Class Notes: 9/2/2012

Adam's curse included the curse on creation that is the basis of the fallen environment that we live in

In our study of Gen 3; where we see Satan's propaganda that leads to the deception of the woman and the fall of mankind last time in Gen 3:16; we saw the judgment of the woman.

We also saw that if the man is to properly lead his wife and the family he is responsible to love her from virtue love. This means that the husband is responsible for growing in grace through daily perception of doctrine even more than the wife is.

The principle of the man's authority is restated in 1Cor 11:3; where the man is described as being the head over the wife.

Gen 3:17; "Then to Adam He said, `Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and you have eaten from the tree concerning which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in sorrow you shall eat from it all the days of your life.'"

Adam had a double authority over his wife: as ruler of the world, and as her husband. Adam. He followed her when he should have been leading. She influenced him, when he should have been influencing her.

It was his responsibility to be the leader in things related to their relationship. Adam had failed to do this. By obeying his wife, who had no authority, Adam became spiritually dead and lost the rulership of the world.

The Lord, as judge, clearly explains this before he sentenced Adam. We see that Adam's sin is mentioned, but the woman's is not. They are both responsible for their own sin but Adam knew what he was doing. Temptation is not sin. Sin is the result of the volitional choice to disobey God. 1John 3:4b;KJV

Gen 3:18; "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants (vegetables) of the field."

We see here that the environment shares in the consequences of Adam's sin, The ground will no longer produce sufficient food on it's own and when it does it is with thorns and thistles. Thorns and thistles will grow better than the food crops.

Man must now work to grow food or to earn a living. Paul discusses this curse upon the material creation in Romans 8:19-22; Rom 8:19; The confident expectation of the material universe stands in eager anticipation for the revealing of the sons of God.

The perfection that was restored prior to the creation of Adam was destroyed when Adam sinned. Since the fall of Adam, the universe itself has been under a curse waiting to be restored once more at the Second Advent of Christ.

In the mean time between the fall of Adam and the Second Advent of Christ the environment is designed to kill us because it is under a curse.

Rom 8:20; For the creation was subordinated (at the fall) to futility (loss of previous function) against its own will but because of God Who has subordinated it in the time of confidence (confident expectation of the Second Advent).

The original creation was perfect and so was the restoration. Gen 2:15; Then the Lord took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. But when Adam sinned it resulted in not only the human race becoming accursed but also the creation itself.

The Lord had restored the earth to provide man with his sustenance with minimal effort. Once man fell and the earth was cursed along with mankind and its benevolent provision entered into decay and ceased to function properly.

In the perfect environment of the garden, the earth was so ordered that its ecosystem efficiently provided year-round sustenance for Adam and the woman even though there was a mandate for Adam to maintain it: Net note 47

Prior to the fall the earth was a perfectly functioning system but following the fall it entered, metaphorically, into a frustration that will continue until the Second Advent of Christ.

Rom 8:21; Therefore the material universe itself shall be set free from slavery to corruption and decay into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Adam's fall caused the universe to fall. This resulted in the earth entering into a state of corruption and decay that did not previously exist.

The English words "corruption" in the King James and New American Standard and "decay" in the New International Version and the NET are translated from the Greek noun "phthora".

Vine, W. E. An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), page 235:

"Phthora", being brought into an inferior or worse condition. It is used physically of the condition of creation, Rom. 8:21.

Arndt, William F. and F. Wilber Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. 2d ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979) page, 858:
"Phthora", ruin, destruction, dissolution, deterioration, and corruption in the world of nature … coming into being and passing away.

Liddell, Henry G. and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), page 1930:
"Phthora",, destruction, ruin, especially by some general visitation.; passing out of existence, ceasing to be ; loss by deterioration.

Friedrick, Gerhard Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Vol. 9. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), pages 93-105

( Phthora,), corruption and decay in antithesis to ( ginomai ), original creation. The question is that of what abides (the earth) in contrast to that which changes (things that are on the earth).

They have a fixed span which undergoes alteration. The concept of (corruption and decadence) is always defined by what abides and is immutable in the cosmos (the eternal). The main concern of older Greek philosophy is to know this abiding element in the changing and perishing forms of nature.

Philo: Phthora" is something whose cause does not lie in God, the eternal is not subject to corruptibility Corruptible vs Incorruptible. "Phthora" in Romans 8:21 is the "corruptibility" which must pass away as flesh and blood must also pass away.

This verse indicates that the earth was thrown into slavery to decay and corruption by Adam's fall, will be restored to perfection with the resurrection that occurs with our Lord's return at the Second Advent.

This "slavery of corruption and decay" currently encountered by the universe is the result of a curse takes the form of the second law of thermodynamics and is manifested by the principle of entropy.

Energy takes on two forms: potential, called matter, and kinetic, called energy.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics or the Law of Energy Decay states that every system left to its own devices always tends to move from order to disorder, its energy tending to be transformed into lower levels of availability, finally reaching the state of complete randomness and unavailability for further work.

The tendency to move from order to disorder and the tendency of energy to move to lower levels of availability is the principle of entropy, defined by:

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, "entropy": The measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system; a measure of disorder of a closed thermodynamic system; the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity; the steady degradation or disorganization of a system.

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