Straight Outta Eden

Straight outta Eden Gen 2:1-17

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 4 This [is] the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and [there was] no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life [was] also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first [is] Pishon; it [is] the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold. 12 And the gold of that land [is] good. Bdellium and the onyx stone [are] there. 13 The name of the second river [is] Gihon; it [is] the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river [is] Hiddekel; it [is] the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river [is] the Euphrates. 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:1-17 NKJV

• Christopher Hitchens in His book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything said, “If God really existed, and if He really cared for us, and if He really possessed all power, He could easily have created a world in which none of the evils we see daily could exist. That such evils exist is proof that no such being exists.” 
• Basically, he is saying that this world is too mean a place for there to be a nice God because why would a nice God create such a mean place? 
• If you think this objection to theism (belief in God) is uncommon, you’re dead wrong. 
• This has been one of the chief criticisms of skeptics and atheists for thousands of years. 
• Take for example Epicurus, Epicurus was the founder of the epicurean school of philosophy in ancient Greece
• He lived from 341–270 BC so roughly 300 years before Christ 
• Now let me give you a little more background on this guy named Epicurus. His philosophical teachings were antitheist, not atheist. 
• He did not teach that God or gods did not exist but that their existence was irrelevant and pointless because God or the gods didn’t care about us or interact with us. 
• Therefore there was no need to fear them or pay them any special devotion. 
• He taught that there was no afterlife of any kind 
• and prioritized the pursuit of pleasure as the chief aim of life. 
• Pleasure to him was the ultimate good and the only intrinsic value 
• Pleasure was an end in and of itself. 
• To Epicurus we exist to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. 
• Which sounds a lot like how people operate today, he would fit right into modern western society. 
• Now I don’t want to mischaracterize the guy although he fits the technical definition of a hedonist, he wasn’t given over to the vices we usually associate with hedonism
• For example he lived a celibate life and taught that some desires lead ultimately to less pleasure and more pain and should be avoided 
• Like the lust for wealth, power and illicit sex 
• He started a school called “The Garden” and taught that focusing on simple pleasures like food water and friendship was the greatest good
• He was basically a Hobbit
• Interestingly his followers are mentioned in the Bible in Acts 17

Acts 17:17-21 NKJV – 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

• Now this guy Epicurus formulated an argument that we call today the problem of evil

• Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. 
• Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
• Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 
• Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

• It’s the same objection from the first quote I read to you. 
• Why would benevolent God create such a terrible world of evil and suffering? 
• I am sure you can see that there wasn’t much common ground between Epicureans and Christians 
• and when Christianity  prevailed overtime in Europe his teachings faded 
• but then came the renaissance when people, wanting to revive classical thought, began to read the old greek philosophers again 
• And Epicurus’ teaching became fuel for humanists and enlightenment thinkers for generations 
• Atheists today are still quoting his teachings as a means to discredit God  
• These teachings from ancient Greece inspired Voltaire a famous French skeptic from the Enlightenment who once said 

• “What a sad, sombre spectacle is this vast world! In all corners, war, pestilence, famine, and falsehood. Can you say this is the best of all possible worlds?”
• Epicurus also inspired Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, a self proclaimed epicurean and skeptic, who fancied himself a Christian but denied the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, His resurrection, and miracles.
• He even made his own version of the bible where he cut out all the stuff he felt was ridiculous. 
• And you can still hear the echoes of Epicurus’s teachings in Atheists today who quote him in nearly every debate they have with Christians 
• Stephan Fry a notable actor and writer when asked what he would say to God if he met Him said:
• “I’d say: bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare you. How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil.” 

