God's role in Man's Sinful Nature

Is man Sinful Nature the Will of God?

Mythology has been used throughout history by different cultures in different time periods to explain the origin of life, existence and other mystical phenomenons. In the Abrahamic religions the story of creation is meant to help man understand how existence came to be and his own origin. In the story, God creates everything and finally creates the human being in his own image and gives him dominion over the rest of creation.

There's plenty for man's survival in the garden of eden and he doesn't need to work to make a living. Man is to eat the fruits from all the trees in the garden except the fruits from the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But then, Adam and Eve both eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil when Eve is deceived by the serpent to eat from the forbidden tree.

Suddenly, they realise they're naked and cover themselves with figs, and when God comes calling them they hide from him because they're naked and he asks them how they know they're naked or did they eat of the tree he had forbidden them from. Adam blames it on the wife that God gave him and Eve says it's the serpent that deceived her and the serpent doesn't say a thing. God then punishes them by expelling them from the garden of Eden and from that moment onwards they'll toil, suffer and also die.

By eating from the forbidden tree man disobeys God and therefore becomes a sinner and that marks the origin of man's sinful nature and from that moment henceforth all of his descendants inherit the “original sin”.

But then this raises very sincere and important questions about the events that lead to man's sin. Why does an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipresent God put man in a situation of sinning? Did God knowingly set man up for sin or was sin his will upon man? How could man have known he was doing the wrong thing if he did not have a sense of good and evil before eating the forbidden fruit? Did good and evil exist before man ate the forbidden fruit or is good and evil only perceived in his mind's eye afterwards?

You see God had the power to not have put the forbidden tree in the garden of eden altogether. Was it necessary to create a serpent knowing it could lead the man he created in his own image to sin? Being an omniscient God he clearly could have foresaw it all and probably done something about it, or maybe it was his will that sin should happen altogether. Is man solely to blame for sinning bearing in mind God created man in his own image and therefore God is man and man is God!

• Donate

This is a reader supported publication, consider making a one-time donation or “buy me a coffee” to appreciate my efforts if you feel moved by the article or the publication in general and you're in the position to do so. This goes a long way in enabling me to continue making more valuable content for free. Thank you for the love, your presence and contribution either through donating, commenting, liking, sharing, recommendations and simply being here is really appreciated.