No 'paradise lost'

In this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Adam and Fallen Man,” a timely request comes to us from the prophet Isaiah: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord” (1:18 , citation 1).

So then let’s examine the two conflicting Hebrew creation stories found in Genesis. In the first story, man is created in the image and likeness of God, Spirit, and “behold, it was very good” (see Genesis 1:26, 31 , cit. 2). The second story begins with a mist (one might say, mystification) and tells us the Lord God created man from “dust” (see Genesis 2:6–7 , cit. 5). The Responsive Reading informs us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16 ).

These two independent, contradictory creation stories, written approximately 400 years apart, are not in chronological order in the biblical text. The earlier, matter-based Adam story tells us Yahweh, the Lord God of the Covenant with Israel, created a material man capable of sin, and then punished him by exile from His presence. It is attributed to the Yahwist documents written from the tenth to ninth centuries bc . The later spiritual creation story tells us God, Elohim, created perfection by divine declaration. This story is attributed to the Priestly narrative documents, written during the time of the Babylonian Exile between the sixth to fifth centuries bc . During the Exile, the worship of the Lord God of Israel evolved into an understanding of the universal God of spiritual creation.

By beginning with the spiritual creation in the Bible, followed by the material myth, the Scripture gives the appearance that Adam was once the perfect image and likeness of God, who sinned, then lost his identity and perfect being. The Adam man became a prototype for the “fallen man” of humanity, a condemnation that still preoccupies our world today. In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher laments, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (7:29 , cit. 6).

This Lesson nullifies the Adam beliefs through the spiritual understanding of our oneness with God and His creation, and a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy informs us, “For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence” (p. 492 , cit. 2). Christ Jesus demonstrated this through fulfilling his mission of spiritual healing, overcoming sin, disease, and death. We see evidence of these healings throughout the Lesson. The redemption from sin … no fallen man. The infirm woman … the healing of disease. The tree of life … there is no death.

The creation story in Genesis 1 uplifts, redeems, and heals us by declaring God’s pure, spiritual, creation of the universe, including spiritual man: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created …. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (1 , 31 , cit. 2). Everyone and everything is included in the blessing. 

Science and Health declares: “To begin rightly is to end rightly” (p. 262 , cit. 30). The image and likeness of God, spiritual man, always was, and forever remains, perfect. The Adam man, created from dust, was never real or perfect. In reality, in the true history of God’s divine creation, there is no fallen man, nor “paradise lost.”