We Believe: Chapter 3
The students will learn:
God created human beings, body and soul.
God called us to be stewards of creation.
Evil entered the world through a human act.
All people suffer from the effects of Original Sin.
Faith Words
soul - the invisible spiritual reality that makes each of us human and that will never die.
steward - a person who is given both the authority over and what he or she cares for and the responsibility for seeing that it lives.
sin - a thought, word, deed, or omission against God's law.
Original Sin - the first sin that weakened human nature and brought ignorance, suffering, and death into the world; we all suffer from its effects.
Facts
The biblical writer tells us that God created humans by taking a lump of clay from the earth and using it to form the body of the first man.
This creation account is very old, yet it agrees with the idea from today's modern scientific study: Our human bodies are made out of the same elements as the rest of the universe.
Humans are a union of a visible, physical body and an invisible, spiritual soul.
God's creation of woman from the rib of man symbolizes that females and males share the same human dignity.
The garden was a symbol that the biblical writer used to show the happiness that human beings had in the presence of God.
God allowed the human beings to name the animals.
To the ancient Israelites, people had authority over those whom they named. So humans were called by God to be the caretakers of creation.
Stewardship involves authority and responsibility.
Evil entered the world through a human act.
In Genesis 3 the biblical writer uses a story with many symbols and other storytelling devices to teach important truths about sin and suffering.
Happiness & harmony - the first humans were at one with God, each other, and the rest of creation.
The forbidden fruit - this warning symbolizes that friendship with God depends on complete trust in God and on following his will for us.
The serpent - the fact that the woman believed the serpent reminds us just how attractive evil can be. It shows that because of our free will, humans have the power to make choices that can lead to good or evil
By their own actions, the first man and woman broke their friendship with God and let evil into the world.
We all suffer from the effects of Original Sin, though it is not a sin for which we are personally responsible.
Even though the first human beings turned away from God, God did not turn away from them.
God did not abandon humanity. Instead God promised to show them his mercy.