God's Providence, Freewill, and the Evil Inclination (Revised Part 2 of 4)

As I continued to read what I had written, I reordered and reworded the material so I thought it necessary to revise parts 2, 3, and 4. Sorry for the amount of verbiage.

PREDESTINATION AND THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN

Predestination is derived as a natural outcome from the doctrine of original sin. Simply stated, the sin of Adam was inherited condemning (predestining) all men to death. Only by God’s mercy are some predestined individuals given life, while the rest are condemned to death. The doctrine of original sin has been widely accepted by the protestant church, but is viewed as heretical by the Jew who does not find support for this belief in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew text, God specifically told the people, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin,” (Deut 24:16).

Did God change His mind after he spoke to Moses because that is what the doctrine of original sin argues? Not likely, the words of Paul to the Romans support the passage from Deuteronomy and demonstrate the unchanging nature of God. “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned,” (Rom 5:12). It is not Adam’s sin, but the sin of each person that results in death.

According to Abraham Cohen, the Hebrew understanding is “far removed from the doctrine that man inherits sin. He may be burdened by the consequences of the wrongdoings of his forefathers; but no Rabbi of the Talmudic age would admit that any human being committed a wrong for which he or she was not personally responsible. Such an admission would have been at variance with the dogma of free will.” (Everyman's Talmud, page 96).

The Hebrew understanding does not condemn an individual for the actions of Adam, but submits that Adam’s action flowed from the “evil inclination” that exists within each individual. Adam was sinless at creation, but he was not perfect. If he had been perfect, he would not have been tempted, like God who cannot be tempted by evil, (James 1:13).

Predestination also argues that once saved, a person cannot fall into an unsaved condition. For once God elect’s to save a man predestined to destruction, He will not permit that man to revert to destruction. This position runs contrary to the words of Jude who wrote, “After saving a people out of the land of Egypt, (the LORD) subsequently destroyed those who did not believe,” (Jude 5).

Jude’s words are consistent with the Hebrew rabbinical position that, “A person’s guilt is not established until he deliberately and of set purpose removes the lesson from his heart” (Everyman's Talmud, page 128)

The lesson on the heart implies a saved condition (Deut 10:14), while removing the lesson implies a willful election to ignore the grace that is offered by God. Just as the Hebrew writer has warned believers, “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit…and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame,” (Heb 6:5-6).

THE TWO OPPOSING FORCES THAT WAR WITHIN EACH MAN

The Hebrew understanding holds that God created two opposing forces within each person that seek control. One force leads men toward good works and love for our fellow man is often referred to as the “good inclination.” The good inclination, in Hebrew “yetzer hatov,” is the “spirit,” the part of man made in the image of God that both gives the individual value, instills purpose in life, and seeks a closer relationship with the creator. The evil inclination, referred to in Hebrew as the “yetzer hara,” is an opposing force that leads men toward sinful acts of self-indulgence. The first century rabbinic term for the evil inclination was “the flesh,” and appears frequently in the New Testament. God created Adam in balance, but imperfect, between both inclinations.

Why create Adam in this condition? In his imperfection Adam might seek God by choice and not by nature, as Paul has written,

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27).

Scripture tells us that God “is the rewarder of those who seek Him,” (Heb 11:6), but this aspect of the Christian faith is often minimized. Much more than in the Christian faith, Judaism sees the imperfection of man as the opportunity given by the creator to pursue perfection. The pursuit of perfection results in merit (reward) being credited to the individual believer.

“He (The LORD) created them imperfect so that they should perfect themselves and so that their perfection be their reward in the merit of their having labored for it – all this in His desire to bestow complete good.” (The Knowing Heart, Moshe Chayim Luzzatto)

The ultimate example of earning merit through struggle is in Jesus who “learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb 5:8-9). The “complete good” or merit Jesus gained through His perfection, became the source of salvation for all believers.

The consequences of Adam’s sin were his personal death and descendants born in the image of Adam (Gen 5:3), no longer with balanced inclinations, but tilted toward a sin nature. As the descendants of Adam committed sin, each succeeding generation became more sinful until the thoughts of their hearts “was only evil all the time,” (Gen 6:5). It took 2000 years, but only ten generations, for man to go from being created in the image of God to total depravity and wickedness, except for Noah. In His mercy, God saved the world through the righteousness of a single person, Noah (Gen 7:1)(Ezek 14:14). Although wickedness was removed from the earth by the flood, the evil inclination remained in the descendants of Noah. As Paul observed,

I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. (Rom 7:21-23)

Jesus reflects the terminology of the first century rabbis identifying the two natures within man as, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” (Matt 26:41). The “flesh,” or “flesh and blood” (1 Cor 15:50), was the New Testament answer to the question of why men often do not do good, but rather act in a manner they later despise. In the words of Paul, “the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things you please” (Gal 5:17).

The Rabbis developed their theology to a point where they came to believe that the sinful nature physically resided in the flesh. For this reason even today, the Orthodox Hebrew does not attempt to preserve the body for burial, as is the Western custom, but desires the decay of the flesh from the bones to occur as quickly as possible to facilitate the final and permanent removal of sin from the body. The concept is echoed in the words of Paul who referred to our flesh as, “our body of sin,” (Rom 6:6), and said, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh,” (Rom 7:18). Notice that Paul’s “nothing good” is specific to “my flesh,” and not the complete nature of his make-up. In the understanding of Paul, the “spirit” of man still retains a goodness from the divine spark that breathed life into man, although the spirit is often overshadowed by the flesh.

(to be continued)