THE FIRST AND LAST ADAM (8 OF 48)
Scripture: Romans 5:12-21
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The First and Last Adam (8 of 48)
Series: Kingdom Foundations - Genesis
Patrick Edwards
Romans 5:12-21
Introduction
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or ''hopelessly stupid''. The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
Hans Christian Andersen's folk tale stands as an indictment on the cultural plague of pluralistic ignorance. It satirically depicts a society in which no one believes a particular truth, but everyone believes that everyone else believes that truth. Everyone realizes the truth of the matter, but no one is willing to acknowledge it, instead becoming complicit in the massive lie and cover-up. You see we read in Genesis 3 that, ''the woman took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.'' Our culture tends to respond in one of two ways.
First, they read this and say, ''So what?'' Even were I to accept the historicity of this account, what does this eating of the fruit and disobedience with God have to do with me? And lest we think, brothers and sisters, that this is merely a response of those outside the church, let's be honest ...
Series: Kingdom Foundations - Genesis
Patrick Edwards
Romans 5:12-21
Introduction
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or ''hopelessly stupid''. The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
Hans Christian Andersen's folk tale stands as an indictment on the cultural plague of pluralistic ignorance. It satirically depicts a society in which no one believes a particular truth, but everyone believes that everyone else believes that truth. Everyone realizes the truth of the matter, but no one is willing to acknowledge it, instead becoming complicit in the massive lie and cover-up. You see we read in Genesis 3 that, ''the woman took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.'' Our culture tends to respond in one of two ways.
First, they read this and say, ''So what?'' Even were I to accept the historicity of this account, what does this eating of the fruit and disobedience with God have to do with me? And lest we think, brothers and sisters, that this is merely a response of those outside the church, let's be honest ...
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