Introduction

The doctrine of creation and the fall is a crucial and yet, frankly, underrated doctrine in the Christian church. In these two summative doctrines of creation and fall, we have the answer to myriad crucial questions that are faced within the human experience. Why is there death? Why do men and women war? Why is childbearing painful rather than bliss? Why is work laborious rather than lovely? Why does war exist? How should men act? How should women behave? What is the goal in life? What institutions should exist on the earth? What constitutes a family? All these questions and many more are answered in the few chapters of Genesis in which the entire story of creation and the fall and corruption of mankind and that very creation are recorded.  The story of how God made the world and all that it entails is, therefore, a pivotal story to know, believe, understand, embrace, and implement in all of life if we are to live faithfully before the Almighty who made this very place.

Creation, Fall, and the Gospel

In our modern evangelical world, there seems to be a staunch disconnect between what the bible commands the church to be, think, say, and do and what it actually is, thinks, says, and does. The reason for this, as far as the author can ascertain, is the encroachment of Gnosticism – in subtle form – creeping its way through the institutions and pulpits of the church. Anecdotally and generally speaking, there is a significant chasm between the elders of a church and the pastors that the church calls. The elders tend to be more practical, down to earth, less ethereal and heady, and have a better bead on what the congregation needs and the cultural issues influencing the church. Pastors on the other hand, tend to be more philosophical, culturally illiterate, and softer on issues that are clear to most people, but due to their academic gallantry, there is always room for nuance.

Seminaries which are not under the oversight of the church, and even some who are, appear to trend toward an over spiritualizing, academic, philosophical Christianity rather than a robustly practical, strong, and earthy theology – the kind that gets grass stains on your jeans. And this emphasis has allowed for a subtle repudiation of the physical and an over emphasis on the spiritual. This notion is buttressed by pietistic argumentation, claiming that Paul’s calls for us to be heavenly minded are calls to be primarily concerned with the spiritual life (contrary to the physical life), prayer, meditation, contemplation, etc. and that in this way we are being faithful to scripture, and a preoccupation with the physical is unfaithful. Afterall, this world is not our home, right?

This notion, I believe, stems from a stark and unfortunate dislocation of the story of creation from the rest of scripture. In the story of God’s creation of all things, he spends six days making lovely, and glorious physical things. He does this, and on all but one day (day two) he said it was good. What God had made delighted him and caused him to resound in joy from his labor. Then, after he had completed all his work it was declared to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31). The reason for God’s lack of the declaration “good” at the completion of day two was because on that day God created an expanse in the midst of the waters separating the earth from the heavens, and this did not offer delight. In that moment heaven and earth were separated, which is not Gods desire. As our Lord taught us to pray, God’s kingdom is supposed to be on the earth and his will to be done here just as it is in heaven. Day two, therefore, indicates much to be desired because while heaven and earth are separated, we are not yet living in the way the Lord intends. In other words, God has always intended for the physical and spiritual to be united.

God commends the works of his hands, which was primarily physical. Trees, animals, seas, fruits, et al, all physical. Likewise, Adam was made from the dirt, Eve from his rib, yet in them was God’s Sprit giving them life, indicating a flawless blend of the physical and the spiritual, yet in unfinished form. However, it is at the point, where man transgresses, that modern mistakes are often made. Despite all the glorious actions taken by God, and the immensity of his grace poured out upon his creation, especially Adam and Eve, they still transgressed his law and brought condemnation upon themselves, their posterity, and all of creation.

It is at this point where many theologians and pastors begin their thinking. Rather than place creation and its goodness and the glory of physicality as the starting point, it is the fall where many start their thinking. This is understandable given the various perspectives on the nature of God’s covenant with Adam, but none of these various schools of thought should cause someone to begin their understanding of the Christian life in Genesis three rather than Genesis one. It is this two-chapter difference that makes all the difference. It is here where over spiritualization begins. It is at this juncture where the Gospel is seen as having heavenly and spiritual application and implication, but no real world, on the ground, tangible, physical application. This is where the notion of the Gospel being for the church and Christians and not for governments and institutions is bolstered.

The Gospel, therefore, becomes truncated, and no longer is it a Gospel with a physical King, a material kingdom, on a physical earth, with a physical people, but it is now a place in the sky someplace, where disembodies souls with Casper tails go when they die, to walk around saying “ohm” all day, and meditating on the deeper things of God. It is no wonder the church has become impotent in the west, because we have rooted ourselves in the shame and defeat of the fall, rather than the glory of creation and the victory of Christ’s re-creation.

Church History

Creation

Within the realm of church history, no other doctrine is so foundational than that of creation. This makes sense. God’s works of creation are continually harkened back to time and time again within the bible as something to marvel at. In Psalm 24, for instance, David writes, “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” How can the Earth be the property of God? Well, it’s because he created it. Likewise, Paul quotes this same passage to justify the freedom of God’s people to enjoy what God has made without the need for concern regarding the conscience. The church throughout history has assented to this truth, and has highlighted it appropriately as well. This is made evident in several confessions of faith.

Article 2 of the Belgic Confess (The Means by Which We Know God) records two ways that we are able to know God, claiming that the first is through creation:

“First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.”

