Fall

Fall, the name applied in theology to the change of state with respect to sin which befell Adam and Eve in Eden. The Scripture version of the fact, and the allegorical and other spiritualised explanations that have been offered by theologians, are already discussed under ADAM; here it only remains to point out the special use made of it in the orthodox Augustinian and Calvinistic scheme of theology. The Fall was due to an external temptation offered by the devil, and the inheritance of sin and a corrupted nature descended through the first sinners to all their natural descendants, to whom the guilt of the first sin was imputed in what is called original sin. This was possible, because Adam, as the covenant head or federal representative of the whole human race, necessarily involved all mankind—his descendants—in the consequences of his breach of the covenant which God made with him at his creation. Christ is 'the second man' and 'the new Adam' (Rom. v. and 1 Cor. xv.), and in the new covenant made with God the believer, through Christ's merits imputed to himself, is freed from the consequences of the Fall in so far as the after-life is concerned. See ADAM, EVIL, and SIN.