Reading through Paradise Lost this weekend, I couldn't help losing myself in the story that Milton so expertly tells!
The aspect that captured my interest the most, however, was when, (in book 10), Milton narrates his approval of Adam and Eve's Fall. He argues, that they are solely the ones at fault, since free-will gave them both the option to either accept or deny the fruit that Satan presented to them.
I find it so sadly ironic, that when humanity was first confronted with temptation, the response was to immediately give in! It's such a curious occurrence, especially when you consider, that this moment in history wasn't just the first time humans were ever tempted by evil, but it's also the first time we actually had an opportunity to exercise our free-will! This was the greatest test to determine whether or not we would really do the right thing without God being there to guide us, and how easy was it for us to just disobey, to totally and completely fail!
We as Christians always talk about our sin natures that were brought on by the Fall in the Garden of Eden. We discuss how these sin natures separated us from God and kept us from having a relationship with Him prior to Jesus' crucifixion. But don't you find it funny, how Adam and Eve, who were perfect and pure, totally faultless and lacking our post-Fall sin natures, just sinned as if it was second nature? It boggles my mind trying to discern between the free-will, the temptation, and the sin natures that Milton so confusingly crossed in these final three books!
The conclusion I came to is: the reason Adam and Eve were so easily swayed by Satan's temptation, was because their innocence blinded them to Satan's evil. However, we today do not have the same pass as Adam and Eve had. We were born into a sinful world and have seen its evil ways. Because of this, we need to be stronger than Adam and Eve and not give in as easily as they did!
Edit - Replied to Kayla Gill and Christian Nelson (Tuna).
The aspect that captured my interest the most, however, was when, (in book 10), Milton narrates his approval of Adam and Eve's Fall. He argues, that they are solely the ones at fault, since free-will gave them both the option to either accept or deny the fruit that Satan presented to them.
I find it so sadly ironic, that when humanity was first confronted with temptation, the response was to immediately give in! It's such a curious occurrence, especially when you consider, that this moment in history wasn't just the first time humans were ever tempted by evil, but it's also the first time we actually had an opportunity to exercise our free-will! This was the greatest test to determine whether or not we would really do the right thing without God being there to guide us, and how easy was it for us to just disobey, to totally and completely fail!
We as Christians always talk about our sin natures that were brought on by the Fall in the Garden of Eden. We discuss how these sin natures separated us from God and kept us from having a relationship with Him prior to Jesus' crucifixion. But don't you find it funny, how Adam and Eve, who were perfect and pure, totally faultless and lacking our post-Fall sin natures, just sinned as if it was second nature? It boggles my mind trying to discern between the free-will, the temptation, and the sin natures that Milton so confusingly crossed in these final three books!
The conclusion I came to is: the reason Adam and Eve were so easily swayed by Satan's temptation, was because their innocence blinded them to Satan's evil. However, we today do not have the same pass as Adam and Eve had. We were born into a sinful world and have seen its evil ways. Because of this, we need to be stronger than Adam and Eve and not give in as easily as they did!
Edit - Replied to Kayla Gill and Christian Nelson (Tuna).
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