Been doing a study of the first three chapters of Genesis, and am now convinced that, ultimately, Christians are called to be nudists, figuratively if not literally. But let me explain…
In the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God plants a tree in the middle of the garden (called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), but he told them not to eat the fruit from it or they would surely die. Now doesn’t this seem strange? Why would knowing right and wrong be so dangerous? It seems as if God is trying to avoid giving us a moral conscience. But why?
Prior to eating of the fruit from this tree (resulting in what has been called the fall), the passage says that Adam and Eve were unashamedly naked. THEY WERE NOT ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. Today we’re quite proud of the fact that we relate to God’s greatness through knowledge of our own depravity (In other words, we’re proud of our humility). And I’ve even heard people say that that is why evil exists… to highlight the good. So, we know how great God is by how not-great we are. This seems noble enough. But if you look at life prior to the fall, things were quite different. Nothing about humans dictated the greatness of God. God was God to Adam and to Eve without them having to be ashamed. Since the fall, humans have become sort of a focal point for understanding God. In essence, we have put ourselves first, making ourselves God. We claim knowledge of good and evil, that ultimately points the finger at us, and reveals how small we are. I don’t think God wanted us to know that. He just wanted us to know him.
Could this be the reasons why God didn’t want us to have a moral conscience? Did it make us too self-conscious, always trying to prove ourselves (often at the expense of others)? That kind of knowledge made us incapable of relating to anything apart from perceptions about how bad (or good) we are and how bad (or good) everyone else is–perceptions that are often flawed because we are people pretending to be gods, but who aren’t actually God. And, God knew that if we knew how puny we were in comparison to him it would ruin that relationship forever. Because, once we knew who we were, we had to either try to convince God we were good by following the law (impossible and futile), or hide from him (like Adam and Eve did). Perhaps this is why he had to come in the form of a man, Jesus, in order to rescue us from our shame (“Look, I’ve made myself puny too! That’s how much I love you!”).
God said don’t eat the fruit from that tree or you’ll die, but the serpent challenges this belief by telling Adam and Eve that God is just trying to keep them from being like him. Well, the serpent is right in one sense. God doesn’t want us to try to be gods. But not because he’s vain. He didn’t want everything to be based on us, as if we were God’s, not because he’s petty and has to get all the attention, but because us trying to be gods–by being the measure of good and evil–would be our downfall. Not being gods but thinking we are will only end in heartbreak and defeat since we will be distancing ourselves, in independence, from a God who loves us–thinking he’s just trying to keep us from our destiny–and because we will be living a lie that we can’t live up to.
So what now? I mean, life was originally intended to be a certain way (naked, unashamed, and God as the only God), and things took a turn for the worse. But wasn’t Jesus’ death on the cross supposed to bring restoration for what sin destroyed? The first thing sin did was create shame. Seems like Christ on the cross should reverse this condition. No more shame. We’re not God. God is God. There’s no shame in not being God, we’re not supposed to be. It’s okay. God knows who we are and he loves us anyway. We need to re-forget who we are and remember who he is. Let’s not be so self-conscious. Yeah, we’re just people, but God never wanted us to be ashamed of that. He tried to keep it a secret, but our ancestors just couldn’t handle not knowing. He didn’t want us to know and then be ashamed, because he meant for us to be us. The shame only made us want to run away and prove ourselves, but in doing so, we made ourselves little gods, and then all sorts of evil ensued.
So let’s all get naked, shall we? In a modest, good Christian sort of way, of course…
The books can be downloaded for cheaper (FREE to about $9.99), they can be downloaded in less then a minute, you don’t have to look for WiFi service (they’re put online by the same thing that keeps the latest cell phones online), you can put hundreds of books on these things, the battery life lasts for days, and instead of the bright (annoying) lights of a computer screen, the pages read just like a book. Think about the affects this could have on conserving resources. I mean I love books, but with movies, music, etc. being linked directly to our ipods, without c.d.’s and DVD’s being needed, hey, maybe this is the next step… Anyway, thought they were cool and wanted to share this knowledge with you. They are kind of expensive now, but they are getting cheaper by the day. 
Posted by The Millers 
Posted by The Millers 
Posted by The Millers 