About the unity of the human race and original sin

Exclusive. One of the tenets of Christianity is the unity of the human race. Modern evolutionists sometimes deny the genetic unity of the human race, although they themselves affirm it even when calculating the approximate life span of "Adam". What is important to pay attention to.

About the unity of the human race and original sin

Firstly. No need to confuse concepts. Epistemology is the science of cognition. Usually, people who say "science has proven" do not understand the basics of this science, and if they have degrees, then they were given a credit in the philosophy of science out of mercy. Science does not "acquire knowledge". Science builds hypothetical models that describe how the world might be organized based on available data.

These models may or may not be true, these models may or may not have predictive power. Also, erroneous models can have predictive power. For example, Cesare Lombroso's recognized pseudoscientific theory (I'm too lazy to describe it here, who is interested - search it on the Internet) has a certain percentage of predictive power.

Second. We automatically become hostages of some theoretical models if we limit Divine Revelation. In general, it is a big mistake to put limits on Divine revelation. The fact that the Scriptures say "one day" should not be taken literally to mean that it is a day of 24 hours and 60 minutes. It is necessary to understand that the Divine Revelation carries, first of all, meanings, and not forms.

"Swim to the deep," says the Lord. Therefore, there is no need to adjust the belief according to the adjustments of the current model of reality in the scientific environment. When ... ten years ago, geneticists declared that all humanity is physiologically the offspring of one couple, many believers began to spread this information with enthusiastic cries of "science has proven the Bible to be right." In fact, science has not proven anything, science has built a model, glued a mockup, and how close it is to reality is still a difficult question. There is no need to re-interpret the understanding of Divine Revelation every time with the help of a new scientific doctrine.

No matter how human knowledge about human biology changes, the dogma of the Christian faith about the unity of the human race will be part of Divine revelation and the basis for revealing the idea of ​​original sin. It does not seem surprising, but this dogma is one of the most difficult. Why did some very distant ancestor sin, and I must answer? What a collective responsibility! And these outrages are generally true.

The concept of justice does not know collective guilt. But human nature knows collective disease, and hereditary disease, and even hereditary tendencies. Consider the topic of the creation of man.

Firstly, on the one hand, man is a part of the world of living nature, on the other hand, he clearly does not belong to it. Everything in the world adapts to the world of living nature, and only man modifies nature for himself (for example, he does not grow wool, but makes clothes).

Secondly, "God created you, you took man's dust from the earth and placed him in paradise for fulfilling the commandment, promising him eternal life" (© Liturgy of Basil the Great). We see that man is two-component. On the one hand, it is "dust from the earth"; and on the other, a being destined for eternal life. On the one hand, a part of the world that lives according to the "law of the jungle", where there are only two goals, to find something (whom) to eat and to watch that you are not eaten. And so this person was removed from the jungle and placed in artificial conditions. Paradise in the Book of Genesis is described as square. This is an indication of its artificial nature. If anything, some kind of laboratory is shown here.

No one eats anyone in it. And man receives three commandments:

1. to breed and multiply.
2. cultivate and preserve the land.
3. not to "taste from the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (that is, not to decide for yourself what is good and what is bad).

The first commandment is "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28). This is the commandment of multiplying life. Throughout the Scriptures, the theme of life's surplus, with which the creator bestows man, runs. About the creation of the first people, the book of Genesis (Genesis 2:7) says that man received the "breath of life" (but in other translations it is given in the singular - "life"). This is not about multiple lives, not about "reincarnation". The plural (as in the word Elohim) speaks first of all about going beyond one's own singularity and self-identity.

Adam was given what Christ will later return to us: "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). These are the words of God the Giver. The gift of life is given to man in order to multiply this gift.
But the divine life that Christ brought in himself can be assimilated only by man. And, therefore, the world must be filled with human life. Man has to fill the world of the not yet inhabited Earth with his life. Therefore, the topic of marriage and reproduction is by no means something marginal for the Bible.

God gives man the commandment of work. He does it for a reason. According to St. John the Baptist, "due to the fact that the heavenly life brought a person full pleasure, giving both pleasure from contemplation and pleasure from tasting, so that a person would not be corrupted by excessive rest... (God) ordered her to make and protect paradise... God wanted that a person had, albeit small and moderate, care for its storage and processing. If a person were absolutely free from work, then, enjoying perfect peace, he would immediately give himself up to security; but now, engaged in pain-free work, devoid of suffering, she could be chaste."

In addition, it is necessary to say that the work before the fall was qualitatively different from the work known to fallen humanity. Then work was not a burden to a person. Yes, please. Augustine writes about the fact that tilling the land: "was not painful work, but a comforting pleasure, due to the fact that everything created by God then grew much more fruitful, which is why the Creator Himself was glorified to a greater extent, who gave a soul united with an animal the body, the idea of ​​work and the ability to do it as much as it served the satisfaction of spiritual desire, and not as much as the needs of the body demanded it."

At the same time, contributing to the development of physical and mental strength, work helped Adam to learn about himself and the world around him. As St. writes Filaret, God gives this commandment to man "so that he may multiply his natural knowledge by testing things... defend himself from the danger of a sense of self-satisfaction and independence and so that the visible improvement of earthly creations with the help of work reminds him of the opportunity and duty to cultivate his own heart."

These three commandments were the ongoing creation of man. God created a being that participates in his own creation. Not a servant, but an employee.

