Devil in the Garden

[PJM]

=Maui71

If Adam and Eve were in paradise/garden of Eden how did the devil get in to tempt them? Didn’t God put everything in the Garden? Didn’t He send the devil to Hell so how did he get out?

Maui

***Awesome question!

The answer lies in the fact that God, “the heavens and angels existed before the Creation of the Universe and of humanity. Angels like humanity and similar but pale in comparison to God, have a mind, intellect, freewill and Soul All SPIRITUAL things; so they too could freely chose to know, love and serve God.

Like Adam and Eve they too had the capability to deny God, and allow pride to direct there actions. So Satan existed before Adam and Eve, and was placed in the garden to test them; just as Satan is here today to test our Love of God, and our resolve to choose correctly.*** FROM EWTN

What do we mean when we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth?

When we say that God is the Creator of heaven and earth we mean that He made all things from nothing by His almighty power.

(a) Only God can create, that is, make something from nothing, because creation requires infinite power, which God alone possesses.

(b) All things except God depend on a cause for their existence and hence must have been created by God.

(c) God did not have to create the world; He did so freely.

(d) God preserves all creatures; otherwise, they would at once return to nothingness. He also governs all things, and in the divine government of the world nothing does or can happen unless God wills or permits it.

(e) Evil is the lack of some perfection. God does not will physical evil in itself but only insofar as it is connected with some good.

(f) God wills or permits the physical evils of life in order to punish sin, to make sinners repent, to try the just and make them worthy of everlasting reward, or to be the occasion of some other greater good.

(g) God permits but does not will moral evils.

Which are the chief creatures of God?

The chief creatures of God are angels and men.
(a) It is a matter of faith that God the Creator produced out of nothing creatures both spiritual and corporal, angelic and earthly.

What are angels?

Angels are created spirits, without bodies, having understanding and free will.
(a) Reason alone cannot prove that the angels exist. Reason indicates, however, that just as there are purely material creatures, and creatures composed of both matter and spirit, so also it is fitting that there should be purely spiritual creatures.

(b) Angels are spiritual beings inferior to God and superior to man.

(c) Sacred Scripture frequently speaks of the angels and mentions three by name: the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.

(d) The nine “choirs” of angels are the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

(e) The exact number of angels is unknown, but Sacred Scripture indicates that their number is very great.

What gifts did God bestow on the angels when He created them?
When God created the angels He bestowed on them great wisdom, power, and holiness.

(a) God bestowed upon the angels supernatural grace by which they could gain eternal happiness.
(b) The angels were given the opportunity to merit the reward of heaven by remaining faithful to God.

What happened to the angels who did not remain faithful to God?

The angels who did not remain faithful to God were cast into hell, and these are called bad angels, or devils.

(a) The devils, or the evil spirits, were created by God, not as bad beings but as good beings. By their own free acts, they chose evil and thereby became bad angels.

What is the chief way in which the bad angels try to harm us?
The chief way in which the bad angels try to harm us is by tempting us to sin.

(a) Devils are sometimes permitted to enter the body of a man and to exercise power over his faculties—a state known as diabolical possession; or the, are permitted to torment a person from without—a state known as diabolical obsession.

(b) Diabolic possession and obsession are permitted by God to show forth His glory, to punish sin, to bring sinners to repentance, or to give occasion for the exercise of virtue.

(c) When the devil uses the body of a possessed person to say or do evil things, the person is not guilty of sin, provided he does not freely consent.

(d) Exorcism is the act of driving out or warding off evil spirits from persons, places, or things possessed or infested by them. The Church received from Christ the power of exorcism.

(e) An exorcist is one who has power, conferred by a bishop, to exorcise demons. The order of exorcist is the third of the four minor orders of the Western Church. Only with the permission of his bishop is a priest allowed to use his power of exorcising evil spirits.

Do all temptations come from the bad angels?

Some temptations come from the bad angels; but other temptations come from ourselves and from the persons and things about us.

(a} The bad angels, the persons and things about us, and we ourselves can excite the senses and be an inducement to sin.

 

[patg]

This is the problem of Sola Scriptura and extreme fundamentalist thinking.

Those two things are as far from me as you can get! Thinking that the devil was in the garden is actually a sign of misunderstanding the literary form of the story. This story is a symbolic myth which uses symbols to explore a reality beyond the author’s understanding. To discuss the story with any assumption beyond this quickly gets you into trouble as we see from the very question that started this.

 

[grannymh]

Those two things are as far from me as you can get!

