crisis

What Has Gone

Wrong with the
World?
The Breakdown of All
Relationships

Session 4
 article: the fall of lucifer: rebellion in the heavenlies
e Story goes like this:
Before the creation of
humankind, when God created
the heavens, he also created a
divine society of spiritual
beings, called angels or gods,
existing beneath Yahweh and
above humankind. ese
spiritual beings, like human
beings, clearly had a mind and
will of their own. ey could
choose to work for God and his
vision of Shalom or against him. ey were, like human beings, morally
responsible. Hence their decisions affected others, for better or for worse.

Among them there was a powerful god-like being – apocryphal texts call
this being Helel ben-Shahar or Lucifer in Latin – the captain of the vast
legions of angelic hosts. e most beautiful, the most powerful of them
all. e commander of the armies of God. e guardian of the glory of
the Lord. “Son of the morning.” Glorious as the sun. Unequaled among
his noble peers. Here is where the Story takes its first tragic turn – in the
heavens!

Pride entered Lucifer’s heart

(Ezekiel 28:17). Instead of
trusting God’s goodness he
began to circle the idea that:
“God is holding out on us!”
Lucifer didn’t merely want to
play a noble role in the story;
he wanted the Story to be
about him. He coveted the
throne; he wanted to be the
star. He wanted the worship
and adoration and glory for
himself. He rebelled against
God and attempted to make
himself like God (Isa. 14:12)
and in so doing, he destroyed
his relationship with his
Creator and alienated himself
from everything that was
good, loving, just, caring,
kind, respectful,

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 understanding and passionate. He alienated himself from anything akin
to Shalom and became deceitful, disrespectful, hating, evil, unjust, corrupt
and out to destruct everything
good. rough treachery and
deceit, he drew to his side
one-third of the angels, and
they rose up in arms against
their sovereign Lord. And
there was war in the
heavenlies. And God had to
take sides against a part of his
creation which he had
considered good and squelch
the rebellion.

On the basis of this opposition to God and his consequent opposition

toward God’s special creation – human beings – he also got to be called
“an adversary” (Hebrew for ‘satan’). is angel who had the greatest
potential for good, who could have administered God’s loving plans for
the whole cosmos, now functions as the supreme architect for everything
contrary to God. His evil intentions pollute everything.

scripture study one: the essence of sin

Scripture Study 1: e Essence of Sin
In chronological order, study the following Scripture verses and discuss the
questions as a group. Be prepared to share your answers with the entire
group:

Read Genesis 2:16-17

Here we have one of the first commandments that God ever gave to
humans. What is the commandment that God commands? Look
carefully at the text, noting exactly what is being said to whom, where, and
when.

So what does this first commandment tell us about who God is? Did God
set up any advance charges or requirements for eating of the trees? If the
only information we had about God was this first command, what would
this call to ‘eat of every tree in the garden’ tell us about him.

If this is how God reveals himself in this first commandment, how, then,
are we to understand this second command: “You must not eat from the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you it of it you will
surely die”?

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 Read Genesis 3:1-3
It is important that we understand who God is as portrayed by Genesis
2:16-17 if we want to understand what happened next.

• Who is present in these verses?

• Who does the serpent represent?
• Who do the serpent and the woman talk about?
• According to the serpent, what was God’s first command to the
humans?
• So how does the serpent perceive God? What do the serpent’s words
and depiction of the Lord’s command tell us about the serpent’s image
of God? How is God, according to the serpent?
• So what do you think of the woman’s response? How did she answer the
serpent? Did the woman answer the serpent rightly? Read her response
carefully!
• Sometimes, as we read the Bible, we need to pay attention to what a key
character doesn’t say or do. e silences in the text (what the text does
not say) are sometimes as revelatory as what the text does say. For
example, in verse 6 further down, we read that the man was standing
beside the woman as she was having the theological conversation with
the serpent. Yet, he remained silent. So what do you think of the man’s
response? Did the man answer the serpent rightly?
• Do these two responses sound familiar?

Read Genesis 3:4-5

Look at how the serpent responds to the woman’s theology.

• How does the serpent depict God, according to these two verses?
• Have you ever experienced or been witness to seeing how lies, gossip,
and slander were used to separate a lover from the beloved, or a people
from their leader, or a friend from another friend?
• Does the serpent’s theology sound familiar to you? What of the
serpent’s theology have you heard or believed?

Read Genesis 3:6-7

Answer these questions.

• What do you think finally led to humans’ first transgression? How do

you see sin depicted? What is sin?
• Doesn’t it almost seem like the first injustice ever committed was the one
committed against God and that this same injustice continues to be
committed against him again and again?

