Previously we learned that the Bible says God made people “in the image of God.” This means every person is very special. But the Bible also talks about a big problem. We see this problem in this Psalm (a song) from the Bible:
The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 14:2–3
This says that all people have become corrupt. God made us in His image, but something has broken that image in all of us. We show this by not looking for God (“all have turned aside”) and by not doing what is good.
Thinking Elves and Orcs
To help us understand this, we can think about the elves and orcs in the Lord of the Rings movies. Orcs are ugly and mean. Elves, like Legolas, are beautiful and peaceful.
But orcs were once elves. The evil ruler Sauron changed them. He made them bad. The good image of the elves was ruined. In the same way, the Bible says people were made good, but something ruined us. God made elves — but we became orcs.
For example, we know what is right and wrong. But we do not always do what is right. It is like a computer with a virus. The computer still works, but something is wrong inside. Our sense of right and wrong is still there, but it has been hurt. The Bible says people started out good but were later changed. This matches what we see in ourselves.
Some people ask: If we were made like this, why did God do it? Christopher Hitchens, who did not believe in God, said this:
“… If god really wanted people to be free of such thoughts [i.e., corrupt ones], he should have taken more care to invent a different species.”
Christopher Hitchens. 2007. God is not great: How religion spoils everything. p. 100
But the Bible says something different. God did not make us corrupt. Something bad happened after God made us. The first people turned away from God. Because of that, they changed. They became corrupt.
The Fall of Mankind
This is called The Fall. God made the first man, Adam. There was an agreement between God and Adam, like a promise in marriage. But Adam broke that promise.
The Bible says Adam ate from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” God had told him not to eat from it. The tree gave Adam a real choice: to follow God or to go his own way.
Adam was made in God’s image. He was friends with God. But Adam did not choose to be created. That was God’s choice. So, God gave him a different choice — to stay in friendship with Him or not.
It’s like this: You cannot choose to stand unless sitting is possible. In the same way, Adam’s friendship with God had to be a real choice. The tree was the test. Adam chose to go against God.
And the result of that choice has passed down to all people. It still affects us today. We look next at what this means.