THE FALL of MAN

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THE FALL of MAN

• Where does evil come from?
• I sought whence evil comes and there was no
  solution.
• St. Augustine
• Profound relationship of man to God
• humanitys rejection of God
• opposition to God
• continuance despite the cost

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THE FALL of MANAn Abuse of Free Will

• Sin is not
• a developmental flaw
• psychological weakness
• mistake
• necessary consequence
• Sin is
• an abuse of the Freedom God gives to created
  persons so that they are capable of loving Him
  and one another

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THE FALL of MANAdore Only God

• Adoration is the first act of the virtue of
  religion.
• To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as
  Creator and Savior,
• the Lord and Master of everything that exists,
• as infinite and merciful Love.
• You shall worship the Lord your god, and him
  only shall you serve,
• says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.
• Catechism 2096

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• Gods attributes are countless.
• He is
• Holy (1 Pt. 115-16)
• Faithful (Ps 14518)
• Immutable (Heb 110-12,138)
• Omniscient (all knowing) (1 Jn 320)
• Omnipresent (everywhere) (Ps 1297-12)
• Omnipotent (all powerful) (Jer 3217, 27)

THE FALL of MANAdore Only God

• Gods essence,
• his nature, is
• Spirit (Jn 424)
• One (Dt 64)
• Triune (Trinitarian) (2 Cor 1313)

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THE FALL of MANFirst Understand Revelation

• By love, God has revealed himself and given
  himself to man.
• He has thus provided the definitive answer to the
  questions man asks himself about the meaning and
  purpose of life.
• God has revealed himself to man by gradually
  communicating his own mystery in deeds and words.

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THE FALL of MANFirst Understand Revelation

• Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in
  created things, he manifested himself to our
  first parents, spoke to them and, after the fall,
  promised them salvation (Gen 315) and offered
  them his covenant.

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God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and
with all living beings (Gen. 916). It will
remain in force as long as the world lasts.
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• God chose Abraham
• and made
• a covenant with him and his descendants.

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• By the covenant God formed his people and
  revealed his law to them through Moses.

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• Through the prophets,
• he prepared them
• to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.

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THE FALL of MANFirst Understand Revelation

• God has revealed himself fully by sending his own
  Son,
• in whom he established his covenant for ever.
• The Son is his Fathers definitive Word
• so there will be no further Revelation after him.

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THE FALL of MANUnderstand Gods Plan for Man

• You formed man in your own likeness
• set him over the whole world to serve you, his
  creator, and to rule over all creatures
• Man is predestined to reproduce the image of
  Gods Son.
• Man though made of body and soul is a unity.
• God did not create man a solitary being. From
  the beginning male and female he created them.
• Revelation makes known to us our relationship
  with God before there was sin.

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THE FALL of MANThe Fall of Angels

• Origin of the Seductive Voice
• Free choice of some created spirits to radically
  and irrevocably reject God and his reign.
• It is by choice that the angels sin is
  unforgivable not because of a defect in infinite
  divine mercy.
• There is no desire to repent.
• Satans power is not infinite.
• He to is a creature of God.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

• Freedom put to the test
• Tempted,
• trust in God died in Mans heart,
• Abusing his freedom he disobeyed Gods command.
• All sin revolves around disobedience toward God
• and lack of trust.
• Man preferred himself to God and by that act
  scorned Him.
• He wanted to be like God,
• but without God, before God, and not in
  accordance with God.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal SinResults

• Lose the grace of original holiness
• Become afraid of God
• The soul loses spiritual control over the body
• The union of man and woman become subject to
  tension
• Relations are marked by lust and domination
• Harmony with creation is broken
• Death makes its entrance into human history
• Sin and corruption spread
• Even after Christs atonement, sin raises its
  head in countless ways among Christians.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

• Consequences for Humanity
• All men are implicated in Adams sin
• For when man looks into his own heart he finds
  that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in
  many evils which cannot come from his good
  creator.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

• Consequences for Humanity
• The Church teaches that the overwhelming misery
  which oppresses men
• and their inclination toward evil and death
• cannot be understood apart from their connection
  to Adams sin
• and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin
  with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which
  is the death of the soul.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

• Transmission of original sin is a mystery we can
  not fully understand.
• By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve
  committed a personal sin, but this sin affected
  the human nature that they would then transmit in
  a fallen state.
• It is a sin which will be transmitted by
  propagation to all mankind, that is, by
  transmission of a human nature deprived of
  original holiness and justice.
• That is why original sin is called sin only in a
  analogical sense it is a sin contracted and
  not committed
• - a state and not an act.

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THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

• A Flaw in Nature (essence)
• Nature - that which makes something to be the
  sort of thing it is, to operate the way it does
  and to seek the good that is its own.
• Mans nature is wounded in the natural powers
  proper to it.
• It is subject to ignorance, suffering, and the
  dominion of death and inclined to sin
  (concupiscence)

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THE FALL of MANBaptism and Grace

• Baptism,
• by imparting the life of Christs grace,
• erases original sin
• and turns a man back toward God,
• but the consequences for nature,
• weakened and inclined to evil,
• still persist in man and summon him
• to spiritual battle.

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• You Did Not Abandon Him to
• the Power of Death
• The announcement of
• the Messiah and Mary.
• (Gen 315)