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 group study two: the holistic scope of sin
In chronological order, study the following Scripture verses and discuss the
questions as a group. Be prepared to share your answers with the entire
group:

Read Genesis 3:7-13

• What did the man and woman do after they ate from the fruit? What
does this tell us about their emotional, spiritual and ethical well-being?
Why would they become ashamed of themselves?
• Did the serpent’s promise come true?
• Why did they hide from God? Why were they afraid?
• Why would God call them? What is his questioning all about?
• How do you see God portrayed in v. 11? As an angry judge, trying to
pin down the defendant with a rhetorical question? Or as a caring
parent, inviting the man to trust and giving him the possibility to openly
and trustingly express what happened and return into relationship with
God?

Read Genesis 3:14-19

Was human’s relationship with God the only relationship that was broken
because of this event? Take a sheet of paper and a marker. At the top,
write, “relationships broken in the fall.” en read and list each of these
verses. Next to the verse, write the kind of relationship broken because of
sin. (Example: human’s relationship with the environment).

• How is humans’ distrust and disobedience towards God affecting the

relationship between:
• serpent and humans?
• man and woman?
• humans and their work?
• humans and the environment?
• humans and self?
• humans and God?

• What did this event do to the relationships that God had created for
humans?
• How would you say have the relationships in each of these areas been
distorted by sin?

Group Reflection and Discussion

Personal Evaluation: Evaluate brokenness in your own live—physically,

spiritually, socially, emotionally. Discuss with your group members how
sin has affected your own life and how many areas of life have been
broken.

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 Community Evaluation: ink about brokenness in your communities—
physically, spiritually, socially, emotionally. On a piece of paper list the
broken relationships in your communities. Discuss with your group
members how sin has affected your community’s life and how many areas
have been broken.

article: the holistic dimension of sin

Introduction

e effect of sin, manifested in distrust and disobedience, ensured that

human identity and all dimensions of human relationships would be
marred. e scope of sin proved very broad – very holistic if you will. It
touches every aspect of human life: marriage and sexuality; birth and
death; work and food; human and nonhuman. In all of these areas, one
could speak of death encroaching on life. Disharmony reigns supreme. It
led to widespread deception, distortion, and domination in all forms of
human relationships – with God, with one’s self, with one’s family,
community and between others, with the environment, and with the
systems and structures. So the formerly inherent goodness of all
relationships was destroyed, evil entered the Story, and God’s own heart
has been called into question. Let’s look more in depth at each of the
relationships outlined in the graph on the left. How would you say have
the relationships in each of these areas been distorted by sin?

Humans and God

Prior to the Fall, humanity’s relationship to God was one of open trust,
but after the Fall it was one of fear. It is amazing to see how the image of
God has been distorted over and over again and how many idols humanity
has created to replace God. e image of God who created humans and
sustains their life is distorted by an inadequate knowledge of who God is
and what God wishes for all humankind. Let’s just list a few idolatries to
make our point: Communism lasted almost a century and was one idol
that claimed the lives of millions of people. Science, capitalism and
technology continue to demand our faith and allegiance, claiming to save
us from poverty and lead us to prosperity and well-being. Some people
have elevated family as their God: upholding and defending the family’s
honor and wealth is seen a person’s sole life purpose. en there are the
tens of thousands of local idols – ranging from statues, to stones, to
pictures, to animals, to plants etc. – in whom people place their trust. In
his book, “Taking on the Gods” psychotherapist Merle Jordan states that
misconceived perceptions of who God is, often lead to a distorted self-
image. When a person takes his or her identity from that which is less
than God, then the sense of self becomes distorted. is kind of idolatry,

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 then, lies at the heart of most pathology and depression. Estrangement
from God and his plans for them and the world, then, makes many people
loose their sense of purpose and understanding of God’s vision for this
earth

Humans and Self (including their Work)

We know we are not what we were meant to be. Most of the world’s
religions concur on this point. It’s not just the obvious evils like murder
and racism and betrayal. Each of us is fraught with fears and suspicions
and petty jalousies. We are, above all else, self-centered – the very
opposite of how the Trinity lives. You have loved God with all you heart,
soul, mind, and strength? You have loved your neighbor as yourself?
Neither have I. In fact, humanity’s alienation from God has led to low
self-images and self-destructive behavioral patterns on the one hand, and
distorted or bloated self-images, God-complexes and arrogant behaviors
on the other hand. For the poor their relationship within themselves is
diminished and debilitated as a result of the grind of poverty and the
feeling of permanent powerlessness. When people believe they are less
than human, without the brains, strength and personhood to contribute to
their own well-being or that of others, their understanding of who they are
is marred. For the non-poor their relationship with themselves is
diminished and their identities are marred by their willingness to
dehumanize themselves for economic, political, educational or other gain.
When the non-poor play god in the lives of other people, they have
stopped being who they really are and are assuming the role of God. In
terms of humans and their work: Instead of using our gifts to establish
Shalom and bring about well-being for ourselves and others, work has
been corrupted. It can be toilsome and frustrating. Work has become a
commodity, something we sell and buy with the temptation to reduce the
human being to an economic asset, a living machine. Work has become a
tool for greed, and even an idolatry whereby one makes a name for oneself.
Production and growth have become pathologically obsessive in many
parts of the world. Covetousness has replaced contentment. e effect of
the fall was that the desire for growth became excessive for some at the
expense of others, and the means of growth became filled with greed,
exploitation and injustice. e result of this pathology is the systems of
poverty that keep hundreds of millions of people poor.

