Will mankind on earth reattain the original state of Adam and Eve?

Question

Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice".250 This grace of original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life" CCC375

Now, I've heard a priest say that through Christ's death on the cross all of humanity will go back to the original state. I imagine this as if mankind's goal was to return back to Adam's original state of holiness. And when looking at history, we can see that societies are becoming softer and more authentic despite all the evil happening around us. Thanks to new technologies, humans are more open and transparent, which changes our mentality.

My question is: Will this happen on Earth, or is it meant for after the Second Coming and Resurrection? What Catholic teaching is the priest referring to?

Answer 1

No, all of mankind will not return to the original state of Adam and Eve.

The Origenists' heresy of apokatastasis or doctrinal universalism claimed "that hell is essentially a kind of purgatory in which sins are expiated, so that eventually everyone will be saved."

The following proposition was condemned as heretical in 543 A.D. (Denzinger 411):

the punishment of devils and wicked men is temporary and will eventually cease, that is to say, that devils or the ungodly will be completely restored to their original state

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Evolutionists like the heretic Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., think mankind naturally evolves toward greater perfection, but this is a denial of original sin. Adam and Eve started out in a state of perfection and devolved after they sinned, the opposite of what evolutionists claim. God's supernatural grace is necessary for restoring the original order, but not everyone corresponds with His grace.

Answer 2

Will mankind on earth reattain the original state of Adam and Eve?

The biblical answer is YES!. St.Paul even boldly exclaimed it.

"For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the Law, Christ died for nothing.”" (Galatians2:19-21)

Jesus Christ is the New Adam, having a sinless body and free from concupiscence of the flesh and not only have Divine Life but Jesus Christ is the Life.

John 14:6 New International Version (NIV) 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

St.Paul boldly exclaimed that he had reach Theosis or Divinization, the Spirit of Christ fully and perfectly dwells in his being. Therefore, St.Paul had received the promised of Jesus Christ that He will make all things new, St.Paul is a new creation cleanse from original sin and wash away even the stain of sins or concupiscence.

So, the Priest was right in your posted statement.

"Now, I've heard a priest say that God through Christ's death on the cross all of humanity will go back to the original state. (your statement)

The blood of Jesus Christ washes away our original sin, and living a Eucharistic Life like what St.Paul had lived is the key in overcoming the concupiscence. And we know the Jesus Christ became the Wisdom of God.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (!Corinthian1:30)

And the Spirit of Wisdom or the Spirit of Christ will not enter a soul that is defiled.

Wisdom 1:4 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA) 4 For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.

Is St.Paul the only one who became a new creation in the history of the Catholic Church?

The answer is NO, there are so many incorruptible saints and so many mystics of the Church who lived a Eucharistic Life with no other sustenance other than the body & blood, soul and divinity of Christ.

See this link on the mystic of the Church and the Incorruptible Saints who became the New Adam having a perfect Divine Life and holy & blameless before God.

MYSTICS OF THE CHURCH THIS WEBSITE IS DEVOTED TO THE EXTRAORDINARY MYSTICS AND VISIONARIES OF THE CHURCH, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE LESSER KNOWN, SUCH AS ST GEMMA GALGANI, BLESSED ALEXANDRINA DA COSTA, SR CONSOLATA BETRONE, THERESE NEUMANN, REV. PERE LAMY, GABRIELLE BOSSIS, JOSEFA MENENDEZ, MARTHE ROBIN, SERVANT OF GOD LOUISE LATEAU, BLESSED ANNA MARIA TAIGI, SISTER MARY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, SISTER MARIA ANTONIA AND OTHERS. THE AUTHOR ENDEAVORS ALWAYS TO BE IN COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS TEACHINGS. http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/

With regards to the Incorruptible Saints the most famous and the recent are St.Padre Pio and St.John Paul II the Great, etc. These incorruptible saints are the like New Adam by perfectly bearing the image of Christ in their pious life.

My question is: Will this happen on Earth, or is it meant for after the Second Coming and Resurrection? What Catholic teaching is the priest referring to?

Yes, we already a witnessed to all the mystics of the Church and the incorruptible saints. And the Catholic teachings is written in CCC1000, it means by living a Eucharistic Life our corrupted body will be transform into a transfigured body as the body.blood, soul & divinity of Christ will fully and perfectly dwells in us if we live a pious life like St.Paul, St.Padre Pio, St.John Paul Ii, etc.

1000 This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies:

Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.556

Answer 3

Your question brings up two points: 1 - Will all of humanity return to the original state of Adam & Eve? 2 - If so, will this happen before the Second Coming, or after?

To answer the first question - humanity is not meant to return to the exact same state of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created mortal. But because they had the Tree of Life in the garden, it gave them the gift of immortality. They were also created without an understanding of good and evil. That changed when they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We read in Genesis 3:22...

"The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever."

The Bible teaches that our destiny is not to return to the same original state of Adam and Eve (being mortal and with no understanding of the difference between good and evil). Rather, we are meant to become immortal, and live with God forever, never again to be cast from His presence. I love how Hebrews describes this as an "eternal inheritance." We will also still have a conscience (meaning, an understanding of the difference between good and evil - Adam and Eve did not have this in their original state), but our conscience will be cleansed through Jesus, that we never desire to do evil. We read all this in Hebrews 9:14-15...

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

Nevertheless there are attributes of Adam and Eve's "original state" that we are meant to return to. Like, no longer carrying shame (Genesis 2:25), and dedicating our lives to only serve God's commands (Genesis 2:15). We will also be living in the direct presence of God (Genesis 3:8). In regards to these points, yes, we are meant to return to certain attributes of the original state that Adam and Eve were created in. And it will be wonderful :)

To answer your second question, "when" will this happen - the answer is in Revelations 20 and 21. Revelations 20 talks about a final war against Satan. After he is destroyed, verse 12 talks about the Resurrection - that all "the dead, small and great, stand before God... and the dead were judged... and they were judged every man according to their works."

Only after the final war against Satan, the Resurrection, and Judgement Day, will we enter the glorified state that reflects back to the same state Adam and Eve were in (but only better!). Revelations 21 reads...

"1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. 3. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

To point directly to Catholic resources regarding this doctrine... From Catechism 1021 - 1050 we read the same order of events as listed in Revelations 20-21... At the end of times, there will be a Resurrection (1038), a Final Judgement (1039), and then a new Earth (1042). CCC 1045 even differentiates the glorified state of the New Earth from the original state of Adam & Eve, by saying, "For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed *from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been in the nature of sacrament."

I really appreciate this article that delves further into the topic.. catholickey.org/2015/04/02/revelation-views-on-the-millennium