“But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!'” (Lk. 15:17).
Imagine what would have happened if after the serpent asked Eve, “Did God actually say…?” (Gen. 3:1), Eve had said, “Hold your question, Mr. Serpent. Instead of just you and I conversing about that, let’s have my husband, Adam, and the Lord God join us. Then, all four of us can enter into this Secret Counsel meeting and determine what ‘God actually’ said and what it all means.”
Things would have turned out a lot differently if Eve had done that. The Bible would only be three chapters long. Instead, we have an additional 1,186 chapters (plus the last half of Genesis 3) laying out what happened next. It’s one mess of a fascinating story.
What happened next is that Adam and Eve’s passions became disordered. God made us in His image and likeness with a passion for being “like God.” The two trees in the midst of the Garden––the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil––are two radically different choices or paths for pursuing this passion. If we choose to become like God on God’s terms, then our passions are channeled appropriately. If we elect to become like God on our own terms, then our passions become twisted and disordered. We become insatiable, always craving more, but never having enough.
Ever since Adam and Eve’s passions got hijacked by the devil, you, me, and the rest of the human race in Adam have been trying to become like God on our own terms. But it’s hard work being like God, especially when we lack the attributes. Eventually, we fallen mortals get tired of trying. Then something big happens––we come to our senses.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’” (Lk. 15:17).
We live in a moment of history when an enormous wave of people are coming to their senses all at the same time. Ready to catch the wave?
Each of the last four generations has become progressively more disassociated from modern and post-modern versions of Church, family and political institutions than the generation before. For example, while 86% of Millennials (18-33) say they believe in God, they are less affiliated with the Church than Xers (34 to 49) who are less affiliated than Boomers (50 to 68) who are less affiliated than the so-called Silent Generation (69 to 86). This progressive decline is what a collapse of civilization looks like. And some civilizations need to collapse.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they launched the civilization or Kingdom of Man, the direct competitor to the Kingdom of God. One of these civilizations has a future; the other does not. One is collapsing; the other is rising. Something big’s happening.
The Incarnation hit the reset button on what went off the rails at the serpent’s Secret Counsel session with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.
The fundamental rule of any Secret Counsel meeting is that the host asks his guests questions, not the other way around. Thus, instead of the Lord inviting us to His Table where we ask questions and He gives us answers, He asks us questions and then listens to our answers. Such conversation is thrilling and terrifying at the same time, which is the inescapable quandary of being an adult.
By asking us questions and listening to our answers, the Lord treats us as adults created in his image and likeness with a passion for being like Him. The serpent craftily counterfeited this approach to divine hospitality by inviting Adam and Eve to a meal of forbidden fruit where he asked the questions and they answered. He played them and enslaved them to their passions.
The Lord’s plan to teach Adam and Eve to master their passions was simple. It involved fasting from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and feasting with Him from all the other trees, especially the Tree of Life. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen. 2:16-17). But Adam and Eve broke the fast and broke the world.
Nevertheless, the Lord didn’t stop treating Adam and Eve as adults after they sinned. Immediately, after the infamous Secret Counsel session with the serpent, the Lord called together another Secret Counsel assembly. He opened this gathering not with one, but with four questions. The Lord didn’t lecture Adam and Eve about good and evil, but asked, “Where are you?” “Who told you…?” “Have you eaten…?” “What is this that you have done?” (Gen. 3:9, 11, 13). With these questions, the Lord opened up a conversation.
Conversation with the Lord and each other in response to His questions is the Lord’s gentle, fatherly, patient way of bringing us to the knowledge of the truth about good and evil. “And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).
The Lord doesn’t impose formulaic definitions of truth upon us. We do that to ourselves by following Adam and Eve’s example of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But we live at a time in history where each progressive generation is refusing more and more to follow Adam and Eve’s example. You can feel a wave of sanity breaking out.
The so-called “wisdom” of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil turns truth into a formula that kills mystery and conversation. Truth is not a formula. It can’t be reduced and restricted to a formula. Ultimately, truth is a Person who calls Himself “the Truth” (Jn. 14:6). And His Body, the Church, is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). Flesh that eats from the Tree of Life embodies the truth. But the traditions of men create formulas for everything––the Church, marriage, politics and even God. Every generation since WWII demonstrates a decreasing tolerance for formulas.
Today, uttering words and phrases like “church,” “the institution of marriage” “truth”, etc. cause people to break out in allergic reactions. Tree of Knowledge definitions abound. We’ve tried all kinds of formulas, for example, in regards to the Church––the megachurch, the house church, the local church, the parachurch, the mission church and so on. Millennials are the best at smelling Kingdom of Man formulas from a mile off and want nothing to do with them. Thanks be to God!
Forbidden fruit never satisfies. The more we eat, the hungrier we get. We’re at a turning point. Something big’s happening. We’re losing a taste for formulas. The prodigal son is coming to his senses.
Boyd+
The Feast of St. Patrick, 2015
Boyd writes a new Secret Counsel blog every couple weeks. Click here to see the whole collection.