Genesis Lesson 2 - Garden of Eden
1. Read Chapter three of Genesis. What is the major theme of chapter 3? The Book of Genesis records the "Fall of Man". In the beginning, God created a perfect creation. It was all "very good". A necessary component for perfection is love. A necessary component for love is free will. True love, by definition, cannot exist apart from free will. Unless you have the ability to choose evil, there is no true ability to choose love. Thus, God created us with the potential for sin, but did not create sin itself. Adam, the first man, actualized that potential and brought sin into the world by choosing himself over God -- a selfish act. The word "sin" is an Old English archery term that simply means to "miss the mark" (in contrast, "bulls eye" means to hit the mark). The word "sin," like "love," has become cliché and has nearly lost its intended meaning. Simply, whenever we "sin," we miss the mark from God's pers...