Reading: Genesis 1: 1-31 2: 1-25 3: & 4
Did you know that there have always
been two different approaches to the creation stories in Genesis? One follows a Greco
{meaning Greek} Roman approach and the other follows a Love
Story. Many of us within the Christian church today have grown up
with a mixture of both. Let me try to explain the differences between the
two approaches and how we came to believe in them.
1. First let us look at
the Greco Roman approach. Within the Greek and Roman
philosophy it was all about perfection, the perfect beginning, the perfect empire,
the perfect place and of course the prefect people, two perfect beings made
in Gods image, see Genesis 1: 26. They looked at the
story of creation and garden of Eden as a story of perfection. Everything
started from something that was perfect just the way God intended it I guess the question we need to think about here
might be this: where can you go from perfection? Well, it appears
from this approach that the first step from perfection was
a step down and it was coined by the first Roman Church,
as the FALL, see Genesis 2. Here Sin enters into
the story and becomes the first step in our decent into
condemnation, as seen by the Greco Roman approach. From
here. our decent begins to get much darker. We are
expelled from Eden by an angered God, to a land
outside the garden, where we will now have to begin to fend for ourselves as people
of land and sea. Genesis 3 tells us, because of their choice
all generations will now have to face many hardships in life. Disharmony continues
to erupts within our human nature as we exercise our gift [or
curse, verse 16] of free will. This
disharmony often creating within
us new feelings of greed, jealously, anger, lust, and selfishness as the ego
begins to strip away our innocence. In Genesis 4 we
discover the first murder that occurs in our history, found in the
story of Cane and Able. The land now in which we are expelled to, instead
of becoming another paradise or at least where the Kingdom of Heaven will
begin, has become a killing field and the story goes on and on descending us
further into a fallen, violent and sin filled world. Now we are in need
of a Savior. Our lively hood extents from the land to the
seas and eventually many of us become co-creators in competition with our
God.
In the Greco Roman approach,
God sees the need to save us form our decent into sin and damnation that
holds the fires of hell. Hence God sends us a Savior, His
Son.
In this approach there
is a fear that many, literally hundreds of thousands yes
even millions will have to spend eternity in a place called
"Hell". In the Greco Roman approach, salvation
is achieved by only those who have been obedient to God’s will and have
accepted Jesus to be their personal Savior. In this approach only
a chosen few will be saved for an eternal life in heaven with Jesus, and
God.
God is perceived to be reigning
over us from the heavens, while God’s Son Jesus is here with us, some how
connected or is God incarnate but yet fully human. The
Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus after his death and resurrection and it is the
Holy Spirit who sustains and convicts us with truth until death
and then judgment comes.
Now I know this is a shorten
version of the Greco Roman approach to the scriptures and there is
much more to consider but I think you get the idea. It is a story of
descending from perfection into a sin-filled world, where we are the
major players, and the cause of all sin. An observation here
might be that atonement is conditional and leaves many
with the feelings of exclusion and or abandonment. Only the saved will
once again be return to a life of perfection, in that perfect place many
call Heaven. As an observer, I might ask the
question: Where is Gods unconditional love in
this approach? Now I must say here that for many this has
become their perspective and who is to say that this is not
"The right Perspective." But, there is another approach to consider,
so lets take a look at it?
2. The second approach
to Genesis is a Love Story. This approach
gives us a perspective of ascending, not descending.
Not a fall into sin but the beginning of an assent from missing
the mark {the true meaning of the Greek word Sin}, towards rescue,
forgiveness, transformation and unconditional love. In the Love Story, God is a God
of rescue, not an angry judgmental God. Punishment and reward are part
of the gift, the gift of free will. It is a story of
falling upwards rather the downwards. Where God doesn't remain apart
from us in paradise but comes out of the garden of Eden to be with
us, not to judge us but to rescue us, to forgive and love us into a
new life. This perspective is a story of ascending, a story
that doesn’t take us down but continually picks us up. If you
read the Old Testament through this lens you will see that it
changes. The Love story approach does not change any of the
writing in scripture but sees creation and the garden stories much differently.
In this approach there
is no fall into sin, because humans were created with a nature that is already
flawed with curiosity and the gift of free will unleashes
it. God already knows our human ego will choose to
eat from the tree of knowledge. Our curious ego caused us to want
God’s knowledge and wisdom in the garden and to want God’s powers for
ourselves. We want to be in control of things, it seems to be in our DNA, our
gens as we demonstrate how we cannot just leave
things alone. But we were never made to be eternal Eden keepers.
If that were true there would never have been a forbidden tree
in the middle of the garden. In this perspective God gives us
the gift of free will, a will of our own, and God will not intervene
unless we willingly surrender our will for God’s will and way. We
are permitted to make the mistakes that will bring us to our knees and
we will never surrender a sin until we have learn
its lessons and begin to do what it has taught us. NOT MY WILL
but Thy will be done Lord is our prayer. This gift of free will can
be a curse at times as it comes with consequences, some good some bad. So
in choosing we expelled ourselves from paradise and in the
process called down upon ourselves judgement. Was this all part of the plan and all things meant for good?
In this approach God
is no longer in paradise separate from us but can now be
found within us, not to judge us, but to rescue us. Thus we are
given the greatest gift of all the Son of Man! who will
teach us the "WAY" and offers us a life eternal.
The movement in the Love story
is not down, but up, it is not about condemnation and hell but about
rescue, reconciliation, transformation, forgiveness and unconditional love,
ascending towards a new life, a life birthed in Him. John
3: 5 Jesus tells Nicodemus you must be born not only of water but born
also of the spirit. {a rebirth! Born Again!}
In this Love Story we don’t go
back to the old life of perfection in heaven but ascend to a new life of love
in a new heaven on a renewed earth as we become part of the Kingdom builders. In
fact the Love Story approach is not a story that starts with
perfection but a God who begins to lovely create a world of good out
of the chaotic cosmos. “And God saw that it was good {all that has been made} ”
the scriptures tells us.
Hence we have the
assent, the garden story coming out of chaos. In fact its
imperfection can be found in the center of the garden with its forbidden tree, temptation has already been created along with everything else. God
doesn’t remain in the Garden but comes out of the Garden to be with us. It
is with love and compassion that God decides to dwell among us in the flesh,
as the Son, John 1: 14. God becomes a visible presence in the human Jesus, teaching us how to live, love and how to die. God
in the flesh makes a convenient with all the children of the world on the day
of His crucifixion in this the greatest of Love stories. It is a
convenient of unconditional LOVE and unconditional FORGIVENESS for all who
would follow in "His WAY" and it comes via the very
thing that was meant to destroy it, death on a cross. Atonement as portrayed
in the Greco Roman approach is not part of this story. The Love
Story sees the cross through a different lens, not as a
conditional blood sacrifice but the full expression of Jesus' unconditional
Love for all God children, a true love offering.
But this love story doesn’t stop
there for God sends His spirit the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth to guide
and convict us until death, and invites us to become part of the Kingdom of Heaven,
kingdom builders, right now, right here, in this present day for all
eternity.
Which approach do you lean
to?
"The Cosmic Christ"
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