• Okay Jonathan why are you giving us a history lesson on skeptics and why are you giving voice to all these doubters by quoting them? 
• Because this argument, that has been regurgitated by scoffer after scoffer, is based on lies, on faulty assumptions
• Assumption # 1 That God (if He exists) created evil because evil undoubtedly exists, 
• Assumption # 2 That man is a relatively good creature who deserves better 
• So basically God is the bad guy and we are the good guys 
• Both are lies! But let me deal with # 2 first
• The first Sermon I ever preached at FVC was Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
• The answer: there are no good people 
• This is the testimony of Scripture 
• Rom 3:10, 12 there is none righteous, no, not one, there is none who does good, no, not one 
• Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 
• Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; who can know it?
• We are not good and we are not victims 
• Man is wicked, sinful, rebellious, given to vice, depraved, vile, perverse, selfish, violent, proud, deceptive and blasphemous
• This is the foundation for all clear thinking about yourself and mankind if you can’t come to grips with the fallenness of man then you won’t understand the Gospel 
• God doesn’t owe us anything. It is the grace of God that he hasn’t deleted the lot of us
• Everyday we continue to exist is due to God’s forbearance
  • The real question should be why do good things happen to bad people
  • The answer is simple because God is really nice 
• ‘Well so what?” Someone might say. If there is so much evil and suffering in the world couldn’t God have just made a better world filled with better people?
• Basically if God exists then it’s His fault. He’s the Bad Guy. He made a flawed and broken world 
• This is a lie that scoffers love to tell because it lets them point the finger at God and blaspheme Him without even considering what scripture actually teaches 
• God did not make a world full of evil and suffering. The world was perfect and whole 
• God made an idyllic world for Humanity, it was perfect
• God’s plan “A” was to give Man everything that would satisfy his needs and longings  
• God provided man with the ideal environment. Everything was perfect. Even the things that make us scratch our heads. 
• God did not invent or ordain evil and suffering.
• In 1972 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City a man named Laszlo Toth carrying a hammer, screamed out, “I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!” and began smashing Michelangelo’s masterpiece Pietà [pee-eh-TAH]
• He severely damaged the marble statue breaking off an arm and chipping the nose and eyelids 
• Do you know which statue I am talking about? It’s the one of Mary holding and grieving over a recently crucified Jesus. The name means pity or compassion in italian 
• It took restorers 5 months to find the hundred or so pieces and glue them back together   
• Now imagine someone saw the Pietà in its broken state and said “Why did Michelangelo carve a one armed Mary with half a nose?!”
• That is equivalent to what these skeptics are saying
• We see here in the text that God gave Adam and Eve everything that they would need 
  • Life without death
    • The Tree of Life was in the garden, and they were allowed to eat from it!
    • Gen 2:9 – “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life [was] also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
    • Gen 2:16 –  “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
    • Can you imagine that? Death is sad and it is not good! We try to trick ourselves by talking up death but so many of our fears and woes center around death. Very few people want to die 
    • and those who do usually only want to because they see it as inevitable or they have lost all their friends and family or there is some kind of pain that, seemingly, can’t be addressed 
    • God’s original design did not include death! Death is a consequence of sin. It’s an enemy according to scripture 
      • 1 Corinthians 15:26 NKJV – 26 The last enemy [that] will be destroyed [is] death.
  • Fellowship with God
    • Man had access to God without fear
    • And God spoke directly to Adam with no intermediaries 
    • God walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve
    • Imagine that for a moment, God either lived in the Garden with Adam or he would visit Adam in the Garden. They likely walked and talked together.
    • Can you imagine God just hanging out with you tangibly, taking a walk with you and speaking directly to you? That’s what Adam had
    • And I think we can all agree that being in this kind of relationship with God is ideal and to be desired
    • This is a far cry from later on when people would die instantly if they entered the presence of God in the Holy of Holies 
  • Companionship
    • God said that it is not good for man to be alone. Loneliness is not good so God gave Adam a wife
    • With some exceptions, having a spouse is God’s ideal for humanity.
    • It is, ideally, something that makes us happier. Disney is not completely wrong on that. 
    • It is one of the main components for happiness… in the ideal world
    • And if this wasn’t enough he gave Man and woman the superpower to create new humans so they could have greater and greater levels of fellowship with one another

