We should now discuss how such an either/or came about, specifically how such a deception formed in the minds of our first parents. First, it should be emphasized that a change in what appears good to an individual can drastically alter the direction of a person’s inward state of becoming, worldview, and inter-personal relations . The most lucid illustration of such extreme existential implications is found in the following Biblical account of how this preliminary examination of our first parent’s faithfulness to our Creator unfolded:
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it” (Gen. 3:4-6).
Now this false appearance of the good of [what befits] human existence was shaped in response to a false representation of reality. This façade of what befits human existence was introduced before the mind’s eye of our first parents by an idea formed by a temptation. In this instance a temptation could be understood as an inference of reason pertaining to the future possibilities of good realized by eating of the forbidden fruit, and these possibilities were based on ideas transcending their prior experiences. Their perception of reality only assimilated this idea when they chose to entertain the idea as one actually corresponding with reality. Being tempted was not a sin before their Creator, but entertaining the idea and then wholeheartedly living in light of it with the conviction of its authenticity. They let this counterfeit light illuminate the wrong path, the path that lead them along their life’s journey. Think of it like this: Imagine a street at night that stretches far beyond your vision, with just one lamp post shining bright enough so that you can only see a few yards on. Then imagine in the opposite direction the same street but brightly lit with neon lights, buildings, music, laughing people, and beautiful people all around it. To you, going down that path seems more appealing, less scary, and certainly less lonely. Yet, it was the other direction that God wanted you to go, full of uncertainty and quietness. That feeling deep inside from such a scenario, of a path that has a greater appeal and another that really does not, may have been similar to what Adam and Eve felt.
One of the rational aspects pertaining to the false appearance of how much more befitting it was to Adam and Eve was the idea of becoming a new self who reaped the fruit’s supposedly rich benefits, than to be a self that lacked the benefits procured by such fruit. They reasoned that this new self would be a wiser self. Hence, a better and more complete self. Such a basis for acting in light of the veracity of this deception was thus the result of rational deliberation, not purely intuition or basic instincts, which made them much more culpable in eating the forbidden fruit then if they had done so out of a momentary lapse due to an intense, immediate, and unreflective craving. Reflection upon this temptation stimulated imaginative fantasies of the future possibilities corresponding to this alternative path they would experience after eating of this fruit, and this stimulated lust for becoming this more attractive self that would have the opportunity to fulfill what seemed to be a finer role in the Story of Creation or a self that was better fit to carry out the role already assigned to them by the Creator. Thus, this temptation painted before their mind’s eye a mural of their trueselves from a palate of future possibilities previously unknown to them. Such a fabricated self, however, defied their Creator’s standard of oughtness, because it was a secular self formed by an alternative blueprint that was different from the theological blueprint of their trueselves that the Creator fashioned for them. But to them this secular self became a self they ought to be and once pride set in, this new mold of their trueselves became to them somewhat like their birthright; something that they deserved. But what they did not know was that such a secular self was also a fictional self that had no basis in future possibilities. They did not know that pursuing this ‘self-actualization’ meant to pursue a mirage of future possibilities of good, ones that faded away once they had finally become this secular self and realized that they had chased after a lie.
In relation to this false vision of their trueselves, on the one hand was a fabricated vision of the future possibility of good, implying that the Creator’s Vision was lacking in goodness, and on the other hand implied that the Creator was holding them back from becoming a finer, truer, and more perfect self. So, for them attaining this ‘self-actualization’, would have brought them into a higher realization of self-actualization that was better suited to realizing the height of their individual potential as human beings. In other words, to become this ‘wise’ self was to reach the pinnacle of possibility in relation to the trueself they could become, a self complete and perfect in every way. And true here is in regards to this new found vision of selfhood. Because of such a conviction that leaned on mere human understanding as the most secure grounds for determining goodness, the self illuminated by the Creator’s vision was a destiny that could not bring about the fullest reality of shalom to human existence. As a result, such a vision should not and must not be trusted. But for them (Adam, Eve, and the rest of fallen man) this newly introduced mold of selfhood appeared to be one better suited to the internal propensities of human existence, more so than the mold of selfhood formed by the Creator’s hands. So then, the destiny revolving around this new mold was perceived to be more befitting of human existence; therefore from their perspective, this either proved the incompetence of their Creator or that He does not their best interests at heart.
