13 votes
Accepted

Do any theologians argue that in the Fall, Adam sacrificed himself out of love for Eve?

Augustine's concept of defining all sin in terms of disordered love is certainly applicable: for Augustine, rightly ordered love was virtue (City of God 15. 22) and disordered love was vice... the ...
bruised reed's user avatar
  • 12.5k
12 votes

How do Christians who reject pre-fall death reconcile their views with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (66 million years ago)?

Those creationist Christians typically place the "extinction event" in Noah's day, thus long after the fall of the historic Adam. An example is from the well-known Young Earth model defender,...
GratefulDisciple's user avatar
10 votes
Accepted

Do Young Earth Creationists believe that insects, microorganisms, and animal cells died before the Fall?

This article on the Answers In Genesis website is a good introduction: https://answersingenesis.org/death-before-sin/did-death-of-any-kind-exist-before-the-fall/ One short quote: The Bible never ...
Paul Chernoch's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

Adam and Eve Clothed in Light Before the Fall - Origin of this belief?

It seems this interpretative tradition goes back millennia to the ancient Jews. BioLogos has a short article on the development of the tradition that Adam and Eve "wore" garments of light, attributing ...
fгedsbend's user avatar
  • 12.9k
8 votes

Who was the first to reject the historicity of Adam?

Philo The first-century Jewish theologian Philo may not have been the first Jew to reject the literal historicity of the creation stories, as it is my understanding that educated Alexandrian Jews had ...
Dick Harfield's user avatar
8 votes

According to Ravi Zacharias's apologetic argument, how could love have existed prior to the fall?

You appear to be slightly misunderstanding Zacharias's argument. Here are his four options: No world Amoral world (no such thing as good and evil) Constrained world (no possibility of choosing evil) ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

How could Adam and Eve lose their just standing before God if it was given to them as a Grace and not earned?

Reformed Protestant theology, which includes the doctrines of justification by faith alone and the perseverance of the saints (the inability to lose said justification) regard salvation to be ...
Andrew's user avatar
  • 8,035
7 votes
Accepted

The fall was part of God's plan?

So the latter day saints are saying that God planned for Adam and Eve to fall from grace and bringing sin into the world? Yes, basically. The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi chapter 2, explains this. The ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 11.7k
7 votes
Accepted

How do Christians who reject pre-fall death reconcile their views with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (66 million years ago)?

To expand on GratefulDisciple's answer... ...the short version is that a lot of them don't. There are, as I see it, three-and-a-half options. GratefulDisciple already explained the "young-Earth ...
Matthew's user avatar
  • 4,958
6 votes

According to Calvinists, how could Adam and Eve fall? How could Satan fall?

One prominent Reformed theologian, Louis Berkhof, has written that "[t]he problem of the origin of the evil that is in the world has always been considered as one of the profoundest problems of ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Why did so many early church fathers say that sex was a consequence of the Fall?

I think the quotes given answer your own question as to why the fathers taught what they did. They seem to explain themselves rather clearly and their exegesis is pretty straightforward. The curse in ...
Ian's user avatar
  • 1,180
5 votes

According to Calvinists, how could Adam and Eve fall? How could Satan fall?

In order to know the answer to the question, we need first to know the difference between the pre-fall and fall of Adam. PRE-FALL Adam was created with the ability to choose life or death (Genesis ...
R. Brown's user avatar
  • 6,333
5 votes

According to reformed theology, how does the fall glorify God?

Charles Hodge provides a simple argument in his Systematic Theology (1.5.13.B). He begins on the same ground as stated in the question: that the glory of God is the ultimate purpose for everything. ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

What prominent Christian thinkers (if any) held to polygenism and if so how did these thinkers view original sin?

Yes. In his book, The Problem of Pain, popular Christian author C.S. Lewis discusses Adam's sin in the context of Scientific understanding of his time, which included Darwinism. He presents an ...
Andrew's user avatar
  • 8,035
5 votes

How could Adam and Eve lose their just standing before God if it was given to them as a Grace and not earned?

