CHRISTIAN LIFE EDUCATION- GRADE 8

Seeing God in the First Creation Story

- The Bible reveals a much deeper truth about our origin.
- The first book of the Bible is called Genesis means “origin or beginning.”
- God created the world out of His free, deliberate and loving will.

Day Naming Separating Days Filling

s
1 Light Light from darkness 4 Sun, moon, stars
2 sky Waters above from waters below 5 Birds, fishes
3 earth, sea Dry land from waters below 6 Animals, human beings
7 God rested on the seventh day

God created us in his image and likeness

- Among all God’s creation, human beings are solely created in His image and likeness.
- God created us in His image and likeness.
- Since we are created on God’s image and likeness, we have been endowed with inalienable dignity.
- This is the ultimate basis of every human being’s self-worth and the reason that every person should be
respected.
- Each person’s God-given dignity cannot be taken away by any other earthly creature.

Human beings as stewards of His Creation

- We are empowered to enjoy and make use of God’s other earthly creations, but with this great power
comes great responsibility.”
- We are called to use our talents and gifts responsibly for the common good.

God Created Rest

- God wants us to celebrate the Sabbath and rest in Him.
- After God created his work, He rested on the seventh day (Sabbath).

THE BEGINNING OF SIN

The Fall of Man
- The Fall of Man in Genesis 3 is a symbolic narrative about the origin of evil or sin.
- The origin of evil in the world was manifested by Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience to God’s
command not to eat a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
- The serpent made the eating from the forbidden tree look good.
- What we have inherited are the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve.
- Their personal sin is often called original sin because it was the first sin that brought moral evil into the
world.
 - The original sin also refers to the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve: the loss of God’s grace, the
“sin of the world”, or the “situation of sin” that all humans are born into.
Concupiscence,
- is the inner disorder of our basic drives.
- Everybody has an inborn “disorder”

Cain and Abel (Gn 4:1-16)

CAIN
- He was the first born son of Adam and Eve.
- He is a farmer.
ABEL
- He was the second born son of Adam and Eve.
- He was a skilled shepherd who took care of the family’s animals.
The consequences of the Fall of Man are illustrated dramatically in the story of the two sons of Adam and Eve.
- Cain was furious because God looked on Abel with Favor.
- Cain murdered his own brother.
- Cain’s jealousy made him ignore his responsibility.

THE GREAT FLOOD (Gn 6-9:17)

Noah – he had no faults and was the only good man of his time.
Noah has three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth
- God instructed Noah to make an ark to save himself, his family, and some chosen animals from the
flood.
- “Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights.”
- The narrative of Noah and the Great Flood shows the worst that can happen to a world that has become
too evil.
- The ark is a symbol of God’s salvation.
- Noah became an instrument of God in saving the good in the world.
- God, then, set a rainbow in the sky as an eternal promise to never destroy the world again by flood.

THE TOWER OF BABEL (Gn 11:1-9)

- This narrative shows how arrogant the early people were.
- The people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words.
- They began to build tower to make a name for themselves.
- The Lord mixed up the language of all the people.
“Is there hope for a sinful world?”