The other rational aspect that made partaking of this forbidden fruit more palatable was formed by a judgment based on one’s past experiences of eating the fruit of the garden, for this forbidden fruit came to be viewed as more enticing than the other fruit of the garden, because of how seemingly advantageous the benefits of eating of it were and because of envisioning how their selves would become after eating it. It would be like a low self esteem woman’s reaction to something that she now comes to know will make her beautiful. Thus, the carnal aspect of this false appearance of goodness made this temptation more enticing as it wetted the appetite even more in view of the pleasure procured from one’s past carnal experiences of satiation. Accordingly, the immediate benefits of eating this forbidden fruit, and not just the permanent benefits, enforced this appearance of good by making this appearance exceedingly palatable to both the eye of the flesh and the eye of the soul. Furthermore, the development of this false appearance of what befits human existence was initiated by a thought that did not stem from an idea formed by the rational faculty of a person, because their minds were passive in the formation of this proposition. Rather, another mind served as the active intellect that brought before their mind’s eye this inference of reason.
The woman, Eve, made such communication from this other mind effective by contemplating the ideas comprised of data that transcended her experiences of the world, even though such a use of reason as this was improper, because it entertained a conceptual reality outside of the Creator’s Vision. It appears that she entertained ideas not in accordance with the thoughts and ways of God. The formation of this appearance of good began with a modification of her existential worldview, in particular, her view of herself in relation to the self she believed to be her trueself, as well as her view of her Creator and His Vision and her relationship with Him. In this instance, she did not run to her Heavenly Father to escape the tempter. According to this new perspective, it was Him and His commandment that became the obstacle for achieving true happiness, because even though she knew God’s commandments albeit not perfectly, she still saw the fruit and ate of it. Because of her apparent loss of faith on the part of the Creator’s vision for Her part in His story, her vision of herself as a completely theological self became deficient of self- actualization, which could only be realized through partially becoming a secular self in relation to this seemingly small part of her story. In her mind she probably had the misunderstanding that she could still remain a theological self while only being unfaithful in relation to one stipulation of oughtness pertaining to this divinely authored identity, for she was filled with regret not only for transgressing the standard of her Creator but was also afraid of His response after she had disobeyed Him. Because of her lack of trust in the vision of her Creator, she pursued after what is forbidden because of a perspective that departed one in harmony with the Creator’s Vision. This is because she saw herself as being deficient of the fullness of her highest good, and that her trueself was one that defied her Creator’s Vision. Her trueself that she wanted to be was one that was wiser, better off, more fulfilled, and more virtuous, which would become actualized upon the eating of the forbidden fruit. She saw that the fruit “was desirable for making one wise.” (Gen 3:6) Her view of her Creator and His Vision for her life was also compromised, because by her conviction in this new appearance of the good, as it was rationally grounded in a lasting soulish benefit, she forfeited her devotion to her Creator’s intentions for how her story ought to unfold. Instead of placing faith in her Creator, she placed her faith in her new found vision of what was most advantageous to her existence, something even more valuable than the God-relationship. Thus, this change of mindset stimulated multiple existential changes (her view of her relationship with God, her view of her destiny, her view of herself, etc. ) that ultimately and radically modified the direction that her life was headed in.
The temptation that led to this new found vision of what is was a result of a delusion with only a partial basis in reality. This partial basis lied in the fact that one who ate the fruit would indeed find nourishment, and would not immediately expire into nothingness, and that God knew that their mind’s eye would be opened after partaking of this forbidden fruit. Yet, unlike the deceiver’s assertion, such an opening of their mind’s eye was not at all in their best interest. Rather, it opened an infinite number of possibilities for temporality to unfold according to various other paths, and this temporal nature is due to them all having the same end of destruction, since they are in actuality all paths that belong to one singular wide path, the wide path of destruction. Now these are doors that opened up before them all lead to a realm of untruth, temporality, and fallenness, as each of these portals leads away from how the Creator originally intended their story to unfold. This is because the only realities that they lead one into are ones that are a departure from the Creator’s Vision and hence are considered evil realities, which can be likened to darkness. In other words, giving into this temptation opened the floodgates of Fallenness to overtake the world, like a dark shadow or fog that overtakes a city. Although, I must emphasize though Adam and Eve’s ignorance of evil and their blindness to the dismal realities that would overtaken them and the world by falling this alternative path that was a departure from the narrow path illumined by the guiding light of the Creator’s Vision. They were blind to its dark nature, for only such a false and naïve hope can imagine and believe that to know evil is to become enlightened. It is true that they would be aware of evil like the angels and the Creator are aware of evil, but unlike them, human beings are easily enticed and easily enslaved by this knowledge because of their limited intelligence and inferiority to that of divine beings, such as the Creator and His angels. This is to say that unlike human beings, who are very shortsighted creatures with a very limited perspective on reality, possibilities, and the future in comparison to divine beings, divine beings are fully aware of the outcome of making a departure from the Creator’s Vision...
