| Author | Message | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 139 Registered: 1-2005  |
I was quickly glancing through the latest Adventist Review before tossing it, and saw a reprinted article by EGW that basically says that Christ had to die because of Adam's transgression of the law - and that if one was to believe those folks who say that Christ came to abolish the law - it would make Christ's sacrifice of none effect. Sound familiar? This got me to thinking about something that I had not given much thought to - What exactly was Adam's sin? In my head the answer I heard played from an old mind tape said: "Adam's sin and the subsequent fall of all mankind was and is the transgression of the law." I had to really check myself and wonder how that tape could still be playing after finding such freedom in Christ! As I was thinking, I realized that I had never read anywhere in the Bible that Adam broke God's law. All these years I had been assuming like all SDA's that this was a Biblical truth - that Adam's sin resulted when he broke one of the 10 commandments. This belief has been the SDA rationale for why the 10 commandments are still in effect - they are eternal because they were given before the fall of Adam. As I looked in Romans 5:12-14 (NLT) I found this: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. (!) and though there was no law to break, since it had not yet been given, they all died anyway - even though they did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did." (That last sentence I am assuming refers to God's direct command to NOT eat of the fruit from the Tree Good and Evil.) This may seem so elementary to you all - but it was a very specific cognitive burp for me! It makes me wonder what other false assumptions are rolling around in the archives of my brain! This fallacy has not kept me from finding new life in God's grace - because I haven't thought of it at all - until now. But it is curious to me that I still have gross misconceptions about spiritual and doctrinal matters yet unexplored. Guess that goes to show that God's not finished with me yet! (Duh!)  Anyway... thanks for listening... Have a great weekend. Linda | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 2434 Registered: 3-2004  |
It looks to me that Adam's sin was not believing God when God told him and Eve not to eat of the tree of life. This is one subject, I also, have not given much thought to. Thanks for bringing this up. Diana | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 3701 Registered: 12-2003  |
Linda, you're right; I believe many Adventists have used that text in Romans to assume the 10 Commandments existed since the beginning. Colleen | ||
| Wolfgang Registered user Username: Wolfgang Post Number: 76 Registered: 10-2005 |
funny they kinda touched on this at R/S. One person said that Adam and Eve didnt depend on God because of their unfallen nature where as Christ had too reley on God because of His unfallen nature." I truly believe Adam and Eve were to be totally dependent on God and they chose to be disobedent(that was the sin) they fell. Dawn | ||
| Wolfgang Registered user Username: Wolfgang Post Number: 77 Registered: 10-2005 |
funny they kinda touched on this at R/S. One person said that Adam and Eve didnt need to depend on God because of their unfallen nature where as Christ had too reley on God because of His fallen nature." (SIGH) I truly believe Adam and Eve were to be totally dependent on God and they chose to be disobedent(that was the sin) they fell. Dawn | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 140 Registered: 1-2005 |
Using this text in Romans 5 to show that the 10 commandments are eternal is an obvious misuse of the verses. It says so plainly that there was no law to break because it had not been given yet. It is interesting to see all the texts that I've read for years - now pop out as plainly stating that the 10 commandments WERE the covenant written on stone and that they were NOT given to man until Mt. Sinai. Deut 4:13 "He proclaimed his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, the Ten Commandments, and wrote them on two stone tablets. It was at that time that the Lord commanded me to issue the laws and regulations you must obey...." Deut. 5:2: "While we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God made a covenant with us. the Lord did not make this covenant long ago with our ancestors, but with all of us who are alive today." Deut. 5:22: "This is all he said at that time, and he wrote his words on two stone tablets and gave them to me." Deut. 9:9-15 "That was when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the covenant that the Lord had made with you......The Lord gave me the covenant, the tablets on which God himself had written all the words he had spoken to you from the fire on the mountain." Deut. 10: 4, "The Lord again wrote the terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, on them and gave them to me." 2 Corinth 3:7-11: That old system of law etched in stone led to death....... so if the old covenant, which has been set aside was full of glory, then the new covenant, which remains forever has far greater glory." Gal 3:15-20: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be cancelled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses....... but this system of law was to last only until the coming of the child to whom God's promise was made. And there is further difference. "God gave his laws to angels to give to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people..... but God acted on His own when he made his promise to Abraham. (That last line is a bit puzzling to me. I thought that God was face to face with Moses and wrote the covenant law on the tablets of stone with his own fingers - this statement of Paul's seems a bit contradictory. What do you think?) My overall point here - is how intriguing it is to see the Bible with new eyes. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 3706 Registered: 12-2003 |
Linda, the study notes in my NIV Study Bible say that it was a Jewish tradition that angels mediated the covenant to Moses. That mediation is not recorded in the Old Testament, but apparently Paul was referring to an oral tradition with which Jews were very familiar. But the NC is certainly not mediated between God and man by anyone other than God HImself in the Person of Jesus. We do not have a human mediator. You're right, though--"how intriguing it is to see the Bible with new eyes." Colleen |
