Felix Culpa - The Happy Fault

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

suaso

Guest
#1
#1
O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer

This line is taken from the Exultet, which is sung at the Easter Vigil of the Catholic Church as well as some Anglican and Lutheran churches. The “happy fault” or Felix Culpa is an interesting topic that I thought folks my like to discuss here.

In the beginning…
The first business of things is to go back to creation. God created everything, as we know, and I won’t reference a detailed account of Genesis, but we know that the angels were created before humans were. The angels are beings of great magnificence and splendor. Angels are far superior to humans in creation, having heaven as their dwelling place and so on.

Then comes man. God creates us, lower than angels. Almost immediately, we sin. Our race has fallen in the blink of an eye. We live, we die. We’re week and frail beings compared to angels. But something happens…

Felix Culpa
The Happy Fault. Because of our sinfulness, God must become incarnate. The Son of God takes on human flesh in the person of Jesus. God becomes man. He becomes man to redeem man, and man is brought up to God. The Son of God in human flesh redeems human flesh and sanctifies the body and soul of man so that it may be worthy of heaven. God never took on angelic nature. The angels who fell have no redemption. Humanity has it’s redeemer.

That is the happy fault: That sin of Adam, original sin if you will, was horrible. But, it gained for us Jesus Christ, our Great Redeemer, bringing to us a glory unforeseen by anything in creation, including the angels. It is proof that God can bring good out of evil, for evil has no power, and it will never win. God is always right.


Talk amongst yourselves.
 
Elijah23

Elijah23

Banned
#2
Oct 23, 2009
366
1
0
#2
Where does the Bible define what an angel is?
 
S

suaso

Guest
#3
#3
I guess in the same place it defines the Trinity
 
G

greatkraw

Guest
#4
#4
The pope is actually a protestant and i can prove it.
 
J

Jordan9

Guest
#5
#5
Hmm, that's pretty awesome.

Reminds me of something I read earlier. I could probably get banned for posting it, because it's in Esquire, which is not a very great magazine.

If you Google, "shane claiborne open letter to non-believers" it should be the top result.

Anyway, in his letter, Shane mentions something about what his friend calls "Dirty theology."

I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it.
Click to expand...
That's what the notion of Felix Culpa reminds me of, how God can take the junk and make it awesome. It's a beautiful, heartwaming concept.
 
S

suaso

Guest
#6
#6
greatkraw said:
The pope is actually a protestant and i can prove it.
Click to expand...
I have no idea what this has to do with the topic of Felix Culpa. Or are you jesting? The problem with the internet is that we can't easily indicate the tone of our "voices" if you will...
 
G

greatkraw

Guest
#7
#7
The bread and wine do not literally change during the Eucharist.
 
S

suaso

Guest
#8
#8
This thread is about the Felix Culpa, not everyone's personal grievances with Catholic doctrine. There are plenty threads devoted to that already.

Anywho, back to the Happy Fault: yes Jordan, that is sort of what it means! God can take any wrong done in the world and use it as a means to show how his grace can overcome it and defeat it.
 
C

charisenexcelcis

Guest
#9
#9
That's why I disagree with the doctrine of restorationism. What we gain through grace is greater than what we lost in the fall. But oh the cost: the billions that never avail themselves of God's grace. And then there is the bittersweetness of the cross, embraced by the Son for the glory of the empty tomb.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.