17 Adam-itis, Gen 8:20-22

Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Some people ask, "Why doesn't God just kill all the bad people so we can have a good world?" Well, these chapters in Genesis give us our answer. Even though the flood eliminated all the bad people on earth, leaving only one family alive, it was only a matter of a short time afterwards that evil was expressed, and human society was again corrupted (Ge 9:20-24; 11:1-9). This shows that every human, even someone as good as Noah, carries within ourselves a spiritual "disease" which is involuntarily passed on from parent to child. These inner forces were released by Adam and Eve's rebellion against God. The old theological term for this inherited tendency to ungodliness is called "original sin." It doesn't mean we're being punished for what Adam and Eve did, but it means that the rebellious, selfish and independent attitudes in our first parents have been passed on to all of us. We've caught their disease, and as a result, each of us commits our own sins that bring upon us death and hardship. We could call this disease Adam-itis because it's a spiritual infection contracted from our first human parents. Its presence within us is something we need to realize is there. If I understand I have the disease, then I can properly apply God's cure.

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