Humans and Community/Others

Prior to the Fall, the man’s relationship to the woman was one of
unashamed acceptance, but afterwards their relationship was characterized
by shame. We could cite multitudes of other examples to show how sin –
i.e. mistrust – has destroyed the relationship between humans and Others!
Just to name three examples: For one, instead of being considered equal to

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 man, the fall brought about the gradual decline of the place of women in
society as sex roles became increasingly rigid. Sexism and gender
discrimination, which are so rampant in many societies, are a direct
consequence of the fall. Considering the value of women as less than men
is not biblical, it is sin. Secondly, broken relationships are a major cause of
poverty: e poor are largely poor because they live in networks of
relationships that do not work for their well-being. eir relationships
with others are often oppressive and disempowering as a result of the non-
poor playing god in the lives of the poor. eir relationship with those
they call “Other” is experienced as exclusion, since corruption,
discrimination and injustice work hard at keeping them in their place.
irdly, isn’t it distrust and destroyed relationships that are at the bottom
of a plethora of wars and disputes which lead to the death of people
(physical, emotional, spiritual and moral)?

Humans and the Environment

Instead of shared resources, land and natural resources have become a

universal cause of strife and violence. ey are hoarded by some and
squandered, abused and polluted by others. Land and natural resources
have become the counters in games of domination and oppression.
Claims of ownership over land and natural resources are privatized and
made an absolute, ignoring the claim of God on all things in creation or
the responsibility each has for the well-being of the larger community.
Environmental degradation and economic inequality are the results.
Another consequence is that nature no longer always reveals God’s will
and person. Natural catastrophes etc. now have dominion over us. is is
important to see, because if we accept nature as God’s will (hurricanes,
sickness, death, crop failures, Tsunamis, earthquakes etc.) this will
fatalistically lead us to identifying nature and God, creature and creator.
Looking to nature, we encounter both a deterministic and a capricious
God.

Humans and the Systems

Often, in their analysis of the fall, pastors, theologians and Bible teachers
stop at this point. It is to our demise, however, since we need to
understand the next point, in order to really make sense of all of the
dimensions of evil on earth. Sometimes, evangelicals get so focused on the
impact of the fall on the individual that they forget that the impact of the
fall was on the whole of human society as well. Remember that the
nations and their corresponding social institutions were part of the
creation narrative. So let’s also look at the impact of the fall on human
society, its systems and structures. e thrones, dominions, and powers,
which Paul says were created by God – these social systems and structures
(economic, political, religious) were profoundly distorted by the fall. e

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 result of the Fall therefore is much more far-reaching than just impacting
individuals. e spiritual nature of the nations and its human institutions,
business, church, family, and government, all created for good, become
increasingly anti-life, anti-kingdom, and evil. e people, embedded in
these distorting, deceiving, and dominating systems, themselves become
exploiters of each other. eologian Walter Wink says, “Human misery is
caused by institutions, but these institutions are maintained by human
beings. We are made evil by our institutions, yes; but our institutions are
also made evil by us.” He goes on to say: “An institution becomes demonic
when it abandons its divine vocation – that of a ministry of justice or a
ministry of social welfare – for the pursuit of its own idolatrous goals,”
usually by serving the powerful in the name of self-preservation.
Distorted by the fall, people occupying positions of influence within the
economic system, for instance, now act more often as owners and less as
stewards. ey skew the system to enhance and protect their own self-
interest and insulate themselves from the impact of these distortions from
the less fortunate. As a result of the fall, the political system becomes
captive to the economic order and begins to serve the powerful; its
ministries of justice cease being either ministries or just. Finally, the
religious system too often colludes with the fallen political and economic
systems. e prophets, priests, pastors and teachers of a nation’s values and
spirituality are gradually seduced by money, power, and prestige –
gradually becoming silent. When human institutions and systems are
permeated by sin, taking on an evil life of their own, we call that structural
sin.

Conclusion

God had intended that humans would use the attributes of his image to
serve others and creation. Indeed, God created a beautiful world destined
for Shalom, and it was always his intention that human beings should look
after it on his behalf. Instead, humans acted selfishly. ey did what they
wanted, rather than what their Maker had purposed. Humans distorted
the image of God, and this distortion has continued through human
history, leading to untold suffering, oppression, exploitation and control.

homework
Read “God’s Initial Rescue Efforts Continued” and study the Scripture
Study 1 within it as homework. Can’t find this document.

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 application journal

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 endnotes
BASICS Wholistic Discipleship: e Image of God
BASICS Wholistic Discipleship: e Image of God
Myles Munroe, Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer, 12-13

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