I invite you guys to this profound and challenging topic, everyone, come lets praise our God.
Lets first talk about supralapsarian teleolgy and divine oikonomia. The inquiry into whether the Fall of Man as narrated in Genesis 3, constitues an integral facet of God’s eternal plan engages the supralapsarian-infralapsarian debate in the Reformed Theology. Supralapsarian posits that God’s decree to permit Fall precedes His decree of creation and election, suggesting that the Fall was not merely forseen but purposively ordained to manifest the plentitude of divine attributes like justice, mercy nd redemptive love, within the divine oikonomia. Augustine of Hippo in De Civitate Dei (Book XI, Chapter 18, we had to study it) argues God’s omniscience subsumes all events under His providential will, such that the Fall serves as a propaedeutic to the revelation of grace. Romans 11:32 “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” intimates that human sinfulness, shown in the Fall, is instrumental to the universal scope of divine mercy. Yet this raises a profound theodical question of does such view implicate God as the author of sin, thereby compromising His aseity and moral perfection. This is one of the questions I asked myself when I was young, and in my teen years. Lets talk abt it more
We need to talk first about Human freedom and Contingency of Moral Evil. THe interplay of divine sovereignty and human freedom constitutes a crux in this theological conundrum. THe Molinist paradigm, put forward and reformed by Luis de Molina in Concordia Liberi Arbitrii, proposes that God’s Scientia media enables His to actualise a world wherein human free choices, including Adam’s transgression, align with His eschatological purpose without negating libertarian freedom. Genesis 2:16-17 we see:
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”
presupposes a genuine capacity for disobedience or obedience, grounding moral responsibility. Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexed, underscores that human freedom is essential for the cultivation of intellectual and moral virtues, a perspective resonant with Jewish emphasis on tshuvah (repentance) as a return to divine alignment. Conversely, I remember learning that Friedrich Schleiermacher’s The Christian Faith critiques determinist reading of the Fall, arguing that they undermine the authenticity of human agency, aligning with Arminian assertion that the Fall was a contingent deviation permitted but not necessitated by God, as we see in reference to Ezekiel 18:20.
Now by brothers, let go to the concpet of
THe Felix culpa and soteriological necessity
The patristic concept of felix culpa, articulated by Gregory of Nyssa, Later poetically rendered by John Milton in Paradise Lost, posists the Fall as a paradoxically fortunate event that unveils the superabundance of divine grace. Without the Fall, the soteriological depth of Christ’s atonement as prefigured in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 would remain unmanifested. Romans 5:20-21
“When sin increased, grace increased all the more”
suggest that the fall amplifies the glory of redemption, positioning Christ’s sacrifice as the telos of human history. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica argues that God permits evil to bring about a greater good, not as a direct cause but as a sovereign orchestrator who integrates human failure into His redemptive narrative. In jewish thought, the kabbalistic notion of shevirat ha-kelim parallel this, suggesting that cosmic rupture akin to the Fall is a prerequisite for tikkun olam, the restorative process wherein humanity participates in divine redemption.
Then coming to the theodicy and character of the divine, the question of the Fall’s place in God’s plan profoundly shapes our conception of divine character. If the Fall was divinely ordained, God’s sovereignty is absolute, yet His benevolence may be scrutinized as it implies the intentional permission of moral evil. If the Fall was deviation, God’s omnipotence might appear circumscribed, raising questions about His control over creation. The resolution lies in the doctrine of divine concursus, wherein God’s providence operates concurrently with human freedom. Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”
underscores the epistemic distance between divine and human rationality, cautioning against reductive anthropomorphisms. Karl Karth, in Chruch Dogmatics emphasizes God’s freedom in love, suggesting that the Fall while not caused by God, is subsumed under His gracious will to redeemed as evidenced by the pre-temproal election of Christ as in Revelation 13:8
At last we gonna come to the topic of divine pedagogy and eschatological synthesis. THe Fall, whether deivation or a divinely permitted event, functions as a pedagogical moment within the divine pedagogy of salvation history. It reveals the depths of human finitude and heights of divine grace culminating in the eschatological restoration through Christ’s Parousia. The synthesis of divine sovereignty and human freedom, as the eschatological restoration through Christ’s Parousia. The synthesis of divine sovereignty and human freedom as explored by Augustine, Molina, Maimonides and Barth shows the dialectical complexity of this doctrine. The Fall is not a mere accident but a chapter in the divine narrative that magnifies God’s glory through a mystery of redemption, inviting humanity into a participatory communion with the Triune God. As 1 Corinthians 2:9 , it is written:
"but, according as it hath been written, `What eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and upon the heart of man came not up, what God did prepare for those loving Him --’ " Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
The Fall in its tragic necessity shows the unfathomable depth of divine love.
Praise be to God