Bible Study What was Adam's condition before the fall, and after?

[lovely]

I am hoping to initiate a study on man's condition ultimately in sin, and once He is born again. I thought the first place to start is with Adam.

Question 1. What was Adam's spiritual, and physical, condition prior to the fall, and could He be in the presence of God?

Question 2. What was Adam's spiritual, and physical, condition after the fall, and could He be in the presence of God?

Question 3. What was the state of his will prior to the fall, and after?

Could you give Scriptural support for all of your answers. Thanks, and the Lord bless all of you.

 

[thessalonian]

Lovely,

Did you see my theology of the Body posts in the RCC section. I go in to this.

Adam and Eve were sinless in the garden. They were in unity with God and with eachother as Eve was the perfect mate for Adam:

Gen 2
23: Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Adam and eve were sinless until the fall. There was no divorce.

Matt 19:8
He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

No lust or anger.

Man (including women) was made in the image and likeness of God. Adam saw Eve as a reflection of God's glory and Eve saw Adam in the same manner.

Gen 1
26: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

But sin entered the world:

Romans 5
12: Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned --

With it men and women began to see eachother as objects. Sin corrupted our physical bodies so that death became a reality for man. The ages of men decreased over time.

I will think of more later perhaps. But offhand that is hopefully of some help for you in your study. Please read my two theology of the body posts. Also the Christopher West link I gave in those threads has more than you could ask for on this subject and gets in to how Jesus Christ came to redeem our fallen natures and restore us to the immage and likeness of God which is muddled in our fallen sinful natures. Pope John Paul II spent every wednesday for 5 years giving a series of sermons at the vatican on this matter. It is all contained in a book called "theology of the body". Pretty incredible stuff. The basis is that we in the image and likeness of God reflect his glory.

Blessings

 

[lovely]

Thanks, Thess, I will read your posts.

 

[thessalonian]

This is an important verse as well:

Gen 2
25: And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Note that they were naked and unashamed because their bodies reflected the glory of God and they saw them in that way, without lust. Their nakeness was not sinful and they did not look at eachother as objects of their own personal desires. Rather as creations of God that were beautiful and showed his glory. Lust of course entered when sin entered and one of the first things Adam and Eve did was to cover themselves with the fig leaf in order to shield their bodies from the lust of one another. (It was not that their nakedness became sin, but as a prevention of the other sinning).


Another passage of note with regard to their unity before the fall:

24: Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

 

[Bick]

What was Adam's condition before the fall; and after?

It is true the pair were sinless for some time in the Garden, how long it doesn't say.

I believe, being created in the image of God and after His likeness, they had amazing curiosity, and no doubt either learned to speak the original language (probably Hebrew), or, perhaps were created knowing the language.

They were told they could eat of every kind of fruit, both from plants and trees (Gen.1:29). As of the fruit of trees, they could eat of all of them except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Therefore it is my assumption they did eat of the Tree of Life which continually sustained their life.

As Thessalonians said, they reflected the glory of God and were unaware of their nakedness.

A literal translation of God's commandment to Adam to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge is from Young's Literal Translation:

Gen.2:16,17 "And Jehovah God layeth a charge on the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden eating thou dost eat; and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it---dying thou dost die.'"

Upon their disobeying God's commandment, they knew they were naked and hid from the Lord. So, the aura or glory was gone from covering them, and psychologically they were changed, when they hid themselves from God.

Certainly, that close, open fellowship with the Lord was gone, even though God communicated with them.

So, they were sent forth from the garden, never to eat of the Tree of Life again and "live to the age". Young's LT.

And now, outside the garden, Adam had to raise food "by the sweat of his face" from ground full of thorns, brambles, weeds, etc.

So that day Adam and Eve started dying, and Adam died 930 years later.

Bick

 

[Rick the holypig]

Before the fall

After the fall = same thing but with a dead spirit & the Flesh in control

After Jesus the christian looks the same as before the fall