Fall

In Plantinga’s third chapter of Engaging God’s World, he discusses the Fall of Man. One interesting item he mentions is the difference between evil and sin. He defines evil as “any deviation from the way God wants things to be”. Sin, Plantinga tells us, is “any evil for which somebody is to blame.” The example he gives is a child picking up a gun. This is evil, but not sin, because no one is to blame. I think Plantinga misses a huge point here. What he fails to understand, or at least fails to point out, is that evil is a result of sin. Before Eve took the fruit, there was no evil whatsoever (or as Calvin College insists on saying it, there was complete and perfect shalom). We, as mankind, are at fault for evil in our world, because we sinned in the Garden of Eden thereby releasing evil to the world. (Of course, Satan was in the Garden with Adam and Eve. Satan was definitely evil, but evil had not infiltrated every aspect of life on Earth yet.)

I find it very interesting that Plantinga, the president of Calvin Theological Seminary, denies doctrine which the Christian Reformed Church holds to be true. Plantinga qualifies total depravity in saying that we aren’t “as nasty as we could be” or that “we always choose the worst alternative”, while the Heidelberg Catechism states in question and answer eight that we are indeed “so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all evil.”

Finally, I liked what Plantinga wrote in the section entitled “Who’s to Blame?” He talks about how we Christians often blame God or Satan for our sins. However, since God is completely holy, he cannot cause us to sin. He allows it, since he is almighty (we cannot understand why God ever allowed sin to enter the world), but he is not at fault. Satan, on the other hand, cannot cause us to sin because he is so much less powerful than God. Satan can tempt us, but he cannot coerce us. We are always able to resist temptation, with God’s help. What it comes down to is that, although God allows it, although Satan tempts us, we are the ones who engage in acts contrary to God’s Law. We are at fault for our sin.