Only with this commandment and the subsequent trial by temptation could there come to be a thorough test of our faithfulness to our Creator, for undergoing this trial would initiate a deep existential act of “to be or a not to be” that would determine whether or not we will wholehearted become a self fully illumined by the light of our Creator’s Vision. If one refuses to fully relinquish his or her life to the Creator by not resting transparently before the Light of His Vision, then part of a person’s identity becomes defined by another light, a counterfeit light. Since remaining a theological self demand that a person is fully acceptable and faithful before the Creator, however, if an individual’s identity becomes shaped by what is unacceptable before the Creator, then a person forfeits his or her eternal destiny as a theological self, a self who is a child of God, and instead becomes a deviant before the Creator. Such a concocted vision of human ideality presented before the mind’s eye of all humanity is derived from intelligible realities of untruth that originate from the mind of the Deceiver. The Deceiver seeks to erect a self that is enticing both to the desires of our heart and to the rationale of our mind. Such a conception of ideality seems reasonable according to our limited understanding. Thus, only with this presentation of untruth that appeared logical to the thoughts and ways of our mind are we, as intelligent creatures, able to come to undergo test of whether or not we choose to lean on our own understanding and go a direction opposite and opposed to the path our Creator laid before us. With the fabricated and deceitful presentation given to us, the option to oppose God seemed advantageous.
Concerning our first parents, the concept of the advantages revolving around partaking of the forbidden fruit originated from and was shaped by the thoughts and ways of the Deceiver’s mind, through a process of perverting actual realities into a fabric of untruth and yet maintained logical coherence according to created human intelligences. This concept stimulated our first parent’s imagination and fed it previously unknown and false images that if entertained could integrate itself into the thoughts and ways of a person’s heart and mind. This imagined concept of pure reason gave the mind data that was used to shape a false concept of what the chief good of human existence was and what ought to be done to bring about the chief good. It also brought about a sense of lacking or privation that stirred up a desire for what was perceived as the final element necessary for attaining this chief good, which seemed finer than that of the one delineated for them by the Creator. The result of contracting the terminal condition of falleness that is depraved of eternal life was not the intended affect at all. The deception went directly against the warning given to them by their Creator, forcing them to come to terms with whether or not they should wholeheartedly believe that the Creator and His Vision was an object worthy of their faith even to the point of absolutely trusting without any certainty. In a sense, God required of them a blind trust or a trust characterized by a high risk required, because adhering to this commandment against the reasons presented to them by the Tempter would have required them to take a step of faith not grounded upon their own understanding. The Tempter or Deceiver directed them towards disobeying God and doubting His goodness, which stems from who He is and what their past experiences of His faithfulness and goodness were. If they had refused to give into this temptation, then they would have responded with a conviction similar to the following: “even if it clearly seems best for me and prudent for me to disobey my Heavenly Father, nonetheless may His will be done not mine” or “as for me, I would rather be an ‘unwise’ faithful child of God who makes my Father proud even if it seems to be at my own detriment, than a ‘wise’ faithless prodigal child who has grieved my Father in the selfish pursuit of self-glorification.”
Our first parents would never have committed such a transgression against the standard of oughtness prescribed by our Creator, if they truly believed that this exceedingly disadvantageous result was necessarily going to be the outcome of eating of the forbidden fruit in exchange for only a transient carnal pleasure and their eye’s being opened to the realities of darkness that bring about fear, anxiety, and guilt. When they ate it, it was in view of a false perception that it was truly good to do so, as it was seen as an action that was in their best interest and thus it would have been imprudent to do the contrary. Thus, the desires of the heart and thoughts of the mind aroused by this false idea were unregulated by faith and trust in the Creator and His Vision, because in coming alongside the conviction that this false idea was denoted what truly is as being in their best interest in relation to bringing about the chief good of their existence. Thus, the existential normative (what ought or ought not to be in relation to one's part in the world one finds oneself in) worldview of our first parents was the first to be modified by delusions that was introduced counter-voluntarily, since if they knew the outcome they would not have done it, but nevertheless one that took root voluntarily in the synthetic vision of their mind and heart due to a willful departure from the Creator’s Vision spurred by an inward release of devotion, trust, and faith in the Creator. So concludes how our first parents fell into untruth due to their loss of faith in our Father’s goodness that drove them to the point of refusing to freely give themselves fully over to His the eternal story He had written for each of them.
