In Vos Study #7, Dr. (congrats!) Bucey and Dr. Tipton cover all of the small chapter 4, The Content of the First Redemptive Special Revelation, which focuses on the results of the Fall.
First off is nakedness and shame, which is the result of “how Special Revelation attaches itself to General Revelation”. Previously GR showed God’s glory through creation, but now it reveals Adam & Eve’s sin and guilt. (See also Rom 1).
On to the curses. Most of the discussion on the podcast centered on “seed of woman vs seed of serpent”; noting how it is “obviously” collective at first, but then turns singular at “he will crush your head”. This was related to Gal 3:16 with the “seed” vs “seeds” stuff. (And that in turn related to the Christocentric vs Christotelic discussion which is currently occupying a lot of the blogosphere.) One especially nice point from Vos is how God shows his initiative with “I will put enmity…”. Says Vos,
The essence of the deliverance consists in a reversal of the attitude assumed by man towards the serpent and God respectively. Man in sinning had sided with the serpent and placed himself in opposition to God. Now the attitude towards the serpent becomes one of hostility; this must carry with it a corresponding change in man’s attitude towards God. God being the mover in the warfare against Satan, man, joining in this, becomes plainly an ally of God.
The curses towards Eve and Adam (note curses are given in order of sin; serpent, Eve, Adam) are treated much less. But it is interesting that Vos finds the gospel even in the curses; obviously the protoevangelion in the serpent’s curse, but in cursing Eve with painful childbirth, God is promising childbirth; and in cursing Adam with hard labor, he is promising sun, and rain, and bread.
One off-handed comment got my goat; discussing the collective seeds of the woman and serpent, Bucey jokes “Those are the first two kingdoms, ha ha”; but Tipton follows up enthusiastically with, “Yes, if you want to properly consider the two kingdoms…”. It seemed like me to be a backhanded swipe at 2K, even though obviously, it’s not proper 2K if one of the Kingdoms is the Kingdom of Satan. But I’ll give them a pass, as the rest of the episode had lots of good things to say about Kline, both in Kingdom Prologue and Images of the Spirit.
The Confessional Outhouse 