• Provision food/water 
  • God gave humanity a way to partake of nature around them. Man needed to breathe the air of this world in and smell it, He needed to drink and taste the water of this world, he needed to eat and taste the fruit and plants of this world, He needed to see and touch the world around him
• Beauty – pleasant to the sight
  • God also created a world of idyllic beauty. He is a master artist.
  • Beauty was God’s ideal and even the things that seem less beautiful still add interest to the world.
• Work
  • Believe it or not, work is ideal also. Some Christians have erroneously believed that work is part of the fall 
  • But God himself worked for six days in creation and he charged man with tending the Garden that he planted
  • Idleness is not ideal it’s boring
• Rest
  • Relaxation and leisure is part of God’s ideal world he never meant for man to toil and labor with no time time to enjoy the fruits of his labor 
  • Humans are built as much for leisure as for work
• Mandate/Purpose
  • God gave mankind purpose beyond mere existence. His purpose was to take the Eden model that he had seen and expand that to the ends of the earth.
  • Genesis 1:27-28 NKJV – 27 So God created man in His [own] image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
  • God planted the Garden this was a place where heaven touched earth 
  • It was man’s job to advance that model
  • So God did not make a perfect, perfect world and in that it was perfect he left the last little bit for man to finish so that we could participate in that great endeavor and put the finishing touches on creation
  • Isn’t that awesome

• Choice
  • God gave mankind a level of self determination. This is ideal. When God placed the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil in the midst of the Garden and commanded him to not eat of it he presented mankind with a choice.
  • To obey or not to obey 
  • This allows for man to be something other than an automaton 

• So now we see that God spent time creating the best possible reality for mankind 
• but unfortunately , as we will come to see, Adam and Eve ate from the tree that they were forbidden to eat from and the ushered in sin and death as a result
• By exercising his free will He willingly disobeyed God and brought this doom on the rest of us
• C.S. Lewis said in the Problem of Pain in reference to the fall, “Man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not because God made him so but because he has made himself so by the abuse of his free will.”
• When Adam ate off that tree he inverted the world. 
• What we live in now is the twilight zone version of original creation. 
• It is no longer ideal. It’s broken, marred, disfigured
• Instead of endless life –  deterioration and death, 
• instead of close fellowship with God – distance and separation from God,
• instead of marital bliss and peace with other human beings – strife and contentions, 
• Instead of easy access to food – scarcity, 
• Instead of rest –  increased toil,
• instead of ruling and subduing – bondage to sin and Satan
• You see this is the inverse reality, It’s opposite, in many ways, of what it is supposed to be.
• If we find this current iteration of the world distasteful, if we recoil at all the savagery around us 
• It is no wonder, we were made for a different world and this one doesn’t suit our needs. It doesn’t fulfill our longings for Eden 
• C. S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world 
• You see that’s what all these skeptics are upset about. They want Eden but there stuck with this 
• Epicurus wanted a quiet life in “the Garden” where he could share his ideas with his friends and pursue his interests while having all his needs met
• But you can’t have Eden without God and we don’t have sin and death without the fall  
• All of the pain and the suffering we experience is demonstrating, daily, the deficiencies of this world and increasing our longing for something better
• “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” –  C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
• If I break my leg, I am in agony, not because I am suppose to have a broken leg just the opposite
• But that pain will hopefully drive me to seek help in healing 
• God gave humanity the chance to choose Him in the Garden, in the ideal environment with everything perfect, everything just so, that was plan A but we didn’t choose Him
• Now He is giving Humanity another chance. The chance to choose him in the non-ideal environment. This is plan B
• We weren’t in trouble or in danger before and we didn’t heed Him
• But now that we are in trouble and are in danger will we choose him?
• The good News is that Jesus has atoned for all of Adam’s folly and is beginning to set the world aright 
• Jesus stepped into the role of Adam and is repairing what Adam broke
• Both are called the son of God
• Both are the image of God
• Both are the head of Humanity
• Both are given dominion everything under their feet 
• But where Adam failed Jesus succeeded 
• 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 45-49 NKJV – 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. … 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

This is the point: God is good, kind and perfect

This world was ideal for Man, 

Man choose to listen to Satan over God 

Man sinned

Now the world stinks

Whose fault is that?

But God is not content to leave it there. He is willing to rescue us from this muck and stink. He is reaching out His hand in Grace all we have to do is take it

Bow your heads with me 

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THESE SCRIPTURES ARE A MAYBE

*Romans 5:12-21 NKJV – 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned– 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 8:18-22 NKJV – 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected [it] in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.