MYTH: ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. Adam fell from ‘a righteous state’ when he sinned.
1. THE TRUTH: Though Adam’s succumbing to the wiles of a woman provoked God’s endemic curse on mankind and the creation, nowhere in either Testament is it described as a “fall”. He succumbed to Eve and Satan’s temptation to reject God’s offer of eternal life. But he did not FALL from righteousness, but rejected the righteousness of faith.
2. THE TRUTH: Adam was created in a state of innocence without virtue or vice.
MYTH: ADAM MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD was holy and righteous.
3. THE TRUTH Adam had neither original righteousness nor the INDWELLING Spirit of holiness and righteousness. God however, was WITH him until he was exiled from His presence. God was WITH Israel of the Exodus, but His Spirit only WITHIN Moses, Joshua and Caleb. Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and Abram were some of the few who not only walked with God in primordial time, but within whom the Spirit of God dwelled by grace
4. THE TRUTH: God is tripartite and Adam was created uniquely as a tripartite being. God is triune:- the Father, the Word (The Son), and the Spirit (1 John 5:7) and He said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Thus Adam had a threefold existence but is one being: body, soul, and spirit and he also reflects each decision and action within himself. He confers within himself, his sense of humour enables him to laugh at himself and at others. He intellectualizes with himself and then takes rational action. These imprints of God’s image are over and above the basic instinctive appetites and senses, and they are unique to humans in the animal kingdom.
5. THE TRUTH: Adam was made a terrestrial creature from the earth itself, but unlike all other creatures he possessed more than animal instincts, appetites, and senses. He had a plurality of being which was exceptional among creatures.
6. THE TRUTH: God wanted fellowship with Adam, but he needed more than a state of innocence wherein he was able to hear God’s instructions. Fellowship is not a one sided affair. Thus the Lord placed the regenerating fruit of the tree-of-life should he desire to enter into fellowship with his Lord and Master. But alas he conspired instead with his wife to sample the KNOWLEDGE of the gods and the ethereal powers from the ‘prince and power of the air,’ who is the ‘god’ of this world.
7. THE TRUTH: The doctrine of Adam’s original righteousness was hatched by the emerging Church of Rome in the 3rd century at the time of building the first church and the first priest was ordained. This myth with other pagan beliefs of Rome has been perpetuated down through the ages.
8. THE TRUTH: When Emperor Constantine’s ‘Church of Rome was finally inaugurated about 311 AD the mythical ‘water of regeneration’ in his compulsory mass baptisms were said to remove ‘original sin’ and restore ‘original righteousness’ to the baptized. This myth has been perpetuated down through the millennia to present day Christendom.
9. THE TRUTH: ADAM.HEARD GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS? Though God talked to Adam this did not equate to righteousness. Though Adam was at fist innocent without sin his innocence was not righteousness. God talked to unrighteous prophets and false prophets, Balaam the soothsayer being one example.God can and will use what and whom he will, even the unrighteous Balaam, just as he used the early Twelve disciples of Christ before they were converted on the first day of the resurrection. Judas Iscariot heard Jesus pair him with a fellow disciple to go as a twosome to preach, heal, and deliver. Yet borrowing the power of the NAME neither justified him or made him righteous. God was with him for a season, then later left him to Satan’s devices.
