Now it has been shown how the first sin committed by the children of God against our Creator transpired even before the defiant physical act of eating the forbidden fruit, because “sin is that which does not proceed from faith.” And the first evidence of such an inward ascent not regulated by faith in the Creator lies in the resolute and wholehearted aspirations of the human heart that place love of self, whether oneself or another self, above love for the Creator. Such unruly desires seek to fulfill one’s own selfish desires or the desires of another self, instead of bringing to satisfaction the desires of the Heavenly Father’s heart. Hence, it was with these self-centered desires that faithlessness in relation to the God-relationship first began. This infidelity modified the existential normative worldview [what ought or ought not to be in relation to one's part in the world one finds oneself in] of our first parents, because such a willful existential appropriation of these delusions exposed them to believing the ‘error’ committing oneself fully to the God-relationship, which necessitates that one submit fully to the Creator’s will. Even though these delusions were introduced counter-voluntarily – due to the fact that if they had truly grasped beforehand the outcome of adhering to these delusions then they would not have done them, which is evidenced by their deep regret after the fact – nevertheless, culpability for giving into these delusions remains. This is because the faithlessness of giving into these delusions took root voluntarily in the synthetic vision of our first parent’s heart due to a willful departure from the Creator’s Vision spurred on by an inward forgoing of a wholehearted trust, faith, devotion, and love in the Creator. Such an appropriation of the lies of the Deceiver led them to the point of wholeheartedly falling victim to this deception even before they had actually taken a bite out of the forbidden fruit. The primary aim of the deception was not the goal of getting them to eat of the forbidden fruit but was rather for pride to be sparked in their heart, a pride that would drive them away from surrendering completely to their Creator’s will and from placing their unconditional faith and absolute trust in Him. This pride led them to replace living for God with living for self, and such an act of becoming an egocentric self was an outright betrayal against the greatest commandment to remain a theocentric self, as it states that one ought to love one’s Heavenly Father with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength. Therefore, our first parents fell into untruth due to their infidelity to the God-relationship. Egoism led Adam and Eve to forfeit their faithful devotion to our Heavenly Father and to relinquish their faith in our Father’s goodness. And their egocentric actions drove them to refuse the parts that God wrote for them to fulfill in His eternal story for creation.
Before this halt there was no true test of faith, because all the commandments of the Creator appeared quite fitting and advantageous to humanity’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 (eternal realities correspond to the Creator’s Vision that designates His story for creation) 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 this presentation made the option to choose another way than God’s way become seemingly advantageous. Summing up the subsequent pursuit of the alternative path that resulted in a continuous moment-by-moment falling of the human race into eternal untruth, I would like to say that in these moments of either/or, we freely and stubbornly chose to fixate the telos of our souls and hearts away from the Creator’s Vision in order to chase after perverted, egocentric, and temporal aspirations and ambitions that are crafted by the deceptions and imagined possibilities happiness that are mere chasings after mirages. They are here one moment and gone the next; once grasped, they fade away and disappear, that is those things, temporal things, that we have attained to give us happiness and rest. Thus, the criterion of their being became set on temporal realities, so that their identity became coordinated by a opposed to the One that is supposed to define a person’s true and eternal self. The One I speak of is the Creator, who originally intended each individual to be, and is the only one capable of assigning each individual an identity that is eternally effective and truly meaningful. Thus, Adam and Eve became secular selves illuminated by temporal realities instead of the glorious eternal realities their trueselves, our true selves, were meant to be. For they each freely became a secular 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 humanity, who had up until then remained fully as he ought to be and was fulfilling his part to play in Creation’s story, to depart from our assigned part to play in the pursuit of a part that we perceived to be more profitable than remain faithful to our relationship with our Creator.