"When she disobeyed you, You (God) according to a just judgment returned her to the land from which she (man) was taken." And the man, already with an immortal soul and the concept of good and evil (it is about good and evil, not about bad/good) returned to the jungle. In a world where everyone eats everyone. She wanted to be "like God", to decide what is good and what is evil. But she could not. Wanting to be "god", man has lost connection with God. The idea of ​​the Christian faith is that this inclination "to be like God" is the same "original sin". What pushes to decide what is good and what is evil. Only God can destroy the power of this sin. Christ. He can destroy evil and free people from the effects of evil.

O felix culpa is the "happy" guilt of Adam. Says the Latin Liturgy of Easter. According to Eastern theologians, the incarnation of God would take place in any case. Only in the case of Adam's obedience, it would be glorious and painless. God has not left us despite the fact that we have left him.

In the modern world, the word "freedom" has become a kind of "keyword" for some people, thanks to which you can open almost all doors, behind which there is complete ease, life without any rules and principles. Fortunately, there are people - and the vast majority of them - who understand very well that freedom is a constant choice between good and evil, and that it is freedom that does not allow a person to open any door behind which evil lurks. Sometimes we ask, how is it that, knowing that we should not cross such a threshold, we cross it? Why do we abuse the freedom given to us by God?

In answering this question, we must go back to the origins, to the wonderful and dramatic story of creation recorded in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Adam and Eve, the first humans and the first progenitors, enjoyed friendship with God. This continued until they disobeyed Him, obeyed His prohibition, and crossed the forbidden line. Referring to the biblical image of Adam and Eve plucking the fruit from the forbidden tree, the Church explains that the first people, deceived by the devil, abused the freedom given by God, disobeyed God and as a result immediately lost the grace of original holiness. Adam and Eve sinned. Their first disobedience to the commandment of God, connected with the abuse of freedom, their first sin is called original sin. The consequence of original sin was death, which we all experience.

After the first sin, the world is flooded by the true "invasion" of sin. The Bible describes the fratricide of Cain against Abel. In addition, there is a general moral corruption that is the result of sin, or sin that manifests itself in different ways, including among Christians. A person, looking into his heart, constantly notices that, unfortunately, he is prone to evil and immersed in many evils that cannot come from a good Creator.

The question arises: Why did God not stop the first man from sinning? The Holy Fathers answer as follows: "nothing prevents human nature from being destined to a higher end after sin. Because God allows evil to make even more good out of it. Hence the words of St. Paul: "where sin abounded, grace abounded" (Rom. 5:20).

Despite the consequences of original sin, despite disobedience and infidelity, God did not reject Adam and Eve, the first people. Therefore, man is not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls her and promises a mysterious victory over evil and healing from the fall. The biblical description of the sin of the first people also contains a message of hope. God says to the serpent, which symbolizes the devil: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: it shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall follow his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

This fragment, called the Proto-Gospel, proclaims Jesus Christ, who defeats Satan and, through his suffering and resurrection, dramatically changes the fate of man, giving him a chance to be freed from sin. Despite our imperfections and weaknesses, our disobedience and abuse of freedom, God allows us to constantly return to Him in the sacrament of Penance, where He gives us His mercy. It allows us to make the right, i.e., only good, choice and not cross boundaries incompatible with the will of God, and not abuse the freedom we receive from the Creator. So, let's trust Jesus Christ and walk with Him through life, despite our weakness. Only in Him is our strength, our liberation and the victory that ultimately leads to heaven.

Please consider in this light the peculiarity of the first human sin: the first sin wounded human nature. Humanity is an organic whole, because it is an interconnected unity of nature. Well, as a result of the sin of our forefathers, we are all born with a weakened nature, now it is harder for each of us to be human in our particular life circumstances.

St. Apostle Paul writes deeply about this. And, accordingly, all men born of Adam may be regarded as one man, because they are united by the nature which they receive from their progenitor. All who descend from Adam are, as it were, many members of one body. And the body, for example, the hand, is not made by the hand, but by human will. Murder committed by the hand will not be the sin of the hand, but the sin of the person. And the descendants of Adam are born not by their own decision, but by the decision of our forefather. Original sin is not the personal sin of the one born into it. It is their sin inasmuch as this man takes the nature from the first.

Let's take a closer look at how deeply the Faithful words of St. Paul:
"where sin abounded, grace abounded" (Rom. 5:20). The saving action of the Lord Jesus is God's answer to the above-mentioned aspects of original sin.

First, in the light of faith, it is obvious that the good radiation of the righteous work that the Lord Jesus did through his death on the cross is infinitely superior to the bad radiation of Adam's work. Adam was only a man, Christ the Lord is also a man - He is truly one of us - but at the same time He is the Son of God, the God-man, therefore His action - although it is carried out in human nature - has unlimited power. All people of all generations can and should be in close proximity to His saving radiation.

Secondly, Christ the Savior not only strengthens us for good, He heals our wounded nature, and even more: transforms our nature with His divine grace. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to that grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of God's glory" (Romans 5: 1-2).

The turning point in our return to God was the sacrament of baptism. Through baptism, we became children of God and were given the opportunity to fully return to spiritual health. Although this happens in us slowly and not without disturbances, the root of evil has already been torn out of us. True, baptism did not magically remove various sinful lusts from us. But, as the Fathers of the Church perfectly teach, this desire is given to us to fight, it cannot harm those who do not agree with it and courageously resist it with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Hieromonk Feofan (Skorobagatov) of Polotsk, doctor of theological sciences