Why would God punish every human being for one man's mistake?

Here is an interesting question that was emailed recently:

Why would God punish every human being for one man's mistake? I have heard people say that "Oh everyone would not choose God if given the chance," but I really don't think thats the truth. I'm the most compliant, want everything to go well person, I wouldn't have rebelled. If things were good why change them! I'm not rebellious at all by nature. I don't understand why God would have one man's decision affect all of humanity. It doesn't seem just.

Thanks for this question. Rest assured, scripture affirms that God judges individuals based on what each one does - we are responsible for our own actions. God shows no partiality (Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34; Gal. 2:6) and "he will render to each one according to his works" (Rom. 2:6). However, Jesus and Paul ruffled some feathers because neither of them had confidence that if we are judged according to our own works that things would go well for us. Paul wrote "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" and Jesus' core message was that the kingdom of God was coming but that individuals needed to "repent" in order to enjoy it. So we are judged according to our works but according to the New Testament our good is not good enough. This is where the Gospel comes in. The good news is that where we fall short - Jesus didn't. Jesus is really the only one who was ever completely obedient to God (Phil 2). So the Gospel is offensive to us because it calls into question the belief that "I'm not rebellious at all by nature". While there may be a sense in which we don't feel rebellious, Jesus diagnoses all of our hearts as infected with sin (Mark 7:1-21) and in need of his intervention.

More to say but I will stop here to see what comments you guys have.....

What is the relationship between science and faith?

Here are parts of two related emails I received recently:

My question is when and how does science play a part in proving religion wrong, inaccurate, or even impossible? When do we know what stories in the Bible are not to be taken literally (Noah's Ark, people living till they were 900 years old, etc). Has science interfered with disproving other religions as well?

and

I am not necessarily sure how you would best frame such a question, but I think that the science/faith question in the end boils down to a view of events in the bible as being literal vs. allegorical. I think this is such an interesting question because there is so much of both present in the bible. Besides just the creation account, there are many other possible interpretations of events that could be allegorical in nature, rather than strictly factual. The ages of many old testament figures point to this, as do many events in the old testament; i.e. plagues, floods, etc..

Thanks for these questions. Science certainly has played a part in shaping how Christians have interpreted the Bible in the past. More often than not it has been a helpful corrective against folks who try to make the Bible to be something it clearly isn't (i.e. some sort of science textbook). It is helpful to point out that the Bible does not speak to and is not concerned with the mechanics of a thing, but rather the meaning and purpose for why a thing exists in the first place. When someone tries to extract scientific processes out of Scripture they are by definition going beyond what Scripture itself affirms. However, God is not bound by time and space as we are and because of that there is always a possibility of the miraculous. So we can't be too quick to conclude that something in the Bible could not have happened just because it is "impossible". God stands above science and he may work thru it or bypass it from time to time to remind us who He really is.

Just some initial thoughts.... What do you have to say?