The following analogy of the relationship between a playwright and an actor can be brought to mind as a similar illustration of an act of rebellion that is in a way also an act of infidelity. Now this playwright is a renowned playwright who has single handedly been the one responsible for not only opening up the door of acting to this particular actor but has also been the one responsible for his increasing popularity due to the playwright continuously casting him as the star protagonist in a series of plays, that were specifically penned with him in mind. But during the unfolding of the playwright’s vision for this actor’s career, an existential revolution occurs within the actor, one that directly breaks the bond between them, a bond that had become close over the years. The actor comes to the point of desiring to rewrite the newest script he has been given, and as a result, he cannot devote his full attention passionately towards meeting the requirements set before him by the playwright in performing this new play. This newly kindled desire stems from the actor’s loss of faith in the standard of oughtness the playwright had established before he was even assigned this new part. He begins to question not only the words of the script, but the playwright’s vision for how he ought to act out this new character, which is a vision delineating how he should carry himself, his attitude, personality, and his relations to the environment and the other actors. In other words, the actor begins to subjectively conceive of an alternative way for developing his character both in his interpersonal and intrapersonal relations that will draw the audience into the character’s world. And it would all revolve around him as its epicenter. Such a drawing in would mean that the emotions of and the attention of the crowd would flow according to the development of his character, and if done right, it would bring the attentive audience to the point of seeing their human ideals freely unfold in such a way that his performance inspires within their soul an ecstatic type of heroism while at the same time lifting his image to heights previously unimaginable in the world of theatre. And this constant tantalizing over how the rest of his career would unfold through this most promising door of possibility results in the diminishing his once strong inner drive to surpass the expectations of his mentor. This loss of passionate devotion drains the actor’s capacity of carrying out the ends of the playwright’s vision. This alternative and egocentric vision begins to outshine the previous vision of how his career was to unfold, as the star of the renowned playwrights final series of plays before retirement. But now instead, the actor aspires to have this new found vision supersede the providential vision of the playwright. It is an aspiration based not on accentuating all roles in a way that fulfill the beauty of the storyline, but is based on directing the spotlight on his role while making all others serve as a mere means of accentuating his role, making it shine brighter and brighter above all others. Consequently, the actor’s attention and commitment becomes rerouted towards a newly concocted vision of a ‘finer’ way of carrying out his part in the play that ultimately reshapes the play as a whole, one that he is convinced is also better suited in highlighting his ‘proficiencies’ as an actor. Further, this disordered passion leads him to forfeit his hope in the playwright’s Vision as one advantageous to his acting career. Fear then grips him when he thinks of the likelihood that the playwright’s Vision will curtail his rise to stardom. That fear grips his heart as he dreads the possibility that carrying out the playwright’s will for his new part would open the way to the possibility of evil to his future as an actor, such as the possibility that it would bring an abrupt end to his promising career. Like a voice that attempts to rise above all other voices in a choir or like an instrument insubordinately playing louder than all others, with the intent that doing so would enhance the brilliancy of the composition, the actor becomes blinded by his pride and , during a series of rehearsals, performs the role in the way that he envisioned. In becoming so full of himself and through his blatant defiance, his actions cut the final tie between him and his playwright, triggering the playwright to dismiss the actor from rehearsals and from his job.
The actor, in devoting himself to an imaginary part that did not correspond to the playwright’s vision, had forfeited his originally intended role. In his escapade for grandeur, he took lightly his dependency on the playwright providence, such that this infidelity to the playwright in his final hour instigates the melancholy response of the playwright and brings his series to a premature and untimely halt. The playwright’s final masterpiece became tarnished beyond repair because of the actor failing to actualize his originally intended role. Who could find a replacement for a play designed with him in mind? Thus, the actor’s once servant-like devotion to the legacy of his mentor becomes overshadowed by the actor’s insatiable thirst for personal glory, and this is what truly brought about the break in the unfolding of their relationship, irrespective of the actor’s voluntary incompetency to carry out the ends of the playwright’s vision.
Through these deliberations on the fall it has been shown how the Temptation itself is not solely to blame for the fall of the human race into untruth, for the origins of the fall lie in an inner yearning that is unregulated by faith and ignited by mistrust in the Creator’s Vision for a person’s life the absolute necessity of the God-relationship. As a consequence, humans become distracted away from God. This illicit desire to redefine themselves, along with the willful act of leaning on their own understanding, brought about an existential revolution replacing a theocentric orientation of selfhood to an egocentric orientation of selfhood. So then, the catalyst of the Fall was an internal volitional act of selfishness stimulated by a reinforced inclination towards self-love, which is to say it is not God-centered but human-centered. This reorientation of fidelity resulted in a comprise of their God-relationship that should be a relationship dependent upon a love towards the Creator that not only supersedes all other loves but that is also the middle term for every other loving relationship. All other loves should flow as an extension out of this primal love. Even though this infidelity resulted from a distorted vision of reality, our first parent’s are still culpable for acquiescing to this existential revolution that reshaped their inner devotional commitment according to reorientation of the goal towards which the expenditures of their individual effort are directed from a theocentric goal to a egocentric goal. The object of one’s inner devotional commitment can be described as being what one lives for in the sense of the basis of care that is the driving force behind one’s act of willfully pouring out one’s time, energy, and effort.
Now when pride infiltrates the unfolding of this outflow of life, the obstinately rebellious act of withholding one’s faith in the Creator’s Vision is the natural result, because it is a pre-requisite for re-directing this inner existential drive inward towards the ego. Therefore, this existential revolution of our first parent’s is a rebellious act driven by the fires of infidelity, seeing as the inward ascent of the will towards committing this rebellion could have only resulted from a self-love that dominated over a sacrificial love built upon inner self-denial, and that type of love involves pouring out one’s life as a living sacrifice to the One who is the gracious giver and author of life itself. Consequently, since the fall of our first parent’s, lack of faith has imposed an obstacle preventing us from resting transparently before the illumination radiating from the light of our Creator’s Vision, which defines not only our proper role in the Story of Creation but also our eternal destiny as His children. When egocentric desires fueled by a counterfeit light of oughtness inflames and engulfs a person, he or she cannot take part in and abide in the Creator’s story, for the fulfillment of this part is contingent upon remaining in the state of holiness, which cannot be accomplished apart from absolute faithfulness. Continuous sin that we the descendants of Adam and Eve are guilty of is the result of living in the fog of capriciousness and searching on the shores of an egocentric conception of rest. The passions of self-love are the motivational force behind our pursuit and we continue to do so because of our hope for happiness or even at times the hope in escaping the fears of distress. Thus, the root of man’s sinfulness is a misplaced passionate faith in the self that is incited by stubborn pride, and a misplaced desire shaped by the ego ignited by the illicit fires of self-love. Each additional moment that the self is mercifully granted in temporality is a gift of eternity granting each individual another equal opportunity to turn from the wide path of perdition, to arrive at a proper positioning of faith, and to return to the God-relationship. With each consciously passing moment comes the imperative and fateful either-or of decision, of deciding which of the infinite number of paths of life leads to the chief good of one’s existence. With each consciously passing moment, we are able to be an instrument of darkness or an instrument of light: to promote Life or to promote Death, to advance the ends of the Logos’ Vision or to advance the ends of another vision. Each moment the act of repentance remains possible, so each moment there is eternal potential for redemption and the possibility for good that corresponds with eternity.
