The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat… Genesis 3:12
“Y’see, Lord,” said Adam, “it’s really your fault that we broke your commandment and ate the forbidden fruit. I only did it because the woman that you gave me, she told me to do it! If you hadn’t put this woman in the garden with me–well, not this particular woman!–I never would’ve disobeyed you.” (Eve, at least, didn’t blame God as Adam did. She just blamed the Serpent.)
We hear this argument a lot, especially from liberal Christians who crave the secular world’s approval. We would think it strange if a car thief said, “All right, I’m a thief–so what? That’s how God made me! And Jesus loves me just the way I am! In fact, stealing cars isn’t even really a sin. It’s just the way I live my life. And I live a thief’s life because that’s my truth, that’s the life that God intended for me. So if I steal your car, don’t blame me, blame Him.”
We have not yet reached the stage of moral degeneration where we’ll accept this line of booshwa from a thief. But for every conceivable variety of sexual sin, it sells and a lot of us are buying.
I mean, really…
“Y’know what, Adam,” said the Lord, “I made a mistake! Yup, I see that now. Thank you for pointing out my error to me. It’s all my fault. Not yours, not Eve’s, not even the Serpent’s–gosh, I made a mess of things!”
But that’s not our theology–I hope.
We may never know if things would’ve been different had Adam refused and only Eve ate of the tree, having been tricked by the Serpent. God commanded Adam before Eve was even given to him. It’s ironic that Adam blamed Eve.
Gen 2:15-22
15. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22. And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Of course Eve knew of God’s command. She even told the Serpent. Still, it’s one of those details that are interesting to ponder. God blamed all three.
And, Lee, I have to disagree with your conclusion that “We have not yet reached the stage of moral degeneration where we’ll accept this line of booshwa from a thief.” That’s precisely what we’re doing these days. Criminals are victims. The victims were somehow at fault. . . . and the earth is flat.
Darwinism is the father of not holding criminals accountable. He taught that when man acts in such a manner he should not be punished or corrected because he is only doing what comes natural to him.
I hadn’t thought of that before, but I believe you are right.
I just now noticed your post on this subject so I suppose I am a bit late when it comes to a reply.. but.. I thought I might provide some balance. It’s easy to critique the struggle to keep true to the Christian faith when you yourself haven’t walked a mile in the shoes of the person you might be critiquing. When I saw the title of this post,Blaming God, I thought I might be reading some assemblage of life’s struggles and how we, as humans, can easily fall into the moral trap of assigning blame to the unknown, fate, or a higher deity when there’s no evidence that another human was directly responsible. But your post wasn’t about that. Once you get past the political reference of pigeon-holing fellow Christians as “liberal Christians”.. as if that were a branch of Isis or something.. the rest of this post fell short of my expectations. But.. MY expectations mean nothing as this blog represents your thoughts, not mine, as it should
I might suggest you explore the idea of “blaming God” a bit further. I posted this a few days ago and I know you seldom read my flights of fantasy for fear of getting the political liberal cooties or my anti-Trump poison ivy on you, you might consider giving this a read…
http://www.findingpoliticalsanity.com/death-taxes/
I read it. And I’m sure I’ve never tried to write of anyone’s death as “God needed him in heaven.”
As I read the Bible, death is an aberration brought about by Adam’s original sin of disobedience, which spiritually polluted all Creation. When God performs His work of regeneration, death and sin will no longer have a place in it.
The idea of death as a good thing probably has its roots in Greek mythology. Sin and death are our enemies.
This reminds me of 1 Cor 15:20 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”
Amen, come quickly Lord Jesus.
Death is yet another sacrament of humanism.
“Death is yet another sacrament of humanism.”
Led by their god, Satan the Devil.