Anthropology: Part 7 -- By: Lewis Sperry Chafer

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 101:404 (Oct 1944)
Article: Anthropology: Part 7
Author: Lewis Sperry Chafer


Anthropology:
Part 7

Lewis Sperry Chafer

[Author’s Note: This article, continuing the general theme of Anthropology, concludes the study respecting man. Following this will be an extended series on Soteriology, or Salvation Truth.]

IV. The Fall

The fall, or lapse, of the first man must be contemplated in the light of that which preceded it-innocence, tempter, temptation-, and that which followed it-spiritual death and depravity of those who sinned, spiritual death and depravity of the race, and physical death. These factors which preceded the fall have been attended in recent pages: the things which followed should be pursued briefly at least at this present juncture.

The extended doctrine concerning death is at once in evidence. God had warned the two parents that in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, dying they should die. The penalty thus proposed was executed and death in its three forms was imposed upon them. (1) Spiritual death, which is separation of soul and spirit from God, fell upon them the moment they sinned, (2) physical death began at once its unavoidable process of disintegration and eventual separation of soul and spirit from the body, and (3) they became subject to the second death which is the lake of fire-the eternal separation of soul and spirit from God. Of the lake of fire, it is written that it is prepared for the devil and his angels. It was not prepared for human beings and they enter it only on the ground that they repudiate God and cast in their lot with Satan and his angels. Dr. Lindsay Alexander in his System of Biblical Theology, Volume I, has

written a general account of the fall of man which is here incorporated: “Let us now turn to glance for a little at the immediate effect of the temptation. And here it is interesting also to observe the process by which evil consummated its triumph over Eve. The narrative of Moses, brief as it is, may be viewed as an articulate illustration of the analysis of the Apostle John in his theory of evil as consisting of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. The woman, we are told, when she looked saw that the tree was good for food: there was the lust of the flesh, the craving of irregular appetite and lawless desire; and that it was pleasant to the eyes: there was the lust of the eyes, the inordinate love and desire of what is merely beautiful and attractive with the craving after the possession of what merely enriches and magnifies; and that it was a tree to be desired to make one wise: there was the pride of life, the unholy love of pre-eminence, the restless curiosity that would pry into what God has concealed, the ambition to grasp power above o...

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