Coffee Talk Redux is a reflection on things God is teaching me. In some cases the ideas for these topics come from the Coffee Talk group that I meet with weekly at the Vintage Coffee Bistro located in Lambertville, Michigan. At other times the Redux topic may arise from some conversation I may have had with someone, or a thought that crossed my mind, something I have written, or perhaps something I read somewhere, or maybe a combination of all of these. In any case think of this as a discussion on what God is teaching us to help us grow in our understanding of His will for us.
God is the First Being and creator of all that is seen and unseen. Through His goodness and almighty power, He brought into existence from nothing the twofold order of creation, the angelic and that of the earth that is the human composed of spirit and body. God is described as being eternal, immutable, and distinct from the created world. Time began when God created the world and it measures the succession of temporal changes and events. However, God stands outside of time and for Him there is no before and after as in the created world, but only an everlasting now. Although God’s creation may have evolved over billions of years, His knowledge is perfect and He knows all things that are actual and that are possible. God beholds in His eternal vision all those things and events that have been, are now, and are yet to come.
God made all things ex nihilo, which is a Latin term that means out of nothing. By making something out of nothing this does not imply that there was some preexisting formless material from which God shaped the world. Nor is creation an emanation from God’s divine essence. On the contrary, creation ex nihilo means that everything was made by God and is dependent on Him. Because of His infinite power, God was also free to create or not to create. God’s creative act is by His will and this is His way to share His infinite love and goodness with His created world. God also had complete freedom as to what to create. The created world could have been completely different than the one we now experience. But what He did create is exactly what He wanted to create and to say that the world should be something else is to doubt His omnipotence and almighty power. Because God created exactly what He wanted to create, He also gives His blessing and approval to what He created.
The majesty and mystery of God’s creative act begins with the first sentence of Sacred Scripture wherein in Genesis 1:1 it says, In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The Genesis account of creation glorifies God by attributing creation to His wisdom and power and summarizes the truths of His creation – that its origin and its end is in the hands of God, that it is ordered to goodness, and that there is hope for man’s salvation. After creating the heavens and the earth, and populating the earth with plants and animals, God then says in Genesis 1:26-27, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
The Genesis account of creation however is not meant to be a precise description of how God created things. It is therefore conceivable that the first man or human being developed through some type of an evolutionary process. Evolution means that something was or is in a state of necessary development. However, it is important to point out that evolution does not mean either a materialistic evolution or an evolutionism. Materialistic evolution implies the eternal existence of an uncreated matter from which everything evolves. This is clearly counter to God being distinct from the world and His creation being ex nihilo. Evolutionism or total evolution would mean that everything in the universe, to include the spiritual, evolves from lower to higher orders. This would mean that there is an evolving god and that implies that god is in the created world which is a form of pantheism.
The evolutionary process known as theistic evolution postulates that Adam as the first man or human being was formed by a special divine intervention that also infused a rational soul into his body. Man is therefore both body and soul and together they make a living human person. Hence man’s character has the potential to be divine and like God man’s soul is provided with the gifts of intelligence and free will. The soul itself is immediately created by God at conception, and therefore the soul is unique to each individual and does not exist before the body. In a similar fashion through God’s intervention the first woman Eve was formed from the body of Adam. Together Adam and Eve are the beginning of the human race as declared by St. Paul in Acts 17:26, And He made from one [man] every nation of men to live on the face of the earth. This so-called monogenism means that the entire human race is derived from Adam.
Adam and Eve when created by God as the first human beings were in a state of innocence. This is also known as original justice which means that from the beginning of their creation Adam and Eve were right with God. Adam and Eve were therefore acceptable to God as long as they lived according to God’s will and His law. They were also given special gifts. By virtue of their souls they had the gift of a free will and a perfect intellect possessing all of the knowledge that was needed for the proper conduct of their lives. They were also given the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace. Being created in God’s image they shared in His divine nature and were in that blissful state of seeing God face to face. Adam and Eve also received from God preternatural gifts which are four special favors that are in addition to their nature. The first is freedom from death wherein Adam and Eve possessed immortality. Adam and Eve were also given freedom from irregular desire or what is known as concupiscence. Man was also granted freedom from emotional and physical suffering and man would enjoy his work. They were also infused with natural and supernatural knowledge concerning the truths about God that would enable them to reach their ultimate destiny. All of these gifts and special favors that Adam and Eve possessed were also meant to be passed on to their descendents. Adam and Eve therefore lived in paradise or what is also called the Garden of Eden. God only imposed a single condition on them as He said in Genesis 3:3, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. By serving God faithfully, Adam and Eve and all of their descendents would then ascend to heaven and achieve eternal happiness with God by the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace.
However, this blissful existence did not last. The devil as a fallen angel was jealous of Adam and Eve’s happiness. The devil took on the form of a snake and tempted Eve to sin against God by telling her if she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree she would know all things and be like God. Eve wanted to be like God so she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to Adam to eat. God knew immediately of their disobedience and meted out swift punishment. First God placed enmity between the devil and man. Man and Satan forever after would always be in a state of conflict. Next God told Eve that she will bear children in pain; the preternatural gift of freedom from suffering was taken away. In addition, God said to Eve that her husband Adam would rule over her hence man and his wife would no longer be equals. God’s sentence for Adam was that he would now have to work hard to bring forth food from the ground and that he would no longer enjoy the fruits of any tree from the Garden of Eden. God then cast out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden so that they could never eat of the tree of life which would give them immortality.
Adam as the head and first man of the human race fell from God’s grace by giving in to Eve’s temptation. Adam therefore committed what is known as Original Sin. Adam’s Original Sin is also passed on to future generations by his seed as it is said in Romans 5:19, For as by the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. The stain of Original Sin is removed by the sacrament of Baptism. The consequences of Original Sin are that mankind lost the preternatural gifts which would have provided man with immortality, freedom from evil desires, and freedom from suffering. Man also lost the gift of sanctifying grace and the right of a supernatural life of spending eternity with God in heaven. Man now faces a life of hardship and suffering. However, God gave man a second chance through the redemptive work of His Son Jesus Christ, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:22, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Mankind is therefore not necessarily condemned to hell, but now must receive as an unmerited gift God’s sanctifying grace during his natural lifetime on earth. This involves man freely choosing whether or not to accept the Triune God and then by the gift of His sanctifying grace man can return to God’s eternal friendship. (Ronald L. Fournier © 2009)
