If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat the apple, Why did he he put the tree in the Garden of Eden? Did you ever think that maybe he wanted them to eat it so they would be cast out?
2006-07-28 05:41:01 · 24 answers · asked by Sam 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
A good question, Sam. What you are witnessing in most of these answers is an age-old argument: does God know what we are going to do, or doesn't He?
Those who argue that God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent must face the fact that God knows what you're going to do before you do it. Free Will is an illusion since God already knows all your choices and has factored them into his Master Plan (which eventually leads to Armageddon, etc in Revelations).
Those who want to argue Free Will must eventually face the fact that God does not know everything, such as what is in your heart and what you are going to do. For these people, God has to run tests on us (we're like God's lab rats) to see what we choose. This argument reduces God's power.
Since you can't have an all-knowing God who doesn't know what you're going to do next, you will find people arguing either one side or the other, but never both.
You'll find all kinds of examples of this problem through the Bible: Why would Jesus pray to God to avoid the crucifixion, when as God Jesus knew the crucifixion must take place if His purpose on Earth was to be served?
Why pray to avoid the crucifixion if you know you'll be in heaven when it's done?
Why not crucify Jesus back in the beginning rather than force people to abide by a bunch of blood-thirsty rules like killing children who curse their parents, etc?
Why go to the trouble of creating all this life if you know you're going to destroy it all with a massive flood?
If God was seeking companionship, why create such a flawed companion who is constantly in need of punishment?
If God wants us to freely choose to worship him, why set up Hell and threaten us with it if we don't get with His program ("if you don't worship Me I'll burn you forever" doesn't exactly sound like we're being given a choice, does it?) ?
If God wants us to love Him, why kill innocent babies (Sodom, Gomorrah, the Flood, plagues that kill the first-born, etc)?
If God doesn't want us to doubt Him (unbelievers go to Hell), why inspire people to write a book that fails to answer questions like these?
Keep asking these questions, Sam. Too many don't.
2006-07-28 06:39:13 · answer #1 · answered by bobkgin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God will test everyone!
There was a fence (the garden which could not be entered by man) around The Adam and Eve, that is they were protected having everything they needed. The only laws to them was do not eat of these trees, and expand the garden.
Here is a little wisdom the "trees were not real trees"
The trees were "Knowledge of good and evil" and "Everlasting Life"
2006-07-28 05:52:22 · answer #2 · answered by Grandreal 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was God's plan all along to give us this choice, that is the purpose of the choice Adam and Eve made in the garden of Eden by eating the apple. People ask all the time, "Why did God just stop sin before it started and avoid all the hassle? We could've just been in communication with Him since the beginning, and never been separated from Him." But He didn't want mindless drones created to love Him, He wanted us to come to Him willingly, He wanted us to seek Him out, and make the choice because that kind of love is real. You cannot know the significance or value of that kind of Godly love without experiencing life without it.
So, the option is to spend the rest of eternity with the One you love, the One who makes you holier with each passing day, the One who will love you and complete you like no human can, or, I believe that if you choose to not allow God in, He is polite and will kindly oblige and step back, and you will spend eternity without God.
2006-07-28 05:51:17 · answer #3 · answered by Samantha 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First to answer this you have to take the Bible as fact, which I don't. I have been taught the ways of the Bible for a very long time by my family who are devout believers so here we go.....
The best way I can answer this question is as a Mom.
You have a small child and tell them don't push the buttons on the TV. You know they are going to do everything in their power to push the buttons on the TV. You then have to correct them and let them know they did wrong. This is human nature.. or free will... whatever sets the best with you. What you are told not to do is exactly what you want to do.... Should I take my TV out of my house to keep my child from pushing buttons.... NO I'm not going to.
Adam and Eve were innocent (naive) just like children. Yes God could have stopped them but why. God wanted a people to follow him of their own choice not because he made them.
saying God wanted them to eat the fruit so they would be thrown out is like saying you will get rid of your child for pushing buttons on the TV. It makes no sense.
2006-07-28 06:54:17 · answer #4 · answered by Moose_375 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He put it there to test them. Because they were given what God did not give the angels - a choice. And they chose wrongly, or wisely - whichever is right or wrong for you. Because the second question would be - why did he put the snake in as well? A third question would be - so why put both the "apple" and the snake in the garden of Eden? Dearie, no body knows how the mind of God works. We can only surmise......
2006-07-28 05:48:40 · answer #5 · answered by Equinox 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When God placed Adam and Eve on the earth, He gave them two commandments.
Be fruitful and multiply.
Populate the earth.
However, they were innocent creatures, unaware they were even naked, let alone that they could make babies.
So, they were given two commandments, but there was no way they could keep both. Without the fruit of knowlege, they didn't know how to make babies. To learn how to make babies, they had to eat the fruit. Quite a delimma, eh?
It was necessary for innocence to be lost for God's plan to work. In words that are dear to me, "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they may be happy."
It was part of the plan to give His spirit children bodies, and test them. So long as we existed only in God's kingdom, we knew no other way, and thus could not be said to have freely chosen to be where we were. By living on this earth and being tested, we are allowed to make the choice to either return to Him, or not.
But before one thing can be chosen, the opposite must be known.
2006-07-28 06:14:30 · answer #6 · answered by Dave W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "tree of the knowledge of good and bad" was almost certainly not an apple tree, although admittedly it may have been. The tree, and God's command regarding it, was a mechanism by which Adam and Eve could prove their loyalty to God.
Sadly, they failed.
Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2003/1/1/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2001/5/15/article_01.htm
2006-07-28 07:13:31 · answer #7 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I'm not sure that God didn't want them to not eat the apple. It says that he told them not to eat that particular thing. Since the bible (and no one else really knows) does not explain this strange situation he put them in, we do not really know for sure what his intentions were. But to me, it seems like God (all knowing --remember) would have known what he was doing. But the bible does say that some things we are not supposed to understand, but have faith, and just consider the lesson that it teaches, which is much more basic than the one we are pondering. Most intelligent beings try to disect or make logic out of things, including me. I , personally have tried to find logic and motives in most everything I encounter, but eventually it will drive me crazy, I think. I just try to accept the miracles I have seen in my life, and ask God to take away the inconsistencies.
2006-07-28 06:01:29 · answer #8 · answered by benlomand 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God knew that Adam and Eve would eat of the tree; but this was not God's desire. God never wants us to sin since sin separates us from Him. God didn't make us like robots to automatically love Him. Then we wouldn't truly love Him. God gave us a free will, a free will to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey Him.
God knew this would happen; and He already had a plan to redeem us. His plan: the cross. "This Man(Jesus) was handed over to you by God's predetermined plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him" (Acts 2:23-24).
Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He paid the penalty for our sins, bridging the gap between man and God that sin caused. This is how much God loves you!
You can walk with God today, enjoying the same fellowship with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed before "the Fall." Place your trust in Christ as Savior today.
2006-07-28 06:45:46 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You nailed it exactly on the head. If god is "all-knowing", then he should've foreseen Eve eat the apple and should've done something to prevent it. And because he "loved" them so, he should've definitely done something about it. Even if parents can foresee some sort of trouble their child will be going through, they'll do everything they can to stop it because they love their children. God just sat idly by. It's hypocracy like that that turns me off of the christian religion.
2006-07-28 05:46:09 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