As I understand sola scriptura, one only goes by what is explicit in Scripture, kind of like extreme fundamentalism. The flip side is that if something is not explicit in Scripture, it can’t be interpreted by an organization as being there. By saying that the devil needs to be mentioned by name before you will accept him in Genesis, you are asking for the fundamentalist type interpretation. Since you are not accepting the Catholic organization traditional reasoning for Satan, you are in effect practicing sola scriptura.

Thinking that the devil was in the garden is actually a sign of misunderstanding the literary form of the story. This story is a symbolic myth which uses symbols to explore a reality beyond the author’s understanding. To discuss the story with any assumption beyond this quickly gets you into trouble as we see from the very question that started this.

Of course, thinking that the devil is in the garden is dang scary. It might give someone the idea that responsibility goes with decisions. Literary myths are the cat’s pajamas.

Blessings,
granny

Catholic teaching **regarding Adam and the Devil **is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put paragraph numbers and topics such as Adam, etc. in the Catechism’s search bar in link www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

 

[grannymh]

Those two things are as far from me as you can get! Thinking that the devil was in the garden is actually a sign of misunderstanding the literary form of the story. This story is a symbolic myth which uses symbols to explore a reality beyond the author’s understanding. To discuss the story with any assumption beyond this quickly gets you into trouble as we see from the very question that started this.

This story is a symbolic myth which uses symbols to explore a reality beyond the author’s understanding.

This is the true sorrow of symbolism–letting one’s trust in our Creator die in our hearts.

 

[PJM]

=patg;6690814]Those two things are as far from me as you can get! Thinking that the devil was in the garden is actually a sign of misunderstanding the literary form of the story. This story is a symbolic myth which uses symbols to explore a reality beyond the author’s understanding. To discuss the story with any assumption beyond this quickly gets you into trouble as we see from the very question that started this.

***That friends is the personal view of one who struggling with Faith, and lacks Gods gifts of Wisdom and Understanding.

Here is the position of the CC…***

**375 **The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”. This grace of original holiness was “to share in. . .divine life”.

399 Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.

404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam “as one body of one man”.By this “unity of the human race” all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called “sin” only in an analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” - a state and not an act.

417 Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called “original sin”.

411 The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, because he “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”, makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the “new Eve”. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.

 

[grannymh]

Here is the position of the CC…

.

To really help those who struggle with faith…
A good suggestion is to start with God’s point of view.

To understand the human condition from God’s position, please start the recommended reading with paragraph 355, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition. Keep meditating through paragraph 384. This is the preparation needed for paragraphs 385 and following.

Blessings,
granny

Link to Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition – www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

“paragraph number” or words can be put in the search bar.

 

[nickybr38]

I don’t know if someone addresssed this already (I browsed the responses but didn’t look at them in detail)… but perhaps God allowed Satan into the garden to test the humans.

Much like He did with Job.

 

[PJM]

To really help those who struggle with faith…
A good suggestion is to start with God’s point of view.

To understand the human condition from God’s position, please start the recommended reading with paragraph 355, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition. Keep meditating through paragraph 384. This is the preparation needed for paragraphs 385 and following.

Blessings,
granny

Link to Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition – www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

“paragraph number” or words can be put in the search bar.

Thanks Granny!

 

[edwest2]

I don’t know if someone addresssed this already (I browsed the responses but didn’t look at them in detail)… but perhaps God allowed Satan into the garden to test the humans.

Much like He did with Job.

It should not be answered casually. The devil is a real being. He came to Jesus to tempt Him as well. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us the serpent in the garden was any kind of test. Adam and Eve had one command to follow - just one.

God bless,
Ed

 

[Maui71]

Great Points eveyone!!

Keep em coming.

Thanks,

Maui

 

[nickybr38]

It should not be answered casually. The devil is a real being. He came to Jesus to tempt Him as well. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us the serpent in the garden was any kind of test. Adam and Eve had one command to follow - just one.

God bless,
Ed

And because they had just one command God wouldn’t allow them to be tested?

God knows everything, so He knew what would happen if the serpent was allowed in the Garden yet He allowed the serpent in the Garden anyway. It’s not as if the serpent could sneak in without God knowing so clearly God allowed the serpent into the Garden to kick start a chain of events that led to us being here now.

The only reasonable explanation for this that I can process in my limited human mind is that God knew what would happen from start (the moment Eve took the apple) to finish and whatever finish we’re heading for is so wonderful that all of the suffering and loss in between is going to be worth it.

But that’s just my limited understanding of things.