Before this halt there occurred no true test of faith, because all the commandments of the Creator appeared quite fitting and advantageous to man’s existence. Only with this commandment and the subsequent trial by temptation could there come a true test of faith, whereby man would initiate the act of becoming by living in light of eternal realities and not in light of temporal realities (temporal realities correspond to the deception illuminated by the counterfeit light). Only with the presentation of intelligible realities of untruth before the mind’s eye was man able to lean on his own understanding and choose another way opposed to God’s way, because only with this presentation did the option to choose another way than God’s way become seemingly advantageous. The subsequent pursuit of this alternative path results in a continuous moment by moment falling of the human race into eternal truth can be summed up by the following passage: In these moments of either/or we freely chose to stubbornly fixate the telos of our soul and heart away from our Creator’s Vision in order to chase after perverted temporal aspirations and ambitions crafted by deceptions and imaginations of possibilities of happiness that are mere chasings after mirages, here one moment gone the next or being grasped yet then fading away or disappear once we have attained the ends of these paths towards happiness and rest. These temporal aspirations and ambitions illumined by the counterfeit light that his will ascended in view of fabricated an ideal self that lied outside of the parameters of his Creator’s Vision. Thus, the criterion of their being became set on temporal realities, so that their identity became coordinated by a vision that was opposed to the one that defines man’s true eternal self, who his Creator originally intended each individual to be, and the only one capable of assigning each individual an identity that is eternally effective and meaningful. Thus, he became a secular self illuminated by temporal realities instead of the glorious eternal realities God their trueself was meant to be illuminated by. They freely became a self that departed from its complete potential to be a free theological self participating in eternal truth, by choosing rather to become a self chasing after a mirage of eternal prosperity that was in reality eternal depravity. Consequently, the Fall into Original Sin occurred due to this misrelation within the category of inwardness that caused man who had up until then remained fully as he ought to be according to the ends of the Creator’s Vision and was thus complete in relation to his part to play in Creation’s story, but departed from his assigned part to play in the pursuit of a part that he perceived to be more advantageous to him personally.
In summation the fall was instigated by man’s first instigation of an egotistical position as he measured the advantageousness of this illicit good according to how it would directly benefit his existence, and thus his soul fell into Original Sin, due to an egotistical internal act perverted away from the Creator’s Vision due to placing his faith in himself and wholeheartedly choosing to live for himself, rather than for his Creator in this moment of vying for a better more knowledgeable and more god-like life. Our first parents saw before their mind’s eye a vision of humanness distinct from the Creator’s as the most befitting of their existence, because to them, it appeared to assign their existence the most fulfillment, happiness, meaning, and prosperity in life. Consequently, by this act of sedition against the God-Relationship and before their Creator mankind fell along with this system into a state of functioning that was merely apt to temporally endure, as it ceased to highly effectually operate in the unified state of Holiness. This virus that began in the soul of man went on to immediately infect the entire race along with the rest of Creation within the Sphere of Temporal Reality. This is because when even a single operating reality within an absolutely perfect and unified highly effectual operating system becomes infirm, then the entire system is rendered infirm because the State of Firmness requires absolute firmness. Because without absolute all-encompassing firmness, the system lacks absolute completeness in relation to its intended correspondence with the Creator’s Vision (The instigation and permeation of infirmity is evil and not an originally intended end of the Creator’s Vision for Creation). The Shalom that originally characterized creation when the Creator pronounced it was very good (perfect) became canceled. When this occurred, the State of Holiness within the system became negated causing the entire system, along with every reality bound to it, to become deficient of its aptitude to eternally endure.
This extreme consequence of the fall of the children of God was due to the fact that every one of the original virtues that the Creator ordained this material cosmos to actualize is eternally useful to the ends of His Vision and if an iota of infirmity is introduced into a system, then the permeation of this infirmity will inevitably materialize. And if infirmity is permeating a system, then the system is in the process of breaking down. The only means of canceling the breakdown of a system is by the intervention of a reality that is superior to it. If a system is in the process of breaking down and that breakdown is not countered, then it will inevitably collapse and fall into complete disorder, which is called the state of Nothingness. The system in this instance is the material cosmos of created existence with its most necessary and central virtue revolving around the children of God's position as the Stewards of Creation, which at its core lies the Eternal Covenant that was violated by the eternal transgression committed by human pride and lack of faith. Thus, one can see why this eternal transgression has such serious ramification on the harmonious oneness of Shalom that originally characterized the entire system of the material cosmos after its creation was completed. An example on a much smaller scale is the human being. As soon as a human being comes into existence, the systems that enable him to remain alive, that being the respiratory or circulatory or immune systems are corruptible and eventually comes into the process of breaking down, which necessities that the body as a whole is inevitably moving towards the end of death. No man can escape physical death, unless by a higher reality that counters death. Likewise, this system is moving towards a state of uselessness, because the infirmity that permeates it destroys its aptitude to eternally endure. Thus, the dawn of temporally occurred as a result of this eternal transgression that caused the nullification of creation’s state of holiness, and this cosmic system that was originally created to eternally endure became subject to an expiration date - the inevitable point at which it will collapse back into nothingness.
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