The Path to Restoration: God's Promise and Faithfulness

1. Section 1/Part 3Articles 8-12 The Path to Restoration

2. The Path to Restoration • After the Fall of Adam and Eve’s Fall from grace, God’s ne w plan is revealed through the Scriptures and Tradition • He seeks to restore to humanity what was lost in the Fall • He makes a promise to our first parents • Makes Covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. • Through these Covenants, God establishes his intent to call a Chose People to be his light for all the nations. • Gives the people the Law to teach them how to live in right relationship with him and with one another. • Unfortunately, the continued impact of Original Sin on the Chosen People fail to keep up their end of the Covenant allows them to suffer many terrible consequences because of their lack of faith. • God does not give up on us. His love, patience, and understanding have no human limits. • God’s prophets keep warning, directing and comforting the Chose People. Their message contained hints at what was to come in God’s wonderful plan for our salvation. • God would send a Messiah, a chosen one, who would fully restore humanity’s original holiness and justice. This chosen one would lead with justice, proclaim peace and as the Suffering Servant, take upon himself all our sins. Chosen people began to wait in hope.

3. Article 8/God’s Promise to Adam and Eve • After the Fall things seem bleak for the human race • Consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin (Genesis 3:14-19) • Adam and Eve, symbolic of all humanity have lost God’s gifts of original holiness and justice • Their relationship with God, each other and earth are more difficult and challenging • Third chapter of Genesis is great spiritual truth: even amidst the greatest of tragedies, God does not abandon us. For those who have faith, God will bring good even from sin and suffering.

4. Article 8/The Protoevangelium • Genesis 3:15/Known as the Protoevangelium –”first gospel.”The literal sense of this verse is that it is an etiology; it explains why snakes and people do not get along very well. • After Christ’s death, Resurrection, the church fathers saw a deeper, spiritual sense in the verse. This was interpreted as God’s firs promise to send a Savior to free humanity from the effects of the Fall • Literal sense-form of biblical interpretation that considers the explicit meaning of the text. It lays the foundation for all other senses of the Scriptures. • Spiritual sense-a form of biblical interpretation that goes beyond the literal sense to consider what the realities and events of the Scriptures signify and mean for salvation. • See chart page 38 of text. This helps in the interpretation of literal sign and Spiritual meaning. • As Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, God is making a covenant or promise, that he will save humanity from the damage caused by Satan’s deception. • In this interpretation, Mary is the new Eve and Christ is the new Adam. • As the Mother of God, Mary is the first to benefit from Christ’s victory over sin. She is conceived without Original Sin and with special grace from God, remains free from sin throughout her entire life.

5. Article 8/Sin Increases, God Remains Faithful • These two accounts that follow the Fall in the primeval history serve two purposes. • First, they show the growth and worsening of sin. • Second, they show that no matter how bad humanity fell, God remained faithful in finding a way to keep his plan of salvation. • First Account: Cain and Abel (Genesis 4: 1-16) • Story of jealousy and fratricide –to kill one’s own brother or sister. • Cain and Abel • Adam and Eve’s first two sons • Symbols of the two primary ways people fed themselves in biblical times: the shepherds raised animals and the farmers grew crops. • Both offered the appropriate sacrifice to God. • God liked Abel’s sacrifice better(because he offered the best of what he raised) • Cain was jealous so he killed Abel which was the first sin after the Fall, brother killing brother

6. Article 8/Sin Increases, God Remains Faithful • Second Account: Noah and the Flood (Genesis 6:5-9:17) • Two versions of the generations from Adam to Noah. • Humankind has greatly increased in number • Humankind has also greatly increased in sin. • One just man, Noah, and his family. Through Noah and his family, God was able to: • Continue his promise to save the descendants of Adam and Eve • Makes an explicit Covenant with Noah and through Noah with all humankind and all creation: “Never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood” (9:11)-God marked this promise with a rainbow. • God committed to saving humanity by some different means that by destroying all sinners.

7. Article 8/Sin Increases, God Remains Faithful • The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) • Babel-another spelling of Babylon,the nation and city where the Israelite leaders were brought as captives. • Babylonians, or more likely their slaves, built tall towers called ziggurats that were the center of politics and religion. • During the Exile-the period of the Israelite captivity in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, the Israelites would have remembered these as places of idolatry, the worship of false gods. • The account of the tower of Babel tells about people who tried to make themselves like gods and made god in their own image, something the Israelites had firsthand experience. • Keeping his promise not to destroy all the sinful people with a natural disaster, God instead makes them speak different languages so they can’t understand each other (etiology). This allows God to keep his plan of salvation in motion.

8. Article 9/The Old Testament Covenants: Part One • Israel is unique. Their covenants are not with other kingdoms but with God. • God initiates these covenants and stays faithful to them. • Through the covenants God communicates the love he has for humanity and his desire to restore our communion with him. • These covenants point us to the Paschal Mystery-the redemption of all humanity through Christ’s Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension.

9. Article 9/The Covenant with Noah • Covenant with Noah extended to all the nations of the earth and will remain in force as long as the world lasts. It is universal in nature. • After God makes this covenant with Noah, his descendants multiplied to become all the nations of the world. • Because of sin, these nations are always in danger of polytheism-false belief in many gods. • The covenant with Noah assures us that God is still at work among these nations and will find its fulfillment in the New Covenant that Jesus Christ extends to all the people of the world.

