The Fourth Heaven

"The Fourth Heaven" is a reference to the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri. In "Paradiso" (Cantos X-XIV), the Fourth Heaven is the sphere of the Theologians and Fathers of the Church. I would not presume to place myself on the same level as those greats, but I am interested in philosophy and theology; so the reference fits. I started this blog back in 2005 and it has basically served as a repository for my thoughts and musings on a wide variety of topics.

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Location: Riverside, California, United States

I am currently a graduate student in philosophy, doing research on theories of moral motivation and moral reasons. I'm also interested in topics in the philosophy of science--especially theories of explanation--and would like to become better acquainted with the writings of Kierkegaard, Husserl, and Heidegger. I am currently a member of the Free Methodist Church, have a broadly Evangelical Christian background, and am learning to better appreciate that tradition and heritage. I have a growing interest in historical and systematic theology (especially the doctrine of the Trinity and soteriology) and church history. I'm always thrilled when I get the chance to teach or preach. I like drawing, painting, and calligraphy. I really enjoy Victorian novels and I think "Middlemarch" is my favorite. I'm working on relearning how to be a really thoughtful and perceptive reader. I enjoy hiking and weight training, the "Marx Brothers", and "Pinky and the Brain".

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Graduate 79: Advent, Day 2

The Fall
Genesis 2:4-3:24

In Genesis 2 we see God’s generous provision for his children. He prepares a garden for Adam to live in, takes care of all his material needs, confers authority on him, and provides a suitable helper-partner for him. God gives Adam and Eve everything that they need. It is practically unthinkable that they should want anything more or could ever come to doubt God’s perfect goodness; but that is just what happens. The serpent plants seeds of doubt in the mind of Eve; also desire for wisdom beyond what she already possesses. Her trust in God waivers, so she takes the fruit, and her husband also.

The first consequences are immediate--shame and broken relationship. Adam and Eve recognize their nakedness and (attempt to) screen themselves from one another and from God. Death is the ultimate consequence of their action--both physical death and spiritual death; they are cut off from fellowship with God and from His kingdom and from the spiritual realm, even as we are today. Humanity continues in disobedience to God and suffers these same consequences for it.

Genesis is the book of beginnings and origins and firsts. We have seen the beginning of the world, the first human beings, and also the first sin. But we also see the first promise of hope and redemption. Fourteen-hundred years before the birth of Christ, Moses records this prophecy and pronouncement against the serpent: “…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” This is the first recorded prophecy that will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who comes to defeat the devil and destroy his work. (1 John 3:8) Later, the Apostle Paul will describe Jesus as the second Adam and say of Him: “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

So we see that though the consequences of sin are real and painful, and still affect us today, God has not abandoned His creation. He gives Adam and Eve clothes. He sends them out of the garden so that they will not eat of the Tree of Life and so be doomed to an eternal life in their broken condition. And, even in that time, He reveals that He has a plan for the future.

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.

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