In my writing about “Truth Versus Pietism” I explored how these two views of reality impact one’s approach to the gospel, Christian maturity, and engaging the world. My last post presented a chart that contrasted different aspects of these paradigms. Now, I’d like to look at the very first Pietists – Adam and Eve.

In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve enjoyed a blessed life of freedom, beauty, and fellowship with God and one another. According to Genesis, it was God’s custom to commune regularly with Adam and Eve in the garden. Both the spiritual and the physical came together in Eden. Heaven and earth kissed, and this was paradise. There was no division between secular and sacred. Everything was sacred, and it was as natural to work in the garden as it was to converse with God.

In this primordial world, secrets and shame, pretenses and lies were unknown. Naked humanity lived in complete harmony with the earth and with God. There was nothing to prove, and a vast universe of unthinkable beauty awaited to be explored. Wholeness and happiness flowed like a river.

But in the midst of this utopia, the deceiver, the Father of Lies, worked his malice and struck a blow that for ages to come would split heaven and earth. Beguiled by Satan, Eve bought the lie that the truth of heaven was different than the truth of earth. Indeed, God was hiding something. His reality was different than hers. If she and her husband were going to survive, they must reach out and know His truth, too.

With this fateful step, all of the rules seemed to change. They now confronted a fractured reality. Their world and home seemed inadequate. They were inadequate. The devastating shame of their humanity, in all its imperfections and weaknesses, frightened them. They no longer felt whole. Alone, with their own resources they would have to create sufficiency. They would cover their imperfections and make their own way in the world. The fig leaf would mask their weaknesses and would forever symbolize mankind’s pietistic attempt to make himself acceptable.

Mankind’s world was now at war with the spiritual world. Adam and his wife couldn’t bear heaven and earth’s communion anymore. Hearing the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hide themselves while an agonized God calls out, “Where are you?” Racked with shame, Adam confesses his twisted fears. God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” He had never told them that.