10. Article 9/The Abrahamic Covenant • Chapter 12 of Genesis • In his covenant with Abraham, God promises three things: • To make of him a great nation by promising Abraham many descendants • To provide Abraham and his descendants a land of their own • To make Abraham and his descendants a blessing for all the nations • The third promise is the most important because Abraham’s descendants, who will later be called Hebrews, Israelites and Jews, to be an example to all other people of how to live in right relationship with the one true God. • In this third promise, God ask Abraham and his descendants to commit to these things: • To walk with God-to recognize the one, true God (Genesis 17:1) • To be blameless-to live a life without sin (see 17:1) and • To practice circumcision as a physical mark of the covenant • Abraham’s descendants- Isaac and Jacob(God renames Israel) are called the patriarch- father or leader of a tribe, clan, or tradition. (Isaac, Jacob and Abraham were the patriarchs of the Israelite people) • God’s covenant with Abraham prepares the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ

11. Article 10/The Old Testament Covenants: Part Two • The Mosaic Covenant • Theophany-God breaking into the human dimension. This is the most awe-inspiring event in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai. • At Mount Sinai, God summons Moses to the mountaintop and renews with Moses the Covenant he made with Abraham. He gives Moses a set of law that the Israelites must follow as their part of the Covenant. • This law is summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17) • This law is also called the Mosaic Law or the Old Law. Breaking the law is being unfaithful to the Covenant. • Torah-first 5 books of the Old Testament. • The Old Law is a step in God’s plan for restoring our original holiness and justice.

12. Article 10/The Old Testament Covenants: Part Two • The Davidic Covenant • The covenant is delivered to King David by the prophet Nathan. • David wishes to build a permanent dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant-the sacred box in which the tablets with the Ten Commandments are kept. • Although the southern kingdom was destroyed and there were no more Davidic kings, Jesus Christ was a direct descendant of David. • Christ established the Kingdom of God, which will endure forever and over which he reigns for eternity. Through him the covenant with David is fulfilled. • All Old Testament covenants: • Are part of God’s plan • Assure us of God’s loving commitment to humanity • Teach us how to live in right relationship with God and one another. • Point us toward the restoration of our original holiness and justice. • Point to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose life, death, Passion Resurrection and Ascension-the Paschal Mystery-will bring these ancient Covenants to their final and complete fulfillment. • By sending his own Son, God has revealed himself fully to the world.

13. Article 11/Covenant Keeping: Successes and Failures • Judges of Israel • Israelites settle in Canaan, led by Joshua • Have no king, high priest, no president • They exist as a confederation-an alliance of tribes or nations with no central authority. • Judges-appointed by God and settled disputes and were primarily military leaders • Israelites forget the Law and the Covenant and abandon the Lord and follow other gods which in turned provoked the Lord. God allows them to fall into the hands of their enemies. When they realize their sin and repent, God raises up a judge to lead the victory against the enemies, but again they prove they cannot follow the Law and a bloody civil war arises. • Despite the setbacks, God is faithful to the Covenant and does not abandon these hopeless people.

14. Article 11/Covenant Keeping: Successes and Failures • The Monarchy • The monarchy-a government or state headed by a single person, like a king or queen. • Saul, David and Solomon/first three kings of Israel are historically committed to god and promote the Law and the Covenant, but become flawed: Saul-lack of trust, David-Lust and Solomon-greed. • Despite their weakness, God works through them to unite the twelve tribes into a strong, united kingdom and eventually to build a Temple in Jerusalem, the center of Israelite worship. • After Solomon’s death, the monarchy is split into two Kingdoms, Israel and Judah that experience many successes and failures. • Failing kings, Jeroboam-set up idolatrous places of worship and Judah-did evil in the sight of the Lord • Good kings: Asa, Hezekiah and Joshua-brought religious reform and destroyed the places of idolatry and called the people to be faithful again to the Covenant. • Another step in God’s plan of salvation is that the monarchy firmly establishes the Israelites as God’s Chosen People. • Israelite nations are committed to the Law and the Covenant and will find its fulfillment in the Kingdom of Heaven and the eternal Reign of Jesus Christ.

15. Article 11/Covenant Keeping: Successes and Failures • The Prophets • Watchdogs of the Covenant and the Law. • Call kings and the people to be faithful to the Covenant • Warn of the consequences of failing to do so. • Four major prophets- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel • These faithful men endured ridicule, torture and even risked death to speak God’s word • They knew that the Israelites’ faithfulness to the Covenant was essential to God’s plan of salvation.

16. Article 12/The Growing Messianic Hope • Hope: • An important virtue and a gift of faith. • Creates in us a desire and an expectation for our salvation and the Kingdom of God. • Prophets were God’s instruments of hope to his Chosen People. • Revealed to the prophets a vision of a New Covenant and a new heavenly kingdom. • Proclaiming their vision, the prophets gave the Chosen People hope for a future in which humanity’s relationship with God would be fully restored. • Centuries preceding the birth of Christ, many faithful Jews waited in expectant hope for the promised Messiah who would deliver them from their earthly and spiritual bondage. • Their wait was over when Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.