UNDERSTANDING ORIGINAL SIN

UNDERSTANDING ORIGINAL SIN

So many struggle with the story of Adam and Eve. Here is an overbearing God threatening them with death if they eat of a certain fruit. In comes the sly serpent offering enlightenment and godhood. On its surface the serpent seems the good guy and God the oppressive controlling one. Let’s get into this and really dissect what is going on here.

To fully understand this story we first have to understand the fruit that was offered. This fruit was not the apple as many claim, it was a fig. In the wild figs are a type of fruit that flowers inward creating a sort of protective womb for pollination. In order to be pollinated a female wasp, still carrying pollen from her own birth must crawl through a tiny opening called an ostiole into the figs interior. This process damages the wasp often ripping off her wings and antennae trapping her inside. She then lays her eggs, pollinates the inward facing flowers and dies within the fig. Her body is broken down by enzymes within the fig and used as fertilizer. The eggs hatch and male wasps emerge first, blind and wingless. They mate with the females still in their galls, chew exit tunnels and then die inside. The newly fertilized female wasps collect the pollen and escape through the tunnels to repeat this cycle in another fig. Through this process the fig is transformed into a seed bearing fruit.

This macabre process is a mirror echoing the fundamental truth that in order to bring forth new life you must become subject to cycle of death. This was what God meant when he said when you eat of this fruit you will surely die. To eat of this fruit is to fully know and understand the cost of the act of creation. The serpent gave Eve a half truth, “You will not die, your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing both good and evil.” When Eve ate of the fruit her eyes were indeed opened and she did not immediately die. She became aware of the womb she carried that was a mirror to the womb of the fig. When Adam ate of the fruit he became aware of the seed that he carried that live only to die while fertilizing the woman’s egg. They understood the full nature of their reproductive system and became ashamed at what it represented so they covered themselves with fig leaves.

What was the nature of good and evil they became attuned to? Simply the cyclic nature of creation and destruction, the dynamic tension that exists in nature keeping all things in balance. Creation brings forth new life and new potential. Destruction prunes the old making space for new creation. In this knowledge Adam and Eve became aware of their own divinity and ability of procreation that is a mirror to God’s own creative ability. But Adam and Eve were still children and not ready to weald this power in a responsible way thus the serpent became both liberator and enslaver. What is true evil? To an eternal creator it is death. Death is an affront to life and God wrote it into his creation to understand it. We are the universe experiencing itself and through us God is attempting to understand why death is the cost of creation. It is an entirely foreign concept to a being that doesn’t experience it. The entirety of humanity’s repressed anger is centered around the nature of death. The path through this life is to learn acceptance and understanding of it and find peace with it. Learning to cherish each moment in the brief time we are given.

Why then does God curse them and cast them out? The curse of Adam reflects the work and toil that Adam must do to provide for the growing family he is creating. The curse of Eve of pain during childbirth is to remind her of the painful cost of creating and bringing new life into the world. The fetus gestating inside her literally sucks the life force out of her. This is the reason why the ancients of Earth lived so much longer. There was more of this creative life force to go around. But as populations grew this limited life force energy was distributed over the growing population and there was less to go around, so lives became shorter. Life in Eden was designed to be easy and free of such burdens. Adam and Eve were created to be eternal and live in harmony with God. In this sense God was truly just a protective father seeking to persevere his children’s innocence until they had grown up and were able to receive this knowledge with the maturity to use it with wisdom. The serpent was no better than a pedophile groomer seeking to mar God’s beautiful creation out of its own petty jealousy. The reason why pedophilia is so often associated with powerful elites is this is a reflection of the serpent’s desire to bring enlightenment to children before they are ready for it. And God, like any good father let its children sit in the consequences of their actions so they could learn from their mistakes.

Lastly we have the curse of the serpent:

“Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.””
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This foreshadows the victory that Christ would eventually achieve over evil, “He will strike your head and you will strike his heel”. In Revelation the Anti-Christ is struck in the head mortally wounding him. Throughout history the serpent was cursed to slither in the dust, the darkness that bore the light. Seeking to bring knowledge and enlightenment to humanity by being a mirror for every dark desire we have, but always being reviled, demonized and attacked for the reflection it showed us. And then there is Christ, God in the flesh. The Light that came down and bore the darkness of all our sin and shame. Thus becoming the bridge healing the original sin that caused us to become separated from God our father.

So what is the lesson in all of this? Protect your children’s innocence for as long as you can. Teach them and lead them by example. Use discernment on when you think they are ready to learn certain things. Let them make mistakes and be there to help them see the lesson in it when they do. And be ever willing to lay down your life to rescue them from their own sins.