Answers
By BGEA Admin • September 20, 2023 • Topics: Sin
Q:
The days of Adam and Eve are long gone. We don’t live in an archaic world and the sin that ruined life for them has nothing to do with living today in a modern and high-tech environment. Why do some churches insist that people are no different than they were back “in the beginning”?
A:
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
The people of the 21st century are no different from Adam and Eve. We may have added some sophisticated technology, built skyscrapers, and written several million books, but there is still a chasm between sinful man and holy God. Yet across this dark, barren abyss, God calls, even pleads, with man to be reconciled to Him. We can see this is true because people still sin, still defy authority, and still act independently of God, revealing the great gulf between mankind and God.
Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and plunged into a world that was spiritually dark and dead—and physically unproductive except by hard work and suffering. The world was under the judgment of God—and still is. The Bible teaches that mankind is in a period of spiritual blackout. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4, NIV).
The divine dilemma is that man is sinful and separated from God. Because God is holy, He couldn’t automatically forgive or ignore man’s rebellion still present today. Because God is love, He couldn’t completely cast man aside. As He revealed Himself to Adam and Eve long ago, He has revealed Himself to mankind through His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to redeem mankind from sin. The greatest act of love is to tell people about God’s love through Christ, who willingly shed His blood on the cross for the sins of men, women, and children—past and present.
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
