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PERSONAL FROM
Are People Lost
Because
ofAdam's
Sin?
''
hy
is it," sorne people will ask,
"that this whole worl d has to suffer so much
now, because of Adam's s in ?"
There's a common belief that as a resul t of the
original so-called "fall of man" - meaning the
transgression of Adam- that all people are born
lost--consigned straight to an everburni ng
torment of hell fire!
But is that true?
Let's look at this ancient eveot that is called the fal l
of man! We take a lot of things for granted- we
unquestioningly assume much of what has been
generally accepted and believed. But when we take out
sorne of these things and take a good look at them, we
receive sorne shocking surprises!
Was Adam Created Spiritually Perfec t?
The common idea in the Christian-professing world is
that God originally created Adam, the first man, an
immortal, perfect spiritual character. The Bible
expression, ' 'God created man in his own image," has
been interpreted lo mean that God made man immortal
and spi r itually perfect- and created of the same
composition as God- that is, out of spirit. The body is
interpreted to be merely the material garment the
spiritual man wears--or the physical house that an
immortal soul inhabits. And with this, it is commonly
believed, God has completed his creation. The man was
perfected, completed, immortal, perfect in character!
And then, this theory continues, along carne Satan.
January
1984
T he devil succeeded in wrecking this perfect
creation- this man that God had perfected, causing
him deliberately to sin! And this sin of Adam is
supposed to have somehow effected a change in the
rnan's nature from immortality to mortality. Adam and
all his descendants were now automatically consigned,
upon the experience that we call death , to be plunged
into the eterna! torment of hell tire.
Here had stood, in the man Adam, the supreme
masterpiece of all God's creation. But Satan succeeded
in wrecking what God had created- thwarting God's
pu rpose-upsetting God's plan!
And so, as this prevailing idea pictures it, God
had to start all over again, and think out sorne ncw
plan for repairing the damage!
lt
is looked upon something like an automobi le
manufacturer who had manufacturcd one very
far-advanced, perfectly precisioned automobi le- his
supreme masterpiece-only to find that, on its first
drive out of the factory, an enemy had come along
and wrecked that car. The idea is that the
manufacturer would have it towed back in, and
would set out to repair tbe damage.
ls Salvation Merely to Repair the Oamage?
And so in the commonly accepted idea of
Ch ristianity redemption is an effort on the part of
God to repair the damage that Satan inflicted in that
original si n- to make usas good as Adam was,
before the so-called " faJJ."
But is a badly wrecked automobile really as good,
after it is repaired, as it was before the wreck? Of
course not!
T his common idea of a professing C hristian ity is
not true at all! l t is not the teaching of the holy
Bible.
lt
is not the Christianity of Christ, nor the 12
apostles, nor of the apostle Paul!
T he general false concept ion is that ever since the
so-called fati of Adam, God has been doing his very
best to get the whole world saved- that is, to restore
men to a condition as good as Adam was before the
so-called fall! And, further, that there is a great
competition going on between God and Satan. Satan
is very cunningly resisting God, restraining and
outsmarting him so that only a small fraction of the
whole world's population is actually being saved.
Now this entire
(Continued on page 28)