Fall-Sin-Redemption Model

A key theological belief about sin and salvation that is held by many Christians. It consists of a series of beliefs:

• Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden when they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• By their actions, sin entered the world for the first time, and produced a gulf between God and our first parents.
• Through the concept of imputation, Adam and Eve's sin has been assigned to their children, their grandchildren, and all the way down to present-day humanity. Not a single person since our first parents has avoided sin.
• Because of the incarnation in which God took human form in the body of Jesus, and because of Jesus' sinlessness, he had the power to forgive sin.
• Persons can be saved today by repenting of their sin, and trusting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. They will then attain Heaven when they die. They become a new creation. Through a process of sanctification God helps them change and become more like Christ. The other alternative is to not trust Jesus; they will then be tortured in Hell for all eternity.

Many liberal Christians reject this model. In part, this is because they view the Garden of Eden story as a religious myth, and Adam and Eve's actions as symbolising the rise of humanity; not its fall.