In summation the fall, was instigated by our first parent’s assent to an egocentrically defined criterion of who they ought to be and how their part in the Story of Creation ought to unfold. That criterion required them to forfeit adhering completely to their Creator’s Vision. It also required them to violate their relational bonds of fidelity towards Him as the Author of both their very existence and eternal destiny, to turn their back on Him as their Heavenly Father. This stubborn change of the will was instigated by an internal intention of the will aimed away from the Creator’s Vision; it was a redirection stimulated by a reorientation of faith away from the Creator and towards oneself. As a result of this redirection, they chased after a mirage of future possibilities: a better life one richly blessed with more knowledgeable and more god-like life. In this vying for a better life on their own terms, our first parents wholeheartedly chose to live for their self-centered and ‘supposed’ advantage, rather than living for the sake of our Creator. Not that He needs us, but that we were created for His good pleasure. From the outset of this egocentric pursuit, our first parents saw before their mind’s eye a vision of humanness distinct from the Creator’s and they became so convinced by the palpability of the appearance of this other self that they saw it as not only the most befitting of their existence but also the more desirable life. To them, it appeared to assign their existence the most fulfillment, happiness, meaning, and prosperity in life. Now this act of betrayal was rooted in a prideful self-love that drove them to abandon the theocentric sacrificial love of God, whom they were created to perpetually abide in. Only through abiding in He who is Love, could they become mediating sources for the finite manifestations and immanent unfolding of He who is as Love, as well as the only source of true agape Love. This is to say that He intended for the human race to be continually more aware of and to abide in His love with a never-ending medium and source by which He could reveal Himself as the Loving One: His children. He made them in His image so that they could become co-workers with Him in carrying out the fullness of the finite works of love. These works would be fueled by His very presence within them, as His abiding presence within their soul would become for them a source of the living water of eternal life, defined essentially by the permeating element of His love. He intended to be for us the source of living water for the internal chambers of inwardness that serve as a well to hold these living waters. Now our Creator intended for our hearts to be saturated by His love, so that we could truly participate in a procession of righteous living. Such a procession fueled by the love of God is like a continual, never-ending painting of the picture of a truly vital love. As each stroke moves, more love is revealed in an endless canvas with infinite paint.
However we, who were to be wells of living water and to overflow with life have become polluted by self-love. We have become clogged and idle, like stagnant cesspool. Furthermore, since we are not being continually filled, we risk drying up. Now these tainted waters of self-love infected the inner vision of our first parents, which was a vision that they placed their hope in for eternal happiness. And they did so to the point that they considered it as fulfilling their search for meaning and happiness and so placed their faith in this illicit good of partaking of the forbidden fruit. Due to this poisoned source of the inner life of the soul, our first parents contracted the virus of Original Sin. Such a virus perverted their basic soulish nature and rooted it in egoism – which by necessity can only produce a non-theocentric “love,” that is in truth, a counterfeit love and at best an incomplete form of love. Such a consequence is a fitting but tragic outcome for those that stubbornly and quite willfully resist the full illumination and being illuminated by the Creator’s Vision.
Not only that, but this act of sedition against the God-Relationship was a sin before the Creator of all finite existence. The human race fell along with the once all-together perfect system of the physical created cosmos that we inhabit. Now this descent implies the departure from a state that is fully pleasing to the Creator and as such will necessarily eternally endure to an originally unintended state of functioning that is merely apt to temporally endure, as it has ceased to highly effectually operate in the harmoniously unified state of holiness. As the stewards over the unique living creatures and plants of planet earth forfeited their originally intended position, the system that was meant to be preserved in a state of shalom that glorifies the Creator through the execution of the roles corresponding to this stewardship descended into disorder and stopped resting transparently before the light of the Creator’s Vision, instead became ravaged by the results of fallenness, primarily negative change that results in disease, cruelty, death, and a state of nature that is not as it was originally meant to be. 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 ramification of the fall of the children of God upon the physical universe was due to the fact that every one of the original virtues that the Creator ordained this universe 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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