginning was perfect. But imperfection came into the world when man refused and failed to cooperate with God the Creator.

Modern theologians, like Richard Rohr OFM et al., argue that the act of Creation in the first place – involving time, space and free will – carries with it the need for redemption. Salvation is implicit in Creation itself.

Orthodox theology of Creation holds that God, right from the beginning, desired to become human simply because, as St. Thomas Aquinas says it, his infinite love needed to express itself outside itself – first in Creation, then finally and fully revealed in Incarnation. Here creation and re-creation or redemption come together.

Man is invited to become co-creator with God and to bring himself and the world to perfection. This he is enabled to do through the help of Jesus Christ the Redemptor and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit can be understood as the invisible power at work in a continually evolving universe, until God be ‘all in all’. Here we have the amazing story of nature and grace which is revealed in the scientific exploration of a painfully evolving and extremely wonderful world.

This new theology will have profound implications for many Christian teachings, for our understanding of sacrament – there are many more sacraments than seven – for pastoral ministry – we are not fallen angels but co-creators – for the religion/science debate and for a new evangelizing of young and old. Paradise was not lost.

Our first parents do not have to be blamed for a fact that God’s original dream was, at some time, radically destroyed. We are all to be blamed if we fail to cooperate with each other as brothers and sisters and work together for the development of the world and the integrity of creation.

We must learn to see the Spirit at work in our time, the divine and sacred dimension behind everything.

Today, we have a President who finally is serious of eliminating corruption in our government. Why can’t we see him as “the anointed of the Lord” like the kings and monarchs as of old were considered to be? Look at his background. He is the son of Ninoy who became a martyr when he was murdered while he came back to the country to redeem us from a dictator.

He is the son of Cory, a housewife who had the courage to take the presidency on herself when the country was in ruins.

I really believe that Noynoy, because of his background, is honest and sincere in stamping out corruption, that he is inspired by the Spirit to do what he can.

Noynoy is not perfect but his work as president could improve and become perfect if we would start cooperating with him at our level for a better economy and a full implementation of the so much needed land reform program.

We are not inheritors of sin but we are living bearers of the divine dream of the Creator, a perfect world of peace, harmony and love.

(For your comments, email nolvanvugt@gmail.com)