Understanding time as part of creation:

Time & God God lives outside of time- no beginning, no end Next life there is no time Because God lives outside of time he knows all.

Creation is GOOD It is difficult to understand goodness of God’s creation because we live in a world where evil is present. Yet, everything God creates is good. Evil entered life because of the sinful choices of Satan and his followers. They were all created as angels.

Creation is GOOD Gen 3:14-19- Man chose evil and changed the world from a place of comfort and joy to one of struggle. St. Thomas Aquinas- Evil is not a thing of God, evil is not a thing that exist in itself, it only comes about as a privation or lack of some good which God has created. EX: Love and Hate- God created love= good, but human sometimes choose to live without love- that = hate. This is because we are given free will. BC of free will – we have the power to accept or reject the good things in life.

The creation of Human Beings in the Image of God ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, and the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ What does it mean that we were created in God’s image and after his likeness?

What does it mean that we were created in God’s image? God is our Father: we were created with the ability to have a loving relationship with God our Father. We were given ‘the inner harmony of the human person CCC 376 from the moment our existence began. We are like God: We have intelligence, free will, and the capacity to love. As human beings we find ourselves between the angels and the beasts, with physical bodies and rational souls. Our love in our families is an image of the love and life of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Human life possesses great sacredness: Every person is sacred because every person is created in God’s image. Even someone who has committed a horrible crime, is still created in the image of God, No human is beyond redemption. Our work has special value: Our dignity does not come from what we do. Our work has value because we bear the image of God.

God’s image: Being in the image of God the human individual is not just something but someone. (CCC 357) No material thing passes into the next world, BUT every human soul has eternal existence. Humans posses great sacredness and great dignity as a result of being created by God in his image and likeness. Because we have immortality of souls and because every human person has an immaterial soul, it can never be divided or come apart, so it will live forever.

The marriage covenant God chose to make man and woman personally complementary to each other physically and personally. We use procreation to indicate a man and woman acting with the creator and as sharers in God’s own creative power

God our Father When Adam and Eve were created by God, they were holy and had a special relationship with God. This being that there was yet no sin in the world. The origin of man is in God’s holiness, and God created man to be holy and to share in his grace and love. They were free from the dividing effects of sin. God is our Father and Creator, he deserves our complete respect. One way in which the Jewish people showed their respect for God was by not directly using his name. Instead they used Adonai- which meant LORD. Yahweh, which is the proper name of the God of Israel, was written YHWH because scripture did not use vowels in the written form.

The Fall Our own sinfulness is the most persistent evidence for the fall. One important lesson that can be learned from the fall is that we are temptations for others. – by word or act, we have all experienced sin in some way as a result of another’s influence. ‘Serpent’- something much more deadly than a garden snake- it’s more deadly powerful evil creatures. The word usually refers to something that bites, often with venom. The serpent here is more than just subtle: it’s a deadly, a liar, a murderer. CCC 394

Spiritual Death The term SD does not refer to the death of the soul- it’s the death of our relationship with God. God said ‘ the day you eat of the tree (of knowledge) you shall die.

Spiritual Death Of course Adam and Eve did not die on the spot- they ran and hid. In every lie there is an element of truth. – the truth in Satan’s lie was that you will not die a physical death once you eat the fruit.

Spiritual Death Adam was the head of the whole race, his sin affected all humans. Our relationship with God is damaged because we inherit the effects of the original sin committed by Adam. Adam and Eve lost something greater than natural life when they sinned. They lost supernatural life, original holiness. They chose to love themselves more than God. Mt 10:28 They didn’t die physically but they died spiritually.

Where are you? God knew what wrong Adam and Eve had done, but he was giving them a chance to confess their sin to him. Evidence for the existence of sin is our unwillingness to admit we have done the act. The most difficult thing to consider and to do is to go to confession.

The curse By their sin, suffering was brought into the world. Sin is the reason for suffering. All the good things God planned for us are tainted by suffering. By the unity of the human race we are affected by mans actions. The concept of one man’s actions affecting the lives of all who follow him may seem a little ridiculous. Ex. Think of the president: what he decides affects us all.

Evil Our world is a battleground between good and evil, has been since original sin. Adam and Eve were kicked out of paradise, had two sons, Cain and Abel- the next thing is that Cain killed Abel. Evil was here to stay. Why did Cain kill Abel? – Cain was angry because Abel’s sacrifice had been acceptable to God, but his own had not. His sin was ENVY > one of the 7 deadly sins, and one of the most dangerous.

Evil Envy= resenting the blessings of others. Cain thought God wasn’t being fair to him. In the past century we have witnessed two World Wars, 30 million unborn aborted. These things are constantly trying to pull us away from God. You must be ready to wage war against evil and defend your relationships with God.