An examination of the claim that God decreed Adam's fall

Epiphoskei

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It is the starting point for all serious scholarship; though the majority will seek to tweak it here and there.

It's a theory in decadence, vainly trying to convince people that it hasn't lost its former glory. You can always tell when this is happening - a waning speculative theory's proponents become less and less tolerant of those who reject it as speculation the more it becomes evident the theory can't be proven.
 
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Clare73

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Do you believe that Luke alludes to the wilderness wanderings of Israel in Lk. 4 presenting Jesus as faithful Israel?
Yes, that is Biblically warranted from connections which are specifically stated in Scripture, making for type and anti-type, rather than "allusions."

Jesus is Israel (Mt 2:15),
who has crossed the Red Sea (in baptism--1Co 10:2) into the wilderness,
whose replies to Satan are all drawn from Israel's wilderness experience (Deut).

Satan's strategy there was to provoke Jesus to mutiny, so Satan could then justly accuse him before God by God's own Law (word),
but instead Jesus quoted God's own Law (word) "back at him."
 
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Iosias

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Yes, that is Biblically warranted from connections which are specifically stated in Scripture, making for type and anti-type, rather than "allusions."

They are allusions, no where in Scripture is Jesus' temptation in the wilderness explicitly declared to be an allusion to Israel's wilderness wanderings. It is not typology, if you think so you are sadly wrong in your understanding of type and anti-type. But at least you agree with the substance.

As I have taught elsewhere, based upon the work of Michael Horton:

To fully comprehend the scriptures we need to be familiar with the biblical drama of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. We need to recognise that ‘creation was not the goal, but the beginning, of God’s purpose for humankind specifically and the natural world generally.’ That is, creation is covenantal and has an eschatological orientation. In short, had Adam obeyed the drama would have moved straight from creation to consummation. But because Adam disobeyed, the drama now has two additional acts, fall and redemption. Here God sends Jesus who is the Last Adam and the True Israel who succeeds where Adam failed; he is the faithful servant of the covenant. So he keeps the suzerainty treaty or covenant of works and as Lord he mediates the benefits of that covenant through a royal grant or covenant of grace.

Adam and the Covenant of Creation
In the opening chapters of Genesis we find a covenantal structure: a historical prologue setting the stage (Genesis 1-2), stipulations (2:16-17) and the sanctions (2:17b). Adam is created with the ability to obey God completely and God commands complete obedience and then promises, upon that condition, the right to eat from the tree of life. It was the prize awaiting the successful outcome of a trial. So while creation itself is a gift, the entrance into God’s Sabbath rest was held out as the promise for loyal obedience in the period of testing. Just as God the great king endured the “trial” of creation and came out at the other end pronouncing victory and entering his Sabbath enthronement, his earthly ectype-vassal was to follow the same course. So we see that Adam and Eve were called to imitate their creator and covenant Lord’s pattern of working and resting, they were to enter in to God’s everlasting rest according to the covenant of creation. Adam broke the covenant of creation and so Adam and all his posterity are under the covenant curse – death.

Israel and the Sinaitic Covenant
After God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt he made a covenant of the suzerainty treaty form with them, of which Deuteronomy is the clearest example. In short God promises Israel with blessing if they obey God’s commands and curse if they disobey God’s commands (see Leviticus 26). Israel is in the Promised Land which parallels Adam being in the Garden and both the Adamic and Sinaitic covenants suggest obedience would bring forth blessing (i.e. eschatological life in Adam’s case and a long and prosperous life in the Promised Land in Israel’s case) and disobedience would bring forth curse (i.e. death in Adam’s case and exile in Israel’s). The law given at Sinai is a republication of the law given to Adam in the Garden-Temple.

Jesus and the New Covenant
Jesus is portrayed as the Last Adam and the True Israel in the synoptic gospels, so in Mark 1 we move straight from Jesus being baptised to his being tested in the wilderness and Paul describes Jesus as the Last Adam in Romans 5. Both Adam and Israel were God’s disobedient sons however Jesus was God’s obedient son. Not only did he obey God he also suffered the curse of disobedience and all those who submit to his rule have a double imputation; they have Jesus’ active obedience given to them and they have the curse of their disobedience removed from them so that in Christ they are counted as righteous. Ultimately we can say that Jesus did what Adam did not and we obtain our Sabbath rest through his work and “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). Jesus Christ is the faithful covenant servant and all who believe in him need not obey God for life for the works of Jesus are ours, rather the law tells us what pleases God.

Thematic Overview: We can then paint an overview of the Bible using the theme of the ‘son of God’:
- Adam = called God’s son in Luke 3:38
- Israel = called God’s son in Exodus 4:22 & Hosea 11:1
- Jesus = called God’s son at his baptism and elsewhere, including Hosea 11:1.
 
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Clare73

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They are allusions
They are not "allusions."

no where in Scripture is Jesus' temptation in the wilderness explicitly declared to be an allusion to Israel's wilderness wanderings.

Biblical connections are not "declared."

Luke simply reported the events.

In the events he reported, connections exist between the events and the OT Scriptures.

The connections are real, and the NT makes them in Mt 2:15, 3:4, 7, 10; 1Co 10:2.

It is not typology,
Granted. . .typology is too strong a word, they are more correctly called Biblically warranted connections.
 
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Clare73

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The connections I am drawing are biblically warranted being based upon patterns in the scriptures themselves.
They are based on your interpretations of them as patterns.

Where do you find statements in the Scriptural text showing their actual connections?
 
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If God has foreordained every event what is left to foreknow?

I got to thinking about this topic today, and decided to share a thought.

What sense would it make for God to have foreordained a "plan of salvation" (Covenant of Redemption) before creating the world, with a "genuine" possibility that mankind, specifically Adam and Eve, would not sin against God? If mankind had not fallen, would that not have made at best the "plan of salvation" of null effect, at worst evidence of a God unable to know the future and or something even worse?
 
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