This statement is helpful in several ways. First it outlines and testifies that God is not just a creator, but rather he is also the sustainer, and organizer of all the earth and its affairs. In no uncertain terms this statement rejects deism and polytheism out of hand completely. Second, it puts premier importance on the fact of creation as being a way to know God. This makes sense. The way that and creator of anything is proven, is by what has been created. It perfectly obvious to all serious, sincere, and reasonably minded individuals that something never comes from nothing. Therefore, if there is something rather than nothing, like highly sophisticated and complex humans, as well as all other creatures, systems, processes, and units in the world, then a creator must be to blame.

Further, much of what is complex could not have come from evolutionary processes due to the simple reality of the various and multitudinous factors of co-dependency that exists within creation. There are simple too many things that rely on other things for survival and nourishment that simply could not be, were random chance, billions of years, and the micro-evolutionary process true. Our world would look much different.

Continuing, the stalwart Westminster Confession of Faith is another place in the history of the church where the truth and beauty of creation is summarily taught. Chapter four paragraph one says:

“It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.”

This statement is vitally helpful, because it testifies to the church writ large of the trinitarian nature of creation. It’s first declaration is that creation is a trinitarian act, placing the social fabric and structural makeup of what is made, necessarily trinitarian. Then it highlights the glory of this creation as being “of nothing.” In other words, before the world and all that dwell in it were created, nothing existed except God in trinity. There was nothing except Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect union. Out of this perfect loving union God made all things whether visible or invisible, very good, and for the glory of his name and the benefit of his creatures.

Likewise, the London Baptist Confession of faith articulates something very similar. It says:

“In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.”

Additionally, in article one of the Thirty-Nine Articles, it is written:

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

These three statements, while differing in their language and description to some degree, are all more similar than they are disparate. What this shows, is that across faith traditions, i.e. Reformed, Presbyterian, Particular Baptist, Anglican, etc. there is great commonality regarding the significance and centrality to the doctrine of creation.

The Fall

The Fall of man is likewise, another area where the Protestant tradition speaks loudly. The Westminster Confession Chapter six paragraph 1, says:

“Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.”

The first sin, is here, shown to have been the result of deception. First Timothy 2:13-14 says, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” It is significant then, that the confession says that our parents – plural – were seduced. Eve alone was deceived by the serpent, however, Adam then listened to the voice of his wife, and in so doing the deception of Satan passed to Adam. This deception does not, however, nullify culpability on Adam or Eve’s part. They each made willful decisions. Adam was likewise feckless, which is why he was so easily overtaken and succumbed to the temptation of his wife. Nevertheless, the fact that Adam sinned is of preeminent significance, for it altered the course of all subsequent history. In other words, it wouldn’t be an over-exaggeration to say that aside from God’s creative work of the creation of all things, this was the most significant even in all created history till the life of Christ.

The significance of the fall comes in the implications present in it.

“By this sin [Adam and Eve] fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin…they being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all posterity…[therefore]…from this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions…this corruption of nature, [therefore], during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.”

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.2-5

What is commonly called “the fall” is then of monumental significance, because by it man became a sinner. His identity was changed from innocent child to guilty outsider. Not only that, but he was also expelled from his abode of peace and prosperity. No longer would the ground yield as it was meant to, but due to the fractious and corrupting nature of sin to the entire creation, not only will a mans labor produce less than before, but twice the effort will need to be exerted. Additionally, relationships and institutional fabric became strained. Marriage and all that stem from it was now to be fatigued and haggardly. Most notably and significantly, however, was the loss of communion and fellowship with God. This was the chief loss suffered by Adam, Eve, and all subsequent generations. God does not delight in wickedness, and he cannot dwell with evil (Psalm 5:4), and therefore there is a great chasm now between humanity and God which was a direct result of sin. No longer is there natural, innate, and expected sweet and abiding fellowship, but rather, all men are born under the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3).

Epilogue

It is evidently clear that the doctrine of creation and fall is of vital importance and has been throughout church history. There is simply no way of getting around the massive significance it plays, regardless of the doctrinal perspective one takes on the Old Covenant as a whole. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Faith, therefore, is an integral part of being able to understand the work of God. Faith, being a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9), is then the prerequisite for seeing creation properly and as the Lord would want.

When we look at creation and the fall, therefore, we shouldn’t be morose but rather joyful. Yes, Adam and Eve sinned against God and that has indeed caused all kinds of mayhem, most of all death (Romans 5:14, 21). However, staying there produces endless navel gazing, tedious inspection of any Christian having fun, and an unnecessary abbreviating of the Gospels power and pervasiveness to all facets in the world. We ought to live in light of Christ’s glorious triumph over Satan, death, and the grave, be ever working to answer the Lord’s prayer and to cause the Lord to say that day two of creation was good.

We are headed toward a new Eden, when the curse of Adam (Genesis 3:17) is anathematized, and there is “no longer…anything accursed” (Revelation 22:3) because the throne of God and the Lamb will be in its midst. If we are moving toward that view of glory, and we have the blessed assurance of God’s promise that it will happen, we ought to be joyful and triumphant, building the Kingdom of God by the proclamation of the Gospel, one generation at a time.