THE HISTORICITY OF ADAM & EVE

'The liquidation of sin "once for all" in the datable, localizable event of Golgotha...presupposes the teaching of Genesis. Twice the same structure, instituted by God, has come into play: the organic solidarity which united the members of one humanity under its Head, and gives him power to be its representative. On both occasions it had to be a real act, otherwise the second Adam would not have been able to put right the work of the first. The obedience of the unique Man on that Good Friday has set free a great multitude because the evil which held us all enslaved had its origin in history, and we all contracted it through the offence of the first man, on that first evil day. For historical sin there is a historical redemption.'  

Henri Blocher, In the Beginning, p.170 

SIN

'The sinners of Genesis 3, like so many after them, imagined themselves greater in the arrogance of their gesture. Were they not making a superhuman challenge against heaven? Rebellion seeks to masquerade as heroism. But it is a laughable disguise, for at the very moment that the sinner is intoxicated with the sense of his own power, he is being manipulated by another mind. In actual fact, sin is defeat. At the same time, it is from another perspective an inversion of the true order of things. The fact that the other party takes on the form of an animal (the text underlines the fact that the snake belonged to that category, Gn.3:1) is not an insignificant detail. Reptiles were part of the animal kingdom over which the man and woman were to have dominion.' 

Henri Blocher, In the Beginning, p.142. 

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

'Evil is not in the good that God has created, but in the rejection of the order that God has instituted for the enjoyment of the world. Temptation plays with the facets of things that are good, and highlights the attractions of the beauties in creation. Sin then perverts the excitement which these objects quite rightly cause within us. Thus, to revert to John's words, "the lust of the flesh" perverts and corrupts the excitement which drives us towards what is good and beneficial. The "lust of the eyes" likewise corrupts the drive towards what is beautiful and true. The "pride of life" perverts the rightful effort to be, and to be valued. Thus, in the temptation of Jesus, the devil offered him things which by right belonged to the Son of God; but he invited Jesus to invert the order established by the Father. Thus, in Genesis 3, the fruit of the tree planted by God was intended to be beautiful and good - the opportunity for sin was an innocent creature - but the human race perverted the order of the Creator.' 

Henri Blocher, In the Beginning, p.40. 

MEN, WOMEN & GOD

'...there is a kind of subtle balance. In all earthly relationships, the man represents God more obviously than does the woman: in active transcendancy, in keeping an objective distance, in leadership and work. But we realize at once that it is the women who best represents humanity in its relationship with God: in the face-to-face relationship with the LORD, every human being, male or female, must accept a feminine position, existing from him and for him, receiving and bearing the seed of his word, receiving and bearing the name he gives. And the "three things" that remain, faith, hope and love (I Cor. 13:13), have they not all a feminine fragrance? Well did the Creator weigh the respective advantages of the male and female. The scales are less unequal; than is supposed. Each one of us, man and woman, finds it easier to live one dimension of the human portion, being as the image of God; one represents him, one corresponds to him.' 

Henri Blocher, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis, p.104.