Pence on the original mission of Adam

[Published 10/22/11]

"When Christ died on the cross, He was a victim of the Jewish priests, the Roman soldiers, and the sins of us all. He did not raise a sword against his earthly slayers. But to freeze him there -- an unarmed victim dead on the cross -- is to accept the atheist’s tale of a slave religion. He was also a priest whose death gained him entry to a higher battlefield where he vanquished death and mortally wounded Satan -- dethroning him but not yet executing his final eviction from earth.

It was the original mission of Adam and Eve to fill the Earth. Just as surely, it was the original mission of Adam and his Sons to 'subdue and rule over…all the living creatures that move upon the Earth,' among whom 'the most subtle was the serpent.'

The Second Adam did not release us from our original mission, but saved us from the prison camp of Satan’s dominion and restored our nature as free men. Once again we are ordered, as was Noah and all mankind, to fill the earth with life and subdue all the living under God’s will. This time we are to establish the Kingdom of God on earth through the apostolic Church, baptizing all nations and casting out the evil spirits which will oppose this endeavor.

Man was not created so he might sin and then be saved. He was created to fill the place of the fallen angels in a communal embodiment of worship and love. But to win this favored place in heaven, man would first have to restore justice by suffering and contesting the Evil One. He would restore order to the Earth, set aside as the Household of the Living. The Earth is not the physical center of the Universe but it is the elected stage for this great drama. Man could not fully appreciate the mission of Adam and his Sons until Christ and his Apostles clarified the communal forms by which the Evil One is to be finally vanquished. We are not just Adam and Eve making life in the garden. We are also Adam and his Sons making war on Satan throughout Battlefield Earth.

We were not saved to be reduced to a victim’s nature as a POW, safe and plump in the heaven of the garden. We were saved to enjoy again the liturgical fruits of the sacramental garden while getting back to our original task of restoring justice by evicting that father of all lies who was a murderer from the beginning. Much of the pacifism and the failure of courage and authority in the Church stems from an arrested satisfaction with 'being saved' and 'living in love.' Make no mistake. It is a gift to be saved and the restored sacramental love of the liturgical altar and marriage bed are joys to be savored. But we returning prisoners must also hunger and thirst for restorative Justice, and be thankful that once again we are allowed to be about our Father’s original directive."