The problem with the tree of knowledge of good&evil was not that God didnt want us to have knowledge,but He didnt want us to get too much knowledge too quickly.Comparable to say a parent teaches a child that when you make a fire&put a pan over it,you can cook food.well the child one day assuming he knows everything about how to make a fire&cook food,get a lighter or a match&makes a fire in the middle of a room with carpeting,to the shock of the child the fire steadily advances&burns;that when the parent shows up he/she directs the child to leave out the nearest door or window.So basically they had to flee the house cuase thefire advanced to far to save anything.The problem with knowledge was not that it was bad,but that the child&we do not have complete understanding&have become prideful about what little knowledge we do have&it has made many prideful tothe point they wont listen to anyone telling them they dont understand or dont comepletly understand.
2007-02-23 14:01:11 · 17 answers · asked by Maurice H 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
So the problem with the tree was not that God doesnt want us to have knowledge;but He doesnt want us to get knowledge to quickly,cuase it would cuase problems for us,as it does now.Like a soar throat,not that cold air doesnt feel good sometimes;but too much cold air,in too short a time,on to small an area will cause a soar throat or strep throat.The soar throat of society today is the idea we know everything.
Agree or disagree?
2007-02-23 14:04:43 · update #1
The problem was not with the tree; the problem was with disobedience.
EDIT: Interestingly enough, the tree of Life was there too. The serpent wouldn't be able to persuade them to eat from it, because they already had life, right? Only after eating from the tree of knowledge did they have a need for the tree of life. The important thing to remember is that God knew every step they would take before they ever took it, so it's not like they did something behind God's back. His question, "Where are you?" was not because He didn't know where they were, but to make them think about where they were and why. We simply are not omniscient, so when God tells us not to do something, we obey because He is God, not until we figure out why He gave the commandment. Something else to think about is that God gave the commandment to Adam, so if Adam had not followed Eve into sin, who is to say that God would not have restored her to him if he had chosen to obey God? After that, Adam said, "The woman you gave me offered me the fruit..." implying that if not Eve, then God was really to blame. So even knowing good and evil did not enable them to choose good. I don't think it's that God didn't want us to have too much knowledge too soon, but that we were not created to have the knowledge the tree imparted. Since Adam decided we would have it anyway, and thereby telling God, "my way, not Your way," God said, "Have it your way." There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death.
2007-02-23 14:09:02 · answer #1 · answered by celebduath 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. That word OF makes a big difference between what you explained and what I see it meaning. I think Adam was extremely smart. He named all the animals and had dominion over them. He was the first man God made and he was made very good. I don't think man today is smarter than man at any other time on this planet. It's a progression of discovery. Men today are no smarter than Einstein is or was in his day. Knowledge has been progressing and sometimes it's not all that good.
So wisdom gained would be in the way that Satan tempted the woman.
And you will be like God (Gen 3:4)
2007-02-23 23:15:45 · answer #2 · answered by JohnFromNC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, it seems likely that to the mind before the fall, everything was good... Maybe the change was that evil would be DESIRED where it would not before.
We are not in a position to evaluate it because we only know one side of the question. We don't have any way to understand what things were like before.
SOMETHING the change brought about was NOT what God wanted or what was "best" for us, though God knew that we would choose it.
... Before the fall there was ONLY ONE WAY to choose evil, now there are many. Life is much more complicated now.
2007-02-23 22:04:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.
There was a Tree of Life in the Garden of God and Humans walked in God’s Presence.
There was no sin, no schism b/w the genders, the lion was no more harmful than the lamb, there were no thorns on roses. Until the Satan (serpent) used his wiles to get people to doubt the veracity of God’s Word, and twisted God's word (like most everyone who logs onto this Answers site does) so that Adam and Eve were all topsy-turvy, enough to mistakenly believe if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they would "be like God." First problem with that was they already were. Adam and Eve made a free-will choice to rebell against/disobey God, and they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The big key here is to understand that God doesn’t know evil by experience, but by wisdom. That's akin to my knowing that murder is evil--I don't need to kill someone or be killed to figure that out. Unfortunately. there's a lot of stupid people in the world. This is one offshoot of the sinful human nature which was passed on to all humans by one man’s (Adam’s) sin. The Lord
Jesus (God, who took on human form which he created in Adam) was obedient unto death in order to satisfy His own Justice--take this sin onto Himself, along with the wrath of God for this sin. For it had to go somewhere. The law of physics states that for every action there’s a reaction. This is a universal law, as are the laws of gravity, electro-magnetism, etc. These universal laws were created by God (who created the universe).
2007-02-23 22:22:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I like your thoughts. I believe that may have been why the tree was off limits. Of course, eating of the tree brought sin into the world and they had to leave the gardden because of the pressence of the Tree of Life. As for Oldguy 63, true religion is to minister unto those in need and it is unstained . Being unstained is not pure religion. see James 1:27
2007-02-23 22:14:50 · answer #5 · answered by skimdaddy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can see where you are coming from. I've also contemplated a similar theory. there are a few plants around the world that have a flowering bud that can be eaten. The problem is if you eat it too soon it is deadly, it has to mature before it is edible and you can live through it. Possibly the tree was meant for us but we had to wait for it to bloom. Have you ever read Francis Schaeffer? You should look him up I think you would love him. Look up his book i think it is called " Genesis Time and Space "
2007-02-23 22:11:54 · answer #6 · answered by The Angry Stick Man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know Maurice, that's stretching it a little. I agree that maybe it was not the time for man to get involved with it perhaps but God did put it there for a reason and also warned Adam about it for a reason. I don't believe God would not have contemplated disobedience. He knows all things. I believe the whole lesson is about trust and obedience to God. Either we trust and obey or we don't.
2007-02-23 22:12:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
There were 2 trees, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
The tree of Knowledge represented Jehovah's Sovereignty and by not eating of it's fruitage, they would have shown respect for that arrangement by recognizing the fact that life is dependent on Jehovah and not ourselves.
That is where Satan deluded Eve. He lead her to believe tha mankind would be better off without Jehovah.
Had Adam and Eve passed this test of recondition, that their lives were dependent on Jehovah, he would have allowed them to eat from the tree of life.
That is why he band them from the Garden of Eden, so that they would not have eaten from it and stayed alive.
2007-02-23 22:16:27 · answer #8 · answered by Here I Am 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God wants us to know truth. Jesus said "...you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." God does not want man to know evil experientially. Human nature wants to experience things before they make up their mind, whereas God wants us to accept what He says and not go there. (Faith) Once we have experienced evil there is no going back, as Adam and Eve demonstrated. James talks about pure religion is it to keep yourself unstained by sin.
2007-02-23 22:11:37 · answer #9 · answered by oldguy63 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree. Being told does not always work. Learning through life experience is what matures us.
2007-02-23 22:09:33 · answer #10 · answered by Alletery 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