Atonement

RECOVERING BIBLICAL AT-ONE-MENT : M.
M. M. NINAN
In the early christian lingua, “Man no longer looked upon the world and other human beings in a
eucharistic way, as a sacrament of communion with God. He ceased to see the family of God.He lost
sight of the fundamental character of God - Love of the Father.
Instead like the prodigal son asked
for his share and launched out into the wide world to make himself a city and a tower that will reach
heavens.” He ceased to regard them as a gift, to be offered back in thanksgiving to the Giver, and he
began to treat them as his own possession, to be grasped, exploited and devoured. So he no longer
saw other persons and things as they are in themselves and in God, and he saw them only in terms of
the pleasure and satisfaction which they could give to him. And the result of this was that he was
caught in the vicious circle of his own lust, which grew more hungry the more it was gratified” Bishop
Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way
The formalized Christian doctrine of original sin was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the
Bishop of Lyon, in his struggle against Gnosticism. Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view
that the Fall was a step in the wrong direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed, his
descendants had some solidarity or identity. Irenaeus believed that Adam's sin had grave
consequences for humanity, that it is the source of human sinfulness, mortality and enslavement to sin,
and that all human beings participate in his sin and share his guilt. Obviously as an organic system, if
just one man became selfish, it corrupts the whole society.”
The result of the fall was immediate.
We see Cain killing Abel.
Just image, with just four living men this happens. Imagine the whole earth filled with men. It simply
will be impossible to live. Imagine if Adam and all his children lived eternally, they would having
fighting each other all the time.
With No death, all their life would have been an eternal hell. God did
not want his children to be living in eternal hell.
So in His love he ordained the second law of
thermodynamics. Notice God never cursed man. It was all based on God’s basic nature - LOVE.
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