What is "the fall?"
August 28, 2009
What do we mean when we talk about things like "someone falling into sin" or that "mankind has fallen" or "the fall of man?" Let's look at some examples of fallen.
Acts 15:16
" 'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, - here we have something that was at one time operational and useful but is now in ruins. Rebuilding and restoring it will result in people seeking God; in this case the Gentiles.Hebrews 4:1
[ A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God ] Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. - here we have a goal or objective that we are trying to achieve; in this case rest in God.Revelation 2:5
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. -here we have a sense of being high up and something happening where we have ended up much lower.
If we look at Jesus again in the context of the Logos of God (from Strong's Concordance)::
- a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
- the act of speaking, a continuous speaking discourse - instruction
- reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning
- answer or explanation in reference to judgment
- with whom as judge we stand in relation
First used by a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus around 600 B.C. to "designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe." (Strong's Concordance from Logos Software)
We find that, basically, we have become out of sync with the divine reason or plan of the universe. Our reasoning and way of thinking should line up with this living divine reason that coordinates a changing universe but we have a different reasoning, a different way of thinking. As a result we are no longer operational and useful but are in ruins. We come short of the objective of the universe. We have fallen from a high place to a low place.
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