The underpinnings of this answer depend on the theology of two covenants. Adam and Eve were originally under a covenant of works. This is to say, that God made an agreement with them that, as long as ...
Birdie's user avatar
  • 1,349
5 votes

How could Adam and Eve lose their just standing before God if it was given to them as a Grace and not earned?

I believe we can agree that our first parents, who were in a state of original justice, had done nothing to earn that initial state and that it was a gift of God by virtue of his perfect creation. ...
KorvinStarmast's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

How does Human Nature relate to Angelic Nature, specifically regarding sin and free-will?

Paul is quite specific as to how sin entered our own sphere of existence : ... by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: [...
Nigel J's user avatar
  • 21.8k
5 votes

Eating a specific fruit that God didn't permit was an act of disobedience, agreed, but?

Let's untangle this conundrum. First, according to Genesis, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden on Earth. It says that God in some form walked in the garden and talked with Adam and Eve. People ...
Paul Chernoch's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

Why did God banish Adam and Eve for eating fruit?

You've missed exactly what Adam and Eve missed - the tree of Life. There it was in the midst of the garden. And there it was - the Word of Life - 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou ...
Nigel J's user avatar
  • 21.8k
5 votes

According to LDS, if the Fall was a positive thing why would God condemn sin in the flesh?

Before getting to LDS doctrine about Adam and Eve it is essential to know of some other teachings prior to the Adam and Eve Genesis account. One is that man (including Adam and his wife) had a pre-...
Anne's user avatar
  • 22.9k
4 votes

Is the emotion of sexual passion a result of the fallen state? (Catholic perspective)

The statement given in the O.P. has no foundation in Catholic teaching. There is nothing wrong with sexual passion per se; however, like all passions, it needs to be regulated by reason. As the ...
AthanasiusOfAlex's user avatar
4 votes

How do Mormons view events like the Holocaust considering that they view Adam's fall as a move forward?

Depperm's answer, with the article/answer and Book of Mormon chapter linked therein, is much more complete than mine. However, I wish to address one part of the OP's question: Presumably things like ...
NeutronStar's user avatar
  • 1,142
4 votes
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From a Calvinist perspective, if Adam refused the fruit what would happen to their descendants?

The question of the descendants of Adam if there had been no fall has actually be discussed a great deal among Calvinists in the disciplines of Biblical and Covenant theology. This question is a lot ...
Ben Mordecai's user avatar
  • 4,896
4 votes
Accepted

Where does Augustine say that Adam and Eve were in Eden for just six hours before sinning?

Did Augustine say six hours, and if so, where? Probably not. Finally, Calvin erroneously claims Augustine for the view that Adam and Eve fell after a mere six hours. (emphasis added) This is ...
Stephen's user avatar
  • 1,626
3 votes

Adam and Eve Clothed in Light Before the Fall - Origin of this belief?

There actually is a reference from Chrysostom as well that would support this idea: [W]hile sin and disobedience had not yet come on the scene, they were clad in that glory from above which ...
Paul Ardans's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

In Catholic teaching, what specific actual sinful act did Adam and Eve commit, and what level of authority can be applied to this teaching?

The doctrines of Original Sin are of the highest level, de fide or "of faith."(cf. this table of theological notes, the proximity of truths to Divine Revelation) The following comes from Ludwig Ott's ...
Geremia's user avatar
  • 36.3k
3 votes

Adam and Eve Clothed in Light Before the Fall - Origin of this belief?

Good afternoon: My name is David Mario Nocera and I am sharing a little study of one Rabbi concerning ADAM and his WIFE. I hope that everyone who reads it will enjoy it. GOD BLESS EVERYONE. IN AHAVAH ...
David Mario Nocera's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

According to Mormons, why did God make Eve's childbearing painful?

While there may not be a direct answer, that is specifically answered in LDS (Mormons) doctrine, there are a few that together may provide an answer. The LDS have a strong belief in opposites. 2 ...
depperm's user avatar
  • 8,543
3 votes

Why did so many early church fathers say that sex was a consequence of the Fall?

Some of their other teachings suggest that marriage was created after the fall. Why, then, did they teach these things? To understand the evolution from the early sex-affirming Hebraic culture to ...
mathewb's user avatar
  • 133

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